I don't want to rag on Paolini too much since, though undeniably arrogant and rather bigoted (albeit I think unintentionally), he really does love this pile of horse dung. As derivative and hilariously over-hyped and poorly-done as it is, the man genuinely loves this bizarre fanfic hybrid of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
Alright, to business. This series is...bad. The first book I read when I was like 10, and I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever read. Book 2 was a couple years later, and it was...OK. Not that good. Book 3 was soon after that and I liked it.
I went back and read the first 3 before reading the fourth, and hoo boy. In retrospect...none of these books are very good. Paolini's conlangs are divided between random keyboard spew and badly mangled hybrids of English and Icelandic. The protagonist is a self-righteous hypocritical sociopathic asshole and a total Marty Stu. The love interest...has potential, but isn't great. The secondary characters are better, and I really liked Roran before he became Eragon lite in book 3, but they all bow and scrape to Eragon and those f***ing elves.
"Those f***ing elves" are a great reason to hate this series. They're sanctimonious, arrogant, overbearing, hypocritical assholes and massively overpowered to boot. The Varden aren't much better, given the harsh punishments and really nasty war crimes that they commit throughout the series—and these are the GOOD guys.
Plot-wise...OK, this is a 15-16-year-old kid who's an invincible badass fighter/mage with a dragon who mows through legions of soldiers like hay and acts like he's high on bloodlust. That is creepy even BEFORE the creepy sexism, racism, and the way Eragon pervs on Arya while she's unconscious. Plus, Eragon's story is a paint-by-numbers version of Star Wars. Farm boy who becomes hero with special powers? Check. Spends most of second part in woods with wise old dude? Check. Has cool unique sword and gets a newer, cooler one after losing the old one? Check.
Since I can't go as deeply as I want into this series's flaws in this space, I'll go book by book with short analyses.
"Eragon": Cliched, Paolini's writing is the weakest here. He's very obviously a teenager writing a fanfic—something that we all have been, but this one somehow got published. Despite still being crappy teen fanfic.
"Eldest": Cliched, slightly better writing. Roran's story arc is more original and thus entertaining. Eragon's is flat-out boring.
"Brisingr": Paolini can write reasonably well, now. Not professional well, but enough to not be an obvious teenager. Still not a good book, and Eragon becomes even more of a total douchebag in this, but at least the plot sort of hangs together, we get more of the Urgals to avert the Orc-ripoff-ness that they had earlier, and the fight scenes aren't too terribad. Best of the series.
"Inheritance": Absolute and utter crap. That is all.
That series you loved as a kid that actually isn't very good.
I don't want to rag on Paolini too much since, though undeniably arrogant and rather bigoted (albeit I think unintentionally), he really does love this pile of horse dung. As derivative and hilariously over-hyped and poorly-done as it is, the man genuinely loves this bizarre fanfic hybrid of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
Alright, to business. This series is...bad. The first book I read when I was like 10, and I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever read. Book 2 was a couple years later, and it was...OK. Not that good. Book 3 was soon after that and I liked it.
I went back and read the first 3 before reading the fourth, and hoo boy. In retrospect...none of these books are very good. Paolini's conlangs are divided between random keyboard spew and badly mangled hybrids of English and Icelandic. The protagonist is a self-righteous hypocritical sociopathic asshole and a total Marty Stu. The love interest...has potential, but isn't great. The secondary characters are better, and I really liked Roran before he became Eragon lite in book 3, but they all bow and scrape to Eragon and those f***ing elves.
"Those f***ing elves" are a great reason to hate this series. They're sanctimonious, arrogant, overbearing, hypocritical assholes and massively overpowered to boot. The Varden aren't much better, given the harsh punishments and really nasty war crimes that they commit throughout the series—and these are the GOOD guys.
Plot-wise...OK, this is a 15-16-year-old kid who's an invincible badass fighter/mage with a dragon who mows through legions of soldiers like hay and acts like he's high on bloodlust. That is creepy even BEFORE the creepy sexism, racism, and the way Eragon pervs on Arya while she's unconscious. Plus, Eragon's story is a paint-by-numbers version of Star Wars. Farm boy who becomes hero with special powers? Check. Spends most of second part in woods with wise old dude? Check. Has cool unique sword and gets a newer, cooler one after losing the old one? Check.
Since I can't go as deeply as I want into this series's flaws in this space, I'll go book by book with short analyses.
"Eragon": Cliched, Paolini's writing is the weakest here. He's very obviously a teenager writing a fanfic—something that we all have been, but this one somehow got published. Despite still being crappy teen fanfic.
"Eldest": Cliched, slightly better writing. Roran's story arc is more original and thus entertaining. Eragon's is flat-out boring.
"Brisingr": Paolini can write reasonably well, now. Not professional well, but enough to not be an obvious teenager. Still not a good book, and Eragon becomes even more of a total douchebag in this, but at least the plot sort of hangs together, we get more of the Urgals to avert the Orc-ripoff-ness that they had earlier, and the fight scenes aren't too terribad. Best of the series.
"Inheritance": Absolute and utter crap. That is all.