You know that one book series with the dragon riders? No, not Riders of Pern.
The Inheritance Cycle? Yeah, that one. We’re reviewing the first one of that
series, Eragon, today! Spoilers ahead, this is Eragon by Christopher Paolini.
Eragon is a
boy raised on his uncle’s farm, in the kingdom of Alagaësia, which is ruled by
an evil monarch named Galbatorix. One day, he comes across a dragon egg in the
woods, which he takes home. He raises the dragoness that hatches from it,
Saphira, and develops a strong bond with her. After losing his uncle, he
finally sets out into the big world with his mentor Brom, who tells him that he
is the first in a new line of Dragon Riders. Eragon sets out on a journey for vengeance
for his uncle, and it turns out his destiny may be closely tied to that of Alagaësia.
I have a bit of a complicated history with this book. I
first remember watching the movie and really liking it. I used to talk to it a
lot to one of my internet friends back then. Then I read the book back in 2014
in Dutch, and I really disliked it. I thought it was simply too generic and
boring for it to be any good.
So I got rid of my copy of the book and didn’t look back on
the series for a long time. I started to see the film for what it really is, a
bad film, too. However, ever since last year, I’ve been getting curious again
about whether or not my opinion would have changed if I were to re-read the
book. My friend Kiriko gifted me their copy of the movie last year, and I
actually somewhat do enjoy it, despite how bad it is. So what if my book
opinion changed, too?
Recently I actually bought the book again. Twice. Yeah, I
own two copies of it now. One of them is a hardcover in Dutch, the other a
softcover in English. I very much prefer to read in English rather than my
native language, so I obviously went for reading the latter. And, honestly… I
very much enjoyed it.
Is it perfect? No, obviously not. But for what it is, I
think it’s a good book, especially when you consider the age the author was
when he first published it.
One thing I do like in Eragon is the worldbuilding. Paolini
created a world here that, while not the most original in terms of
high-fantasy, still is appealing to the reader. I’d like to explore some of
these locations, especially Tronjheim, which is by far the coolest one out of
them all. The magic system is interesting and feels unique enough, and of
course I love the concept of Dragon Riders, no many times how often it is
executed in a new way.
The characters are very much the same: not the most unique,
but still decent. Eragon makes for an okay lead. He’s a character type we’ve
seen before for sure, just your farm boy-turned-legendary-hero like Luke
Skywalker for example, but he’s not generic to the point that you don’t care
about him.
His main flaw is that, while I really hate using this
criticism, he may be a bit of a Gary Stu. He’s the chosen one, he’s incredibly
skilled at sword fighting at both hands, he learns the old language, reading
and magic at a fast pace, it’s all there. But, again, while he may be a bit
generic at times, he’s never really too overpowered or anything, nor is he
unlikable. He’s still a hero I’d like to follow on his journey, even if he
isn’t the greatest character.
Brom was among my favorites in this book. He fills the old
wise mentor role in this book, and he does it well. I also keep picturing him
as Jeremy Irons because of the movie, by the way. But in the book, I think he
was a good and likable character. Saphira the dragon was cool, too. I’m not too
big a fan of Arya the elf, but Murtagh the outlaw was definitely another
character I cared about.
The villains did their jobs well, too. While Galbatorix is
never shown, only mentioned, you get a clear impression of just how evil he is
by the state of the kingdom and the orders he gives to his minions. Durza is a
rather one-note minion of the villain, but he has a threatening presence
nonetheless, and we did actually get some parts which show some of his
backstory. There’s much more characters, but these were the most major ones.
Something I do feel the need to bring up is the amount of
exposition in the book. While I love the world Paolini has crafted in Eragon, I
think that the amount of exposition dumps in the book may simply be a little
too much. Most of them feel the same as well, with it often being Brom telling
Eragon about the lore. Some scenes were also maybe a bit repetitious-feeling,
like the sword fights between Eragon and Brom.
The magic system Paolini made is interesting, and I
thoroughly enjoyed reading about that, though. I like the idea of the old
language being used for magic, and that there’s different kinds that are
distinguished.
Finally, for the pacing, yes, it’s a bit slow and there’s a
lot of traveling involved, but I never felt like it was too slow, either. It
has enough interesting moments to make one want to keep reading, even after the
slower parts.
Overall, while Eragon is far from the most original high
fantasy book I’ve ever read, it’s still got enough fun and interesting elements
in it to make one keep going. I thoroughly enjoyed book one in the Inheritance
Cycle, and I hope to read the later books in the series, too! I’m giving Eragon
three out of five stars, four if we take my personal enjoyment into account. Let's see how the next book fares in the next installment: Eldest.
Rating: 3/5
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