Eragon

Rating:
Summary: A Favorite of Fantasies
Review: I just finished reading this book and I must say it is definitely one of my favorites! Yes, there are certainly similarities to Lord of the Rings, but that tends to happen with most fantasy novels. People who are die hard LOTR fans (I am one of them), will always have trouble finding something as unique to read. However, that certainly does not take away from any of the wonderful fantasy novels of today. Eragon is one of them. Fantasy like everthing else these days has become post-modern, and fortunately or unfortunately all new work that comes out of this genre are constantly compared to LOTR.

Back to Eragon. The relationship between Eragon's dragon Saphira and himself is very beautiful. That no one can hear the communication between the two of them other then themselves and the reader of course. This makes you feel part of a very intimate world allowing you to care as much for these two characters as if they were your own best friends. Paolini does also have some very original ideas, but also keeping with the traditional notions of the ways elves, dwarfs and dragons are thought of. I think this is a fantastic fantasy and I cannot wait to read Eldest!

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful debut from a young author
Review: This is the debut novel from Christopher Paolini. Paolini graduated high school when he was 15 and started work on a novel. When he was 17, "Eragon" was published by Knopf and the book landed at the top of bestsellers lists across the country. This would be a good first novel for anyone, but as this is the debut novel from a teenager, I think we have just been put on notice that a major new talent has arrived. This was quite a good novel, and Paolini will only get better as he ages and refines his craft.

This is, at its core, a simple and fairly typical fantasy story. A fifteen year old boy lives in an isolated village in the mountains. One day while exploring he comes across a blue gem. Selling this gem will help get enough money for his family to have enough to eat for some time, but nobody knows quite what it is worth and the regular traders do not want to fleece young Eragon. The stone turns out to not be a gem, but rather an egg, a dragon egg to be exact. When the dragon is born, Eragon decides to raise it, and learns that dragons are very intelligent and powerful creatures. There were once Dragon Riders in the land, but the evil King Galbatroix, a former Rider himself and with the help of rogue Riders, hunted down the Riders and slaughtered them. Now there are no Riders left. Galbatroix knows that the egg is out there and he is sending his forces out to reclaim the egg/ and the new Rider, Eragon.

"Eragon" is reminiscent of the fantasy of Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, and several other fantasy authors. It is similar, but Paolini tells his story well enough, and makes it interesting enough, that it doesn't really matter. Paolini was able to hold my interest well enough that I am looking forward to the second book in the "Inheritance" trilogy and I am glad that I finally got around to giving "Eragon" a try. It was a fun book to read, and was rather fast paced. I also understand that it is primarily marketed for the teenaged audience, but then again Harry Potter is supposed to be a children's story.

Rating:
Summary: OK--what ISN'T ripped off in this book?
Review: Please. Have any of these reviewers who gave this book 5 stars ever heard of Michael Moorcock? How about Ursula K. LeGuin? This guy named J.R.R. Tolkien? Hmmm? I believe someone did some movies out of his books a short while back....WAKE UP FOLKS!!! This book is basically a rehash of Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, etc., etc. There is not a drop of originality between these pages (WHAT!! He's a DRAGONRIDER!!! That's ASTONISHING!!! I've never heard of such a thing...oh...wait...except for those "Pern" books...) Get a clue. There is much better fantasy literature out there. You just have to go out and find it. Kudos to this kid for getting published at such an early age. This book is no worse than most of the schlock that passes as fantasy these days, and it's better than some, but you live a pretty sheltered life if you think this is a 5 star fantasy novel. Try to widen your horizons a bit folks. Not every good fantasy novel starts with a poor farm boy who is an unknowing wizard/savior/prince/warrior-king/(supply your own cookie-cutter stereotype here), who's parents die/go missing/are murdered and leaves to discover his "true self" (and save the world along the way) in the company of some old monk/wizard/seer/eccentric old teacher. If that's all that fantasy is to you I feel sorry for you.

Rating:
Summary: Eragon
Review: This book was just plain hard to put down. I consider myself a "Fantasy Weenie", but this book is way up there with Tolkein and C.S. Lewis.
Right away you can tell this book has been mostly influenced by Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. This did not distract me as much as I thought it would. As much as retards want to hammer Paolini for ripping off Tolkein, you can't help but love the book.
Anyone who ever read a fantasy book and liked it, I would recomend this book to them.
TRY IT

Rating:
Summary: A well writen book
Review: In a world dominated by the Harry Potter juggernaut, it is beyond joy to see such a teriffic book. I will not, and cannot, write a review that will describe this book perfectly. It would take volumes to describe this amazing book in depth. The characters seem to leap off the pages as I have never seen before. They come to life and develop the minute you open the book. The good Mr. Paolini has suceeded just as Tolkien did. He has created characters without ever needing dialog changes (accents) and has made a spell-binding book. I am pleased to say that I have read Eragon and urge Mr. Paolini to continue. Godspeed Mr. Paolini, you are a wonderful writer.

Yours, Anonymous

Rating:
Summary: A great new author.
Review: This guy, Paolini, is great! His book, "Eragon" is fascinating, better than many, including "The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and "The Wheel of Time". His characters are nice and cool, the plot is very similar to "Star Wars", but more interesting.
Only Stanek can do it better.

Rating:
Summary: Eragon or Lord of the Rings?
Review: The book is good... if you haven't read some other books! If you hve read the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy it is easy to know many things come from there. First of all, Farthen Dur sound similar to Barad Dur. Also the "adventure" starts when Eragon finds an egg and evil things with black cloaks chases him away. The adventure in lord of the rings starts when Frodo inherits the one ring and evil things with black cloaks gets him out of the Shire. Later in Eragon, eragon meets dwarves and, just like lord of the rings, they use axes for battle, have braided hair, are strong, live in mountians, and have a suit of mail on. In both books elves are fair and live in beautiful places in the forests. Eragon sounds like Aragon. One of Eragon's companions, Brom, is similar to Aragon because they are both powerful in some way that was unknowned to Eragon (Eragon) and Frodo (Lord of the Rings). Arya (Eragon) sounds like Arwen (Lord of the rings). Also, just like Lord of the rings where defeating Sauron won the battle, Eragon wins a battle by killing a Shade. Shades are very similar to Black riders. They both evil, have sharp senses, and are good in battle. Even though if stabed in one spot they die, Shades come back, just like black riders. Urgals and kulls are nearly the same as Orcs and uru-kai(spelling?). both are the foundations of the enemies army. There are probably more similarities with Lord of the rings because hardly anything suprised me because I was thinking of Lord of the Rings most of the time. If this had come out before the Lord of the Ring it would have been way better. However if have a choice, I would read the Lord of the Rings first because it doesn't suddenly change the subject as suddenly as Eragon. This is why I would recommend the Lord of the Rings more than Eragon.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best fantasy books I have ever read!
Review: Eragon
by Christopher Paolini

This exciting fantasy book is about the adventures of a boy named Eragon who becomes a dragon rider. It all starts when Eragon finds a strange rock in the mountain range called the Spine. To his surprise what he thought was a rock he soon found out to be a dragon, this was discovered when the egg hatched. Through the magic of the dragon Eragon and the dragon form a bond, a magical bond, a bond of the dragon and the dragon rider. Eragon keeps his dragon a secret but word gets out that Eragon has found a strange rock and two strangers come into Eragon's town, the Ra'zac, to get the egg. These two strangers turn out to be working for the king and destroy Eragon's house and kill his uncle in pursuit of the dragon egg. Before Eragon's house was destroyed Brom, the village storyteller, had discovered Eragon had a dragon. Eragon wants revenge on the two killers and sets off with Brom and his dragon, now named Saphira. Along their travels Eragon soon learns there is more to Brom then meets the eye when he gives Eragon a sword of a dragon rider, sword lessons, and lessons on how to use magic, an ability gained from the bond between him and Saphira. The chase for his uncle's killers soon escalates into an exciting adventure that takes Eragon all across his world.
Eragon is an extremely well written book that is so exciting it will keep you on the edge of your seat. I truly enjoyed this book and I can't wait until the sequel to Eragon, Eldest, comes out. Christopher Paolini has written a truly amazing story that touches all points of fantasy. This young author is a truly skilled writer and I am looking forward to reading any other books that he writes.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This book is definitely the reason for all the things I now dream about and imagine. The content of this book will literally warm your heart, make you laugh out loud and make you cry one thousand tears, at least it did to me. Even if you don't believe in elves dragons and dwarves this book will make you feel like your in a whole new world full of in depth fantasy creatures. If there ever was an excellent fantasy book, this is it.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I have ever read!
Review: This is my favorite book. I am a big Lord oof the Rings Fan and this book is very similer, but with a nice new plot. On christmas day, i knew that my grandma had gotten me a book, and i was at first dissapointed but when i read it i changed my opinion ver fast!!! This book is unpredictable at times, making you want to make prediction for the future of the book. Also, it puts a movie type image in your head when you read it, and that is always a good sign. I recomend this book to everyone, espesially Lord of the Rings fans and RPG fans!!!