Why the Inheritance Cycle is Excellent
Sup! It’s Nate here again, and today I will be telling you why the Inheritance cycle is an excellent series that you should read. The Inheritance cycle is made up of four books: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance. It falls into the category of fantasy--there are dragons, elves, dwarves, and other creatures. Eragon was Christopher Paolini’s debut novel, written in his late teens, and it was fantastically received.
Summary (spoilers!!!)
Eragon, a poor farm boy, finds a strange stone while hunting that turns out to be a dragon egg! The egg hatches, and Eragon and the dragon (Saphira) quickly bond. However, strange creatures called the Ra’Zac kill Eragon’s uncle, whom he lives with because he was abandoned as a baby, and Eragon and Saphira go off to kill them with the help of Brom, a trader who also knows about dragons. The trio gets attacked in the night, and Brom is mortally wounded. As he dies, he reveals to Eragon that he was also a dragon rider. He meets a young man named Murtagh, and they rescue an elf from a prison and journey to join the Varden, who is resisting the corrupt Empire under control of King Galbatorix and Shruikan the dragon. They help the Varden win a battle, and Eragon kills a Shade--an extremely dangerous creature possessed by spirits. Murtagh is captured, and Eragon decides to go to the elf forest Du Weldenvarden with Arya (the elf he rescued) to complete his training as a Rider. He trains, and then the Varden and the Empire have their first battle. Around this time, Roran, Eragon’s brother, joins the Varden along with the rest of his village, having been driven out by the Empire. Murtagh was turned against his will through Galbatorix’s magic, along with Thorn, another dragon. The Riders fight and the Varden is victorious. The Varden continues to march towards the Empire’s capital, and eventually, Eragon kills Galbatorix and Shruikan with the help of his friends.
Review
The Inheritance cycle has many qualities that make it a wonderful read. First of all are its fantastic descriptions. The books are quite long, but this is in part because of the level of detail. Each character’s feelings are made clearly apparent through colorful imagery; so much so that the reader can easily emotionally identify with the characters. Magic is also described very well, which is especially helpful because the things being described often couldn’t exist. Take this quote, for example: “A malefic light sprang into existence between Thorn’s jaws and instant before an ever-expanding wall of flames billowed out of his maw[.]” Even though you’ve probably never seen a dragon breathe fire before, this quote gives you a good idea of what it would look like.
Another thing that Inheritance does very well is showcasing character development. There is about as much time devoted to developing Eragon and Roran’s characters as there is to action. Eragon goes from a poor farm boy with moderate survival skills to a Dragon Rider, extremely skilled in combat and capable of using magic. Readers are taken through every step of his physical and emotional transformations, experiencing Eragon’s new wisdom and changes in attitude as he and Saphira grow from each other. Roran goes through a similar transformation, but one possibly even more impressive--he went from being fairly isolated within his village to using his persuasiveness to lead the village to fight for the Varden. He also became a skilled tactician and soldier, without superhuman abilities like Eragon. He also married a woman named Katrina, and his son will be born fairly soon after the end of Inheritance. Roran will have to develop even further to help lead a safe and successful family.
The final great quality I would attribute to Inheritance is the complexity of the story. The basic outline of the plot isn’t too hard to foresee from the beginning, but there are many, many twists that caught me off guard. I haven’t mentioned many of the twists in this post, so you’ll have to see them for yourself!
If I had to choose the worst thing about Inheritance, I would probably say that the story can drag sometimes. While I found Eragon’s magical and combat training quite entertaining, some people might be bored by it. In addition, there are a lot of battles, and their novelty wears off pretty quickly. Their scheme begins to get repetitive after a few of them. Possibly even worse than the battles is the traveling of the Varden’s army, mainly occurring in the last two books. These sections tended to be my least favorite because of their seemingly unnecessary description, often with little character development or action.
Overall, I would recommend the Inheritance cycle to anyone who wants an entertaining and complex fantasy series to read with a good mix of character development, and has quite a bit of time to read it in. 9.5 out of 10, would spend many hours reading again.
Summary (spoilers!!!)
Eragon, a poor farm boy, finds a strange stone while hunting that turns out to be a dragon egg! The egg hatches, and Eragon and the dragon (Saphira) quickly bond. However, strange creatures called the Ra’Zac kill Eragon’s uncle, whom he lives with because he was abandoned as a baby, and Eragon and Saphira go off to kill them with the help of Brom, a trader who also knows about dragons. The trio gets attacked in the night, and Brom is mortally wounded. As he dies, he reveals to Eragon that he was also a dragon rider. He meets a young man named Murtagh, and they rescue an elf from a prison and journey to join the Varden, who is resisting the corrupt Empire under control of King Galbatorix and Shruikan the dragon. They help the Varden win a battle, and Eragon kills a Shade--an extremely dangerous creature possessed by spirits. Murtagh is captured, and Eragon decides to go to the elf forest Du Weldenvarden with Arya (the elf he rescued) to complete his training as a Rider. He trains, and then the Varden and the Empire have their first battle. Around this time, Roran, Eragon’s brother, joins the Varden along with the rest of his village, having been driven out by the Empire. Murtagh was turned against his will through Galbatorix’s magic, along with Thorn, another dragon. The Riders fight and the Varden is victorious. The Varden continues to march towards the Empire’s capital, and eventually, Eragon kills Galbatorix and Shruikan with the help of his friends.
Review
The Inheritance cycle has many qualities that make it a wonderful read. First of all are its fantastic descriptions. The books are quite long, but this is in part because of the level of detail. Each character’s feelings are made clearly apparent through colorful imagery; so much so that the reader can easily emotionally identify with the characters. Magic is also described very well, which is especially helpful because the things being described often couldn’t exist. Take this quote, for example: “A malefic light sprang into existence between Thorn’s jaws and instant before an ever-expanding wall of flames billowed out of his maw[.]” Even though you’ve probably never seen a dragon breathe fire before, this quote gives you a good idea of what it would look like.
Another thing that Inheritance does very well is showcasing character development. There is about as much time devoted to developing Eragon and Roran’s characters as there is to action. Eragon goes from a poor farm boy with moderate survival skills to a Dragon Rider, extremely skilled in combat and capable of using magic. Readers are taken through every step of his physical and emotional transformations, experiencing Eragon’s new wisdom and changes in attitude as he and Saphira grow from each other. Roran goes through a similar transformation, but one possibly even more impressive--he went from being fairly isolated within his village to using his persuasiveness to lead the village to fight for the Varden. He also became a skilled tactician and soldier, without superhuman abilities like Eragon. He also married a woman named Katrina, and his son will be born fairly soon after the end of Inheritance. Roran will have to develop even further to help lead a safe and successful family.
The final great quality I would attribute to Inheritance is the complexity of the story. The basic outline of the plot isn’t too hard to foresee from the beginning, but there are many, many twists that caught me off guard. I haven’t mentioned many of the twists in this post, so you’ll have to see them for yourself!
If I had to choose the worst thing about Inheritance, I would probably say that the story can drag sometimes. While I found Eragon’s magical and combat training quite entertaining, some people might be bored by it. In addition, there are a lot of battles, and their novelty wears off pretty quickly. Their scheme begins to get repetitive after a few of them. Possibly even worse than the battles is the traveling of the Varden’s army, mainly occurring in the last two books. These sections tended to be my least favorite because of their seemingly unnecessary description, often with little character development or action.
Overall, I would recommend the Inheritance cycle to anyone who wants an entertaining and complex fantasy series to read with a good mix of character development, and has quite a bit of time to read it in. 9.5 out of 10, would spend many hours reading again.
Great review! This series sounds interesting, and I might consider reading it. I usually don't enjoy fantasy books much because I think they can be really repetitive and predictable, but this series sounds good enough to give it a try. I also appreciate your warning for spoilers.
ReplyDeleteI read this series a few years ago, but I'd forgotten about it until reading your review. I really liked your summary since it was fun to read while also summarizing four very large books in a single paragraph! I also liked how your analysis of character development and imagery was supported with quotes and events from the book. I have forgotten the many twists that you mention so I will definitely have to read this series again. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI remember starting the book and finding it a bit slow, but I've seen the movie a couple times. It is definitely an entertaining story. I like that you talked about many aspects of the book, such as character development, not just plot, and also that you said what you didn't like. I might try the series again after reading this post. Good review!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good review! You did a good job giving a concise, informative summary of what could otherwise be a confusing plot, and I liked you described a lot of specific attributes that you like, like the creative descriptions, character development, and relatableness (relatability?) of the characters. I haven't read much fantasy lately, but it's a genre I really enjoyed when I was younger, so I'd be interested to give this series a try!
ReplyDeleteGreat review! Your summary was more extensive and descriptive that I usually see, and that really gave me a good idea of whether the book was right for me (even if it did contain a few spoilers). I also really liked how you described (in depth) the main qualities of the book. Some of the other reviews I read don't really give the reader a good idea of what the book is about, but this blog post is really helpful in that area. Again, great review!
ReplyDelete