The Inheritance Cycle

Shiv

Shiv

mostly harmless
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Programmer Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Two-Time Past WCoP Champion
This is one of the books I must've read like 4-5 years back and since the third one just came out a few days back, I decided to read it!

Anyway, it was a decent read, all I really cared about was how the story went about and I really can't wait for the 4th book so I can finally finish the series.

For those who don't know I'm talking about the Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, ??? series!

Anyway, this is just a thread to see who else has read it and shit and to discuss plot elements and all! I'll post what I think about whats going to happen in the books later!
 
Heh, I sat up till 3 AM on Sunday to finish this. It was an OK read, with a couple of rather unexpected twists. Um, the way it's going I don't think that ending the Cycle at four books would do justice to it.

Pretty heavy spoilers in the white text.

The third egg hasn't hatched yet...the third rider would be pretty hard pressed to actually make an impression on this battle. Though I believe Paolini has already completed the series...I just hope he doesn't leave the third egg unhatched, leaving at as mark of hope for the people of Alagaesia. The secret of the Eldunari was interesting. Eragon's parentage really threw me off track. I'd been expecting him and Murtagh to be brothers since book 1, and after Eldest I was like "HA! So predictable!" Guess not... Eragon discovering his sword's true name is also pretty neat, wonder if that'll enable him to use magic through his sword in different ways. While the cahnging of true names is also interesting, I don't believe Murtagh/Thorn will be able to pull it off, and I'm pretty sure that in the end, they'll die a tragic death of some sort (think Starscream in Armada). The death of Oromis/Glaedr was also something I expected, Glaedr's survival is a pretty neat touch.

So, on to the QUESTION. Who do you believe Paolini has planned as the final Rider?
 
I'm at page 293 now so, yeah haven't finished it, but I've got a few words on the series.

Never been a big fan at all. The first was released like five years or so ago right? Yeah, I must've been in like seventh or eighth grade and I never liked the first one then. Didn't read Anti Shurtugal until like last year. Mainly it was my beef with the main character himself. Gets knocked out / faints too many times in the first book, and doesn't have a problem.

ALSO SEMI SPOILERS OF THE FIRST AND SECOND BOOK. Let's see a humble farm boy.(Something that is kinda lame in itself). I was happy to know later that he didn't know how to read. My god, a decent weak that gives actual decent character to him. But no, my lord, he masters reading like within a month. Well ok. You're pretty crippled by that scar right now? No? No indeed, let's get rid of that hindrance in a weird dance matter that was just dumb. (The blood thing whatever.) So now at the beginning at this third book there is nothing this guy can't do it seems. Besides owning at swords, and magic, and crap, this guy doesn't seem to have any problems besides some crappy teenager attitude stuff. Also his sense of justice and him always doing the "right" thing is bothersome.

Also Paolini's writing style, things like "The skirt of her dress spread outward, like the wind-battered petals of a flower."
on every page, when they are totally not needed at all. And the entire book is just trying to copy some old age style, and it just doesn't work at all.

I've got more personal beefs(you know typical star wars mention too), but it is pretty much all summed up at anti shurtugal anyways. :-)
This latest book is a chore by the way. At least I wanted to read the others for something was up. 1st into 2nd had the fact he had to go visit some dude in the forest, and his skills weren't that well developed. Now in the beginning SPOILERS AGAIN, he rescues some chick. Spends two chapters (so far) just chatting up some pointless things. There hasn't really been too many things to get caught up in. BUT I'm speaking too soon probably, and I'll try to keep in open mind, something I told myself to do at the beginning of starting this.
 
I'm not madly in love with the series but I enjoy the plot so it makes it a fun read.

Spoiler:

dude seriously, did you not see brom being his dad coming? it was like the most obvious thing in the world :(
 
Yeah, the plot is nice. And I like having some book release to look forward to, and I don't know what to start reading. Oh well, now I'll wait for The Solomon Key.

SPOILER

See, that's what I thought at first, but then once Murtagh came along, it all changed for me. I was dead sure they'd be brothers, I didn't think that Murtagh's mom would be sleeping around lol.
 
I thought Eragon(the first book, not the character) was okay, and Eldest was definitely better. However I just finished Brisingr and it seems that Paolini's writing keeps getting better and better. Some plot elements are still very predictable like SPOILERS:
Oromis' death. Once I saw Glaedr on the front, it became a bit obvious taht somethign huge would happen to him
But other then that, I think the series is startign to read a little bit less like a medevial Star Wars.
 
Finished it it a couple a days ago. What frustrates me most is that you do not need that many pages to tell about only a couple things happening. Really, what actually happened.

He saves Katrina, goes to dwarf place, orik is king dude, visits elf dude, learns galabatrox's "secret". Goes to some raid, kills ANOTHER shade with help from lady friend, oromis dies (totally expected.



SPOILERS DISCUSSION:
I still can't stand Eragon anymore. Really, what are his moral standards? He banishes Sloan(who trades in everything in his life just to protect his fricken daughter) to a life of blindness and misery and doesn't even mention the daughter. What is his sense of justice. God it's annoying. Also the first actual dialogue (which took three books to get there), reveals just how "bad" galbatrox is. What bad exactly was he doing in the land, the Varden's war is causing misery everywhere, and galbatrox(because he is the evil bad guy and all) maybe lying, but who showed more maturity in Oromis and Galby's battle. Galby who was convincing Oromis that his past was bad, but he's trying to secure a more peaceful future, or the great dragon rider Oromis who only says "YOUR LYING" in the entire bout.

And the description. Again, you really didn't need that many pages. The first 3/4 are extremely dull. Then you're just hit by plot points coming from a mile away. "filler" book for sure. I honestly tried to give this book a chance too. :-/

EDIT: Actually idea time. I hope Galba wins. No joke. He takes out the elves, who have the most elitist huge egos with the most screwed up up values I've ever seen and really only care for oneself. One annoying problem down. Then if Dwarves get annoying. Take them out except for Orik because he's cool. All they do is bunker down in their mountains and fight one another's clans, and that's annoying. I think the lands will be cooler after that.
 
Nice, I'm not the only person on smogon who likes Eragon. Since the final dragon is OBVIOUSLY going to be green, I'd say if someone who is already in the books gets it, I would actually say it would be Arya.

I can certanly see the conection between Star Wars and Eragon, which kind of makes the books boring though :(
 
At least in this book the elves fight for something else other then for themselves, i've hated all this high and mighty elves for a really long time (think dragonlance), and this book finally gives a different view to them.
 
the series is my guilty pleasure. they're filled with flowery and superfluous language but dammit they grab your attention. my friend got me into it back in 6th grade or so and i've been waiting for the release of the next book ever since
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top