Friday, November 9, 2007

Eragon - Christopher Paolini

Title: Eragon
Author: Christopher Paolini
Country: America
Year: 2003
Rating: C
Pages: 509

First sentence: Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world.

Challenge book? I read this for the Unread Authors Challenge.

Short summary: Farm boy finds strange stone under strange circumstances. Stone is actually a dragon's egg, it hatches, and a dragon is born. Boy and dragon set out on an adventure to help save their world from evil.

What did I think: This one was just okay. Not bad, not great. This may sound weird, but I felt as if Eragon read like a King's Quest video game; all the plot points felt too pre-determined, as if he was going on a series of tasks to get to the next level and eventually "win". The plot was incredibly predictable, which is disappointing in any genre, but especially fantasy. The characters felt somewhat flat, especially Eragon. The writing, well, it was obvious that it was written by a teenager who may lack some life experiences, and the book screamed for better editing. I can see how Eragon could be popular with kids, but as an adult, I will not be picking up the second book in the trilogy, as I had originally planned.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's strange that you say that because I felt the same way. I wanted to read this so bad before the movie came out and my sister had it. So I read it, then I watched the movie. I was a little disappointed in the book, because like you I felt it read like a sci fi video game. Which is fine for kids but in my opinion, not worth the hype it received. So my sister brought me the second book and I sent it back with her, I wasn't impressed enough with the first one!

Andi said...

I was really excited about this one when it came out, but the more reviews I hear, the further down my list it slips. Meh. Maybe one day.

Great review!

Booklogged said...

I thought this book received more attention than it deserved.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Interesting review. That was how I felt about the much-lauded Snow Crash -- it read like a Lethal Weapon movie.

I have it on Mt. TBR, so we shall see.

tinylittlelibrarian said...

I've been feeling like a bad YA librarian because I just can't bring myself to read it - I keep hearing from adults that it's just not that great. Sometimes I'll force myself to read a hyped book even if I don't want to, but the good thing about hyped books is that they're not exactly suffering from a lack of attention, so I don't have to push them at all.

Jeane said...

I felt exactly the same way about this book. Even though it got a lot of attention, I think it will probably slip into obscurity because it's just not a good book.

Melwyk said...

I've been wondering about this one; now I think I'll pass. I did wonder whether it could possibly live up to its hype.

Dewey said...

I actually opened this book and tried to read it. I really wanted a book by a young homeschooled boy to be great, because I was homeschooling my son at the time. But the writing style put me off so much I didn't get past a page or two, and really, I always try to give books a 50-page chance.

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