I couldn't find an existing thread, save for one about the Eragon movie, so I took the liberty of creating this one. Book four came out today/yesterday, depending on where you live, and although I despise the series like a hundred or so other people here, I wanted to finish it after having read the previous - and increasingly shitty - books.

So fucking glad that I didn't pay for my copy. By the second page I was more annoyed than I had been throughout the entirety of Deathly Hallows. By the fourth chapter I was depressed enough to set my Facebook relationship status to an open relationship with my right hand.

Small reminder: in Eldest, Eragon gained Elvish dexterity, mental acuity, balance, grace, tact, etcetera. He spends much of the opening chapters falling over, twisting his ankle as he dismounts his crackbaby dragon, throwing weapons and missing, and generally failing to perform basic tasks of everyday life in stereotypical fantasy book one, let alone the (allegedly) final book in a series. <- I'm still only a few chapters in, so I have no idea if Paolini actually finished the 'trilogy' with the fourth book.

I'm a fan of guilty pleasure reading. It's why I read fanfiction. Eragon fits into decent (but not great) fanfiction standards, with Eldest and Brisingr trailing below at Recycling Bin level. Not great, but a passably entertaining way of killing time if bored, like Monday night television. Inheritance is physically painful to read. I'm hoping it'll lessen up soon, because I'm determined to finish this no matter what.

Perhaps I'm doing Paolini a disservice. But so far, this book is shaping up to be incredibly lazy writing with even less thought to character progression than the previous books. Hell, things are noticeably below the standard that they were at, as if Eragon's had a bad psyche amalgamation with Gilderoy Lockhart.

Even Twilight had it's place on bookshelves. A terrible-but-brilliant archetype of wish fulfillment, perhaps, but a place nonetheless. Inheritance doesn't, losing even the mediocre appeal of the rest of the Inheritance Cycle by containing a summary, synopsis, and title all in one word:

DERP
​

Any thoughts?

And if there's a rabid fan out there who wants to tear me a new asshole, please do so. If there's some tiny redeeming feature I've overlooked, I really would love to find it. Ram it down my throat like Aberforth down a goat. I don't want to believe my own opinion, it's so bad.

 

The sad thing is, I agree with you. I gave up after halfway through the book. After all the hype and excitement, I am so sorely disappointed. Might try it again sometime I'm free :/

 

I managed to get it yesterday and was willing to spend my night reading it, until I got 120 pages in and decided sleep was more entertaining. I'm sure I'll get around to finishing it... eventually.

Paolini has screwed himself over imo, he hasn't thought things through and made it so he only had a single book to tie in everything, and somehow get Eragon at the level to take down Galbatorix. To be honest, I have the feeling it will turn out like DH in it's ending. Do not want. The series had a fair bit of potential, but he's just seemed to get progressively worse with each book. Maybe not in the quality of the writing (which I would be inclined to say has improved), but in the plot and little things like him tripping over himself and failing at life, as already mentioned.

 

Lol I am so glad that I stopped reading the series after reading the first book.

 

I'm going to buy it, if only to have all four books. After what I read here, I'll do so with caution and post again after I've read at least some of it.
I'd like to see someone comment on the plot once he's finished the book though.

 

If I had as much money as Paolini has at his age, I guarantee the quality of my writing would slip too. I'd be distracted by all my boats and hoes.

Regardless, it's been like three years since Brisingr and I can't be arsed reading that book again to catch myself up on what's going on so no, Inheritance can fuck clean off.

 

I've just finished it, and of all my complaints, one stands out:

The idiocy of Rowling's POWER OF LOVE for beating the big bad has been beaten hands-down:

Spoiler

Eragon uses the combined magic of a hundred ancient dragons to make Mr. Naughty understand that he was, in fact, not the good guy after all and rather upset a few people. The shocked realization of what he'd done caused him to explode in the style of a nuclear bomb.

Actually, this paragraph removed from spoilers, because fuck you all if you consider this to be a genuine plot point. The references to Dr Who and shoehorned-in bits of physics like Eragon discovering that the world is round pissed me off. It's not clever, it accomplishes nothing, and it completely shatters the fourth wall when you have a character knit the word raxacoricofallapatorius onto a woollen hat. Seriously. That happened. Raxacoricofallapatorius. The hat was blue. Like a TARDIS. >.>

 

I just finished it, and I can honestly say it was terrible. Thankfully, I wasn't really expecting otherwise.

I once read some of the fan fiction stories for the books (don't look at me like that, I was like twelve), and Inheritance reads almost identically to some stories there, as far as I can remember. The plot was that predictable, fans could write identical stories years before this book came out. Good work, Paolini.

Fair warning, I've never used spoiler tags on this site before, it's 2am and I'm on my iPad, so don't read below if you've not yet finished the book. Not really sure if this will work or not.

Spoiler

Also, definitely agree. The way Galbatorix died was bad, and Paolini should feel bad. Seriously, what the fuck was that anti-climatic shit.

And I have to admit, I sort of wanted Eragon to bone Arya. Man, she was a frigid bitch.

 

Holy fuck it's that bad? I read the spoilers and...wow.

I'll reserve judgement 'till I've read the book, but this has seriously turned my mood off from reading it. :|

 

I enjoyed the book, and I enjoyed the previous books.

In the beginning I found myself thinking that I could have done better during a few instances of character interaction, but as the story progressed I was drawn in and eagerly read on to find out what happened next. I would definitely reccomend this series to anyone looking for a good fantasy book to read.

Spoiler

I don't think the death of Galbatorix was bad either, as it wasn't like it came out of left field. We've been reading all through the series how impossible it would be to get through his wards through conventional means, and how it would take a completely unexpected avenue of attack to bypass them.

I admit I was hoping for Eragon to hook up with Arya, but he was cockblocked in two of his three opportunities and wussed out in the other.

 

Well I have to say I agree with the general sentiment and on a related note, I'm actually going to be meeting Paolini in a few days, anyone have anything they want asked?

 

Will his next series be more entertaining and worth my money?

He's not a bad writer, technical-wise, but his inexperience with plots and characterization show, sadly. There were a few good things in there, mythos wise, and some original ideas. But those don't make a good series or book.

 

I really don't get all the Eragon hate. As long as you keep your expectations modest, the books aren't a bad read - for me, personally, I enjoyed them.

I haven't read any spoilers about the last book, but I got a copy and plan on reading it over thanksgiving.

For those who haven't read the series: just keep an open mind and don't expect greatness to leap off the page - you'll probably end up enjoying it.

 

Krogan, just ask him if he changed his Star Wars fanfiction himself or his editor made him change it.

I liked it a bit, but I'm glad I didn't pay, and after seeing santi updated while i was reading, I wish I hadn't.

 

What were Brom's words and why were they not mentioned.

What did Angela whisper to the head priest of helgrind.

Those two are just off the top of my head, I can probably give you more if I think about it for a while.

 

Read the first book and half of the second before I dropped it, which was a few years ago. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. It was just a bit boring.

 

Was I the only one who thought Angela might have been the first Soothsayer chick that Galbatorix mentioned?

 

Heheheh. I'd love to see a chapter-by-chapter commentary from you on the book; it would be hilarious.

 

I started reading it yesterday, thinking that I was going to marathon it through a day. I placed it down after around 5 chapters, deciding instead that it will be a book I slowly trudge through. Honestly, perhaps it's been a long time since I've read the past three books, but was Eragon ever such an annoying, angsty, "Oh no, is it my fault? It's my fault isn't it. It's because I didn't do this that blah blah blah." There was an example of this in EVERY chapter I've read so far. And while those scenes might be good every once in a while and when something ACTUALLY happens, these were all thoughts of him worrying something bad will happen (and everything turns out okay).

I thought Brisingr was pretty bad, and reading the comments in this thread seems like this last book will be worse. Ugh, I was actually excited for this too.

 

Does the series still read like an SAT essay? I dropped the third book after 2 pages because of how terrible it was to read.