Thursday, February 23, 2012

Review: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

Book: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
Genre: YA Fantasy (though I think it should be adult over YA)
Rating: ***
For: Fun and to finish this epic series
From: Bought from Costco!

I've really loved this series. Epic fantasy in all it's glory.... it has it all! I think Eldest was my favorite book of the four, though it's been so long I can't totally remember why except for the big reveal at the end. Anyway, like all other Eragon fans, I was really looking forward to this final concluding book.

BUT, wow, it was a hard one to get through. Long, and detailed and a little plunky and ploddy in parts. It seemed to take awhile for things to happen. But then stuff happens and the second half of the book felt much faster.

To sum up, Eragon and his friends are in the process of confronting Galbatorix, the very very bad guy. He (as in Eragon) has to go on a few pre-fight errands and one of them is really quite cool with some much dragon excitement about it. Actually, this book has lots and lots of the back dragon story, if you are into that sort of thing.

My favorite part of the book was when Murtaugh finally shows up. He's yet again another one of those fascinating "is he bad or is he good" sort of characters. (An anti-hero as I learned at LTUE the other week!) Anyway, there's some awesome interaction between him and Nasuada, the leader of the Varden, that I really enjoyed. I would love a book that follows their story, or at least his story, a little further.

I also enjoyed the interactions between Eragon and Arya, especially the sword fighting practice. I could totally picture that in my head and it was awesome! Still, I needed more, and was left wanting a bit.

Why do I think this should be considered an adult book? Because it feels just like reading an adult epic fantasy to me. There're big words here! And long long descriptions and a very very detailed story with tons of characters and history and its own language. It's harder than kid's books usually are, plain and simple. Oh, and it's violent! Very!

Bottom line: In the end, I enjoyed it! A good final book.

Other Reviews:

Amy Reads
Rememorandom
Alternate Readality


8 comments:

  1. I'll get to this...eventually. I'm imagining it will take me a good long while to finish it, though.

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    1. I realized I got my dates wrong.. it only took me THREE months to read this! :)

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  2. Well we're going to have to talk at some point I have questions for you that if you answered here would be spoilery.

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  3. This is another one waiting on my bookshelf. However, I'm a bit reluctant to read it because I've heard so much about how Paolini stole subplots from Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Do you see any obvious parallels in this installment?

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    1. I do think there are a lot of elements from those two stories that he borrowed, but I didn't notice anything glaring in this particular book. There's a lot of dragon lore which all seemed new to me.

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    2. In the stories i do not think there were very many borrowed elements, and those that there were were very well hidden, also, did you notice that at the end of the acknowledgements, he put may your swords stay sharp in the ancient language he had created. Rather interesting i you ask me, and I hope to hear more from him in the future.

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  4. Looing forward to the next one, read the acknowledgements if you wanna know what i mean, just can't wait.

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