Heya guys.
Feordel's gonna give his opinion now
In my opinion, Eragon and Eldest were both very good. Im 15 now and so reading it the age that he began it, which means I'm probably reading it with similar eyes. I think a lot of fantasy books have similar to ideas to the great epics like Lord of The Rings, Star Wars and what have you. However, the story makes itself really. The plot is his own and the story is his own and just because there are some similarities does not mean that he copied it, as someone else already said the great ideas can get stuck around in your subconscious.
While a lot of people on the forum have heard about the book before reading, or learned about CP before reading it, I just bought it randomly from a shop. This meant I did not know how young CP was or the means of the books publication which means I read it without prejudice. A lot of people have read it already annoyed that someone younger than them or someone who in their view is inexperienced has written a book which I think affects how you read. If you hear bad press, it's going to have a small inclination on you're own view.
By not reading about it beforehand, I only have my own opinions on the book. I think that both of the books out now are very good and show potential, despite the deriviative nature which he has admitted to. The story does show morals, especially in Eldest where a great theme is perseverance, where Eragon must keep fighting despite his horrific scar on his back which causes him great agony.
Yes there are cliches, but I personally don't tend to notice these, as I spend my time enjoying the story rather than looking at literary techniques.
You could critisize any book on the market, but I think the amount of critisicm Paolini has faced is quite unfair. People gave him bad press because his parents owned a publishing company, but the man from knopf obviously thought it was good enough to publish and it has been the major publishing companies involved that have created the most publicity, Paolini just went round schools.
A lot of people are jealous as things seem to have come easy for him. But if you want to write a book, go ahead and do it, and stop wasting valuable writing time critisizing someone's else's easier path to publication. Go ahead, write, and get up there with him!
Another thing I realy disagree with is Anti-Shurtugal.com/ I actually think the website is quite pathetic due to its harsh criticisms. Yes there are similarities between Eragon and other books, but you'll always be able to find traces of other books in a book whatever the story. They say he has directly copied ideas which is wrong as he did not write The Lord of The Rings, he wrote Eragon. Characters, names and other things may be the same, but the plot is not. The plot is enjoyable to some people and maybe not others, but just because the creator of Antishurtugal feels Paolini got the easy road (which is true) doesn't mean he should waste his time complaining about it as I said above!
Overall, I think Paolini tells a good story and it is obvious that he receieved some inspiration from other fantasy and science fiction epics, but who hasn't?
That is all.
Feordel.
