About the book Eragon...

[shamguy4]

I hope this goes here.. it does tie in with writing...

I'm going to need help understanding exactly how this book was indeed so great??
In fact I began to read it over a year ago when it struck me that (according to me) it wasn't written well. Pieces were choppy and some stuff just didn't fit right...
like when Brom tells over his stories... it doesn't say Eragon believed them.. Yet when his dragon hatches he becomes afraid that the king will take it from him... I didn't understand this because who even said those stories were true? I went back thinking I had missed some page where he discovered the truth about the past but no.... Even later on in the book Brom yells at him for calling them stories! So it made no sense to me at all.. but perhaps thats just me... Maybe I'm stupid and should understand more....

But then sometimes he (the writer) has Eragon talk with such childish in his voice.. and then he sometimes has him talk as if hes some old sage...? It didn't seem to flow well with me. Then I found out a 15 year old wrote it which I was very surprised and pleased to hear!! But slowly I just stopped reading it.

Now, around a year later I have picked up the book because my brother said he enjoyed it. I am now almost done the book and have found the book to be completely boring!!!!!
He basically travels around annoyingly for almost 300 useless pages for revenge... then decides to stop going for revenge and look for the Varden (while killing of the only character I found a bit interesting! Brom!) Then he finds the varden and stuff finally begins to happen 70 pages from the end of the book...
As an aspiring writer, I often picture what could be going on through the other writers mind as I read it... Why did they make this happen? What effect did it have on me as a reader?
For example, in Harry Potter -J.K Rowling made sense to me... every chapter either brought us closer to a climax and revealed more secrets that we needed...

When I picture the writer of Eragon, I see a young boy rolling a dice decided on it what to do next!! Seriously!! I cant see why someone would take us through 300 pages of his different places for no reason... unless he just wanted to show us his world? Mayube he enjoyed it... Sure.. they were searching for the Razzoc or whatever the hell they are called.... but come on!! 300 pages!!
If I had that happen in my book I would make sure it was worthwhile and that in the climax there would be a great secret revealed or that my main character finally realizes something like maybe he should forgive after all this time?

When I write I try to fit two things in... the story and the real reason behind.Like if i want to get readers to feel sad for my character I will maybe have his mother die...
The story - his mother dies.
The real reason - readers will feel sad.
In this story I see no reasoning behind the madness and goose chases! Its just some dumb story!
So please explain how... how on this earth do so many people enjoy it??

I dont mean to yell at the author! Good for him he wrote a book!! I have not one fully written!!!
Im just annoyed cause I just wasted a whole day reading a book I did not enjoy. My brother says the next one gets better... well I don't think I'm cracking it open....
I hope i dont pick up any bad habits from this book and use them in my book! I think im going to read a good boom and get this one out of my head...

well I have vented enough.... good night!!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I hope this goes here.. it does tie in with writing...

It's a close call, but I'm moving it to General Book Discussion, where I think it will get more responses.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Eragon, a badly written book?

Now that right there is a shocker. Never thought I'd see the day anyone would critisise our Lord Paolini.




And no, incidentally, the next one doesn't really get any better, and no, he still can't write an atmospheric scene to save his life.

 

[Grimward]

Hmmm, if you're looking for counterpoint, I'm afraid I've none to offer, either.

Eragon wandered all over the place. I had the feeling as I was reading it that perhaps we were meant to get a feel for Eragon's youthful indecision, but it was a vague feeling at best. I didn't know about the author's age when I read it, either, and kudos to any and every 15 year old (or anyone else, for that matter!) who sets their mind to the task of writing a book and gets it done. That having been said, the book felt alternately rushed (Eragon's discovery of his initial dragonrider abilities) or distracted (Eragon's brother going off to work) much of the time while I read it. The book hooked me enough to finish it, but I haven't gone on to read the second one (even though it was offered by the same person who lent me Eragon) yet, and don't feel compelled to do so. There were parts of the book I liked; for example, I thought the Shade was an interesting villian, and even though the elves were a repeat of many other such depictions of elves, their role in the story was delivered well enough to make me wonder about them. Unfortunately, there weren't enough "good" points to make me come back for more. Just my humble opinion; I'm certainly not a Paolini expert in any sense of the term.

BTW, Rane (and I may have said this elsewhere, but...), excellent avatar. Truly inspired!

Cheers!

 

[Overread]

I think Eragon is not the disaster that some preach and not the wonder that others do (cough media cough). It was a book that gained some popularity and then after the Potter mania there was a lull in the books and films - publishers and retailers looked for something to fill the gap - and picked on Eragon.

ps - if you think the book is badly written go and watch the film - they only got Saphira right (both voice actor and visually) the rest is so horrific that - well - I wonder if the American film industry is run by toddlers!

edit - I also felt similar Grim - interesting enough to make me keep reading, but not enough to make me add the second to the to read pile.

 

[BookStop]

I am under the impression that not all readers have good taste. I know, it's a crazy idea, but there it is.

I tried to read Eragon, really I did, but just couldn't get past the writing style. It's obvious it was written by a child (not that I'm claiming to able to do any better).

Now, my children really enjoy the books and I believe have preordered book 3, but you know, I think maybe they don't have that elusive good taste I was talkiing about earlier. Ok, maybe taste isn't the correct word here; enough worldly experience to recognize good writing from bad maybe.

 

[Aadaenyaa]

I believe the big brouhaha over these books is the fact that the boy was around 14 when he started writing them. Given that fact, (take it as a grain of salt if you will) which I knew when I started reading them, I was willing to suspend my skepticism at certain points, allowing for age. I also think thats why they're so popular with children, being written from a similar mindset.

 

[Rane Longfox]

BTW, Rane (and I may have said this elsewhere, but...), excellent avatar. Truly inspired!

Thanks 'splosion cat says hi

ps - if you think the book is badly written go and watch the film - they only got Saphira right (both voice actor and visually) the rest is so horrific that - well - I wonder if the American film industry is run by toddlers!

This is true. The only (and I mean only) impressive thing about the film is that it somehow managed to be worse than the book.



People may have picked up by now, I'm not the biggest Paolini fan

 

[Aleksei]

Yeah, I did not like the books either, I can't fathom why I bought and read the second one now that I think about it.

Oh yes, the horror of that movie still haunts me at times..

 

[AvoidingReality]

I read Eragon a while ago, but also thought that it wasn't that good. I thought it was alright, and as has already been said, read it to the end, but I haven't even considered reading the rest of the series yet. I didn't think it was that bad, until I read a couple of good books after it and realised the difference. No idea why it got the reception it did, except perhaps it was written by a 15 year old, so was a huge achievement in that respect.

 

[Rane Longfox]

I read someone on another forum saying he wrote it when he was 9. I swear he gets younger every single time he's mentioned

 

[Pyan]

Heh...
Eragon: dictated from the womb by Christopher Paolini.....

 

[Laerten]

I thought that Eragon was an enjoyable read. I won't use the word great because like most of the comments here I did think it just lacked something to make it a great read. It certainly wasn't the worst thing I have read (that would have to be the Sword of Truth series!).

like when Brom tells over his stories... it doesn't say Eragon believed them.. Yet when his dragon hatches he becomes afraid that the king will take it from him... I didn't understand this because who even said those stories were true?

I think that because Eragon is Linked to Saphira he knows that at least some of the stories are true - after all King Galbatorix has a dragon.

He basically travels around annoyingly for almost 300 useless pages for revenge... then decides to stop going for revenge and look for the Varden (while killing of the only character I found a bit interesting! Brom!) Then he finds the varden and stuff finally begins to happen 70 pages from the end of the book...

You have to remember that Eragon himself is only a teenager, full of doubts and trying to grow up, so originally setting out for revenge he is searching for the Raz'zac without any other goal. Therefore if you are searching you will journey about a bit and he has never been out of Palancar Valley before so doesn't know where to look. Wouldn't it have been a worse book if Eragon had just gone straight to the Varden - we wouldn't have found out anything about his world.

When Brom dies Eragon decides to go to the Varden as it is what Brom wanted him to do.

Just my thoughts. By the way, if you want a worse book to film adaptation that award has to go to The Dark is Rising!!

 

[Clansman]

I know this is off-topic, but the worst book to film adaptation has to be Dune.

PEEEEEE-YEW! That was a real stinker.

 

[anthorn]

To answer the question. The reason Eragon is so great is that it saves people time.

If you read Eragon then you dont have to watch star wars read LOTR, Dragonriders of Pern etc.

 

[Pyan]

ROFL, anthorn...well put...

 

[shamguy4]

I read somewhere that his parents are the ones who published it so they probably publish so many of them that there was no way it wouldnt makie it into your house!

 

[ghost8772]

Eragon was not the worst I've read (I actually finished it) but I was a bit annoyed that 1. this kid was getting away with so blatantly nabbing concepts and ideas, and calling them his own. like he couldn't realize that all the detail points of his book seemed to be a concept from another author. ran across another site, can't think it right now, that listed ALL the points where a n author who had to WRITE his/her own stories would have something in the background, and follow consistency throughout the story. one point was a group of monks recording things, but no religion on the world. tough to have monks without a religious belief backing them. haven't tried to go through eldest, not bored enough yet I suppose.

 

[Grimward]

Heh...
Eragon: dictated from the womb by Christopher Paolini.....

Way to funny for print, Py!

*Grim falls off chair*


EDIT: Oh, and regarding not reading LOTR, sorry Anthorn, but that's on the required list. Says so right on the syllabus!

 

[anthorn]

I've read Lotr. I was just making a point to his rip off