Reviews with content warning for Child death - Eldest

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

4 reviews

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Ugh.

Eldest is better than Eragon in a lot of ways. It’s also still my least favorite book in the series.

Things I like:

The elves. I love that they fill their days with hobbies that bring them fulfillment because their needs are met through magic. The fact that they are all vegan atheists is super interesting to me (and they are very reasonable vegans who still use wool and honey!). I love that they sing their houses out of the trees. And it was fun being reminded of all the technological advancements the elves have like indoor heating and alarm clocks.
A lot of the philosophy discussions are super interesting. These books are definitely very utilitarian in their philosophy and while I don’t always like the choices of the characters or the narrative, I do feel like they make sense in context.
Nasuada is complicated and not always likable (her approach to Elva is kind of awful, for example), but damn she’s a good leader and an interesting character.
The gender politics of the world are still absolutely wretched, but a lot more women get to be actual characters in this book than in the first one. Queen Islanzadí has always been a favorite of mine, and she still is. There’s a lot more going on with the villagers, especially many of the women. All good things.
The plot is far less derivative than in book one, I think because Paolini actually took the time to think about the ramifications of what he had written and to continue to explore them. That’s how we get Roran’s entire plotline as well as the Elva stuff: the author thinking through the choices he already made and seeing how they impact the characters and the world.
The final twist is easy to see coming as an adult reader, but it still hits! Murtagh you will always be famous.
Finally we are making Eragon question some of his beliefs, from human superstition to racism, and it’s not always done well, but I appreciate the effort.
The scene with Roran and Jeod in Teirm. Yesyesyesyesyes.
Expansions of the dwarves’ religion and clans and the animals of the Beor Mountains.

Things I dislike:

The romance in this book (if you can call it that) is somehow even worse than I remembered. Arya is 100 years old. She repeatedly tells Eragon no. And he continues to pursue her. I hate it. It’s awful. The Saphira stuff makes a lot more sense, but of course Saphira has always been a more compelling character than Eragon with more coherent motivations. Eragon’s stuff with Arya is just so bad. Especially knowing where it ends up in the final book. It is impossible for me to root for any version of this relationship after Eragon’s behavior here.
I think that Roran’s storyline is interesting, and I think that Roran makes a really effective Moses figure. Unfortunately I do not like him at all. He’s incredibly paternalistic. He has very little empathy. He’s basically a cult leader. Again, I think it’s effective, but I just do not like the man.
What in the actual ever-loving fuck was going on with the descriptions of Nasuada’s skin tone in this book? It’s perfectly normal in book one (surprisingly so, honestly) and then suddenly in this one we have Roran asking if her skin is dyed????? Absolutely not.
This is actually one of the most ableist books I’ve ever read, and for no discernible reason either. Why make Eragon disabled just to do a magical cure trope and give him superpowers? It’s cheap and it’s gross. I know that it was the early 2000s and the author was about 20 years old. I don’t care. The repeated messaging in this book that disabled people are weak and useless and need to be cured is so so harmful. And again, for what? There could have been such a rich exploration of disability here. Finding accommodations. Finding ways for Eragon to both be an overpowered chosen one AND a disabled character. But no, we got this instead. It’s awful. Probably my least favorite part of the entire series on this reread.
Eragon is whiny and fantasy racist and weird about women. And then also he’s super smart and talented and ultimately succeeds at basically everything. He’s definitely the weak link here character-wise. Yikes.
I really like the choice to give us some chapters from Roran and Nasuada’s POVs and I think those storylines add a lot. However, the structure is absolutely wretched. The book would have benefitted so much from just alternating between POVs more frequently.
Important to note that about 200 pages of this book are basically just training montage. It is very slow. And then there’s a big battle at the end. Wretched pacing and structure.
Paolini makes a big effort to show that the elves don’t have meaningful social OR biological sex/gender differences and then still continues to emphasize gender in his descriptions of elves and in their social customs. It is exhaustingly cishet man.

Brisingr was my favorite book in the series as a kid, so I’m excited to see how it holds up to a reread as an adult.

Content Warnings