I've begun to notice a worrying trend in fantasy novels these days. It seems like more and more people are writing epic length books and epic length series when they could just as easily have told their story in half the number of pages. Not only are many of these books a prodigious waste of paper, they do the authors a horrible disservice. Most of the time there's a decent enough story lurking somewhere within the dross, if only the publishers had taken the time to properly edit the books. However, because they've been allowed to wander off in all directions authors learn all sorts of bad habits and their books either become progressively worse or appear to as we lose patience with them. There are times I want to reach into a book and shake the author by the shoulders and yell, "Get to the point already".
When Christopher Paolini was 15 he self-published the young adult fantasy book Eragon. When he started to have some moderate success with sales on his own, Knopf, a division of Random House, republished the book and bought the rights to the series. Eragon and its sequel Eldest had shown a great deal of promise. An exciting adventure story filled with magic and magical beings. Sure it wasn't the most original of ideas, but there were at least enough new wrinkles thrown in to make the first two installments compelling and interesting to read. Some of the sub plots were probably unnecessary but they at least helped further the story and didn't interfere with its forward motion. However, even before the release of a third book, Brisingir — in what was supposed to have been a trilogy — there were indications Paolini was running into trouble. For along with the announcement of its forthcoming publication came the news that the series was being extended to a fourth book as the author hadn't been able to find a way to finish it in three books.
Brisingir wasn't a bad book, no better or worse than any number of fantasy books on the market, but it did very little to advance the overall plot of the series. There were a few pieces of information given out that would prove significant, but for the most part it was taken up with adventures which did little or nothing to advance the plot. So when it was announced that book four, Inheritance, published by Random House Canada on November 8 2011, was going to be over 800 pages long, I seriously wondered what Paolini was going to fill that number of pages with. Sure there were a number of questions that still remained to be answered, not least of which were how was the hero going to defeat a seemingly unbeatable foe, but even half those pages should have been sufficient to bring the series to a conclusion.
Article comments
1 - Jengis
Unluckily, it is good analysis of the book!
I was hoping for more, the first two book were a good promise, but as you said the third was crap and the last one I am still trying to digest it. Christopher you should have done a Trilogy!
2 - Katha chanda
Yes, the last book could have been much better. He did leave some loose ends,the matter of the Menoa tree was resolved in a very forced way. I was also expecting some explanation regarding Angela's eccentric behaviour. Galbatorix should have been given more time and Eragon and Arya's affair was extremely disappointing and annoying. But I did liked the way he dealt with Nasuada and Murtagh's relationship.
3 - Empty
I expected so much more. What could have been a great story wound up as a fetid pile of dingo's kidneys.
4 - David - Brazil
A very Good review of this book! I must tell that I fill exactly the same.
5 - unkown
the first two book were a good promise, but as you said the third was crap and the last one I am still trying to digest it.
totally right jengis. good one :P
6 - unknown
Katha chanda can you really talk about eragon and arya as an afair? sure feels like the hero of this saga is childish or with a very weak will and really stupid reaction to events. during the first 2 books he is treated like a child during the 3rd he's just a minion of the vardens and in the last one he just doesnt do anythink that angela or some "superior design" tells him to do witch makes me wonder what does this story talk about? a kid that an autor wants to win, win and thats it...
7 - unknown
paolini just made one thing right he made eragon some sort of oracle with miserable skills into desition making.
in the same book he tells arya "will she be queen after the moder dies?" paolini spent an entire chapter of the book making the answer for arya "elf's do not get promoted like humans" and some other sack of bull#$%*
not long after taaadaaa she's the queen.
another worthless detail to this endless crap form me Roran was suppose to be the one with a new dragon that was my hunch since it didnt happen that way my expectations from the character decreased to nothink just another secondary character to the pile of crap.hell his magician friend gets the honor to get our attention for a like a hundred pages then dies suddently when even the odds were at his favor carn if i recall right after the episode i couldnt care less from any other character that wasnt arya eragon or murtagh since galbatorix was as good as death since the first book and didnt really made anythink epik during the saga i really think it was patetic for a "endgame boss" x) also nasuada left me anoyed too i think ill repost again :P
8 - unknown
so alagargalesia or whatsoever in the end its free with a broken but happy woman as 1 of the rulers of human kind a lier-arya as queen of the elves orik for the dwarfs well nothink to say him orik iz goode to me the only secondary thoon that fullfilled the expectations one of the few and eragon exiled by himself i suppose thats how it can be defined to be a mere teacher for the dragons to come that do not matter much since the saga ended
9 - unknown
dragons
just one word
bah.
in the end just horny little lizards
cant belive that 4 books around 3200 pages
not even a single kiss for the hero but just 10 pages before the end saphira ( cant really say it otherwise simple and thruthfull ) is fucking what should be just a mere cub of a dragon telling us that dragons are not monogamous creatures anyways
such reliefs that one the main characters is really happy! JAH!
but for eragon 3200 pages dude you could make dragons eat urgalis for the rest of theyr days and be with arya. but no ofc.
christopher paolini i copy and pasted your name from wiki i have intention to forget you in like the next 15 seconds and i will burn your other books thanks to your cherry on top ofc after my sist finish with it i hope she likes a bit more than i did
sadly she is really looking forward to it
10 - unknown
congratulations another best seller i suppose gj
11 - lolza
It is an amazing series but the ending could have been better
12 - Dwight
I should point out a correction needed in this review. CP did not self-published his first book when he was 15. He was 19 when it was published. This is a false fact that has been flying around ever since he got published to the point where most of his critics don;t even realize it is false. I bring this up because there is a huge difference between a 15 year old who writes a crummy book that gets publish, and a 19 year old who write a crummy book that gets published.
13 - Kennough
"But I did liked the way he dealt with Nasuada and Murtagh's relationship."
Except he really didn't deal with it...he builds up the relationship between the two and then leaves it hanging and Murtagh flies off into the sunset with hardly a word to her. Much as Arya does to Eragon at the end too.