Eragon

Rating:
Summary: Review from a book lover
Review: (Calling everyone who gave this book a bad review) I cant believe you dont like this book. The plot line was terrific with a blend of action adventure and romance. As if the ancient language wasnt enough the guide at the end of the book was a touch of brilliance.

Rating:
Summary: This book is Auful
Review: This book was so over hyped it's crazy. Let me be honest with you, it was written by a 15 year old... and it READS like it was written by a 15 year old. There's nothing amazing here other than that he actually got published.

The name of the book "Eragon" is a plagiarism by itself! Ever head the name "Aragorn" before? Sound similar by coincidence? The main theme of the book is the "Dragon Riders" So we know the kid read "The Lord of the Rings" and "Dragonlance" before he started. I'll not go on... there's no point. The book is bad. I'm sure when he's 40 he'll be a great writer, but that's 20 years away. Don't waste your money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Mythic, but perhaps too much so.
Review: Everyone here seems to be extremely divided in their views of this book, and I'm afraid I fall in the dislike camp.

Okay, let's start with the plot. I must admit it is quite enjoyable, if you are in such unlikely circumstances that you are both inclined to like fantasy, and have not read most of the modern classics in said genre; or, perhaps, you have to have read enough awfully-written stories to know cliches when you see them. Basically, Eragon embarks upon a quest for revenge against shadow forces he doesn't know much about, but which will undoubtedly have something to do with his 'mysterious past.'

While most people mention fantasy books as inspiration, I find Eragon's plot more reminiscent of Star Wars than of anything else. There's the dead order of peace-keepers with amazing powers, the main character's mysterious past (Who's his father? He doesn't know!), the magical power, the old man with long-dead secrets of the past, which of course he teaches to this headstrong youth without really bothering about whether he's _good_ or not, and most tellingly, the destruction of the boy's farm and death of his uncle, which in both Star Wars and Eragon sets the main character off on a quest of revenge. Just thank heaven there's no C3P0...

In terms of concepts, there are very few original ideas, either. Paolini draws from Tolkien's works, not just Lord of the Rings but background materials as well, and, I am told, Anne McCaffrey's (sorry if I misspelled that) Pern books. Personally, I can't stand McCaffrey's writing, which is why I can't speak for myself on that one. Anyway, all of the races are almost exactly the same, down to the origins of the elves across the sea (Tolkien came up with that one, folks!); while Urgals and the Ra'zac are original, as far as I know, they are shadily described. Indeed, the Urgals always remind me of the Knights who say Ni, a la Monty Python, which rather kills their potential as villans.

Paolini attempts to make his world original and fresh by adding in what he seems to think is his own idea, judging by the care he takes in explaining it: an ancient language, a true language, with magical power. Unfortunately, his implementation of this idea has two flaws: 1) lacking a proper knowledge of the mechanics of language, he has created a set of _words_ with absolutely no grammar involved, so that to get across a complex idea you have to smoosh words together and hope that it works; and 2) the words seem to have been created by randomly pounding on the keyboard, and adding vowels where he thought them necessary. They're not unpronouncible, as this has created a tongue with a phonology similar to Russian, or perhaps closer to Czech; but I doubt that was intentional, as my high school is one in, I think, a little over fifty in the United States that actually teaches Russian. 'Brisingr' is a word that simply could not exist in any Romance or Germanic language, and, as I said, I doubt that Chris Paolini put much thought into making his language original (even Tolkien, a philologist, only used harsh Slavic sounds in his black speech, the tongue of evil) when all the rest of his work has little or no thought in that area. Originality, I mean.

One more thing. Eragon is grammatically correct throughout, a fact for which I am thankful, but shows distinct signs of having been written by a ten-year-old - and yes, I know the author was fifteen at the time of publishing. So what? I'm sixteen, and I can still vary my sentence structure. Learning to do so was an integral part of my 7th grade English education! All of Eragon's sentences are short, less than a line long, and generally begin with either an article (a or the) or the subject of said sentence; occasionally you'll find another adjective there instead, if you're lucky. I have not noticed a single subordinate clause in the entire book, and have been appalled at the blatant lack of semicolons. Semicolons! What is the world coming to, if people can say a story without semicolons is worth reading?

Still, Eragon did wonders as light, mindless reading material - besides, of course, the choppy writing style inherent in a book with uniform sentence structure and a dearth of semicolons - and so, rather than a one, I give it two stars out of five.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I really enjoyed reading this work. I admire Chris Paolini for having the determination to tackle such a monumental task. Get over the name similarities, and the Tolkien comparisons - it just doesn't matter. Chris has created a terrific atory, and I am looking forward to Eldest.

Rating:
Summary: A 7th Grader's Review on "Eragon"
Review: Eragon is a poor farm boy, one year away from his manhood celebration. One day, while hunting in the forest, there is an enormous explosion! In the very center of the blast radius, Eragon finds a polished blue stone. His first thought is that maybe he could sell it to buy food for his family. The butcher, Sloan, refuses to buy the stone when he learns of how Eragon found it. With the stone apparently useless, the blacksmith, Horst, buys food and gives it to Eragon. In exchange, Eragon must work as his assistant through the summer. Buoyed by his good luck, Eragon heads home with mixed emotions.

One night, weeks after he found it, Eragon awakes to find the stone shaking and squeaking. Eventually, cracks began to appear down its sides. Then it split open entirely and out of the mess skittered a dragon! It was the end of Eragon's simple life as a poor farm boy.

With only an ancient sword and an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and his dragon fledgling must take up the role of the legendary Dragon Riders. He sets out to avenge his uncle's death and fight the evil king Galbatorix. But, whom should he hide with when his task is done? He cannot fight Galbatorix alone, and siding with him would be insane. Should he join the mysterious Varden and fight the rest of his life? Or perhaps the peaceful country of Surda? Both paths do not look promising, but where else can Eragon go?

I would recommend "Eragon" to people 10 and older. It has a few language issues and can be gory at times. However, the style of writing is very easy to understand and the book is full of excitement to keep even young readers on their toes. The characters and geography are incredibly realistic and well developed. I also enjoy the fact the Eragon isn't more powerful than everything he meets like some of the characters in "Lord of the Rings." He isn't the perfect hero either which makes the book more realistic. Although the book is full of magic and adventure, you can almost believe that what's going on is really happening. AS the story goes along, Eragon gets stronger, makes mistakes and learns the truth about the legendary Dragon Riders. The story is full of incredible twists and turns, some of which you could expect, and others that would blow your mind. Eragon is faced with many hard choices, only one of which is safe.

I give "Eragon" by: Christopher Paolini 5 Stars

Rating:
Summary: copy cat
Review: I think the book is to much like the lord of the rings with descriptions of people and places and i dont think its orginal at all.Its the same by having the character vunrable at the begin not nowing there true strength eg.Frodo,eragon.And also Brom and Gandalf are the same sort of character.The Elves and the dwarfs have the same description as in lord of the ring and the languages and names are the same.Also the Razac are like the ringwraiths hissing and black hooded.He also talks about the Evles coming other on ships and living in a forest that no one apart from the evles have travelled in without not coming out,that is also the same.I could sit here all day and compare both stories so iam just going to say all in all a very poor reflection of a really good story by J.R Tolkein.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is one of the best books i've ever read. I am a huge fan and I can't wait until the second book comes out. I also heard they are making a movie out of the book in 2005, I'll be their on the first day! I love this book so much that i've read it five times. Although it mixes A lot of the great fantasy books together, it just makes Eragon better. For all those book critics that dont like this book, go get a life!

Rating:
Summary: Why can't we choose NO stars for this book?
Review: C'mon people!! this book is terrible!! It's poorly written, a rip-off of about a hundred BAD novels, and about as "suprising" as a PB&J sandwich. All you 5 star raters should be ashamed of yourselves! Grow up people...this isn't a matter of taste, its a matter of fact...this book is no good.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Writing
Review: About a weak ago, when I bought this book, I was expecting an exceptonal book, because I had heard good things about it. I had no idea that I was purchasing the best book i had ever read, second only to Lord of the Rings. It is packed with characters that you get to know so well, that you feel like you could recognize them in the grocery store. The plot is simple enough for a reader to understand easily, but so colorful that it feels like its happening to you.

It resembles The Lord of the Rings in a few ways. First and formost is the names of some of the charactors, and this angers some people. The thing that they fail to see is that the only the names are similar, but the characters are very vivid and original.

(...) I can tell you where he gets his insperatian for landscape in the book. His details of the suroundings in the book are so intricately woven and detailed that I feal like he is describeing my home. This connection puts me so inside the story that it feels like i am part of the book.

Eragon is a great start to a trilogy destined to be a classic. Tons of fantasy fans will be lined up at book stores for the second part of the trilogy, and I will be one of them.

Rating:
Summary: This book was soooooooooo cool!!!
Review: Eragon was an amazing book. This is one of the few books that brings justice to the bad name dragons have been given. I personally love dragons and think that they truly are kind hearted creatures. The author gave Saphira (the main dragon) just the kind of sparky attitude a dragon should have. I really applaud Christopher on this wonderful book. He is an inspiration to young writers like myself.
KEEP WRITING!!!