Eldest (Inheritance #2)

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 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 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 Fantasy Reader

Let me start by saying Paolini has clearly improved since the last book. This will be a pretty short review seeing as how I have just skimmed through it, if you have not yet read to book I suggest you do before reading this, because I will give away a few vague but important clues. The first book Eragon, I thought was a fusion of Star Wars, Dragonriders of Pern, and Lord of the Rings(some people may not know this, but there is an older book called the Serpents Egg by a different author who use the name Ellesmere for a place), and don't get me wrong so is Eldest, but the story is relly getting interesting. For example, it is really fun trying to find parellels in Star Wars and Inheritence like, if Brom is Obi-Wan, who is Leila? But this book clearly follow the outline of The Empire Strikes back, from the early battle to the Jedi/Dragonrider training to the confrontation with Vader/Murtagh.

I think Paolini needs to be more subtle with the clues he give; in Eragon, the witch Angela says he will fall in love with someone of noble birth, I think an elven princess falls under that catagory. She says he will be betrayed by a kin, doesn't take a professor to figure out who once we know Murtagh is his brother. And some one is betraying the Varden, the twins seem way too obvious, I figured out before Eragon ended who was doing it.

But still, this was a great book, but then again, I am a star wars, Dragonriders of Pern, LOTR fan. I really hope Paolini follows the plot for Return of the Jedi on his third book.