Eragon

[kyektulu]

Has anyone read these books yet?

I bought them along with about 6 other books a few weeks back and have not gotten round to reading them yet, I have been told they are good.

 

[GOLLUM]

No but I rather gather the hype was more to do with age Paolini wrote the book at rather than it being of any significant quality. Not that from what I hear it was a badly written story but perhaps somewhat deriviative in nature.

I'm pretty sure you'll find discussion on the book in the YA section.

 

[MoonLover]

I read Eragon and it didn't really inspire me to buy the sequel. I found it a bit superficial and un-original. But it's easy reading so it shouldn't take too much time for you to get your own opinion on it.

Karen

 

[hedgeknight]

I read about a third of Eragon and just couldn't stomach it anymore. The kid who wrote it is allegedly a genius but his language skills are still juvenile and grandiose. Didn't like it at all and wouldn't recommend it to lovers of real fantasy.
-g-

 

[Culhwch]

I don't think I made twenty pages. As said previously, juvenile and deriviative. Give him a few years and a little more experience, and I might try him again, but for the meantime I'll be steering clear....

 

[the_faery_queen]

i've only heard bad stuff. that he ripped off other people's ideas and only got into print because he was 19 and the company wanted to exploit and market his age.

 

[kyektulu]

I really dont think I will bother reading Eragon now.

At least the charity shop will be gratefull of a brand new book and its sequal.

 

[the_faery_queen]

aw thats a shame. you could try them, you might like them. or you can ebay them if you decide not to bother.

 

[kyektulu]

I suppose im being a little harsh, I will try them as I spent enough on them (both bought in hardback) but if hedgeknight is right about real fantasy lovers not liking them, I am not promising reading them cover to cover.

 

[the_faery_queen]

well, its always good to make your own decisions, i guess. i know a few fantasy fans who like them. or some who think they are just ok

what bothers me is that there is meant to be a movie coming out. it bothers me because, as a writer, i think it is realy unfair that this guy get slal this success simply because he was 19. not because he was a good writer, or had a good idea, but simply because he was young!

 

[Rosemary]

I suppose im being a little harsh, I will try them as I spent enough on them (both bought in hardback) but if hedgeknight is right about real fantasy lovers not liking them, I am not promising reading them cover to cover.

I read Eragon, Kye. It was easy reading but I felt the storyline was quite well done. Of course, having dragons in the story is great!!
I believe there was a comment about his second volume Eldest, in the YA section, where it seems that his writing skills are better.
I have Eldest on the bookcase shelf at the moment and will make a start on it, hopefully tomorrow.

 

[Culhwch]

Two of my friends thoroughly enjoyed Eragon, so I would definitely say give it a go before acting so irrationally by GIVING AWAY A BOOK! (Sorry, but that's totally antithetical to my entire being....)

what bothers me is that there is meant to be a movie coming out. it bothers me because, as a writer, i think it is realy unfair that this guy get slal this success simply because he was 19. not because he was a good writer, or had a good idea, but simply because he was young!

I have to admit that this was one of the things that annoyed me about Paolini. Especially when I subsequently read a novel called 'Waywalkers' by a writer I'd never heard of named Catherine Webb, who I discovered afterwards was a similar age to Paolini (fourteen when she published her first novel) and who left him for dead in terms of originality and quality. But with none of the press....

 

[the_faery_queen]

thats odd. why did the hype paloini and not the other? was it a fantasy book she read? or was it written a while ago? i know louise cooper had her first book out when she was 17. she's not a marvelous writer but her ideas are original and all her own. but she was first out in the 70s, when fantasy was still small, so they didn't hype her.

in my petty way, i refuse to read ergaon or anything that follows. i write, i have principles, such as they are, and i dont' think i could support someone who got into print because of age, not talent. because i think its hard enough getting into print when you are talented, and they shouldn't make it even harder by going for the marketting tool over anything else.

i sell unwnated books. can't give them away, want the cash for more books!

 

[HieroGlyph]

Thanks for all your info, peeps. Guess I'll be another one to change my future reading list, too. But I was intreagued by the long interview with the writer of Eragon, as also I was with R. Scott Bakker... In this case it may well be a marketing ploy or a well thought out and edited write-up...
HG

Edit: ooo, Louise Cooper, I adored her books: didnt enquire about the author, though!

 

[the_faery_queen]

i like some of her things. she does have a few themes going on, like virgin teenage girls, for some reason! but i like the macabreness to it all. one of my earlier books of hers, book of paradox i think, says about her age. that was the first she ever had published i think? or the time lord thing, one of the forerunners to the time master stuff.

 

[Culhwch]

thats odd. why did the hype paloini and not the other? was it a fantasy book she read? or was it written a while ago?

Quite recent. I figure it's because Paolini's American, and it's so rare to find a literate American teen, maybe?

 

[Rosemary]

Finally got a chance to begin reading Eldest. Paolini certainly seems to have improved as a writer, in comparison to Eragon.

Despite chapter 1 being a little gruesome in parts, it still comes across as a YA book. I might re-consider that further through the book.

 

[the_faery_queen]

aw! hehe. that illierate teen thing is mean (but funny) perhaps its just the way america does things? a lot of the authors that get hyped are american.

 

[kyektulu]

That is very true fairy queen.

There are so many not-well-known authors from various countrys that dont even get thier work looked at becuase of thier heritage.

 

[the_faery_queen]

and its harder in those countries to get published. one of my rants (i have many) is that it is hard to get an agent in the uk unless you have a book out. that isn't the case in the us, you can get an agent even without a novel or anything published or written. i think that's half the problem. its harder to make it otuside the us. although we can send stuff to us agents, its difficult with reply coupons and so on.