Eragon

Rating:
Summary: Just one question
Review: just one question: is there a fantasy writer out there that Mr. Paolini has NOT stolen from? this book has strung together the work of Tolkien, McCaffrey, Robert Jordan, Star Wars, and Dee[ Space Nine, to name a few. it's irritating to me, a teenager, that people are saying the reason the author can't write an original book is because he's a teenager. i disagree. there are plenty of teenagers who can come up with new ideas --he just isn't one of them. why was this book published and given so much hype? i don't know. Tolkien's plot without Tolkien's wisdom is kind of sad. McCaffrey's dragons without originality is sad, too. Jordan's mountains and creatures without Jordan's great writing is really sad. Star Wars and Deep Space Nine mixed in is just lame. well, all i can say is, this book is not worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER!!...
Review: This is a fantastic novel! After the first few pages I could not put it down. Anyone who was capured by the Lord of the Rings trilogy should get this book. Don't stop to think JUST BUY IT!!...

Rating:
Summary: The best book
Review: I absolutely loved this book. It really is worth the trouble to read it is in my opinion beter than the Lord of the Rings series. The author uses lots of details when describing everything that happens to characters in the book. He makes them sound so real that you can see them and really get inside their heads. I think Christopher should hurry up and write the next book in the inheritance series. He is one of the best fantasy authors around and i think he has a long career ahead of him.

Rating:
Summary: To disagree........
Review: My lab partner told me that I had to read this book. So finally, to make him stop giving me crap about it, I went out to the bookstore and bought it for myself for my birthday.
What I got was the best book I have ever read. I have indeed read Lord of the Rings, and although this book seemed kind of similar to the other trilogy, I have read many, many books that are along the same plotlines as Lord of the Rings, which we can probably all agree is the best young adult fantasy ever.
I read almost every day, not just for school but because i like it. A lot of my friends have read this book and enjoy it, including my friend Molly who adores Lord of the Rings and thinks that Eragon, while having a similar plot, is an independent story.
My lab partner who told me to read it is reading it over for the fourth time.
And for those people who insist that they have read better fanfiction, I have too :). Still, those people who are wondering if they should read Eragon due to the bad reviews, I urge you, read it.
Especially Ivy---Just Ivy. Unessisary description?????? There is no such thing as unessisary description.

Rating:
Summary: Eragon, the First of a Great Trilogy
Review: Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, is a very amazing book. It is about a boy(Eragon) finds a dragon egg. He, though, thinking it as a rock, puts it in his room and wakes up to find a dragon hatchling. He then finds himself in an adventure battling an evil king. With new friends, he battles with a sword named Zar'roc and defeats harsh beasts. With the help of a village elder always by his side until death. To find out more, read Eragon.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS A CHILDREN'S BOOK
Review: I like to think I have read a lot of books in my day, and the most important thing to keep in mind when reading something is know the context of what is being written, make no mistake, this book was written for people too immature to read Harry Potter. The plot and characters are underdeveloped. The whole thing is a huge Tolkien ripoff (but so is most Fantasy). This book is for first time fantasy readers who are 8 to 12. But before reading this i would recomend reading Harry Potter and the Wheel Of Time so you have and idea of what good Fantasy is.

i will admit it was entertaining but anyone who gives this 5 stars needs to read a Game of Thrones by George RR Martin and know what quality fantasy is. This is not quality, it is some kid trying to scrape money together to pay for college and taking the easy way out without making his book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: eragon sucked
Review: I read the previous reviews that amazon.com had provided, and upon completing them, i decided to purchase the book. As soon as i read the first page i realized one important aspect of the story... it sucked. The whole plot is a lame pansy ass love story stolen from an eighties fantasy movie that, even during that time, sucked. If you want something good to read, buy The Kalevala or Norse Sagas. Nothing can compare with Tolkien's writings, but Eragon is, simply put, horrible.

Rating:
Summary: Eragon--Whew. Not one to curl up with
Review: Cheese and rice. Has anyone else out there read Eragon by Christopher Paolini? I'd read the hype, a 19-year-old with a publishing contract. I was curious, and when I ran across the book at a book store last week I picked it up. Anne McCaffrey, who's written two of my favorite children's fantasy books Dragon Song and Dragon Singer, said that she gave it full praise. She must have been on acid.

In a word the book is ghastly. The book opens with "Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world." Which is perilously close to "The wind wasn't the beginning... But it was a beginning." Immediate reference to an evil Shade (humm, three letters off Jordan's fade) a non-human that controls Urgals (descriptions similar to trollics).

There are items that ring of Jordan--shades and urgals, evil banding together and showing up where it never has before, the mentor is a bard just like Thom Merrilin

Eddings--a silver, oval marked palm, an orphan raised by relatives and not knowing his true heritage, not being able to stay because of discovery, the word and the will (he doesn't call it that, but his description rings of Eddings)

McCaffrey--a dragon making the choice for rider, telepathic connection between dragon and rider, dragons classed by color

On page 155 Eragon is having a conversation with his mentor. His mentor scolds him saying he should have used his magic to tell what someone in the town they were just in was thinking. This after warning him about the dangers of using the magic on 139. It's maddening and continual. It's like reading someone's unorganized notes. The contradictions are through out. This is just one example. There are MANY others.

At the beginning Eragon is hunting in the Spine (more Jordan terminology, but closer in description his Misty Mountains, or Mountains of Mist). He is the only hunter who will go there. (Rand, Matt and Perrin) has a bow only he can pull (Rand). Anyway, he's a mighty hunter tracking a herd of deer, three nights away from home, he has a pack, a a knife, and a bow. But the next morning he also has a pan. Where did it come from. Yes I know it could have been in the pack, but that would have made it difficult to keep up with the deer. A pan isn't typical hunting gear. Camping? Yes. But he had no camp. He's following a herd which means travel rations.

His family needs meat for the winter and has no money, but when he arrives home his uncle and cousin are eating chicken for breakfast. If you're poor, that's not what you're going to eat first thing in the morning. And on and on.

I know that these items have been used by others and will be again. But never before have I read something that so clearly rang back to the original book.

Language is a problem. To quote Nancy Springer, "When 'was' shows up, you have problems." Paolini uses was five or six times a page. Yes, every so often I stop and count the number of times he uses was per page. So far I've counted eight different times. He uses 'was' five or six times a page. He cops out on 'had/has.' Passive. Inadvertent POV shifts. He tells. He tells. He tells. He contradicts himself. He tells.

This book is a mess, and it got published. You remember the movie Dances with Wolves? Wind-in-His-Hair says, "All we know about this man is he has a smart horse"? Well, I think this kid has smart parents and a publisher thought that they could hype his age.

This book could have been saved if it had been edited. I get the feeling it wasn't. I really want to stop reading the book, but it's kind of like a train wreck. You don't want to look, but you just can't help it.

Has anyone else read it? Did you like it? What was I missing?

Okay, I decided I've been to hard on this kid. I've taken a look at the chapter endings and found out that he has a disability. Poor Eragon has narcolepsy. He falls asleep on pages 18, 89, 128, 142, 212, 220, 249, 272, 316, 323, 392, 478. (These are chapter endings mind you.) I know that gives me permission to put the book away, and I wish I could, but something makes me continue to read.

Ok. If falling asleep isn't bad enough, I have found no fewer than seven times where he's knocked unconscious at the end of chapters. (Pages 80, 134, 263, 266, 292 and just when I was getting worried about the lack, page 491). I know, that's only six. I didn't really know how to classify the stupor leading to sleep on page 233.

Now keep in mind this in no way includes the loss of consciousness in the bodies of the chapters themselves. I'm still only on page 301, and the book has 200 or so more pages. I wish I could put myself out of my misery and burn the stupid thing, but I must finish it. There has to be some reason the book has gotten so much press. Other than the smart parents, which I now find out self published the book prior to it being acquired by Knopf.

Oh, by the way. Does anyone have the definition of epic fantasy? Mr. Palini claims to have written one, but I can't seem to find it.

Rating:
Summary: Not a rip off!
Review: I am a huuuuuge LOTR fan,and while reading it, I did see SOME connections to the trilogy, but overall it has a completely different and completely wonderful plot! A quest to destroy an evil ring, and a quest to find one's destiny with the help of a dragon and old story teller, are two very different plots, both being good in their own way.
Eragon is such and exciting and great book! It has some really great characters, and there's always something happening, especially from the middle of the book onward. It actually makes you feel very alert because of the constant action.
And I suggest you don't judge it as an LOTR rip-off yet, because there are still two more books to go! It'll probably end up being TOTALLY different from LOTR.
This has joined the ranks of my favorite fantasies, LOTR and Harry Potter! I suggest you all read it to decide for yourself, instead of buying into all the Lord of the Rings copycat reviews. You won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: My advice: read this book
Review: I have read a few reviews that complain that this book is too much like some other story you might be familiar with that takes place in Middle Earth. I have two things to say in response to that...one, Tolkien was so exhaustive in his efforts to create a working alternate planet, that it is virtually impossible to write a fantasy novel without drawing comparisons; and two, so this book is similar to one of the greatest books ever, how can that be a bad thing?

Eragon is a wonderful story. I think the best praise I can give to it is that the world seems to have been created first and the story almost an after thought, because jsuta few chapters in and you find yourself almost another citizen. The Spine seems like a real place.

This book was so good that I withdrew my usual stipulation of not reading a series book until the entire series is published. If you consider yourself a fantasy fanatic, I think you owe it to yourself to read this story.