Eragon and Eldest

The 3rd book in the Eragon series came out a while ago. As it had been a while since I read the first two books (and regrettably saw the movie) I decided to re-read them to refresh my memory before I read the third. Then I would put a nice conclusion to the whole thing and be done with them all.

Unfortunately, it turns out there will be 4 books, not 3. Hopefully he writes #4 quickly, because I am not reading the first 3 over (again) before reading #4.

Anyway, if you haven't read Eragon, here is my fairly spoiler-laden review:

Eragon was written by a kid. He was like 15 when he started the book, perhaps 17 by the time he finished. Google it if you really want to know. It is very impressive that any teenager can write a coherant book. The best way I can describe the book is that I think he watched the original Star Wars trilogy, read Lord of the Rings and then thought: "Hey, I have a fabulous idea for a book!"

We have Eragon, an orphaned child living with his uncle. He doesn't even know who his father is, and his mother dropped him off as a baby and was never heard from again. He ends up coming across a dragon egg which hatches for him, and names the dragon Saphira. Some bad guys who work for the evil king come looking for him, and he ends up leaving his backwater village with kinda crazy old guy who lives nearby, pretending to be a story teller. But, as it turns out!, kinda crazy old guy isn't who he appears to be! He's been hiding that in the past he was a feared warrior with magical powers who happens to be nearby and can now teach Eragon to use his magical powers! The book is largely a travelogue of their adventures as they get captured, escape, kill some bad guys, learn about Eragon's destiny, and eventually make their way to the small alliance of rebels. Sadly, this group isn't known as the Rebel Alliance, but as the Varden. Along their way, we see that their world is made up of humans, elves (who have magical powers and live forever, but like to keep to themselves in their forest), dwarves (who are excellent miners and live in the mountains) and urgals (who are disgusting, horned brutes who work for the bad guy).

Really, the book isn't bad, though I do like to poke fun at it. It is entertaining and goes quickly. It's not great literature, but it is a good distraction from life, and is better for you than watching reruns of 'Friends'.

The second book in the series is Eldest. Begin spoiler fest:

Having defeated the urgal army at the end of the first book, Eragon travels to the elves' forest to train where, lo and behold, a very old dragon rider and his dragon have been hiding for all these years waiting to train the next dragon rider (Eragon). We also discover that Eragon's travelling companion from the first book, Murtagh, who we thought died is really not dead, and has been put into the service of the evil king. Oh, and he's Eragon's brother. Oh, and their father was the evil king's right hand man before Brom (the kinda crazy storyteller who died in book 1) killed him. So, it's all one big happy family.

I'm currently half way through book 3, about 1500 pages into the adventure. While there aren't many surprises, it still sucks me in. (Just ask Shannon.)