Reviews with content warning for Murder - Eldest

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

10 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

hales_1243's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

jodean's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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tascaraudo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Read in German.

I love Nasuada, I love how she is Technically Protrayed as on the good side, but also treats people (Elva, Eragon, etc.) as tools for her own purposes. Very Boss of her, and I love the little parallel between her and Galbatorix because of that.

I last read this book as a child and did not find Roran's journey very interesting then. This time I made a more conscious effort to follow his story and enjoyed it. We love a man who goes absolutely bananas.

Really enjoyed the training montage Eragon goes through, it's probably my favorite part of the book. The satisfaction when he finally gets the upper hand in swordfighting is still just as fun as when I was a kid.

Rereading the books gives me a much better understanding of Arya. She was attacked, her companions killed, imprisoned, tortured, almost died to poisoning, and once she survives all this just has to go back to work and also fend off 16-year-old Eragon from making moon eyes at her. I really feel for her. No moment or chance for her to work through what she's gone through, and while of course she doesn't share much of her feelings (especially not with Eragon) I can imagine how horrible the entire situation is.

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coreyarch9's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Paolini sure likes to make us work for an action-packed payout! I tend to prefer plot-driven reads, so having a book that is slower and very heavy on the character development is fighting against my reading style.

That said, I enjoyed that Eldest showed us more of Roran and brought back some key characters from Eragon while introducing us to a new cast. The battle at the end was everything that I could want and I'm looking forward to continuing full steam ahead as I dive into a reread of the next book in the series.

Content Warnings

melancholymegs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Content Warnings

darkefyres's review

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

clockworkhobbit's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

lunep's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The first third-to-half was a little rough, ngl, I was not very motivated to keep reading, I felt it was sloww. Roran's chapters didn't hold my attention at first, and then it was Eragon's the ones that started to drag. But after the half-way point it really picked up and got good, and I'm easy to please and the ending makes or breaks books/movies/series for me, so if I enjoy the ending I can usually forgive any earlier misgivings lmao, and this books ending is bomb. I remember reading that plot-twist and having my mind blown as a 12 y/o, and even now, 12 years later, I found stuff that I don't remember picking up before, which was very fun. I think Eragon had big character growth during this book, even tho he's a dumbass on some stuff still. He definitely feels older now.

And god am I depressed about him and Murtagh, it's such a tragic situation in which both of them fuck up, and even at the begining of Brisingr Eragon understands Murtagh but still feels betrayed and renegues him as brother...ugh, my kids 😭

Content Warnings

fluffballreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

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