Ok, the bashing review of Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. This review is on the book, not the movie.

It is an embarrassment! The story itself is taken mainly from various well known authors such as J.R.R. Toklien on the Lord of the Rings, Anne McCaffrey on the Dragon of Pern series, Ursula K. Le Guin on the EarthSea books, J.K Rowlings on Harry Potter, even George Lucas on the StarWars universe and various other authors that I'm sure that even you had not heard of.

Where exactly?

TLOTR - On the universe itself and most of the characters. Yes, elf, dwarves and humans are commons. Listed below are the characters and beasts that are nearly the same from TLOTR and Eragon :

Arwen - Arya as the dark haired princess elf. (Thank God the movie changes Arya from dark haired to strawberry blonde.)
Urukhai - Kull as the.....steroidy, super Trolls?
Moria - Farthen Dur/Tronjheim as the last dwarves city.
Ra'zac - Nazgûl/Ringwraiths, need I say more? Even the description of the cowled, humpbacked creature that breathed corruption.
Fell Beasts, rode by the Nazgûl - the fying creature with long talons that Ra'zac rode.
Gandalf - Brom, reminds me a bit on Gandalf, being a keeper of stories and have a white beard. Excellent horse rider and wields swords.
Elves comes from the West in ships - Elves comes in ships.

Aiya, a lot more characters lah taken from TLOTR. Tak larat nak mention dah.

Anne McCaffrey - on the story of the dragon itself. Fying colorful dragons that are rode by humans to safeguard the world.

Ursula K. Le Guin - on the words of power. Once you know the actual name of a thing/person, you wield power over it. Very EarthSea.

Harry Potter - on the story of a common boy who is not so common after all. Discovered magical powers and wield great magic even tho he did not know how to do it. Accidental hero type of guy.

StarWars - especially on the Brom character. He is the mentor much like Obi Wan Kenobi is to Luke Skywalker. Also a bit of Yoda thrown in. There is a scene where Brom asked Eragon to lift a pebble with his mind. Very much reminds me of Yoda asking Luke to lift the big boulder, and the whining Luke/Eragon cannot do it.


Paolini took huge portions out of these stories and weave it to become Eragon. Not so sophisticated, with various loopholes and contradicting storyline. Something to the effect that Eragon is a farm boy that hunt in the Spines due low food resources. They cannot afford to buy meat and other foods from the village Carvahall. Later in the story, after he had travelled for weeks with his mentor, it is stated that Eragon looks in the mirror and saw that his baby fat are gone, due to hard travel. When did he have the baby fat if they had barely enough to eat?? Hmmmm.

Also they are arguments and statements that made no logical conclusion. Why they fight, why he cannot take certain paths, why he cannot do this and do that.I am usually lost in the explanation of the whys and the hows, something that I had never done even in TLOTR complex storyline.

In addition, Eragon follows Brom even though he did not trust the guy. Brom even lied to Eragon, the part when Eragon asked whether Brom was a Rider, and Brom answered No. Later at the middle of the book, Brom reveals that indeed he was a Rider. The mentor actually LIED. Gosh...and children read this???!!!

Also, a lot of the part where Eragon simply and truthfully....whines. Whining about this, whining about that. Dang, I hate whining heroes. Something like the Harry Potter in the 5th installment book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.


If I have to give a number from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best.... I will give Eragon only 3. The boy have a gift, that is to tell stories. Only that he need to do a lot of research on the era he wants to weave his stories, check the practicality of the story and to get his own original stamp of storyline.

For example, I honestly believe he did not know how heavy a stone plate weights because he put it in Farthen Dur's canteen. Much better to put golden plates since dwarves are excellent metalsmiths.


Sigh.......a teenager, what do you expect from a teenager? I sincerely hope Christopher Paolini would grow up and polish his skills. Produce other original stories with his own well thought of universes and creatures. He have the skills, now do he have the will to do it??



Am currently reading : Yeah, yeah....still the Eldest. A continuation from Eragon. 
¶ 10:29 AM
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