Eragon

I just finished reading Eragon after about a year of haering about it. I have to say I wasn't impressed. The plot was thin with a LOTR meets star wars twist to it. As for characters, are you meant to dislike Eragon? Cos if you are, then bingo. The guys an idiot albiet with a cool dragon in tow. And why does Saphira have to know everything strait away? (yes, I know she's a dragon with mystical powers) Can't there be a maturing tage for her? However, I did like Brom (something with old mentors with beards) and Murtagh was probably the best thing he did. Arya... not so.

Any other opinions?

Eragon stinks. DO NOT get me started on all the parts in it that Paolini copied from Star Wars and LOTR - you'll want to sock me over the head with a sixteen ton weight before I've even got half-way.

As for Eldest . . . have you read Eldest, yet, FantasyArtist? If you haven't, beware the ending. It will make you scream in frustration and pull your hair out at the author's un-originality. Seriously. I very nearly did that when I read it.

-ST

I actually did kind of like the books. Okay, they were majorly cliched, but at least they knew it. Althoguh I do admit the end of Eldest did put me off a bit. I was picturing the scene from Star Wars at the time. :p

ahh... I also could go on for ages concerning the Star Wars/Lord of the Rings similarities that annoy me so much. So now my friends just joke about it, and make up a fake dialogue between Eragon and Brom that goes something like this:

Brom: Anakin... no, no, that's not right... aha! Luke! no... it's Harry, isn't it?
Eragon: My name is Eragon.
Brom: ohh, Aragorn! I am ... well, I'm not Dumbledore... maybe I'm Obi-wan, no, perhaps Gandalf... ah yes! My name is Brom. I can help you train yourself with your lightsab... err, dragon. So you can defeat the Empire ... of King Galbatorix!

and so on. The only thing I like about those books is the parts about magic, and how performing the magic takes the same energy to create it normally. And Murtagh is pretty sweet.
oh well, that's what you get when you have a kid who's parents own a publishing company.

- Stella

Ah, the ending of Eldest. I couldn't be bothered to read it, so I just looked up the plot summary on Wikipedia. I didn't realise the "big twist" was at the end. Even more Star Wars-like. For those of you who don't know what happens, it's not difficult to guess that someone is related to someone else...

-Kaz

I watched the movie before reading the book...I bought the book but haven't finished reading it. I enjoyed the movie enough to buy the book because I'm curious and ask for it for Easter. But I really enjoy it more as an overal "yay, fantasy move! -Jumps up and down-" sort of thing. There were quite a few things that irked me about the movie, though. The setting sun scene and the scene where Eragon's uncle dies are two specifically. They're just -obvious- rip offs of Star Wars to me.

I don't like Eragon in the movie. I LOVED Brom, and I LOVED Murtagh. I fell in love with Murtagh, which is rare because I don't normally fall for the "bad guy/dark hero/whatever you want to call him." I normally fall for Eragon's type of character.

I do have to say that I like that Eragon has to earn the information that Brom gives him, unlike Luke. That makes him very different from Obi-Wan to me, which I approve of. If he just randomly gave Eragon information like Obi-Wan does (although Obi-Wan is at least hesitant about what to tell Luke and Luke finds out other important things over time), I wouldn't be so happy.

I really need to get back in to reading the book. -Will have to try to read more this weekend.-

Kill me now, I actually liked Eragon. And uh, Paolini actually intentionally made it cliched. Or at least I read that somewhere on his site. I'm eagerly anticipating the next book. I realize that it's very similar to Star Wars and LOTR... But I think it works anyway. If you analyze the book on it's own... It's not half bad.

Shadow Knight wrote:And uh, Paolini actually intentionally made it cliched. Or at least I read that somewhere on his site.

It's easy to say you made it "intentionally cliched" after the majority of critics have stated that it's a total rip-off. It's more than just cliched, though, some elements are exactly the same. For one thing elves "came from the West in silver ships." Almost word-for-word exactly the same as LOTR. Also, they have a rivalry with the dwarves. To top it off, they're known as the "fair folk!" There's borrowing ideas, from another writer, but then there's a whole other extreme. The plot irritates me as well. Both Eragon and Eldest are practically identical in plot to A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Galbatorix gets pushed down an endless pit in the next one.

There are a lot of other things he says in his website:

Eragon is an archetypal hero story, filled with exciting action, dangerous villains, and fantastic locations. There are dragons and elves, sword fights and unexpected revelations, and of course, a beautiful maiden who's more than capable of taking care of herself.

Within the pages of this book is a whole land, Alagaësia, for you explore. You may take fancy to Tronjheim, the city-mountain the dwarves have built, or perhaps the mysterious forest Du Weldenvarden. Either way, there are more than enough marvels here for even the most accustomed reader of fantasy.

This is a statement Paolini himself made, on his site. How full of yourself can you get? It's not enough that most of these "marvels" were created years ago by other, better writers, he's parading and boasting about them as if they're his own. He thinks a bit too much of himself for my liking.

Anyway, rant over!

-Kaz

Yeah, I read that on his website as well. I could go through step-by-step and say what's similar to LOTR and Star Wars.

The plot is "A New Hope" with dragons, and the elves are the same as Tolkein's. Silver hair, thing for the sea, living in trees, liking plants, being immortal, poetry and all.

Brom is Obi-Wan who gets killed (how sad, not), Eragon is Luke (he gets his father's weapon and then looses it, given to him by the last old boy of an extinct order of do-gooders in the empire), Murtagh is Han (the suspicious stranger with a dodgy background), Nasuada is Leia (princess with unknown parentage, and what looks to be a relationship with the suspicious stranger: Han/Murtagh).

Wasn't I restrained? Only one post, and not a full length article!

-ST

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I really liked Eragon and Eldest. Though the movie...let's not go there. I have to say though, when I was reading both of them not one single thought of LOTR or Star Wars crossed through my mind. Don't know if that's good or bad. Maybe cause my mind closes down when I'm reading fiction/magic/that kind of thing. Anyway, now you know...I can't wait for the next one.

About the characters, I feel it goes more like this:

The characters are similar to star wars but they've been switched around with some things. For example:

Love interest goes from Han (Murtagh), to Luke (Eragon). And I'm guessing that Arya is of nobility (Angela's reading) and with the switched love interest Eragon loves her so she is princess Leia.

KazSmurf - after reading his website, I felt like I needed to puke. But after that, it made me so fired up to write. I think I pounded out 5 pages in my notebook last night after reading that, a new record for me.

Also, yes, Arya is a princess. I read Eldest. Eragon is still a blasted whiney boy, and you could guess the big-suprise by like halfway through the book. But him getting beat up by Murtagh was pretty awesome.

Murtagh - ROCK ON! Go kill Eragon! *cackles evilly*

I actually have to say the first time I read Eragon I thought it was mildly enjoyable. But give me a break, I had just turned eleven at the time. The second time I read it at last year I realized how cliched and unoriginal it was and lost any interest. I have read Eldest, and it is quite possibly the most boring and aggravating book I have ever read. During the middle three-hundred pages or so I actually could feel my brain turning into mush.

Yeah, I've seen quotes by Paolini. It's one thing to be totally full of yourself and be a talented writer. It's another thing all together to be totally full of yourself and be nothing but a copycat with very little writing talent, if any at all. He acts like most of the content of his book are actually his own ideas. Does he think the world is stupid and won't notice? Being a big Lord of the Rings fan myself, I can't even describe how much it ticks me off that Paolini quite obviously stole Tolkien's concept of elves and dwarves, without even trying to cover it up. Have you all seen the lists of words from Eragon that were so obviously copied from LOTR? It's mind-boggling to me how the world has accepted this book and acted like it's no big deal that it comes dangerously close to plagiarism. *shakes head sadly* What has the world come to?

Stars Wars meets dragons and horses. That was my impression.

Someday, I will go through Eragon, and find every single minute detail and compare it to Star Wars/Lord of the Rings. Then when I am a big author, I will track that kid down and confront him about his plagurism. When he ends up in jail, me and my friend will visit him, dressed up as Darth Vader and Gollum. "My Precious, oh how it mocks us, GOLLUM, GOLLUM!"