Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (book 3 of Inheritance cycle)
Warning: Mild spoilers ahead. No like, no read.
I’ll be perfectly honest here. I loved Eragon. Eragon was the first dragon-centric book I read outside of the Pern series, and I thought it was fantastic. I was young enough to overlook plot holes and flaws in the writing style, but old enough to appreciate the skill and talent it took to produce a book of that caliber – especially at his young age. Paolini was kind of an idol for me and inspired me to start writing fantasy.
Eldest, on the other hand, was a distinct disappointment. By the time it came out, I was old enough and had read enough books to recognize plot theft when it occurred. And Eldest was almost a complete rip-off of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. (Whipping out my spoiler gun here; if you don’t want to get shot, don’t highlight.) The plot was thusly: “Hey, my dead mentor told me I have to go get trained by this really old mysterious guy that’s secluded from everyone else, and no one even knows he exists. And while I’m there, I find out my friends are all in danger from the forces of darkness, so I have to ditch my training and go help them. And I’ll yell at my mentor for not telling me, even though he wants me to finish my training first. But don’t worry – I’ll come back… eventually. And when I go to help my friends, I rush in with overcockiness and get my tail whipped. And, oh yeah – the main villain is my father, and one of my closest allies is my sibling! And since someone I care about is captive, I have to make plans to rescue them in the next book.”
Anyway. Brisingr is a refreshing change from all that, and contains quite a bit of originality. Though not the last in the series, it manages to tie up a few plot threads quite nicely (that concept of the Eldunari? Brilliant bit.) and develops the personalities and value scales of the characters. For instance, we see at exactly what point Eragon refuses to play God and how far he will go in pursuit of justice. From Roran we see bullheaded determination and blind love for Katrina, along with a bloodthirsty streak that’s a bit chilling. Oromis and Glaedr are completely selfless, and Nasuada gets pushed to her limits for the sake of the Varden.
Some minor flaws – I still felt like Paolini was trying too hard for the high-fantasy style of Tolkein. His syntax (sentence structure) almost wasn’t varied at all, which made it a bit tedious to read, and there were so many fancy words and synonyms in there that it didn’t really feel unified. Variation is good, but a little bit of repetition goes a long way. Also, I felt like he was a bit scatterbrained in this story. Yeah, it’s great to develop your characters, but there comes a certain point when you have to wonder if all the side stories are really necessary. Still, an excellent comeback after Eldest. I admit to being a bit disenchanted with the series, but it’s still engaging enough that I want to see how it ends.
Possible objectionable content: More blood and guts and a premarriage pregnancy. Paolini does a good job of tying up some of the searching-for-God threads, but his conclusion isn’t quite solid and leaves a little to be desired. 13+ age rating from me, mostly ’cause anyone younger would find it boring.
Stardragon’s rating: 9 out of 10 butterscotch candies.
Expect more reviews in the days to come, I’ve been reading a lot lately!
nice highlighting trick!
Brisingr was disappointing at best. Most of the really interesting stuff was about other characters – Roran for instance.
I read all three books but I have had enough, I won’t purchase book four and won’t read it… well, maybe if I get it as a gift.
The books are a decent read but Paolini’s lack of maturity shows and the plot (such as it is) suffers because of it. My opinion only of course. I don’t dislike the books but they aren’t keepers.
[...] know I reviewed Brisingr not too long ago, and I gave it a pretty decent rating. However, I was in a fairly good mood [...]