Christopher Paolini's Inheritance in Review

Christopher Paolini is a young and new to the job author and Inheritance is the last book in his first series called the Inheritance cycle.   In the cycle Eragon, a boy of 17, discovers a dragon egg; whereupon he also gains the ability to use magic.  The peace and awe is short lived however because the evil king of the land learns that the dragon hatched for him.  He ends up leaving with Brom who has made himself known as a story teller.  We soon find out that nothing in Alagaesia is as it seems.  An epic journey follows, on which Eragon learns more about himself and who he needs to be.  This brings us to the last book where Eragon and his Dragon Saphira most overcome just a few more battles before reaching the Gates of the mad king’s layer Uru’baen; Whom they must defeat so that Alagaesia can live without Tyranny. 

Surely no one would think that with the level of mystery and suspense in the book that one could think up a better name.   Apparently not, however the name ends up acquitting itself well to the book.  We learn Eragon’s fate as early in the series as the first book, Eragon, when the witch lady Angela tells him his fortune, or in this case his future.  By the end of Inheritance each of the events that Angela foretold end up coming true, however not in the way that you are lead to think in the first book.  Also the idea that Eragon has inherited a great many things, not only from his father but from many of the people that he surrounds himself with.  The future that was set him by Angela, some of his possessions and even some of the help he receives on his journey.

 The unimaginativeness of the title and series name seems to indicate a certain lack of specificity.  Throughout the book a lack of specificity hangs over everything like a blanket of dark magic that taints all that is within it.  There is much that we are left to wonder after many of the important points in the book, which for a land that seems to pride itself in being unusually specific; everything has a name in the book by which it could be controlled by a user of magic, even other people.  So it leaves us to wonder why the author would leave out such information as the main characters specified name, not even giving us the name of his dragon.  Simply giving us vague description of what the name means, “His name, his true name, was weaker and more flawed than he would have liked, and he hated himself for that, but there was also much to admire within it.”

The final battle between the mad king Galbatorix and Eragon and his group of followers seems impossible.  He is so outmatched that the king is not only repulsively confident about the outcome of the battle but even the assistance he finds tells him, “We do not think we will be able to best the … that Galbatorix has enslaved.  We are too few.”  Knowing this Eragon and Saphira still choose to fight the king, who has obtained yet another weapon to use against Eragon and his allies.  The odds are stacked ridiculously high against the hero, so much that it sometimes seems as if Paolini is trying to keep us reading with that fact alone. 

In the end I believe that Inheritance deserves a score of 3.5 stars.  The major short comings of the book detract a great deal from the book and it almost seems as if Paolini is dragging things out intentionally or he’s run out of ideas.  Also the flaws, while not entirely glaring obvious, were a nuisance that seemed that if the author had taken more time to write he would have done a better job.  Despite knowing the end in advance, I was surprised! I was surprised by the twist to the knowledge that Inheritance reveals. 

My Top 5 Books of all time

This is my top five books that I like the most.  If it moves to fast between the slides feel free to pause.  Granted I didn't exactly have to give you permission.  You'd probably have figured it out on your own.

I am Number Four Fan Trailer

This is trailer that was created for the Book two project. 

When Eragon met Rand Al'thor

Eragon from the Inheritance Cycle and Rand Al’thor from the Wheel of Time are at first glance are deceptively unique.  A closer look will reveal that they have many of the same ideals and even their starting points are similar, if not exactly the same.  Also adding to the similarities is the fact that both characters come from a series of books, granted one is longer than the other. 

In the first books of each series both characters start out living much of their life as humble farmers.  Being taught to care for the farm animals and plants and handling everything that farms do.  (Keep in mind that these are more medieval farms and not modern ones.  Both are also raised close to fairly small and secluded villages.  The similarities do not stop there however, oh no.  Once both characters are into their young adult years their towns are thrust into danger and the characters must flee to escape the evil that hunts them. 

Then at long last the stories begin to differ, while both end up as people of vast importance and eventually end up as heroes, Rand has a much longer and more difficult journey than Eragon, even turning almost dark over the course of several books.  Eragon’s battle is to simply unseat an evil king, powerful though he may be if put up against Rand’s adversaries he would pale in comparison. 

My thoughts on Non-fiction and Labeling

I believe that if you claim that your book is non-fiction then there should be no embellishments.  We have writing techniques to make things more interesting; people should not have to resort to telling lies or half-truths to make the story better.  You can zoom in on a moment or do any number of things to improve the story without lying in it.  While I admit that things can be difficult to remember you should always stay on track with events that actually happened instead of making things up or misrepresenting facts.

Half-truths in nonfiction tend to call into question the person’s motives when used in a supposed non-fiction book.  Since when people say non-fiction the automatic assumption is that the book will only be the truth and nothing but the truth.  The fact that they tried to over exaggerate events in the book would be understandable if the book was not considered an entirely non-fiction piece.  However since it is a non-fiction book then the exaggerations are unacceptable, because it was likely not necessary for the writer to do.  As I’ve said before there are other ways to make a book more interesting than to make up things or exaggerate facts.

I believe that the lines between fiction and non-fiction and the rest of the genres should remain intact because people know that they like certain things.  The book labels then help them find books that they know are to their liking.  While I believe that books should be labeled, I do not believe that authors should be labeled as writers for any particular type of fiction.  Once someone is labeled then the expectation is created that the author writes in a particular genre.  Once the expectation is there, if the author ends up writing something that doesn’t fit into his/her designated genre  there is a cry of outrage from their readers and other readers as well.

As for the notion that no idea is original I believe that to some extent this is true.  However this belief only applies to the absolute baseline.  Stories are unique not because of their base plot but because of the events that happen in each or the new angle that an author might bring to the field.

My opinion on Genre fiction

Genre fiction explores the human imagination.  It has no limit save what its authors but on it.  It is fun to read and also has some of the same themes and lessons in them that commercial fiction does.  Literary/ commercial fiction focuses on ideas and how to portray ideas in the images and instances that occur while writing and try to create a deeper meaning that has to be forced upon their readers.  More or less literary fiction should be considered a work of art than an actual book.  Genre fiction on the other hand is more of a game than an art project.  It’s made to be fun to read and the really good ones were fun to write as well.  Even though the stories in genre are fun to read they also have the same lessons that the literary fiction has. 

We should add more genre fiction into the school curriculum because they are more interesting and they have pretty much the same lessons in them as the books we read in class.  Reading genre fiction would actually make reading fun at school because there’d be more of a selection.  Since there would be more of a selection in the books we’d read more students would be able to read what they wished.  All of this would cut down on the “Readicide” that the books that schools are making students. 

I think swapping Mice and Men for Twilight is a bad idea.  I would certainly go for another Genre fiction book, just not Twilight.  I’m sorry but I had issues with it and yes, I read the whole series and it really wasn’t that good.

Kids should read books because books are a means to gain knowledge.  I like to think that every book has a lesson in it, you just have to be looking for it.

Adapting I Am Number Four

Challenges a filmmaker would face is that they would have no description for the Main character, John Smith or number four.  Also the character gives little in the way of precisely describing the characters.  He also does not describe important objects in much detail. 

Scenes that must be kept:

·         The fight with mark in the woods during the Halloween haunted forest maze thing.  This seen is important because it shows John’s willingness to save his friends Sam and most importantly Sarah.  If anything it shows how strong their bond is.

·         The scene where they have to go rescue Henri from the magazine writers.  This is an important scene because John gets his second Legacy and has to use it to get needed information from the magazine writers.

·         Also the house fire scene should be kept because it is the reason that Henri and John are discovered by the Mogadorians.  Also it is another example of how strong John’s bond with Sarah is.

Scenes that would have to be cut: 

·         John’s visions from the past could probably be cut because they are more confusing at first and might be frightening for younger viewers.  Besides that they don’t really play a major role in the story and could be replaced by Henri explaining how things worked on Lorien.

·         The training that John under goes can be left out also because it doesn’t really do anything for the story other than shows how John advances his skills in using his Legacies.

·         The scene where John thinks that he wasn’t in the paper.  Though this shows his relief it eventually proves to be false.