Christopher Paolini: Eragon

[Jean]

Eragon was written by 19 year old Chirstopher Paolini. I saw a review calling it a Tolkien for teenagers, and though wtf? Since when couldn't teenagers read Tolkien. :rolleyes: So I go to the authors website to read a synopsis of the book and here is what I find:

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 realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller 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. . . .

Sounds like he took parts of Tolkien, Jordan, and Anne McCaffrey ( I mean Dragon Riders??)

Here is the website http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/eragon/index.htm

Take a look at the Alagaësia map, reminds me a lot of a maps in WoT.

[PrinCesS FeNiX]

Eragon was the worst Sword and Sorcerer Fantasy book ever. It was a combination of other good fantasy books combined into one poorly-written series about a boy who finds a Dragon Egg and then he instantly becomes the savior of the world.

[Mazrim_Taim]

Hey man, the kid was 15 when he wrote it, and apparently it was good enough to be published And have a fan base! You try writing something as good, I doubt you could.
And don't post when the thread is YEARS old you troll.

[PrinCesS FeNiX]

Christopher Paolini was 15 when he started Eragon (He only wrote one chapter)....he was much older when he finished it...

[Dragonus Nesha]

And his parents published it for him since no one else would.

['Skis]

Yet it got a movie made.

So far Eragon > WoT in the movie department, winnar?

[Dragonus Nesha]

WoT is a much longer and more developed storyline. Eragon also gathered hype from the author being so young. Movies tend to have a simple storyline. Eragon doesn't even compare to WoT. WoT has been around for longer than I have been alive, and Eragon has been around for a two or three years. In twenty years, Eragon will be forgotten, movie or not.

[Enariom]

I thought the books were ok... (Can't compare them to the WoT books though, it's just a whole different league!)
The Eragon Movie on the other hand was a disaster. They simplified an already pretty simple plot, and made the characters more shallow and straightforward, even if they wheren't exactly deep in the books...

"Eragon" and "Eldest" are timekillers; you spend a week skimming through them, and you feel a slight satisfaction from having found yet another acceptable book that can take you away from Shitty Depressing Planet Earth.

Wheel Of Time on the other hand, sticks with you on a completely different level. The writing, the plot and the characters are much more sophisticated, and there are more layers to the story.

Meh. That's my opinion, anyway.

[Heartsbane]

I thought the books were ok... (Can't compare them to the WoT books though, it's just a whole different league!)
The Eragon Movie on the other hand was a disaster. They simplified an already pretty simple plot, and made the characters more shallow and straightforward, even if they wheren't exactly deep in the books...

"Eragon" and "Eldest" are timekillers; you spend a week skimming through them, and you feel a slight satisfaction from having found yet another acceptable book that can take you away from Shitty Depressing Planet Earth.

Wheel Of Time on the other hand, sticks with you on a completely different level. The writing, the plot and the characters are much more sophisticated, and there are more layers to the story.

Meh. That's my opinion, anyway.

Yeah I don't know about anyone else, but everytime something disasterous (sp?) happened in WoT, I felt a slight feeling of sorrow, as if I had been there myself. Where as in Eragon, I was just like, oh ok w/e it's going to get better. Never thought that w/ WoT cause in some cases it didn't anyway.

[Alex Imil]

Did anyone else notice that Eragon was blacked out at the end of, oh, I dunno... EVERY CHAPTER?

[Emma-Jayde]

Damn. Now I want to read the books just to see if they're worth complaining about. :rolleyes:

Although they were written for a younger audience, so of course they're not going to have a plotline as complex as the ones in WoT

[Meisterdieb]

Hey man, the kid was 15 when he wrote it, and apparently it was good enough to be published And have a fan base!

He's 15 so what? It shouldn't be used as excuse for his bad writing; he should have waited a few years before publishing it.
If I see what other kinds of books are published out there, it doesn't say anything about Paolinis quality.
And with things like " Big Brother", " Popstars" and all those pulp novels having a fan base also doesn't mean anything.

He got lucky, that's all.

You try writing something as good, I doubt you could.
If I am allowed to rip off other authors along the way as Paolini did, I could write a book like this half-awake.
Seriously, everyone with a brain and some imagination ( and the dedication to spend all that time on actually writing) can write something far better.

[Amelia Sedai]

Although they were written for a younger audience, so of course they're not going to have a plotline as complex as the ones in WoT

I was just going to say that! I was a bookstore today and I saw it in the teen section.

Anything that gets people reading is a good thing!

[Emma-Jayde]

Anything that gets people reading is a good thing!
Exactly right!
From the looks of things here it's a light read, and and ok plotline... Which is great to get kids into fantasy and reading and breed a whole new generation of WoT readers!

[tallkid345]

Exactly right!
From the looks of things here it's a light read, and and ok plotline... Which is great to get kids into fantasy and reading and breed a whole new generation of WoT readers!

Eragon is fairly simple and also more accessible to first-time/occasional readers, especially those just getting into fantasy. I mean, if you were just getting into the wonderful genre of fantasy, starting with complicated series like WOT and LOTR might be off-putting. :2eyes:

[Tidus]

Hehe, I started out with LOTR, took me like 4-5 months to read, but I loved it.:D

[FearDx]

I think I was like 11 yrs old when I started WOT. But then I'd been reading the BAzil Broketail series for a while so ya starting out with WOT would be hard. Might as well start reading the Dune series. I think the only way eragon is gonna be any good is for a few of us to get stinky, buy a belt of rum, then go and see it. Kinda like Pirates of Carribean. 6 of us went through like 3 1.75 of capn. dont remember any of the movie, but boy was it fun.

[Warder Trained]

Eragon is fairly simple and also more accessible to first-time/occasional readers, especially those just getting into fantasy. I mean, if you were just getting into the wonderful genre of fantasy, starting with complicated series like WOT and LOTR might be off-putting. :2eyes:

but it's drivel held together by the stuff he lifted off the other books!

Don't get me wrong; I find it highly entertaining that he got lots and lots of money and Jeremy Irons to act out his writing. Bully for him, I say. :cheers: But life is short, and there are so many good books out there that chidren can read. (The Chronicles of Narnia, to start with.) The classics survived for a reason, and people really should invest their time in the worthwhile reads instead of the copies.

Here's my take on Paolini: he was a kid when he wrote the books. It shows. Painful to read and little to no originality. Because he was a kid. He hadn't lived a full life yet and didn't have anything to put into his books except the stuff he read from other people. Unlike say Tolkien or Jordan who'd actually fought in wars. In Jordan's words, when asked how his experience in the Vietnam war had affected his writing, he said he knew what it was like to kill other people and have other people try to kill him. Like that. The older writers bring that sort of perspective into their books. A depth that teenagers can't glean from reading other people's fantasies without the backing of real life experience to ground them.

Imagine comparing a love story written by somebody who'd only read about love stories to one who has deeply been in love and has experienced the highs and heartbreaks of love. Experience tells.

That said, I really do think it great that Paolini got away with his crap enough that he made lots and lots of money of it. Hahahaha. :cheers:

[darkridley90]

I agree with you Warder. Some fantasy must be simple for young readers to enjoy. There's gotta be some medium from very simple to very articulate and detailed. Paolini wrote a book that appealed to the audience he aimed at, so they make a movie of it. Same goes with Harry Potter. Hollywood just seems to like simple fantasy on which to base a movie. Tolkien, Jordan, and Martin were simply not meant for the big screen I guess (and for those who've read Martin's books, we all know why ;)

Did the Inheritance series remind anyone else of starwars, but just set in midevial times? Even if the evil government wasn't called the Empire, and there are minor discrepensies between the two, the basic setup is almost exactly the same.

[tallkid345]

but it's drivel held together by the stuff he lifted off the other books!

Don't get me wrong; I find it highly entertaining that he got lots and lots of money and Jeremy Irons to act out his writing. Bully for him, I say. :cheers: But life is short, and there are so many good books out there that chidren can read. (The Chronicles of Narnia, to start with.) The classics survived for a reason, and people really should invest their time in the worthwhile reads instead of the copies.

Here's my take on Paolini: he was a kid when he wrote the books. It shows. Painful to read and little to no originality. Because he was a kid. He hadn't lived a full life yet and didn't have anything to put into his books except the stuff he read from other people. Unlike say Tolkien or Jordan who'd actually fought in wars. In Jordan's words, when asked how his experience in the Vietnam war had affected his writing, he said he knew what it was like to kill other people and have other people try to kill him. Like that. The older writers bring that sort of perspective into their books. A depth that teenagers can't glean from reading other people's fantasies without the backing of real life experience to ground them.

Imagine comparing a love story written by somebody who'd only read about love stories to one who has deeply been in love and has experienced the highs and heartbreaks of love. Experience tells.

That said, I really do think it great that Paolini got away with his crap enough that he made lots and lots of money of it. Hahahaha. :cheers:

I respect your opinion, especially your analysis of how life experience can be used by authors in the writing of their content. But the thing is, other people don't think the way you or I do in regard to fantasy. You obviously have a more advanced comprehension of the fantasy genre yet its obvious that we can't attribute this way of thinking to most other individuals who can't see these things. As far as I'm concerned, we can criticise the Inheritance trilogy all day but it won't do anything to Paolini's level of book sales and movie deals, haha.

Btw, how's Quezon City? I live in Makati

[night_belle]

I never knew that Paolini was a teenager when he wrote Eragon. That's really impressive. It gives me hope as a writer myself, because I have been writing since I was 11 and I always wondered if all my work would ever be considered good enough to publish or just thought of as immature nonsense. But now I know if Paolini could be such a young author and have a bestselling book, there's still hope for me yet. :D

[Warder Trained]

QC's fine, tallkid.

And I really am cheering for Paolini's having made lots and lots of money :)

btw, are you originally from around here or from Sydney?

[tallkid345]

I wonder when eragon will come out in the cinemas over here??

I'm from Brisbane actually, just staying in manila for the holidays and then I head back to sydney for university next year

[Warder Trained]

It'll probably still be a while. This time of the year's blocked off for the Manila Film Festival. They only show local films everywhere at around the last week of December. It's a big deal for the local industry here, so foreign films that get released at this time get shunted off to a couple of weeks later.

Oh well - my case I'm not urgently waiting for any foreign movies in particular right now anyway. (The last time the film fest threatened to taunt my anticipation, a friend took me along to an advance screening of Return of the King anyway. :) )

[Tidus]

I wonder when eragon will come out in the cinemas over here??

I'm from Brisbane actually, just staying in manila for the holidays and then I head back to sydney for university next year

Waste of money, don't bother, it's brutal.

[night_belle]

Oh don't say that! I wanted it to be good. Now I don't even know if I should bother to see it......I never really liked the book that much any way.

[Mazrim_Taim]

Ok, now that I have read most of the book because I got interested from watching the movie, I will say this:
The movie in no way does justice to the books. It is a mediocre piece of hollywood crap. The dragon's pretty, the place where they filmed it is pretty, Jeremy Irons is cool (though he doesn't have a beard like his character in the book, oh yeah and the plain blond chick didn't look like Arya (an elf) described in the books), but that's all the praise I'll give it. Compared to the book, the movie is simply not loyal to it (and I'm not even a book purist...I thought the lord of the rings, even with its changes and alterations, was amazingly loyal to the books, whereas this is just crap), and there's loads of missing plot lines in the movie (like...half the book?), as well as added AND changed crap.
Anyway...I've read most of the book and I will say I'm impressed. I think C. P. has amazing potential to have been able to write such a well written (AND well loved and received by readers) book (s) at such a young age. It's much better than something I could write at this time, and I do not say that lightly. So I think as time goes on, his style will mature and he could write much greater things. I'd recommend for him to get some experience in literature and the real world to get that "I did it, I write it better" feel that Warder Trained has mentioned, but he'll probably be a really good writer regardless.
Oneof my quirks: this kid knows nothing about how sword fighting really works (Martin knows, Jordan does not know but is able to fake it well enough by making it vague), but neither do a lot of other "experts", so I suppose I'll give him a break there.
Some may think his language is a bit too simple, but still he threw in a few words in the book that I don't know, and apparently he's studied German or something, because a lot of his names (anything with an umlaut on it) are influenced by that language (or perhaps one quite like it). Although you can't exactly umlaut an e, like the one in "Alagaesia", or at least I've never seen that before...whatever. The writing is good enough to me.
Good book so far, I'm almost done, and I look forward to reading the next one.
Maybe this thread should be moved to Fantasy Talk? I think it belongs there instead of announcements at least...

[ElAguila]

....Did the Inheritance series remind anyone else of starwars, but just set in midevial times? Even if the evil government wasn't called the Empire, and there are minor discrepensies between the two, the basic setup is almost exactly the same.

That is exactly how I have described the book to anyone that asks me about it.

[Heron-mark]

Actually, the evil government IS called the Empire, which is ironicly stupid given that it is ruled by a king.....:rolleyes:

In all honesty the book reads like a piece of bad fanfiction. The bad guys are bad for no reason other then they are insane, the good guys are idiots, and the dragons are, whatever CP says to the contrary, gloified pets.