A good editor would have used her red pen to slash 100-150 pages worth of words from this book. As is often the case with young writers, Paolini relied too much on describing irrelevant details instead of focusing on the narrative. The pacing made reading a bit more of a chore than it should’ve been. He was the only character that I was invested in. Aside from Murtagh, one of the secondary characters, no one grows. Story is how the characters react and grow because of or in spite of the plot. I’m okay with rehashing plots from existing fantasy works.
It’s your classic hero’s journey that crosses vast swathes of land over many months, all culminating in an epic battle in the end. It’s like Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings with a dragon. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking. An old man teaches him the ways of becoming a dragon rider, the secrets of a gifted few thought to have died out long ago. It follows a teen boy named Eragon and his dragon named Saphira. And, I finally made a decision to read it as I dusted it off during my tidying journey.Įragon is standard fantasy. Like most books in my collection, it survived many shelves at the various places I’ve lived. But, it got lost in the steady stream of books through the college years. If I had read it 15 years ago, I may be singing a different tune. Adults who are a bit more well read will see its many flaws. Most readers will love the book if they devoured it at a younger age and it either introduced them to the joy of reading or the world of fantasy. If you’re going to jump into the big kids’ pool, you can’t be wearing your floaties when you do.Įragon is best marketed as a young adult novel. A good editor who could look a kid in the eye and tell him what was wrong. The problem was that Eragon needed an editor who was vicious.
I applaud Paolini for his skills at that age. They said it was better fantasy than even seasoned authors were writing.Īt 15, most of us were not writing 500+ pages of epic fantasy.
They told me it was written by a teenager. I remember friends and family telling me I must read this book. Martin's Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire series.I remember when Eragon by Christopher Paolini blew up. White's The Sword in the Stone, Christopher Paolini's Eragon series, and George R.
Full of seafaring adventures and epic battles, Book 1 of The Brotherband Chronicles is sure to thrill readers of Ranger's Apprentice while enticing a whole new generation just now discovering the books. John Flanagan, author of the international phenomenon Ranger's Apprentice, creates a new cast of characters to populate his world of Skandians and Araluens, a world millions of young readers around the world have come to know and admire. especially when not everyone thinks of it as playing. The icy waters make for a treacherous playing field. And courage - which they will need every ounce of to do battle at sea against the other bands, the Wolves and the Sharks, in the ultimate race. Yet that doesn't mean they don't have skills. Skandians, as any reader of Ranger's Apprentice could tell you, are known for their size and strength. Hal, Stig, and the others - they are the boys the others want no part of. From the author of the global phenomenon Ranger's Apprentice!