Eragon
No. 1 in the Inheritance series
by Christopher Paolini
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Alfred A. Knopf (New York): August 2003. Hardcover: 509 pages. ISBN-10: 0-375-82668-8 Suggested retail price: $18.95 (US) Tags: dragons; dwarves; elves; Fantasy; made into movie; magic; swords; war; Young Adult Tactical strength: [6/10] |
With the Eragon movie coming out in December 2006, I decided to read the book before seeing the film. I found the history of the book almost as interesting as the book itself. Author Christopher Paolini started the book at fifteen -- just after completing his home-school high school curriculum. Once he completed the manuscript, he and his parents self-published and promoted the book. I have heard many teenagers (and adults, too) talk about writing a Fantasy novel, but only rarely do you hear of a teenager finishing a novel -- let alone a mostly enjoyable one. An editor at Knopf read the self-published work and made Paolini an offer.
With the title "Eragon" and a picture of a dragon on the cover, I assumed that the name applied to the dragon. Instead, the name applies to the fifteen-year-old peasant boy who finds a dragon egg. The dragon hatches, Eragon names her Saphia, and the adventures begin. First, strange assassins come looking for Eragon and the dragon. Since dragon riders have extremely long lives and magical powers, the king, Galbatorix, wants to ensure that any new dragon riders vow loyalty to the crown, and at least a hundred or more years have passed since the last new dragon rider. The assassins do not find Eragon, but they do kill his uncle. Eragon swears to have vengence, and he sets out on a quest to kill the assassins. Brom, the town storyteller, hooks up with Eragon, and we soon learn that Brom has a very complicated history. On the journey, Brom teaches Eragon to read, to wield a sword, and to use magic -- much more than the skills of a mere bard. Eragon must choose whether he will swear allegiance to the king or join the Varden, a revolutionary group in the southern part of the continent.
Paolini borrows from just about every fantasy tradition. His elves and dwarves come straight out of Tolkien. The dragons' physical appearance seems to come from Tolkien as well, but the dragon riding culture reminded me of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. Magic in Alagaësia, Paolini's fictional world, requires that the magic user have both magical talent and know the appropriate words for the object in the elvin language -- a language in which you cannot tell a lie. Often, the fantasy protagonist in a rags-to-riches story has some hidden royal blood, and Paolini hints that Eragon has unusual parentage with his mother secretly returning to her peasant homeland and hiding Eragon with his uncle. Also, it seems too much of a coincidence that Brom moved to Eragon's town about the time of Eragon's birth. Of course, using fantasy clichés doesn't automatically condemn an author, but you must look at how the author constructs the plot within those clichés, and Paolini's plot has good pacing, interesting highs and lows, and most importantly you like Eragon and care about what happens to him -- in spite of his stupid teenage blundering.
But Paolini's amateurish writing distracts from the enjoyment of the story. He doesn't seem to have a lot of descriptive tools in his writer's toolbox and writes using very basic prose constructions. He often uses too many adjectives, uses an adverb-verb construction where a single better verb would work better, over describes his scenery, and employs numerous visual clichés. For example, in snowstorm, Paolini writes, "the storm finally passed, leaving an alien world of soft white drifts" (21). Paolini also makes Eragon a superhuman. He masters swordsmanship in about three weeks, learns to read in under a week, easily learns the elvin language, and uses magic with relative ease.
Simple editing can't solve the problems with the text and would require an extensive rewrite. I know that Knopf required some rewriting, so Paolini must have made marked improvements from the original self-published manuscript. I would have liked to see an additional rewrite of Eragon, but editors pressed for time or understanding that the author doesn't have the skill for further improvement will accept a sub-standard work. Fortunately, Paolini's writing does get better as the story progresses, and I hope that the following novel benefits from his experience and additional time with top-drawer editors.
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