Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle #1) by Christopher Paolini

Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Published June 12th 2007
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One boy...
One dragon...
A world of adventure.


When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old story-teller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

I am glad I finally got around to reading this after years of it sitting on my shelf but I will admit I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I read it at a younger age and before I read books like A Game of Thrones.

Eragon, a fifteen-year-old boy lives in a rural/farm town in the land of Alagaesia which was once a place of glory where dragons and their riders kept peace across the land. However, he Empire is now ruled by Galbatorix who is not the man you would like ruling over you for he is cruel and only has his best interests in mind. Eragon though is more concerned with helping his family farm their and prepare for winter.

Eragon’s whole life changes when he finds, what he at first believes is a stone, a dragon egg. Suddenly, he gets swept up in a life full of adventure and danger, learning about dragons and magic, but more importantly, learning things about himself.

While the book was not bad, I found that I was not as in to it as I would have liked. I was not bored per say, but in some ways it was not hard to remember how young the author was when he wrote the novel. It is also full of all the typical clichés and reminded me a lot of other, older works of fantasy. I know lots of people say this series is a rip off of Lord of the Rings; I have yet to read the books but I have seen the movies and I can see where they are coming from. For someone his age to write something like this is still amazing, but reading it now at 21 after reading more high quality and mature fantasy, I was just like, “Ehhh.” I did not really connect with Eragon. He’s the main protagonist and clearly should be the most important character but I was more interested in other characters.

Overall, it was an okay book. Will I read the rest of the series? I am not sure. At this point, I feel like I am personally too old to properly enjoy the series, or more rather that there is just more and better books I would rather be reading. But I would recommend this to younger teens.


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