Eragon by Christopher Paolini There is something compelling about the fantasy world of knights, princesses, castles, magic, and dragons. A good amount of authors choose this as the setting for their character's grand adventure because anything can happen. This is setting where a normal farm boy, Eragon, discovers a gleaming sapphire stone. Little does he know that this isn't some artifact to be sold for a couple pounds of meat to feed his family. He has happened upon a dragon egg, one of the last in existence.
The story reads like a classic adventure. Eragon, our hero, along with his fast growing dragon, Saphira, have an important role to play in the destiny of the empire. A long time ago dragons, elves, and dwarfs ruled the land until men showed up. After years of warring an alliance was formed spawning the first generation of riders, men and dragons whose minds were practically linked together. But with one rebellious and evil rider, Galbatorix, the whole tradition crumbled. Now that traitor rider rules unjustly over the land, but after all this time Eragon emerges as a revival of the riders. As should be expected, this causes quite a stir.
Eragon must choose how he will use his new power and responsibilities. The empire offers two options; join or die. However Eragon can choose a third, join the Varden and take a stand against the emperor's evil ways. Either way Eragon must decide what he will do because they are coming for him fast. He barley escapes the Ra'zac sent by the empire to capture him. His uncle wasn't so lucky. Now Eragon and Saphira are driven by the lust for revenge sending them on a quest to hunt down the Ra'zac with Brom, a story teller that knows more than he lets on about the history of the riders. The plot of the book is swift and skillfully put together. Eragon encounters many trials while learning how to use his abilities of magic and sword fighting. All the action and plot developments kept me interested, but I never was swept up fully. While this book has many good elements, there was something missing.
It's like a movie without music. This book would move from good to fantastic if it had more expression. Something to make the reader react and feel along with the characters. In result I didn't feel a connection with the story, and I wish I had because the potential is there. Therefore this book I would brand as a great children's book. Which is appropriate in a way because Christopher Paolini was only fifteen when he started writing this. Seeing as Eragon is only the first book in a series I would be interested to see how his writing improves as he matures. I would also like to take a peak at the sequels because Eragon read like it was an introduction to the series and I would like to see what the story becomes when it hits its stride.
