In a land under the rule of a cruel and unjust king, a farmer boy, Eragon, finds a lovely and potentially valuable sapphire-blue stone. But when the stone begins to make noise in the middle of the night and then bursts open to reveal a dragon hatchling, Eragon knows he's in over his head. The dragon seems to bring bad luck with it, when his cousin moves to a far away land, and when his uncle, who was like a father to Eragon, is killed. Looking for revenge, Eragon races after the murderers, not knowing that his journey won't bring about just the satisfaction of getting back at those who wronged him, but will also teach him about magic, love, and trust. However, more than a few people will get hurt along the way.
The first thing I would like to mention is just how long it took me to finish this book! It is 754 pages. Normally, this wouldn't prove to be a challenge for me, but combined with the old-fashioned language and storyline, plus, simply, lack of time, it took me over three weeks to finish this novel. I wouldn't say it's because the story is boring; I would argue the opposite, in fact! It is a very detailed and compelling storyline; Christopher Paolini is an unarguably talented writer. This just isn't the style of book I would normally pick up.
Although this book was the first of the Inheritance trilogy, I found it could contain three books in itself and no one would argue. This novel seemed to stretch on infinitely. So much happened, so many places were visited and people met, that I had difficulty keeping up with what happened where and with who. The names of everything didn't help. Most were in the Ancient Language and were hard to pronounce. Many were similar, as well. I often confused people and places. I believe there was only one 'normal' name in the entire book: Angela, a witch. Also, Paolini had a habit of introducing someone by their name only once and then expecting the reader to remember who they were the next time they were mentioned, along with everyone else. I wish this book had been split up into separate novels, or that Christopher Paolini had just associated the names with the people a little more; I think it would have been much easier to keep up with.
As I mentioned before, I found the concepts and ideals in this novel to be quite intriguing. Magic that comes at a price, fate determined by birth, and many creatures living both in harmony and at war, intertwined together to create a masterful work of imaginings. Written by another's hand, Eragon would have undoubtedly turned out differently, and I'm not sure if that would be a good thing; I believe that Paolini wrote the story in such a way that changing it would make it not as good. Aside from what I would have enjoyed more if it had been altered, namely the sheer length and names, Eragon turned out beautifully. I found much of the writing reminded me of poetry.
This book had very good writing and a nice storyline, but it just wasn't my style. I would give this story three stars. It was very lengthy and wordy, which I found distracted me from the main storyline a bit. Overall, I would congratulate Christopher Paolini on being able to complete such a masterpiece, a feat many other authors have failed to do. I would recommend this story to anyone looking for medieval features, not-so-mythical dragons, and a good, long read.
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