Eragon
by Christopher Paolini

reviewed by Byron Merritt

Eragon, a young lad of 15, is out hunting in the land of Alagaesia when something strange drops from the sky and catches the surrounding forest on fire. It appears to be a meteorite of some kind, and his family—not being the wealthiest in the lands by any means—might be able to sell it to a local merchant. So Eragon picks it up and carries it back home. But no one back home seems to want it.

But then one night in Eragon’s room, the little “rock” begins making strange noises. It turns out this wasn’t a rock at all. But instead was a dragon’s egg! One of the last eggs in all of Alagaesia. And the dragon inside (eventually named Saphira) has chosen Eragon as its rider; an ancient and noble distinction.

Evil tidings are ahead for Eragon and Saphira, as the king of Alagaesia, Galbatorix, sends his minions to capture our heroes and bring them back to his castle. And these minions are horrible creatures: venomous Ra’zac’s and wicked Urgals who will do anything to capture them. Eragon is forced to flee after a deadly attack on his home which ends up killing several people. And with him comes Brom, an old storyteller from his hometown (who turns out to be much more than a simple wordsmith).

Great and terrible deeds await Eragon on his journey. He must grapple with his own coming of age, his growing powers as a dragonrider, and deal with love and loss on multiple levels.

What makes this story engrossing is Christopher Paolini’s world. He’s created a magical place with believable characters and interesting names. The fact that Eragon and his dragon can only communicate via telepathy is an interesting twist on an old theme (i.e., dragon/human relationships).

Where the novel falls short is in originality. If you’ve read Lord of the Rings or The Dragon Riders of Pern, you’ll be all too familiar with the storyline and many of its archetypal characters. The journey is pretty standard fare, too, but this young author has shown amazing promise for a first time novelist.

Many readers have lambasted the author for following (or even plagiarizing) those fantasy giants who’ve come before him (J.R.R. Tolkien to be blunt). But many have followed in the footsteps of these giants. Indeed, most fantasy novels that came after master Tolkien’s magnum opus dragged parts of the Lord of the Rings in with them. It’s not plagiarism; it’s reinventing the magic that these stories gave us and putting it into a new context. Oh sure, they don’t break any new ground, but they weren’t meant to, and I believe that Chris Paolini has done a fine job of pulling in many facets of previously done themes and putting a new character into their midst. Congratulations for that.

What also drew me to this book was that when Chris Paolini first started writing this he was fifteen years old (the same age as Eragon, the hero of the story). Also was the fact that the author self-published it first, then got picked up by a large publishing house and soon after sold the movie rights for an undisclosed sum. Not bad, Chris. Not bad at all.