Title: The Inheritance Cycle
Author: Christopher Paolini
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Length: 503, 704, 748, 860
Rating: 4 Star [series overall rating]
Movie Review
Description/Synopsis:
Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?
When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands. . . .
Book Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
This book review is coming after my second time around reading this story, so obviously I enjoyed it. I didn’t review after the first time because I left it too long, and marathoned them all at once and couldn’t really remember each book individually and at the time it was important to me to give each book a full review. Since then though I have decided to be kinder to myself and realize that if I don’t have enough to say about a book by itself or only want to give a series/book a short review I am allowed to do it.
With the series overall there were a few things that I had issues with. I listened to the audiobooks both read throughs, and while it was better the second time around some of the voices really bothered me. Saphira’s voice was the first one that I encountered that just brought me straight out the story. She was female but her voice was just so deep. As we got into the later books this stopped bothering me as we got some voices that were deeper than hers and I could see how hers was a females voice but it still bothered me for a really long time.
The other main thing that really bothered me for both read throughs but again got used to was some of the overall writing style. The series in general is meant for a younger age group and you could really feel the pandering for this. Many of the events or situations in the book are over explained or described for us, and things are quite often repeated. Just because its for a younger age group doesn’t mean you have to dumb down the narrative for that.
Other than the voice acting and some of the writing style I really enjoyed the series though, obviously since I have done it twice in the span of a few months. It had a really diverse and likeable set of characters that had me laughing with some of their antics, though I was never really too worried about any of the ‘bad guys’ other than wondering how they were going to kill a ‘god’ like Galbatorix. There were some shocking moments that surprised me, but I didn’t have a really strong feeling of tension. The first time around I didn’t see the big twist coming at all, and I really liked the way things panned out for the most part. I would say there are two ends to this story, and there is a lot of filler between the two endings. Some of it I think was needed but I also think it was a bit too long.
SPOILER – I liked how Eragon overcame Galbatorix by just showing him how much pain and suffering he has caused everyone which ultimately made him end his own life. I also really liked and didn’t like that the ending was happy and sad. After all Eragon has been through, I found it so heartbreaking that he has to leave everyone and everything he has ever loved to do the best thing for the dragons. He has to make all the sacrifices. Just as Arya starts to see him the way he has always dreamed, he has to give her up. I liked that Paolini didn’t just give us the easy happy ending, but god damn, I sorta wished he had. Eragon deserved some happiness, and other than Saphira and knowing that the dragons will be safe, he doesn’t get it and it eats me up. He deserved the standard happy ending. – END SPOILER
If for some reason like me you haven’t done this series yet, I would highly recommend it. It surprised me how much I ended up enjoying it. If you have kids that like action with dragons, or if you yourself want some action with dragons, then try this. It is worth all the hype it got, even if it has fallen off the radar as its gotten older.
Till Next Time. . .
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