The Inheritance Cycle

[Snowflame]

I'm just curious to see what you guys think of the Inheritance Cycle, originally meant to be the inheritance triology. The first book is Eragon, the second is Eldest, the third is Brisingr, and the fourth one is currently nameless.


What do you think of the Cycle so far?

[locke]

My opinion probably won't count for much because I've only read the first book. I picked it up for the dragons; I ended up reading about a kid who couldn't walk a mile without passing out or whining like a little girl. A terribly clichéd, repetitive, wooden fantasy. Honestly, I couldn't stand it, hence I only read the first in the cycle.

Of course, I couldn't stand Fell either (didn't even make it to Part 2), so maybe my sense of "good" books is not on par with mainstream opinion. I mean, obviously Eragon was good enough to make into a movie, right? xD

[Wolfbane]

I absolutely adore these books; they are my most favourite out of any books I've ever, EVER read. I admire the use of Chistopher Paolini's imagination and enjoy that he has made a non-existent world seem so realistic and probable, even given the myriad fantasy elements that have been added to it. Of course, I also picked it up for the dragons and I most enjoy their scenes. Love the fact that they have been given such an anthropomorphic feel and that they aren't dumb, kingdom-slaying beasts and I particularly enjoy watching Saphira's youthful mind grow.
However, I will say that there are some parts, as in every long book or series, which does drag on. and on. and on. Luckily, I find that, as far as these books are concerned, the climax is always worth reading to.

The movie, however... SO disappointing. I will never see it again and have likely been scared off of Inheritance films should a second, third, and fourth come out.

[Snowflame]

The movie was nothing really like the book, in my personal opinion. They changed so much of it, and made characters look completely different to their descriptions in the books. They gave Saphira a feathery look, and they made her grow from small to large in a matter of seconds. Eragon was supposed to tell her a bunch of dragon names, but in the movie she said her name. And Arya had red hair, when she's supposed to have black! I think i've rambled a bit about it, but there's loads more to say about the movie.

Back to the books.....

I do agree that some parts do drag on for a while, but I think it makes the rest worth reading. It's amazing how Paolini created his own languages (Ancient language, dwarf, urgal), which other fantasy authors don't really do (make their own languages). I love the atmosphere of the books, and the way you can relate to them.

[locke]

Many authors create their own languages (or many fictional languages are simply implied by using non-existant words throughout the text, i.e. Dragga and Drappa). I was not impressed by Paolini's conlang; he may have made up several new words you may not find in a dictionary, but the fact that you cannot learn the language is what does not impress me any more than our current language here on TS. It's only jargon, and you can memorize words or phrases, but there is no possibility of learning and fluently speaking it. Aside from that, the Dwarvin and Elvish words seemed too strikingly similar for me to tell the difference between the two (if I remember correctly - feel free to trout me if I'm thinking of a different book :])

Also, the atmosphere and believability were hard to maintain for me. There were parts in the story that seemed made up for convenience sake, and I could hardly relate to Eragon at all. Instead, every time I picked up the book, I saw too many parallels to movies like Star Wars, or books like Lord of the Rings. I'm sure you've heard of the comparisons by now, so I won't repeat them here. Suffice it to say, when I read the first few chapters, I could almost see Luke Skywalker on his little farm, wishing for bigger and better things.

The only redeeming features were the dragons, but even they seemed as if they'd been plucked straight from the Dragon Riders of Pern series. And I'm not a big fan of that series either, though I did hold a secret admiration for the books for a few weeks. I just like my dragons more sinister and untamable (or, I guess, unwilling to form a partnership with humans, the unquestionably weaker species). Think of Smaug from The Hobbit, who was also anthropomorphized a good deal. Only he would rather eat humans than let them sit on his back and use him as a weapon.

P.S. Yes, the movie was disturbingly awkward and clumsy. They did a horrible job. Let's all cross our fingers that they won't repeat that mistake by making a sequel.

[Snowflame]

I knew about Paolini basing it off of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I remember reading somewhere how Eragon is like Luke Skywalker, etc. I think he even said that somewhere that he based it on Star Wars. It is a bit annoying in that sense, but overall I really do enjoy these books.

And about the languages, that was sort of a mistake what I wrote before. I didn't mean as in a proper language (like Spanish or English), but in the way that he made his own "snippets" of a language, if you understand what I mean.

I think that Paolini makes dragons different from what they're usually "known" as, which I actually like. And if you think about it, there are "baddish" dragons in the series, for example, there's Thorn (though he HAS to serve Galbatorix), and there were the dragons in the Forsworn.

[Silve]

I've gotta say, I can really go either way on this discussion. On one side, it is a little cliched, but on the other, I always love a new take on an old story. That's what most books are in any case. The first is fairly generic, the second rather dark, and the third reminiscent of the great fantasies.

Also, In response to the language thing, most authors don't create new languages, they just pick and choose words from other languages, or mash together a few languages that sound good together. In the Sight, Drappa, Dragga, Varg, those aren't made up words. They are either Norse or Swedish, or something like that, can't remember which, where Varg is the word for wolf, in actuality, though I don't remember what the other two mean.

What's interesting with what Paolini does, is that he matches the type of language with the race speaking it. For example, the first stories of dwarves were found in Norse mythology, the Vikings and the like, and Paolini matches with them a language that is not only rough and guttural, as one would expect a dwarf to be, but matched them with a Germanic language, and the Vikings and Norsemen spoke Germanic tongues. He's fairly subtle about it, and that's one of my favorite elements in his books.

[locke]

Sadly, I never noticed the subtle variations in Paolini's languages. I suppose I don't have a strong phonetic ear then? Or maybe I didn't pay close enough attention - as I said, I might even have been thinking of a different book. However, even if that were the case, I see nothing to differentiate him from other fantasy authors: elves are generally fair and beautiful, so their languages are generally vivid and eloquent, dwarves are generally gruff and earthbound, so their languages are generally simplistic and guttural. It was the same in Tolkien's books, C.S. Lewis' books, etc. and even in popular video games and movies.

And although I believe he made-up many of the words he used (even by scrambling words in a different language, he is, in effect, making his own), I was irritatingly aware of how close many of Paolini's words resembled words made-up by Tolkien. In this case, yes, I can see how he picked and chose words from other languages, although possibly not in the best sense. I have great respect for Tolkien, and I was disappointed to see the resemblance Paolini's words shared with his (for example: Paolini's "Isenstar" (Tolkien's River Isen, and of course Isengard), "Ardwen" (Tolkien's Arwen), "Furnost" (Tolkien's Fornost) "Vanilor" (Tolkien's Valinor) etc.)

But it wasn't just the blatantly copied words or derivative language that made the book a very poor read for me. The characters seemed almost wooden carbon-copies of other popular canon, and the story (which, yes, is a recyclable cliche) is pretty much a modern variation of others (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dune). A coming of age story involving dragons and high-octane fantasy could easily have been written in such a new and innovative way that the cliche underneath is nearly unrecognizable; instead, I felt like Paolini was flogging a dead horse: his work added nothing new to the tired old cliche.

On a side note: Varg is Swedish for wolf, Dragga could either be the Old Norse word meaning "to drag" or a name, and Drappa is a variation of another Old Norse word (drapa) for a stanza in a poem. Aside from Varg, most of DCD's jargon was either made-up or adapted to fit his novel, and now many of the words he's used are now widely recognized. For example, Sikla is nothing more than a Germanic last name, but now that DCD used it for his book, many people refer to the lowest ranking wolf in a pack as the "Sikla", even though the word itself really has no meaning. So, yes, the words might not be completely made up, but their new definitions certainly are.

[Snowflame]

Yes, yes, most of us know that Paolini took the story-line of Star Wars, and copied Tolkien. Yes, it is cliched, but quite frankly, as long as it's a great thing to read, I have no complaints.

I do agree with you, Locke, that he could of maybe written Eragon so that the Star Wars them wasn't that noticable.

Reading over what I had put before, about the dragons, well, these books give you a different side to the usual treasure-guarding, town-burning beasts. I liked that about Paolini, and that's part of the reason why I like the Inheritance Cycle.

[Sammorra]

okay ive read all three and i think the author is just plain mean with dropping that bombshell of an ending then saying "sorry have to wait another 4-5 years to find out the rest" i mean come on!
what i liked about it was that everything has a living conscious and how Paolini stresses his character eragon over this fact.
They really, really could have made the movie better though, that was a rip off.