So I've started Eragon...

[erastes]

I'm just not really getting anything from Eragon himself. I suppose it's indicative of the author's age when he wrote it (and may I say that Cassie Clare makes him look like a frigging Shakespeare) but I'm not getting under Eragon's skin. So much so that I'm not scared when I should be, emotional when I should be etc etc. I just can't see the way the boy ticks. The other characters are a lot more interesting. If the dragon trod on him in the next chapter I wouldn't particularly care. Contrast this with that fact that GRRM got me intimately and desperately worried about Ser Waymar Royce in the PROLOGUE of Game of Thrones. Four books later and I'm STILL worried.

But yes Eragon ... derivative or what? I'm saying nothing new, I'm sure (being a very late comer to contemporarily written fantasies etc) Boy finds something that everything wants, which puts him in Immense Danger.

These leads to be him being off away from home when his Uncle's home is destroyed and Uncle is killed.

Boy sets off on Quest. Older, Wiser Mentor comes along too. These are not the dragons you are looking for. You can go about your business

OWM gives Boy a light sabre a sword which once belonged to Tywin Lannister Darth Vader which is tinged with red and which the boy must learn to use.

The Boy discovers forces within himself! He can even affect the thoughts of others!

The Boy finds out that everything has a name, and that to discover the name for that thing is to control that thing.... hmm....

There is foreshadowing about the Boy's parentage and OWM mentions being tutored by someone very talented. You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Big Bad Emperor (Obelix?) turns out to be OWM's best friend or brother and that Boy is Obelix's son. But surely not?

But writing wise not awful. In fact reading after CC's City of Bones Chapter One it is almost pleasant. At least CP can write without referring to Eragon as the dark-eyed boy every two sentences.

Comments

[alankria.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Big Bad Emperor (Obelix?) turns out to be OWM's best friend or brother and that Boy is Obelix's son. But surely not?

The revelation comes at the end of the second installment in the trilogy. I'll, err, leave it at that.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

no!!! even the placement of the revelation is derivative!!!!

[alankria.livejournal.com]

For when you've finished the first two books (or just given up), read this rather lengthy summary (http://www.anti-shurtugal.com/starwars.htm) of the plots of Star Wars episodes 4 and 5, which is identical to the plots of Eragon and Eldest.

I personally don't think there is anything original in Paolini's books. At all. And while a handful of authors might be able to write something highly derirative yet make it readable by filling it with interesting characters, Paolini falls flat there too. He has some good characters, but there always seems to be ensuring character assassination (literally or figuratively).

The icon is by cleolinda. While I've not actually seen the movie, and would have to be paid enormous sums of money to do so, I've heard many, many bad things about it, enough to weild the icon with justification.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, I'm a star wars GEEK so the plot so far is foreshadowing itself big time at me.

And yes, the characters are just DULL. Eragon just learns stuff in Sue like fashion, the dragon is a boring nagging housewife and Brom is just irritatingly boring.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*adores the icon, btw *!

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

Having read the sporking of the first chapter of COB, I think my shopping list would read like Shakespeare by comparison. /meow.

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

OT, but that's the best icon EVER.

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

It's great, isn't it? It's gackable - made by Footsie on JF. :D

With apologies to Richard III

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Now is the shopping list that I have rent
You'll need eggs and flour and sugar and Stork...

And now with appologies to Hamlet.

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

Alas, poor Cherry Coke! I knew it, Erastes: a beverage
of infinite zest, of most excellent taste: it hath
borne me on its sweeetness a thousand times; and now, how
lamented in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
it. Here hung those bottles that I have bought I know
not how oft. Where be your cherries now? your
sugars? your syrups? your flashes of bubbles,
that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
now, to be sold in this country? quite drink-fallen?

Re: And now with appologies to Hamlet.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I adore you for this.

*fangirls mightily*

Re: And now with appologies to Hamlet.

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

*bows* Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week. :D :D

[liebesdammerung.livejournal.com]

It's basically an exat copy of the plot of Star Wars. It's dreadful. I don't know how my brother can like it so much.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Aw. Now you've spoiled the plot for me.

*Guffawing*

Speaking of totally missing the point...

[stormheller.livejournal.com]

Which "City of Bones"? The one by Michael Connelly or the one by Martha Wells?

Re: Speaking of totally missing the point...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh god no. Both of those are well written I've heard.

This one's by a plagiarist fanfiction "Big Name" who gained 10000s of fangirls by stealing large portions of published authors work and dumping them into her fanfic.

Her first novel - of which i've only read the first chapter, is so bad it's sporkable.

http://www.mortalinstruments.com/COBchapter1.html

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

I read the first half of the book playing Catch the Derivation! and then I stopped reading. It's not the worse thing I've ever read, but Paolini interests me more than most of his characters.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's a good point! And yes, it doesn't deserve the complete slating its had, I've read a lot worse, but it's not terribly gripping. Still hoping Eregon gets squashed...

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

*edits previous comment: worse worst*

Hee! He did have his thighs shredded . . . .

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Not enough. squash! squash! squash!

*g*

[lunalelle.livejournal.com]

Before finishing the first chapter, I desperately wanted to bring a blue pencil to the thing. I forced myself through the whole thing, hoping it would get better.

But it just kept being a flat, MS-ish, derivative of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, all of which were exponentially better than the piece of drivel Paolini wrote. Honestly, for a fifteen year old, it's good. Doesn't mean it was worth getting published. *shudders at the memories*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Flat. Yes - that's the perfect word for it. Its not horrid, it's just dull.