Book Review: Eldest (Inheritance #2), by Christopher Paolini

Genre: Young Adult Epic Fantasy
Date Published: 2005
Publisher: Knopf Books For Young Readers
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 668 pages/23 hours and 30 minutes

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Synopsis: Darkness falls... Swords clash... Evil reigns.
Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire. Now Eragon must travel to Ellesméra, land of the elves, for further training in magic and swordsmanship, the vital skills of the Dragon Rider. It is the journey of a lifetime, filled with awe-inspring new places and people, each day a fresh adventure. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and Eragon isn't sure whom he can trust.
Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle back home in Carvahall – one that puts Eragon in even graver danger.
Will the king's dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life...

My Rating:

 ★★★★

.....For doing a good job of continuing the story

My Thoughts:

Middle books in a series are never my favorite (I almost always enjoy the first and last installments best), but this is still a pretty good book. You can see Christopher Paolini's writing start to mature a little more with this story, although he's still borrowing a few elements from other sources.

For example, any Star Wars fan would recognize that a couple of plot points in this book are very similar to certain scenes in The Empire Strikes Back ******WARNING SPOILER!*******(Eragon going to a dying former Rider for more training is very much like Luke Skywalker going to Yoda to train as a Jedi, and Murtagh revealing himself to be Eragon's brother is a lot like the famous "Luke, I am your father" scene at the end of the movie.)******END SPOILER!*******. True, Paolini puts his own spin on things, but the similarities are definitely there.

The other thing that Paolini "borrowed" is something that makes me laugh now every time I reach this part. There's a scene where Eragon has just started his training with the elves, and he learns of this exercise called "The Dance Of Snake And Crane". When I re-read this part some years back, and paid attention to the instructions that Oromis was giving Eragon, I discovered that he was describing step-by-step the basic Sun Salutation routine.... in yoga! Yep that's right, these tree-hugging, poetry-writing, atheist, vegan elves are also yogis. And that's all just a little too much for me. In my opinion, this elf society Paolini created is just a little too ridiculous; sure, each of the aspects I mentioned are fine and great by themselves, but when they're all put together like this....I'm sorry, but it's just too much!

Overall, though, this is a fun story to read. It is very creative (once again, remember how young Paolini was when he wrote this), and the plot moves very well. The storyline no longer follows just Eragon and Saphira; instead, we get to follow Nasuada's and Roran's stories, as well as Eragon's. For myself, I loved reading about Nasuada and Roran more than I did Eragon, mainly because they were normal people doing extraordinary things and were therefore more relatable.

And despite this book not being my favorite in the series, it stills helps to make the Inheritance series as a whole a very good YA epic story. I do recommend fantasy lovers to give these books a try, and I look forward to introducing them to my son when he's old enough.

Enjoy!