I agree. I loved Eragon when I was younger, but now that I've read more, I realize how mediocre the books really are. But I still read Eldest and Brisingr, and I'll still read the fourth book when it comes out, if only because I feel I should finish what I started.
I resent the implication that you have to be a veteran of fantasy books to know that the Inheritance Cycle is bad. Other than that, great review.
Formerly Nolan Burke. Natch.
I find it absurd that you're actually holding the rather mild cases Did Not Do The Research of the series in terms of medieval tactics, absurd numbers, and questionable geography so highly as proof of low quality, despite far better regarded fantasy series and settings doing the exact same thing. Even for a book written by a teenager, he's kept the story very consistant, while he Deconstructed the mistakes he made in previous books instead of copping out with a Ret Con, Restarting the whole damn story, or just giving up on it.
Bellisarios Maxim, people.
And if you couldn't find the plot in Brisingr, which mostly served to deconstruct then repair the series as he matured, and kept decent pacing to cover a number of critical sub-plots.
My biggest problem with the series was the Purple Prose. it was like his parents made him fall asleep listening to a reading of the thesaurus.
Scow, I have no idea what you're saying. I couldn't find even a semblance of a plot in Brisingr.
Moral Relativity FTW
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Veterans of Fantasy Will NOT be Pleased
Personally, I felt like I was dying a bit inside once I learned how to read it properly, especially after I found out how this was first published. Okay, when I was nine, it was good, but then I got converted by getting more experience in the fantasy genre and watching Star Wars. However, for people that were like me when I was nine and just read things casually, this is probably OMG THE MOST AWESHUM THING LIKE EVAH!!!1!!!11! Which is the whole problem. Most of the people that love this are not experienced readers: they have not seen these cliches or plotlines before because this is the first fantasy they picked up because it's a newer one, can't find a single Plot Hole / You Fail Logic Forever example because they don't pay attention, don't give a dang about the You Fail Geography Forever instances (Let's face it. Geography is usually very boring anyway— I hate it myself), have not yet learned to pay enough attention to continuity errors, don't understand the finer points of [medieval] warfare (SEIGE IS NOT ATTACK, PAOLINI! GAH!) and are under the delusion that excessive Purple Prose and hackneyed similes and metaphors and illogical but pretty descriptions are good writing. But they're usually very easily converted. I think Eldest was the worst, if you ignore the fact that Brisingr didn't have much a plot, which is a criminal offense in writing in my opinion. I think the most accurate rating is So Bad Its Good, but the Fan Dumb is unreasonable, but there's a lot of Hate Dumb for it that is a bit too rabid. Paolini was just a [probably] spoiled kid that got thrown into the real world a bit too early, but he loses all my sympathy because he seems to think that he's so awesome. (If he reads the reviews like he says, it hasn't helped him much.) But God, just don't watch the movie. They took every single thing wrong with the book Up To Eleven.