Ratings1,241
Average rating3.6
I first read this series when I was in secondary school, a couple of friends and myself read the first two books pretty quickly and loved them. I think my fourteenth birthday party was watching the movie with those friends (we almost universally hated it) and I never got round to finishing the third book. At this point, there are four books in the series and a set of short stories due to be published. It's been around ten years since I read the series and I never finsihed it, so I decided I would begin a re-read to finally catch up.
Wow, my memory was exaggerating how good this first book was. I want to stress that the author wrote this book around the age I was when I read it, and I do feel that his age should be taken into account. Eragon as a book has not been fleshed out, and a lot of the story felt bare. There where time skips to get to the next plot relevant moment, and a lack of development in the setting or characters. Another reviewer pointed out the heavy influnces of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, which I can definately agree with. I would also like to highlight the audiobook, which is how I read it. The audiobook probably ruined a large chunk of my enjoyment as the narrator gave Saphira an inexplicable voice and made a small portion of the characters Welsh?? I would not reccomenf the audiobook.
I think the series gets better in the later books, and I will report back with reviews as I intend on finally finishing this series.
2.5 stars.
I love dragons, but I have found the story very plain, especially the characters and the writing.
on reread, probably 15+ years later, still an excellent read.
unsure how much nostalgia glasses played into this rating, as this was one of my favorite books throughout late elementary, middle, and early high school, and I reread it dozens (not exaggerating) of times. it was one of my first fantasy books, and for that it will always have a special place in my heart.
there were definitely some quirks I noticed on reread that I never noticed when I was younger - we'll call them artifacts of being written by a young author for a young audience. nothing major/immersion breaking, just goofy little bits.
I wasn't a huge fan. Part of what I love about fantasy is how you can delve into a whole new world, governed by a completely different set of rules than ours. However, I felt the characters were shallow, the dialogue felt forced, and the magic system seemed silly to me. I never was able to truly get lost in this book's world, and though it was an easy read, had a hard time investing in it and finishing it quickly because of that inability to be truly convinced of this place. I will not read the rest of the series.
Updated Review 2023:
This book is enjoyable and fun. It is apparent that this book takes a lot of inspiration from other works in fantasy (Tolkien and Le Guin's works to name the two that I noticed most), however, it doesn't mean that the book is bad. Is this book a work of genius from a young author like I once thought it was when I was young? No. I wouldn't say so. However, was it published by a young author? Yes. Was it successful in finding an audience and a people that enjoy it enough for the book to be a success? Yes.
A bit slow at times, but ultimately a good book. I must have been in a fog or something when I wrote my 2017 review, as I didn't find it difficult to imagine the world that Paolini created this go around. Great stuff and will definitely read the next books and re-read this series from time to time over the years.
2017 Review:
The only complaint I have is, sometimes, I have a hard time envisioning the world that Paolini created. The description of things is difficult to understand sometimes. Other than that, it is a great book.
Written by a teenager, it seems this book is good for a middle school audience but isn't up to par with other YA novels. It contains loads of exposition, all the characters sound the same, and we are constantly told how great Eragon is without really seeing it for ourselves. Impressive that a sixteen year old wrote it but I don't see myself reading the other installments of the series.
So. Eragon. Well...
Firstly I must make clear that my grammar is the shittiest thing you will read today- unless of course you think Eragon was worse. In that case I have nothing to say.
Anyway. This review isn't really going to be long because I read this book like 3 or 4 years ago and still think it's great, but not for the reasons you might spect so let's get started.
I absolutely loved it the first time I got it on my hands. I thought it was a good story (dragons, magic and an ancient language that held the true meaning of everything) and it was well written (Although I read a translation so I can't really say much about it), I also was pretty fond with the characters... So I enjoyed it a lot, we got it clear.
This was in fact THE book that introduced me into this world of words. It started it all. And I couldn't (or wouldn't want to) stop.
Everything was fine until I came here and saw the reviews. I knew the movie was awful (even though it lead me to the book) but I knew nothing about what were the people's thoughts on the book so after all those years I discovered this site and saw all this opinions and... I completely agreed with what they said. Things in its moment I ignored, now I notice and aren't exactly good. A bit of Gary Stu here, a drop of nonexistent character development there, and a teaspoon of tedious descriptions everywhere. (Go to the other reviews to have a deeper analysis).
So why the high score?
I think it was out of nostalgia.
Don't get me wrong I still think it's a fantastic book but I wouldn't say it is as incredible as I thought the first time.
Si je devais décrire tout ce que je déteste dans la mauvaise fantasy, je crois que je citerais ce livre. Personnages creux, récit bourré de clichés, manichéisme primaire, tout y est.
Long time ago it was one of my favorite series. I'm afraid it still is. But the first book is not so great as the rest of Inheritance Cycle.
This book has mixed reviews online, ranging from 1/5 stars to 5/5. I suppose it's one of those ‘you either love it or you hate it' scenarios.
Enjoyable read for most fantasy fans, although tailored more towards young adults. However, the author himself was a teenager when he published this so that could very likely account for that.
Downsides: Contains pretty much every fantasy cliché ever, and the entire plot contains one too many similarities to Lord of the Rings. Nevertheless I (mostly) enjoyed it.
The author's own summary of the book is: “Eragon is an archetypal hero story, filled with exciting action, dangerous villains, and fantastic locations. There are dragons and elves, sword fights and unexpected revelations, and of course, a beautiful maiden who's more than capable of taking care of herself.”
Eragon's mother left Eragon with family and disappeared, never to return and no one knows who his father is. One day Eragon locates a pretty stone and hasn't got a clue what it is but takes it with him in the hopes that he can sell it, but no one wants to buy it because it came out of ‘The Spire' (some dangerous place with lotsa mountains). Later it turns out that the pretty stone is a dragon egg. He raises the dragon (Saphira) and they develop a deep connection to each other, to the point that they can communicate telepathically.
Arguably the best character in this book is Murtagh the wise/mysterious old man who travels with Eragon and Saphira and offers traning/advice, but it's not much of a competition as the character development throughout the entire book for all characters is minimal. I remember very little about who the characters are, just what they did.
Their enemies were fairly interesting I suppose, they were one of my favourite parts of the book. Then again, Eragon always escaped unscathed from fighting them which is a little disappointing to be honest. I wanted to see him struggle a bit, it would have created at least a little character development.
Oh, he also at some point rescues an Elf (princess? I want to say she's a princess but don't completely remember if she was) from a dungeon because he could see her in his dreams.
I mostly enjoyed the book, but I doubt I'll continue with the series or watch the film (which from reviews I've read is supposed to be terrible anyway).
If you enjoy fantasy for fantasy's sake then you will probably enjoy this. If you tend to be more critical of what you read then this might not be the book for you.
I would recommend this book for: adolescents/young adults that are fans of fantasy/magic/dragons etc. No-one who understands (and loathes) what a Mary Sue/Marty Stu is.
P.s. this review was written in 5 minutes and has not been edited. Apologies for any and all mistakes wherein.
Having finally noticed that the Paolini has completed the series, after almost a decade, I decided to pick up Eragon again so I could refresh my memory of the names and events of the first two books. As a brief synopsis, Eragon is a fifteen year old boy living in a remote village. Upon discovering a dragon egg in the woods, he hatches it and becomes a new Dragon Rider, with the goal of fighting against the emperor Galbatorix's rule. He journeys away from the Empire to the hideout of the rebel Varden group, in search of sanctuary while he trains in arms and magic.It seems to me that the prevailing opinion among the more “refined” reviewers here is that Eragon is a rehash of old fantasy tropes. Although I agree that the idea of a young hero discovering a magic power/object and fighting an evil ruler is hardly original, I don't think this detracts from the enjoyment of the story itself. My favourite part of Eragon is probably the magic system. In Eragon, magic is tied to an “ancient language”, which describes things as they are - by saying something, it can be made so. The catch is that all magic requires the same effort as the actual task. Paolini has thus created a flexible yet structured magical system, which (I think) is a also a fairly original concept. The drawback is that unlike in, say, Mistborn, magical battles are less than exciting, amounting to rapid talking and thinking.The blurb mentioned that Paolini began the book at fifteen, and it shows: the writing is not often subtle and seems tailored at the young adult reader. He makes an effort at creating vivid landscapes, but too often we lose out on significant details - for example, the fact that Ajihad is black is mentioned only once and is quite easy to miss, giving a very different mental image of him and his daughter. Other problems include the fact that I still have yet to get a good idea of what Farthen Dur looks like: Paolini has a habit of skipping over gaps of space and time as people tend to “travel for three days” and appear elsewhere. Maps help alleviate this, but it still feels a little discontinuous.Nevertheless, I would still recommend reading Eragon, especially as a primer to some fantasy as it isn't a particularly taxing text. I will however be interested to see how the rest of the series goes. 3/5 for promising storyline but slightly confusing presentation.
This was my second time reading this book, and I remember that I loved this book the first time through. Now, however, after having read quite a few master-class books (Patrick Rothfuss comes to mind), I'm forced to downgrade my rating and say that Eragon is merely a good book. An easy, fast read - it nevers gets boring, and the characters and mostly believable. However, Paolini steals ideas from other books in the genre willy-nilly, to the point that there's very little in here that's original. To his credit, all the concepts mesh together really well, and make for a great read! Three stars!
I read this a second time (full disclosure: listened to) and I'm docking it a star for...I don't know, maturity? I remembered very little of it from the first time, but I remember that I couldn't put it down, so I awarded it 5 stars. The second read was also very entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it but I can't rank it up there with other 5 star books I've read.
I love the epic journey Eragon goes on and the people and creatures he meets along the way. Like many young adult fantasy stories, it runs a bit too long for my taste. I enjoy a lengthy epic as much as the next reading specialist, but this probably could have been cut down.
So che mi attirerò l'ira di molti giovani lettori qui di aNobii, ma questo libro è veramente brutto. Consiglio loro di leggere della vera fantasy. Tanto di cappello all'autore ci mancherebbe, a quella giovane età io di certo non ero in grado di scrivere un libro... ma permettetemi di suggerigli di trovare altri svaghi. Se poi è vero che è stato pure aiutato da un team di collaboratori... E' lento, noioso, idee attinte a piene mani da altri libri e poi lo stile di scrittura è decisamente basso. Forse peggio del libro è stato il film. Da prendere con la molletta al naso.