The End of the Inheritance Cycle

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

The End.   The end of a cycle, the end of the story of Eragon and Saphira.  As the story concludes the Varden are still battling their way across Alagaesia to overcome the evil usurper king Galbatorix. 

It is hard to give a synopsis of such an incredibly large book.  So much takes place not only in the last book of the Inheritance Cycle, but throughout the story the audience watches Eragon and Saphira mature and come to be a Dragon and Rider to be reckoned with.  This has been a wonderful journey to experience with all of the characters of Alagaesia.  This blog is primarily for readers that have finished the series and enjoyed it, so from now on, please do not read on unless you want to read spoilers.  Again, SPOILER ALERT.  I’m about to talk about the book and all the details that I want to talk about.

Of course if you read my blog on Brisingr you’ll remember how upset I was about Arya and Eragon not hooking up.  At the very end of Inheritance, I cried, I could not believe that Arya took up the post of Queen of the Elves, surely she understood that it would end the possibility of a future with Eragon.  Then Eragon realizes that he has to move out of Alagaesia forever therefore, nailing the last nail in the coffin of no love with Arya.  That was the saddest ending that I could have thought of. 

I loved this series, of course it was easy to see the common themes between Harry Potter, which I have talked about in previous blogs and even Frodo from the Lord of the Rings, especially with Eragon’s decision to leave with the elves.  In the Lord of the Rings, after Frodo rids the world of the evil of Sauron he decides that this world is not for him and he is invited to spend the rest of his long life with the Elves.  As with Eragon, he will go with the Elves and protect the unhatched dragon eggs along with the Eldunari of the older dragons.  As dragons hatch and riders are chosen by their dragons Eragon and Saphira have chosen to leave everything behind to train up the next generation of Riders.  It is a noble quest, but very sad.  The parallels between Harry Potter and Eragon are quite obvious to me, but just in case you missed it.  The epic battle is very much the same; a larger than life evil villain against a kid that has become something great from hard work determination, his attitude, personality and the overall good versus evil, good will always overcome.

Well I hope you enjoyed the book.  Have you read the Inheritance Cycle?  What did you think of the last installment?  In my opinion it was the best book of the series.  Thoughts?  Keep Reading my friends!

Fire Meets Fire

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
The third book for the Inheritance Cycle was pretty good. It continued the story well and the ending was just enough of a cliff hanger that the audience will want to continue reading the series. I am curious how it’s all going to end. I’m not sure when the next book is coming out, but I’m looking forward to it.

What sticks out? Eragon and Saphira’s relationship is stronger and deeper in this book. As the characters grow and we learn more about them, we also learn new things with the characters. I felt real emotion with the characters and the reader can definitely feel the bond between Eragon and Saphira growing. Also in Brisingr, it’s the first time the audience hears the story from Saphira’s perspective. A few surprises thrown at us, more information about Brom, we hear Galbatorix for the first time.

What I didn’t like, there were a lot of unnecessary details. There were some scenes that Paolini could have gone into more detail, where other details seemed unnecessary. The book seemed to drag in some areas and then rush by in other areas. I think the book could have probably been about 100 pages shorter.

I want nothing more than for Eragon to take Arya in his arms and kiss her really with everything he has. There is no reason for them not to be together. Her excuse is because he is so young, but who cares if they are both going to live forever. Age really is just a number when forever is the outcome. There was one section where Eragon and Arya were in the Empire traveling together and alone and I came up with all kinds of ways for them to get closer, such as when they extinguished the fire and it became very cold, I wish they would have used body heat to stay warm. Or there was the time when they first met up and they went up to her room to stay… and a few other instances that I made up in my mind. There are two reasons I believe that something has not happened to increase this romance. First of all the author is a young man. When he first wrote Eragon he probably didn’t even know how to include a well written romance into the story. I’m not saying that a man can’t write a romantic book, but all of the best romance novels I’ve ever read were authored by women. My second thought is that he is drawing us in by the anticipation of the maybe relationship. There is nothing better than a reader continuing to read because they can’t wait to see what happens next. I believe that this is Paolini’s thought behind what he does with Eragon and Arya’s relationship.
There was a pretty cool fight scene where Murtagh and his dragon fought Eragon and Saphira, it was awesome that Eragon was able to overpower Murtagh and Eragon said that it would be no big deal to overcome the other dragon, Thorn.

The story slowed throughout the middle, whenever Nasuada separates Eragon and Saphira it is pretty slow going. It seems like most of the characters are everywhere doing a lot of different things, but nothing is going on.

Thoughts? Have you read the Inheritance Cycle? Are you waiting impatiently for the last installment to come out? Let me know what you think!

Dragons, Elves, Dwarfs, Strange creatures not of this world... What more could a girl ask for?

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Eldest, the second book for the Inheritance Cycle begins with tragedy and is continued throughout with hard times for Eragon. Since Saphira picked him to be her rider he has had many hard times along the way, and they do not diminish as he grows.

Eldest is viewed from 2 sides. One side is from Eragon’s point of view, and the other is from his cousin Roran’s. Roran has quite an adventure ahead of him as he realizes that the Empire wants him for some reason unknown to him, he quickly realizes that it has something to do with Eragon. As we journey with Roran, we learn more about his love, Katrina. We also watch a small village ban together to save Roran from the Ra’zac. As he travels he is more aware of the trouble he is truly in and he takes matters into his own hands as he becomes, Roran Stronghammer.

Eragon’s travels lead him on a different path, as a Rider, he is required to go to Ellesmera to train with the Elves. Alongside him is the Dwarf Orik and Arya. Eragon spends much time with the Elves, many great things take place, but I will not go into all of that, the most important part is that suddenly he realizes that the Varden is going to war against the empire and he leaves the elves before his training is completed with a promise to go back. There is a great battle at the end of the book that if I give any details about it, it will ruin the story for you, hence the vagueness.

My opinion about Eldest is that it was a good read. For some reason this book and it’s preceding book took me some time to get through. When the author wrote Eragon, he was a young child. The writing style is very simple and hard to read at some points, but I couldn’t expect any better. It is a great story and Paolini does a great job of introducing the characters and leading us through Eragon’s journey. As the books go on, the story becomes more alive and interesting. I found myself trying to guess what was going to happen next. This blog is a little short because I have read a few books since I read this particular episode and I can’t quite think of anything to write about. I do suggest this book, it is a good read and an interesting story. Is it the best book I’ve ever read before? No, not even close, but it was good and entertaining.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the series. Did you like it? What do you think is going to happen between Eragon and Arya? Any thoughts on the ending of Eldest? Were you surprised by the change in the story? Let me know!

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!