Eldest – Christopher Paolini

Title: Eldest

Series: Inheritance, Book 2

Genre: Fantasy

Author: Christopher Paolini

I had been waiting for years when this came out. After reading Eragon
, the first of the Inheritance series, I was just left hanging with the abrupt ending. Well this one picks up just about as abruptly, and doesn’t really let go or calm down throughout.

I had read some reviews which complained about the training which Eragon and Saphira go through – how it takes up so much time and how its so boring and all that. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a nerd, but I thought Paolini did an excellent job keeping things moving through the training phase. He actually left me wanting more. He also utilizes that period in the book to explore a little more the history of the world he’s created. You can see a very strong Tolkien emphasis there (not to mention with many of the names he’s chosen for characters and places!).

And I think this book turns the tale more into a multi-character tale, with the return of Roran and the adventure he undertakes which eventually links him back to Eragon.

Overall, very well done. I pretty much inhaled the book – it definitely moved and kept the story rolling on. I had a really hard time putting it down every night. It’s also neat to see Paolini’s maturation as an author. And I just can’t wait for the third book!

Worldview: Atheistic, though there are a few theistic leanings.

Recommended Age: Unlike the first, this book does have a few slightly sexual themes which emerge, though they are pretty chaste overall, so I would suggest this for High Schoool age children, with maybe the exception of 8th graders.

Additional links:
Inheritance Trilogy entry in Wikipedia
Inheritance Trilogy wiki
Shurtgal.com – a a fan site with all kinds of news, gossip, and other stuff about everything in the Inheritance Trilogy
TeenReads.com Author Profile
Inheritance Trilogy website
HubPages.com author profile of Christopher Paolini
BookBrowse.com interview with Paolini