Hello, everybody! This is my first book review on Katie That Bookish Girl, so I am quite excited. But let’s just say that I have mixed emotions about this one…
- Title: Eragon (Book #1 in the Inheritance Cycle)
- Author: Christopher Paolini
- Publisher: Paolini International
- AR Reading Level: 5.6
Eragon is a poor farm boy who lives in Carvahall and lives with his Uncle and cousin, Roran. One day, while he is wandering around rural mountains hunting he notices a strange blue stone. Thinking he will be able to sell it and stock up on some food for the winter, he takes it home. It turns out to be a dragon egg, and soon Eragon finds himself on a magical journey across Alagaësia to reach a secret organization against the evil King Galbatorix (ruler of the cruel and unjust Empire) to restore balance in Alagaësia. Along the way, he experiences loses and tirelessly fights battles. Although nothing is for sure, Eragon knows that he is on one big adventure.
I had high expectations coming in because this book was strongly recommended to me by my Aunt. I had also heard about this book before, so I was very excited to read it.
What I enjoyed the most about Eragon was how descriptive it was. I always knew exactly what was happening in vivid detail.
Paolini spent a lot of time world-building, which gave the reader a good back story on the plot and characters. This set Eragon apart from other fantasy novels, and I was impressed.
However, Eragon has flaws. First of all, the pacing was very slow. There were times when I wanted not to finish it because of how slow it was. There is literally 150 pages where Eragon is wandering around Alagaësia for no reason. I’m sorry Eragon, but I could really care less whether or not you hunt an elk or a deer for tonight’s meal.
Secondly, there were very few inspiring female characters. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Arya, and for most of the book, she is unconscious and riding on the back of Saphira. Not very empowering.
And after over 500 pages of overstretched story arcs and camping in the middle of nowhere (kind of like the first part of the Deathly Hallows if you know what I mean) Eragon as a character still feels incomplete. For example, Eragon rarely shows any emotion whatsoever. He is hotheaded, reckless, and sometimes ignorant.
Lastly, Eragon didn’t even battle Galbatorix! Like, wait, what? Come on!
In conclusion, Eragon was painfully slow-paced, sometimes boring, but detailed and intricately woven piece of literature.
And even though I didn’t like Eragon as much as I thought I would, I have to give props to Paolini for writing this when he was just 15 years old. And yes, as you can see on my GoodReads widget, I am reading the sequel, Eldest. Was it not what I hoped it would be? Yes. But was it bad? No. When I picked up this book and read the summary, I was excited and expecting a wonderful fantasy adventure. What I actually got was
Let’s just say I have mixed emotions on this one, but I would only recommend it to you if you are super into dragons and insanely long fantasy novels.
Story and plot: 💖💖💖💖💖
Pacing: 💖💖½
Character development: 💖💖
Writing quality: 💖💖💖💖
Enjoyment: 💖💖💖½
Overall: 💖💖💖½
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Just keep on booking,
-Katie K
Katie, That Bookish Girl 