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authorannafaundez's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-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? No
5.0
Overall? Loved it.
Just one, pretty minor, complaint: the first 30% or so of the book was mostly fighting and battles, which made the book drag. It could've done with some condensing without losing any substance.
I remember hearing in the past that many readers didn't like how the series ended. Personally, I like the ending. Everything gets tied up, but the bow is messy in a good way. Things aren't perfect; things can still go wrong.
Just one, pretty minor, complaint: the first 30% or so of the book was mostly fighting and battles, which made the book drag. It could've done with some condensing without losing any substance.
I remember hearing in the past that many readers didn't like how the series ended. Personally, I like the ending. Everything gets tied up, but the bow is messy in a good way. Things aren't perfect; things can still go wrong.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
Moderate: Torture and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery, Pregnancy, and Suicide
bisexualwentworth's review
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Well, I did it. I finished my reread of the Inheritance Cycle. And I've gotta say, I did not enjoy rereading Inheritance.
When I first read Eragon, I was about eight years old. A paperback copy of Eragon was the first book I ever bought for myself. It was fun and tropey and despite my struggles, even as a child, with the way Paolini wrote women, I continued with the series, reading Eldest and then reading Brisingr right when it came out.
When Inheritance was finally published, I was thirteen years old. I had read a lot of other books. My tastes had expanded. But I was still eager and excited to finish this series that I had enjoyed so much. It was a series that was popular among my friends and my cousins, and books that I can share with the people in my life have always been important to me. Plus, Paolini's dragons are fantastic.
Anyway, I remember reading Inheritance in one day, finishing it past midnight in bed. And I liked it. I remember this book being controversial among fans when it came out, and I remember pushing back against a lot of the criticism. Specifically, people didn't like the ending, and I felt like it made sense for the characters and was also a foregone conclusion. I did not read Inheritance again until this reread of the entire series.
For the entirety of this formulaic, messy, slow, but incredibly entertaining series, Christopher Paolini has followed a very specific structure for each book: violent inciting incident, Eragon goes and does quests and training, big final battle, speedy conclusion. Books two and three spice things up a bit with Roran and Nasuada's (often much more compelling) subplots, but the overall structure is the same. Inheritance strays from this formula, and while as a young teen I found this switchup effective, as an adult, I don't think it's done particularly well. Paolini tries to wrap up far too many things in the aftermath section, and it ends up feeling like a slog. If he had integrated more of those things into earlier parts of the book, the conclusion could have been shorter and would have landed a lot better.
The elements are here. Unlike many readers, I don't mind the deus ex machina elements of this book. I think they fit with the story overall. I genuinely like the way that Eragon eventually defeats Galbatorix and the roles that other characters like Murtagh and Arya play in the final confrontation. And I still think that Paolini made the right choice with the ending. Overall, there are actually stronger narrative choices here than in much of the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the execution is often quite poor.
The rest of this review will contain spoilers.
Before I get into my many issues with this book, there are some things that I genuinely really like about it even as an adult:
When I first read Eragon, I was about eight years old. A paperback copy of Eragon was the first book I ever bought for myself. It was fun and tropey and despite my struggles, even as a child, with the way Paolini wrote women, I continued with the series, reading Eldest and then reading Brisingr right when it came out.
When Inheritance was finally published, I was thirteen years old. I had read a lot of other books. My tastes had expanded. But I was still eager and excited to finish this series that I had enjoyed so much. It was a series that was popular among my friends and my cousins, and books that I can share with the people in my life have always been important to me. Plus, Paolini's dragons are fantastic.
Anyway, I remember reading Inheritance in one day, finishing it past midnight in bed. And I liked it. I remember this book being controversial among fans when it came out, and I remember pushing back against a lot of the criticism. Specifically, people didn't like the ending, and I felt like it made sense for the characters and was also a foregone conclusion. I did not read Inheritance again until this reread of the entire series.
For the entirety of this formulaic, messy, slow, but incredibly entertaining series, Christopher Paolini has followed a very specific structure for each book: violent inciting incident, Eragon goes and does quests and training, big final battle, speedy conclusion. Books two and three spice things up a bit with Roran and Nasuada's (often much more compelling) subplots, but the overall structure is the same. Inheritance strays from this formula, and while as a young teen I found this switchup effective, as an adult, I don't think it's done particularly well. Paolini tries to wrap up far too many things in the aftermath section, and it ends up feeling like a slog. If he had integrated more of those things into earlier parts of the book, the conclusion could have been shorter and would have landed a lot better.
The elements are here. Unlike many readers, I don't mind the deus ex machina elements of this book. I think they fit with the story overall. I genuinely like the way that Eragon eventually defeats Galbatorix and the roles that other characters like Murtagh and Arya play in the final confrontation. And I still think that Paolini made the right choice with the ending. Overall, there are actually stronger narrative choices here than in much of the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the execution is often quite poor.
The rest of this review will contain spoilers.
Before I get into my many issues with this book, there are some things that I genuinely really like about it even as an adult:
- Nasuada's storyline in this book is incredibly harrowing and I hate the way she is treated in-universe, but she is written so inexplicably well and her character arc is so strong and her scenes are the most memorable and well-written in this book. I feel like it is her scenes in the Hall of the Soothsayer where Paolini's love of describing every single thing is finally put to good use in his vivid descriptions of her visions and her overall situation--though I could have done with a shorter description of the jailer's fingernails.
- Are Murtagh and Nasuada a problematic ship? Sure. Do I care? No. I was very invested in them when I first read this book, and I still am. Yes Murtagh's character growth happens mostly off-page, and it's kind of wretched that it's so tied to his supposed love for a woman he barely knows, but I can't bring myself to care. I like them. I am excited to read Murtagh's book.
- The werecats are fun and I like them.
- Eragon singing to Elaine's baby to heal her lip. Of all the magical cures in this series, this is the only acceptable one. Though the misogyny surrounding that scene was vile.
- The older dragons being totally lost in abstraction and struggling to communicate with others feels really appropriate. I love the scene where the oldest dragon tries to impress upon Eragon the importance of the starlings' thoughts and lives.
- Snalgli!
- Saphira doesn't get nearly enough moments in this book, but they are all excellent--when she loses a scale on her nose, when she discovers her true name... I love her. She is still my favorite dragon character ever, and I want more of her (though unfortunately that would also mean more of Eragon and while he is better by the end of this book, I'm not super wanting to spend more time with him).
- Roran defeating Barst. I don't like Roran but this fight scene WORKS, especially in the aftermath of Islanzadi's death.
Many parts of this book did not work for me, and it's mostly for one simple reason: lack of development. Paolini sets up a lot of things in previous books that pay off in this one: the Vault of Souls, Angela's prophecy about Eragon leaving Alagaësia, and the true name of the Ancient Language are all set up with some decent foreshadowing--and then ignored in this book until they are suddenly important. This cheapens them and makes them ring kind of hollow even though they are strong conceptually.
On the flip side, Paolini builds up several things in this book to then give them fairly disappointing payoffs. Chief among these is the sword fighting. In book one, Eragon and Murtagh are evenly matched swordsmen. In book two, Eragon gets his magical powers and then can seemingly defeat any opponent because he's just so good with a sword--with the exception of Murtagh and Arya. So when he works so hard in this book to improve his swordfighting skills with Arya and Glaedr, only for Murtagh to still be better than him at the end with no apparent extra work on Murtagh's end (yes Eragon technically wins but Murtagh is still stated to be the better swordsman) when they were EVENLY MATCHED before is frustrating. The scene is good but the overall arc of it is bad.
Good ideas that just need to be developed and integrated a lot better for them to live up to their potential:
- Including dwarves and urgals in the dragon rider spell.
- The dauthdaert--should have been introduced in book three.
- Saphira and Firnen's relationship.
- All of the stuff about needing to control magic users was decent but needed more buildup in previous books. And also Nasuada's solution almost makes sense, but I feel like it's missing something. We'll see if the Murtagh book addresses that, so I'm reserving judgment for now.
Arya was always the most likely choice for the green rider, and this makes it really boring when it's her. Imagine if it had been Nasuada. Or Elva. Or that teenage girl with the massive forearms who shows up twice. Or even Katrina. That could have been fun. But no. Most obvious, most boring choice.
And have I mentioned that I HATE Eragon and Arya's relationship? It doesn't quite get fully romantic in this book, but it basically does, and it's awful. And what's so frustrating is that their friendship in book three and this one is actually very normal! If it weren't for Eragon's weird boundary-free lust their dynamic would mostly be fine. But no. We can't have nice things.
Also, torture doesn't work. Galbatorix should know this. Plus he has way more effective interrogation methods. I get it, and like I said those scenes were very effective, but also, the brutalization of Nasuada in this book is a LOT.
I genuinely thought that this book would hold up, especially after rereading Brisingr and enjoying it quite a bit more than I expected, but instead, this is a strangely-paced, overlong book that has a real problem with setup and payoff and development, and considering those are the three main parts of storytelling, it is overall a frustrating read. We shall see if Murtagh is any better.
Ugh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Gore, Grief, Violence, Torture, Medical content, and Death of parent
Moderate: Misogyny, Slavery, and Racism
abby_can_read's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-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? Yes
5.0
📖
This was a brilliant book. I had a fabulous time reading it. There were a lot of details that were intricate. The worldbuilding continued to blow me away. The characters and their various relationships amazed me. While the plot was a little predictable, it kept me interested and engaged.
This was a brilliant book. I had a fabulous time reading it. There were a lot of details that were intricate. The worldbuilding continued to blow me away. The characters and their various relationships amazed me. While the plot was a little predictable, it kept me interested and engaged.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, and War
Moderate: Slavery, Gore, Death, and Blood
Minor: Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
midnightgremlin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, and Torture
rhian2790's review
adventurous
emotional
relaxing
medium-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
Graphic: Torture, Child death, War, Animal death, and Death
bored_chloe's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I loved this book, which is weird to say when I thought the first was okay and the second and third got worse with each book. This one was a little boring to me for about 200 pages until we get to Roran being sent away for a siege and when, finally, Galbatorix appears on page. Personally, I think he should have appeared sooner because he was fascinating as a character and I'm not entirely sure of exactly what is 'evil' about him other than destroying the Dragon Riders and the whole stuff with Murtagh.
So now, why 3 stars?
To start with, I don't enjoy the writing and how things are described that much. I still don't like Eragon much as a character but he was tolerable and he was less annoying as I'd found him in previous books. And lastly, I hate that I spent three years reading the first 3 books in this series and hardly enjoying them only for this to be so good I could barely put it down for the last three days.
As for the ending, I didn't hate it, nor did I love it, but I couldn't see any other way of ending it because of how Galbatorix had been built up with his power and skill with magic.
So now, why 3 stars?
To start with, I don't enjoy the writing and how things are described that much. I still don't like Eragon much as a character but he was tolerable and he was less annoying as I'd found him in previous books. And lastly, I hate that I spent three years reading the first 3 books in this series and hardly enjoying them only for this to be so good I could barely put it down for the last three days.
As for the ending, I didn't hate it, nor did I love it, but I couldn't see any other way of ending it because of how Galbatorix had been built up with his power and skill with magic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, and Torture
Moderate: Blood
morton_aj's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
natashalg's review
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Body horror, War, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Confinement, and Torture
Moderate: Grief and Kidnapping
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
rheagoveas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Blood, and War
sting4780's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Torture, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and War