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Eragon

Eragon

List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $32.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: just to let you low-raters know:
Review: ERAGON IS NOT A STUPID NAME!!! NOR IS IT THE NAME OF A PEASANT FARMER!!!!!! HE IS A RIDER[!!!]THAT IS WHO HE REALLY IS!!!! AND ONE "REVIEW" BY SOME SLIME-BALL I READ SAID THAT THERE WAS A "COPIED lORD OF THE HORSES" WHAT????? OBVIOUSLY SEWER-RAT DID NOT READ THE BOOK ERAGON THOUROUGHLY, NOW DID THEY??? PAOLINI IS UTTERLY BRILLIANT[!!!] *ANYONE WHO DISAGREES IS JUST PLAIN JEALOUS[!!!]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: in case you one-stareres are to DUMB to realize...
Review: Tolkien DID NOT copyright OR invent the ELVES!!!! OTHER PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO WRITE ABOUT THEM!!! Just becasue you're to much of a DUMB TURD to realize this doesn't mean you can slam the book. CURSE YOU TO....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Five stars doesnt even do it enough justice.
Review: FANTASTIC!! AMAZINGLY THRILLING!! Paolini deserves an A+! very original, action packed, and all out cool, this book is defenatly a best seller!! by the way,Saphira was so well developed, I pictured the perfect dragon in my mind. NO young author can out-write this master of the English language!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Astounding Achievement
Review: High adventure, coming of age, a "mama" dragon, suspense, blood, romance, fantastic events in a fantastic land: they're all in Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I'm a librarian in a middle school, and just as excited as my students about Eragon; I loved it. It was beautifully written; the different levels on which it can be read excited me. There is a real following in our school just waiting for the second installment. Bravo, Chris Paolini!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An enjoyable and entertaining read
Review: Yes, there might be some that will claim it is similar to Lord of the Rings and other fantasy books, but it is still very enjoyable and a fun read. Besides, there are very few completely original books out there. They say it is for young adults, but I believe it is for anyone that likes fantasy. For someone of his age to write so well makes me look forward to future books.

I thought the author developed his characters well and made them interesting. The setting and scenes were also well written.

Sit back, relax (don't judge), and enjoy the book. I DID!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wow...a lack of talent + rich daddy = this book
Review: I wrote stories at this level when I was in elementary school...the prose is very basic and the story is not compelling...and need I be the only one to point out how similar Eragon is to Aragorn (from Lord of the Rings) ? This is just another fantasy cop out...read Lord of the Rings, but make sure you leave out all the good parts...then you'll get an idea of what this book is about. This book blows.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awsome
Review: I so loved this book and I highly recommend it. I couldn't put it down because I just had to see what was going to happen next. I can't wait for the next book of this trilogy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXQUISITE!!!!!
Review: It's the absolute best book someone could buy. It has magic, dragons and a bunch o' cool stuff. I think it's the best book ever!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Well, 3 1/2 stars, actually...
Review: I have to admit, the first time I read this book, it annoyed me. In fact, scratch that, it irritated me to the point I had to set it down and watch some mind-numbing TV to calm myself.
Why?
Because this book, to me, was mostly a hack. I could flip through my favorite (earlier) fantasies, likely known to Paolini himself, and point out a phrase that was exactly the same in the two.
Certainly, the story itself is a bit different. But the fact is I found myself wondering why the book got so much attention when it wasn't particularly original in itself. The characters featured are familiar to most of us (dragons, elves, dwarves, etc.) But that wasn't what bothered me; the thing that bothered me was that the characters were so similar to those in other books. The Riders were like to the Aes Sedai (from Jordan's Wheel of Time Series), as the Shades were like...well, the Shades, also from Jordan. In fact, most of the things I read in 'Eragon' were remarkable in their similarity to Jordan. Poor farm boy, near the mountains, living outside of town, with no mother?

The second time I read 'Eragon', I put all prejudices aside and just enjoyed the thing for what it was: a work meant solely for entertainment. There aren't any underlying meanings or anything inparticular to "read into" in the story. That said, it IS a very engrossing book, one that will keep you hooked for the few hours it takes to read it.

But as for buying, I'd just check 'Eragon' out at the library. It's fun, but it's no Tolkien.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Old Characters + Old Plot = A Good Read Nonetheless
Review: In this, his first published novel, Paolini does not create any new themes, story lines, or characters. Rather, he takes several popular characters from other sources and molds them to his needs. Likewise, the story lines of bad king versus good-but-outnumbered rebels, young innocent farm boy evolving into heroic warrior, etc. are hardly unknown to the science fiction genre but are nonetheless well handled by Paolini in creating a highly readable and entertaining story. While Paolini may not be a creator of totally new concepts, he certainly shows himself skilled at adaptation and improvisation, building a good read out of old materials.

The reader will easily recognize many influences on the author as he created the novel Eragon. Anne McCaffrey's series of novels about the dragonriders of Pern are an obvious influence, but I believe that J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels have had even a greater influence than McCaffrey's works. Some parallels with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter stories can be argued, and the "Evil Empire" against which the rebels struggle evokes images of the Star Wars motion pictures. Readers familiar with these various sources will quickly see Paolini's Brom as the counterpart of Tolkien's Gandolf. Paolini's Urgals are dead ringers for Tolkien's Orcs. The Elfin race goes by the same name in both Paolini and Tolkien. Paolini's two Ra'zacs remind one of Tolkien's nine Nazgul. The words that Eragon uses to lift stones and cast destruction on his enemies suggest the magic of Rowling's Harry Potter. And on and on go the parallels.

Paolini's strength, however, lies not in the direct retelling of any of his source materials but in the adaptation of the sources' character types to his own ends. His novel is not a close variation of any of his sources' story lines but is his own creation. That the reader recognizes others' characters reborn in Paolini's work actually makes them even more endearing. Here are some of the old friends that we first met in other books reborn into a new environment and a different time. Their resurrection is pleasant and we are happy to see them in action once more.

Unhappily, a very few grammatical errors found their way past both the author and his proofreaders. While these are but few, they still assault readers' sensibilities and leave behind a most unpleasant residue in their minds. In each instance, these involve the use of the first person objective case pronoun when use of the nominative case is appropriate. These would probably not be so jarring were overall usage elsewhere in the novel less excellent.

In sum, I believe that those who have has enjoyed McCaffrey's dragonrider novels or Tolkien's Lord of the Rings will also enjoy Paolini's Eragon. If one has read neither McCaffrey nor Tolkien but still enjoys an adventure fraught with peril, magic, a few monsters, and a sentient dragon, then I would still feel safe in recommending Paolini. On the other hand, if a reader seeks classical conflict, detailed character development, and the relief of an effective denouement at the end of it all, then he probably shouldn't be looking for a novel in the modern science fiction genre in the first place! I am anticipating Paolini's next novel in what he calls the Inheritance Triology with eagerness.


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