26. Eragon - Christopher Paolini

Ok. I really have to get better at posting as I read instead of trying to play catch up with the pile of books that is steadily growing beside my monitor. Mostly because by the time I get around to posting I have forgotten what I wanted to say about the book. Not that I really say anything terribly interesting anyways, but maybe that is fueled by my posting procrastination. Of course part of the reason I am posting right now is because I am procrastinating from another project. Go figure. Well and also I have 2 books of Dev's that I really should return tonight at bookclub and I really should log them before I do.

Anyways, I was surprised that Eragon was written by a 15 year old. And more than a little jealous because I am 25 and I still don't think I could write like that. I just can't seem to get my thoughts in order or get any ideas to suss out into a larger story arc or ... well any of the things that you probably need to be able to do in order to get published. And maybe that is just me selling myself short - I have a tendency to do that and pretend that it is being realistic. Hard to say. But the language was beautiful and seemed so much above a highschool level. Maybe, as Sarah and I discussed, the plot was highschool but I think that is a little less than fair. Definitely there were obvious borrows from LoTR and StarWars and probably some other classics that I failed to recognize but really what book doesn't borrow from something else? Isn't it said that there are basically 6 great stories and every other book is some sort of retelling? But there were dragons and battles and adventure and it was an easy and fairly quick read.

I think the biggest "danger" is that the book followed a form that I am overly familiar with and I found myself anticipating certain outcomes and sometimes I wished that he would do something different so that I could be a little surprised. I have some predictions I am fairly confident about for the sequel and I think the best thing that could happen would be for my view of things to come be totally off base. Which means I will definitely read Eldest to find out how on the mark I was. Sometimes I really am every marketers greatest dream. :p