Paolini was a home-schooled teenager living in Montana when he wrote Eragon, his first novel. His family decided to publish the book themselves and it was eventually brought to the attention of the publisher Alfred A. Knopf by Carl Hiaasen, whose stepson acquired the book on a vacation in Montana. (I obtained all of this info from Paolini's official web page Alagaesia.com). It was published by Knopf in 2003. He has subsequently written the second book in the planned trilogy, Eldest, published in 2005, and is currently working on the as yet untitled third volume to be published sometime in the future. The first novel has been made into a feature film of the same name and was released in late 2006. For gobs of more detailed information see Paolini's official website or one of the many fansites out there, my personal favorite being Shur'tugal.com.
Now onto the random review. Remember that I haven't actually READ these books, I have listened to them. I have discovered that there are definite differences between reading and listening to novels. Some novels are definitely better read, some are better listened to, and some are good either way, and I have found books that fit into all three categories. The quality of the narrator makes a HUGE difference. One day I will do a review on this topic alone.
Now REALLY onto the random review. I liked both of these books a great deal. Yes, the story is not entirely original. It is a bit of a cross between Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and your favorite dragon story, but it is entertaining. It is really hard these days to find a truly original story.
In the first novel, Eragon, I found myself engrossed in the tale of Eragon, the young man from the Palancar Valley of Alagaesia who happens upon a strange stone in an eerie mountain range called the Spine. The story of his adventures once the "stone" hatches into a sapphire blue dragon, who he names Saphira, is interesting, fun and sad. Eragon the novel begins to tell the tale of the Dragon Riders, a group of Elves and Humans bound to the magical creatures that are Dragons. The riders were originally formed to keep the peace between elves and dragons after a very long war, but they eventually became so powerful and respected that they had more influence than kings and other rulers of Alagaesia. One day, a rider named Galbatorix lost his dragon, and since the pairing of dragon and rider was a very rare occurrence, he was denied a second dragon. This pushed him over the edge and he turned evil, killing another rider and stealing his dragon. He convinces a group of other riders (the Foresworn) to join him in eliminating the rest of the riders, and together they do that, and take power to rule over the majority of Alagaesia, with an iron fist.
As you can guess, it is the destiny of Eragon to meet and most likely defeat Galbatorix. Along the way he meets some very interesting characters, from Brom and Murtag, to Angela, Nasuada, and Arya while he travels to the Varden, the rebel group committed to seeing Galbatorix overthrown (although I feel that Eragon was capruted far too many times to be credible)
The way is never easy, but the first book ends with an epic battle (#1), leading into the second book Eldest.
Eldest was a more difficult book to listen to, and I think that it would have been even harder to read. It is almost twice of Eragon and clocked in at a whopping 26 hours, while Eragon was a relatively modest 16 hours. The story is still good, if a little predictable, what made it difficult was the tortured romantic intent of Eragon for one of the female characters, and the incredibly long and surprisingly dull explanations of Eragon's and Saphira's training to become Rider and Dragon. Fortunately, Paolini intersperses Eragon's and Saphira's story with tales from two other characters' viewpoints, breaking up some of the monotony.This book also ends in an epic battle (#2), during which there is a plot twist which I had predicted after reading book 1. The ending in this book sets up the third book nicely, and we'll see what happens in book 3.
Like I said, the story is not completely original, but it is entertaining. If I had been reading Eldest, I probably would have skimmed/skipped a lot of the training stuff and moved along to the more interesting stories. What totally made Eldest bearable in its entirety was the quality of the narrator, Gerard Doyle. Like I said, a good narrator can make or break the listenability (a word I just made up) of any book.
I am looking forward to the third book whenever it comes out, and I hope that reading or listening experience is as good as the previous two.
Note: I have been told that the motion picture Eragon is TERRIBLE. People who have read the book complain that it leave too many things out,and people who haven't read it don't understand it because so much was left out. I haven't seen it myself, so I can't comment on this, but rarely, in my opinion, does a motion picture turn out as well as the novel it came from. If you saw the movie and hated it, you still may want to give the novels a try.
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