Nov 10, 2007 10:56 PM
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*Introduction*
Now that the Harry Potter series is behind me, I decided to go ahead with the *Inheritance Trilogy*. I had read Eragon and thought that it was an interesting start to the series, though a bit slow. So I got **Eldest**, the second book of the *Inheritance Trilogy*. One thing I would like to comment is that this review says that there are two writers namely *Christopher Paolini and Enrique De Heriz*, but my copy had no mention of *Enrique De Heirz*.
*The Plot*
The Plot starts from where the **Eragon** ended, i.e.
battlefield at Farthen Dur. While the Varden are rehabilitating from
the aftereffects of the battle, they get a body blow in the form of
murder of their king, Ajihad. To add to that Eragon's friend Murtagh
and the magicians Twins also either seem to have been killed or taken
by the Urgals. Ajihad's daughter, Nasuada is chosen to lead the Varden
after him.
The Varden, the dwarves and the elves all line up to make sure that
Eragon ends up swearing loyalty to their race. Eragon ends up swearing
loyalty to all three races! Eragon has paid a big price in the battle
at Farthen Dur and though still a Rider, it seems that he would be
crippled for life with the injury to his back and spine. Anyhow, he
goes to the elves for further training in the hope that they might know
something to cure him. In the meantime, Varden are preparing to move to
Surda in a final attempt to challenge the empire openly.
Meanwhile, back at Eragon's village, Carvahall, his popularity has
caused a major tragedy with the empire barricading the village. The
village is surrounded by Ra'zac and their forces. Unable to completely
protect themselves against this, the villagers led by Eragon's cousin
Roran desert the village in search of forces that would find the
Empire.
Eragon reaches Du WeldenVarden and meets the Eldest rider, Oromis
and his dragon Glaedr. Both are incapacitated and are spending their
time in retirement. Over the past decades they have taught a great many
Riders including Brom and Morzan. Now they start to tutor Eragon and
Saphira about Riders and the use of magic. By the end of the training
Eragon knows more about elves, dragons and other creatures around him
than he taught possible.
Suddenly, the battle clouds are looming over Surda. The empire is
preparing to attack Surda and the action is going to start. Eragon is
required to abandon his training and reach Surda to assist the Varden.
Does Eragon reach in time? Does he have any impact on the war even
with his partial training? Do the refugees from Carvahall reach in time
to join forces with Varden? Does Varden have enough resources to thwart
the empire? Check out **Eldest** for all the answers.
*Critic's Viewpoint*
In my review of **Eragon**, I had mentioned how impressed I am
about Christopher Paolini's first offering. The reason was both because
it was his first book and the fact that he wrote it when he was 15. One
of the things that I had felt then though was that the story was not
complex enough to match the likes of **Harry Potter** series or the **Lord of the Rings** series.
That is precisely what Paolini has tried to address in **Eldest**.
Suddenly the story starts moving in several parallel threads. So we
have Eragon undergoing the Rider training and also studying about all
other races, the Varden are groping with internal politics and are
preparing to attack the Empire, the villagers of Carvahall are fighting
for their survival and the Empire prepares for the final assault.
That's a start, but then the intricacies are still not there. The
boardroom drama at Varden where they elect Nasuada as the new chief
seems to lack the depth that such a scenario provides. Other things
like internal politics between the Varden and Orrin's army is also
lacking in depth.
The one good thing Paolini has done is that he has tried to build
upon the basic definition of the races that have been defined in **Lord of the Rings**.
This means he does not need to start afresh in building all their basic
characteristics and that makes it easier for all those who have read
the **Lord of the Rings** series to get into the groove for this
one. The novel addition here is a bit more detailed analysis of dragons
and their properties and their thought processes.
Coming to the pace of the book, the book starts very slowly with
the aftermath of the war of Farthen Dur and then picks up a bit of pace
and then goes to sleep again and then towards the end the action hots
up. To give a fair idea of how gripping this book was, it took me
nearly one full month to go through 650 odd pages of this book.
Compared to this **Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
was done and dusted from cover to cover(around 600 pages) in about 2
and half days! But, then it is not really a fair comparison, because
on the one hand we have a veteran in *J.K. Rowling* and on the other we have an emerging talent in *Paolini*.
I think Paolini's dalliance with portrayal of romance between Roran and
Katreena was slow and painful to say the least. He could have well nigh
steered out of the same. Also the portions dealing with Carvahall and
their resistance was so drawn out that I think it was more to fill up
the pages than to add much value to the story. It seemed that he had a
mandate from his publisher that he wants 600 odd pages in there!
*Summary*
But, again as I said Paolini is still a work in progress writer and
given that much leeway his writings hold a lot of promise. I think this
book sets up the last book of the inheritance series which is still
unnamed.
I would give this book an average 3 star rating.
