The Inheritance Cycle Begins

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Eragon reminds me of another of my favorite heroes in literature, Harry Potter. Neither character chose their path, but neither backed away from the destiny that was selected for them. Both of these characters are strong willed and have a great heroic personality. Eragon is one of those characters that you feel like you get to know them inside and out. He is adventurous, but he also wants to do the right thing. Some of his decisions are spontaneous and mislead by hatred or hurt, but as long as he has Saphira with him, she helps him with his decision making. Saphira is a great character as well. She is almost like a mother figure for Eragon, even though she is only months old, she has hundreds of years of wisdom to share with her young Rider.

I enjoyed this book. Even though it was written by a very young author, it was well done. He presented the story well and kept the plot stable. There are always things that I could point out that were not perfect, but I’m going to give Paolini a break since he was like 15 when he wrote Eragon. I’m leaving this blog sort of short, I have read a few books since I read this particular book and I can’t remember a lot of details to blog about. Below is a synopsis, although it is sloppily written I think you will get the point.

Synopsis:
Eragon is a fifteen-year-old farm boy, orphaned at birth, lives with his uncle Garrow and cousin Roran in Carvahall, a small village in Alagaesia. His uncle raised him to live independently; he hunts and helps around his uncles small farm. Eragon grows up with his cousin Roran and they are very close, as close as brothers.

In the first chapter Eragon finds a small oval stone, mystified by the stone, he sees the value in it and tries to sell it for money for food, but is unable to get rid of it because he found it in the Spine. The Spine was thought of as a place that thought of to be haunted. Low and behold, the stone hatches a small blue dragon, she names herself Saphira. Eragon hides the dragon from his uncle and cousin and he thinks of no trouble until one day, two strangers go to Garrow’s house looking for the stone, they kill Garrow and destroy the farm. Saphira takes Eragon away in order to save his life, when they come back they find Garrow and the farm. Eragon must leave Carvahall immediately, Brom, an old story teller takes Eragon away and the true journey begins. Brom teaches him some of the ancient language/ magic, and also teaches him to fight with a sword. Brom presents Eragon with Zar’roc, which was the sword that belonged to Morzan, the Forsworn. Morzan is known as the Forsworn because he was one of the last Riders, he gave the turned Rider’s over to Galbatorix, and Galbatorix destroyed and killed all of the Riders and Dragons. All the while, he has a recurring dream of a girl that is in trouble.

The Ra’zac , creatures that work for the King that do his evil bidding, who we find out are the two strangers that killed Garrow, find Eragon and his traveling partners. They kill Brom and try to capture Eragon and Saphira to take them to King Galbatorix. Luckily, they are saved by Murtagh a young man probably a year older than Eragon. Murtagh joins Eragon in his quest but informs Eragon that he will not be joining the Varden if that is Eragon’s choice.

Murtagh and Eragon travel to Gil’ead a large city controlled by the empire, they sneak in and are able to save Arya the woman that Eragon has been having dreams about. He finds that she is an elf. Eragon is able to get into the mind of the elf and she tells him that she must stay unconscious because she has been given a poison and without the antidote she will die. She instructs him to go to find the Varden (an anti-Empire movement that lives with the Dwarves). Farthen Dur is where the Varden hide, some are excited that there is a new Rider, and others are quite upset. Orik, a dwarf and is the nephew of the King of the Dwarves, Hrothgar, becomes one of Eragon’s greatest companions. At the end of the first book, Farthen Dur is attacked by Urgals because of the Varden’s disloyalty to the Empire and because the King wants Eragon as his Rider. Eragon finds that a Shade (demon/evil worker for the King) is in control of the Urgals, Eragon destroys him with help from Saphira and Arya’s distraction. Eragon wakes up after destroying the Shade, the Shade struck him with his sword and scared him from his shoulder to his hip.

Please leave me a message and let me know what you think about this book. Have you read it? Do you plan on reading it? Give me your opinion. Thanks!