Eldest (Inheritance #2)

Okay. I'll be honest. This book was not very great. It would have been great if it was about half the length that it was. I could get through Eragon okay, even though it was dry. Eldest? Well, read on... If I say it like this, it sounds okay-ish, listen:

So this book is the sequel to Eragon. Eragon and Saphira travel to Ellesmera to learn more about being a Dragon Rider (in case you didn't know, Ellesmera is where the elves live) and to continue their journey to eventually defeat the tyrant Galbatorix. When he gets there, Eragon is prepared to be teaching himself everything he needs to know, as he thinks he is the last Rider. But there, he meets Ormoris and Gladr, and elvish rider and his dragon prepared to teach Eragon the skills he needs. As the story proceeds, Eragon begins to fall in love with Arya, an elf. Then he discovers the truth about a brother and a father he's never known.

The story had a great plot and story, but, seriously. it was TOO LONG. It literally took Eragon 300 pages to get to Ellesmera, then 300 to get his cousin Roran out of the clutches of the Ra'zaac and run away to Surda. If you do the maths, that leaves only 60 pages to do the cool action of the battle and the reunion of Roran and Eragon. Really?

The descriptions? Just... no. It's a good thing to have detail/good descriptions in a story, but Paolini took it to the point where he spent two paragraphs or even a page talking about what a minor character looked like or what he said. I'm not kidding, you can skip over whole pages and not miss anything because Paolini used the whole page to describe a room. And you can't even, really, imagine what he's trying to show you. For example, in the Hunger Games Collins compared Katniss's dress to candlelight. I got that, I could imagine it. Here, Paolini just rambles on describing EVERYTHING, and you don't really get it because obviously no one is going to imagine exactly what he is imagining, so going for so long about it is pointless. It's like we've got no imagination.

Another thing. I said before that Eragon is falling in love with Arya. But I didn't mention what I'm about to say. Eldest takes place maybe half a year after Eragon finishes, in which Eragon is a young teenager. Except in this book, Eragon acts about 30, and is falling in love with an elf who is obviously way out of his league and a couple of hundred of years older than him!

Okay, now that I've finished with the bad stuff, I can talk about the good stuff now.

I quite liked the made up language. It was maybe a little too detailed on that part, like the rest of the book. Thanks Paolini, we get it. You can make up your own language. Can we move on and not spend like three paragraphs outlining a long spell that could be made shorter by just saying something like "He closed his eyes and chanted a spell, to..." or something.

There was an interesting plot I guess, if you looked past the fact that it took 300 hundred pages to do something that might've taken one hundred if the idea was given to another author to write.

One more thing. Eragon is kind of a mixup of lots of different books and the characters and idea was a bit too cookie-cutter for me. Seriously. If I wanted a paranormal epic battle between the forces of good and evil, I would have read the Lord of the Rings or any other one of those books out there. If I wanted dragons that could talk to humans, I would have read . If I wanted a lone guy facing off a huge empire of evil dudes, I would have watched Star Wars.

So, to sum it up. Paolini would spend one, two or even three pages describing every inch of a room or a minor character, to make sure we saw exactly what he did, which is impossible. Eragon seemed a LOT older than he was supposed to be, and he was falling in love with someone who was way out of his league and very obviously not interested. The made up language was all right, and the plot was quite interesting, if you looked past the fact that it took 300 pages for Eragon to do ANYTHING.

Here's a suggestiong if you are reading it. If the descriptions are getting too long, skip them. You won't miss anything.

An awesome book

Christopher Paulini’s second sequel of Eragon, Eldest, brings a whole new adventure for Eragon. Eragon, now recognized widely as a dragon rider and shade slayer, receives a message from an elf in Ellesmera. Eragon has to go to Ellesmera to finish his training in the arts of a dragon rider. Meanwhile, Roran, Eragon’s cousin, living far off in Carvahall, has to escape the evil ruler Galbatorix’s minions. When the villagers try to help Roran, all the villagers of Carvahall get in trouble, and Roran has to then find a way to protect them all. Eragon’s half of the story didn’t show much plot or conflict, being mostly about learning new knowledge and magic. Eragon didn’t really accomplish much, making me feel like he wasted his whole time learning things that won’t really be used. Roran’s tale was similarly boring, as everything was extremely predictable. Since in stories, main characters don’t really die, so Roran never really feels in danger. Evil servants and heinous monsters blocking their way would die as if miracles happened and whirlpools and trenches would vanish like mirages. The fighting scenes were described in short fleeting moments, making the parts boring and unrealistic. Overall, the book showed great potential to be a fairly interesting sequel to Eragon, but the predictability of the plot and unreal action made the book less interesting.
Christopher Paolini has the amazing ability to make the characters very realistic and believable. For example, Eragon, a once impulsive and brutal farmer, has his character change drastically throughout his training in Ellesmera, making him more considerate and wise. Roran, who used to be weak and cowardly, becomes a headstrong, persuasive leader. However, I feel their character changes a little too fast and sudden. Roran, who kills a few soldiers in Carvahall, suddenly gains a huge amount of respect and admiration. He continues to make mistakes yet the villagers still love him and treat him with great reverence. Even though it was obvious that there was character progression, I think this novel tried to fit in too much character change in too short of a time.
Throughout the story I did not really like the way the words were worded. The story would often have unnecessary amounts of overly descriptive words. Sometimes he would make the idea that could be described in a sentence, expand into a whole paragraph. For example, “Above them loomed a sheer black cliff. It acted like a buttress and dam for a cornice of blue ice that groaned and split under the wind, loosing jagged slabs that shattered on the granite below” makes the paragraph originally talking about a dragon landing into one that describes too much about unimportant landscape. Sometimes, an excessive amount of these kinds of paragraphs tend to make the story hard and boring to read.
My overall impression of this story is that this story has an interesting plot and great potential, but includes a storyline that reminds me greatly of Star Wars. In both stories, an enormity of evil scourges the land, causing great despair to all that oppose it. In Star Wars, the evil is Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, both who are defeated when a powerful youngster appears. In Eldest, that hope is Eragon, who is the last and only dragon rider that is said to be able to defeat Galbatorix. However, Eragon needs to train, similar to how Luke Skywalker was training with Yoda on Dagobah. In both stories, the pupils do not manage to finish their training and their masters die before they could get back and receive it. The similarity of the two stories made me feel like this book wasn’t really worth reading, since it wasn’t very original or creative. However, I would recommend this book to people who like storylines like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, who may find this similarly interesting to read.

Reader reviewed by YouKn0wYaLuvMe

I really liked Eldest. I think that it is better than the first book in the series, which is a first for me because I find that sequels are often rushed and there is not a lot of thought put into them.

This book has the same concept as the first book with Eragon fighting along-side Saphira, but in this one, Christopher Paolini also incorporated the brother of Eragon more and the adventures the whole village had due to Eragon's actions.

It is hard to understand this book without reading the first book and so I suggest to anyone that is planning to read this, read the first nook before.

Reader reviewed by Latangi

Eldest is the second book in the Inheritance Trilogy. In this book, Eragon and Saphira have just one a battle in the dwarf city and Murtagh has been captured by the enemy. Although concerned about Murtagh, Eragon and Saphira travel to the Elven forest of Du Wuldenvarden in order to continue their training. More surprises await them in the Elven than they could possibly imagine.

Reader reviewed by shino

this is the best book ever, Eragon becomes an elf,
saphira is in love with gladear, and eragon is still maddly inlove with arya, and she, even though she doesnt show it, likes eragon. this is the best novel in the history of novels. i strongly suggest you read this book,after eragon, itwont make any sense if you read it in reverse.

Reader reviewed by book-eating leuk

well...this is a book that cannot stand on its own...if you haven't read eragon...don't try this one.

let me start off with the little spoiler...eragon finishes off the shade Durzan and is dying on bed...just kidding. He survives and starts off to the woods for the training of being a dragon rider.

so finally eldest is out and eragon is alive and happy and acompanied with Aryan, while on the other hand Rohan suffers... and at first i thought, what a great book. How wrong i was... does a good long book equal boring people down with useless minute details?

Obviously the traditions and the custom of the setting is important, as the author pays a little too much attention to it, weighing it down instead of flowing it up. THen the author processed to slow down the already slow movement of Eldest...which is so slow that it only accumulates to a promising battle next book...yes next book...let's hope for the best as he seals of the inheritance trilogy with a decent ending...let's hope guys and gals.

Reader reviewed by StarJammer

Since I haven't read the first in teh series yet, I had to spend some time trying to get mentally "located", but oh well. On the technical aspects... Just a darn good book!
Learning the history behind the DragonRiders and Eragon himself was very interesting. Paolini takes us deeper into the world of the Varden and it's many facets. Weaving many tales and stories into one strong plotline, Eldest is a success.
All and all, a good book to curl up an spend some family time with.

Reader reviewed by heart_seek

Ok I have heard some pretty nasty stuff on this book but I'm betting that there all like 30 and people need to grow up or better yet stay young and learn to appreciate stuff. Paolini is a new writter he doesn't need to be perfect. He didn't even intend to do anything with it at first it was just a hobby and he was intending to make it something that he would like to read not for the whole world or something like that. I personally look up to him as inspiring and any fantasy lover should read this book. Also for anyone that is putting him down or saying that he didn't do anything original i'll just say that I would love to see any book that someone like myself would like more. I recomand this book to everyone aged between 13-16 and even older people.

To finish this off I'd like to say that I'm 13, male and hope that Paolini go's as far as even releasing a fourth book. By William Smith

Reader reviewed by Bettina

I think that Eldest and Eragon copy other stories such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Eldest follows some of the Star Wars ideas and some Lord of the Rings names. Even though it copies quite a bit, I'm not saying that it isn't still quite a good read. The plot is intresting. Plus, some of the ideas that make up the story are quite interesting. Such as the author's interpretation of magic. I think that the book is okay and the ending is good, but Christopher Paolini could improve his book more.