Eragon by Christopher Paolini
I had long talk with a friend about this book and we both came to the same conclusion – this is as formulaic as it gets, not all that creative in any sense, and yet you find yourself speeding through the book anyways. All of the predictable fantasy tropes are present – the young boy who knows nothing of the world, lives in an isolate portion of an empire, yet has a destiny to become great, is chased out of his home by evil powers, and soon becomes a great hero that is rejoiced throughout the land. This may as well have been a children’s version of the first book in Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series. Anyways, the book follows Eragon and his dragon Saphira as they navigate a war between two factions – The Empire and the Verdan.
I do want to emphasize that it’s a great book for younger readers and is the kind of thing that will hook twelve-year olds and capture their imagination. It will hopefully inspire them to try other fantasy series and hopefully branch out into other genres. But is Eragon “good”? Not so much…But it will still entertain and be a decent edition to the fantasy canon.
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