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Paolini's Inheritance Cycle

Tom

Istar
I picked apart all four books, wrote down Paolini's mistakes in a list, and now check my stories against that list to make sure I'm not making the same mistakes.
 

Philster401

Maester
Ok well either way Galbatorix sent soldiers to attack undefended villages made soldiers feel no making them crazed war machines, took control of peoples mind forcefully which was wasn't honorable grant he did do some good but he also used children as blackmail in last book.
In regards to Eragon's learning rate he seemed quite intelligent he did probably fight with Roran with poles or something when they were younger , he had good teachers, it did take a while for him to learn writing but all he had to learn was how to read really and not even necessarily quickly also saphira had a great memory so she probably helped him remember, and brom or Oromis probably gave him some memories that helped him with those problems.
Eragon also was always curious about dragon's and the riders also he was interested magic even before he met saphira. His favourite memory i can't remember but im sure he had one.
He was also started to part elven from the moment saphira's egg hatched my theory is that the first thing that started changing was his mind.
 

Philster401

Maester
Also i'm not one when i read normally to pay attention to grammar mistakes my brain rushes over them which has been a problem of mine with writing forever.
 

Tom

Istar
I'm a grammar freak. When I read, the hyperfocus aspect of ADD kicks in and I notice everything. Every detail, every mistake. Yay.

Paolini's books really frustrated me because I couldn't get past the shoddy writing. There were elements I liked, characters I cared about, ideas that interested and intrigued me, but the writing was so distracting.

The things Galbatorix did were no worse than some of the things the Varden did. Remember what I said about the elves annihilating a whole human town? Yeah, that's on par with what Galbatorix did. Also, the Varden are the ones who blackmailed Elva--who, despite looking like a six-year-old and having an adult mind, is an infant--into going into the front lines of a battle! And if I'm not mistaken, the Varden considered making their soldiers unfeeling as well.

Let me say it again: You. Cannot. Learn. To. Read. In. One. Month. Flat. Especially if you're in your mid- to late teens. Decreased capability for absorbing new languages applies to written language. And fighting with poles is nothing like fighting with swords. Believe me. When my foil broke, I tried to use a bamboo garden stake to practice. Using that thing threw off my technique for two weeks.

Eragon was interested in dragons, riders, and magic because it was part of the plot. "Oh, look! He's interested in this stuff! So it comes as no surprise that this information becomes relevant to the plot!"

Sorry I'm ragging on your favorite series, but I am pretty annoyed that it ever got published. With some major, major revising, strict editing, and honest critique, it could be good. However, it's not.
 
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Philster401

Maester
I just read something online about how he got published on his first try or at least that he wasn't refused by any publisher.
 

ascanius

Inkling
umm.... I'm kinda surprised that so many people liked eragon. Me I can't stand those books, they were like reading my rip off of star wars I wrote in the 2nd grade but he went further and took from a lot of other authors. One thing I can say that helps is having inside contacts with the publishing world and great marketing. I get that he was 13 but honestly so what, his writing was on parr for that age, nothing exceptional so I don't get why he ever became such a big deal. I wonder how many 13 year old out there have written stories even better but we never hear of them, why? It's amazing what good marketing can do if you ask me. I'm sorry but those books left a bad taste in my mouth.
 

Butterfly

Auror
I just read something online about how he got published on his first try or at least that he wasn't refused by any publisher.

From what I've read online... The first edition was self published, and through his parents' company. Heavily marketed to drive sales, and taken on by a publisher when it proved its saleability. Regardless of the standard of the writing, it sold, and that is what attracted a publisher.
 

Tom

Istar
They also used Paolini's age as a marketing device--you know, setting him up as some sort of "child prodigy". Really his writing was decidedly average for an early to mid-teen. I've compared it to my own from when I was that age, and the mediocre style is depressingly similar. He just happened to write four huge books; I barely finished any stories during that period.
 

Butterfly

Auror
Same here.

But they did something right, so maybe it would benefit us to look at what exactly that was.

They also used Paolini's age as a marketing device--you know, setting him up as some sort of "child prodigy". Really his writing was decidedly average for an early to mid-teen. I've compared it to my own from when I was that age, and the mediocre style is depressingly similar. He just happened to write four huge books; I barely finished any stories during that period.

His age was the unique selling point. That's what they sold, not the writing. It made a fuss, and drew people in to see what all the fuss was about. Some liked it, some didn't, but the book was still bought. I have to think a bit harder what my unique selling point is. (Won't be my age).

But maybe here is the answer. Finish something, have the faith to put it out there, give it a bit of marketing, and see what happens.
 
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Philster401

Maester
Two things 1) I didn't know when I read it the first time that he was 15 when he published Eragon. 2) I didn't realize his books had any similarities to star wars until I joined this forum. One thing I have noticed when reading this thread is that people keep mentioning that they liked it when they were 15 and his target age was teenagers and most teenagers don't care or know basically anything about grammar. Especially now in days I am normally the kid that answers any question asked in a classroom (granted I am not perfect) and half the time (me included) can't tell if the grammar they use is correct and most don't care.
 

Tom

Istar
I was the lone teen who was a total freak about grammar. I redlined my copy of Eragon! (In red pencil, though, not pen, because I didn't want to deface a book.)

My family was never into Star Wars when I was younger, so I didn't catch those similarities when I first read Eragon. When I watched all the Star Wars episodes for the first time a few years ago, I had a sudden epiphany as I recognized plot points, characters, and themes from the Inheritance Cycle. My God, could it have been any more blatant?!
 

Scalvi

Scribe
His were some of my sophomoric forays into epic fantasy. I read the first two in the break for the third book I started to edge away from it. When I went to read the fourth, I just found it to be a bad book.

I think the biggest thing I took from it was to avoid pretentiousness. So much of what I assumed were attempts to make the tale come across as 'grand' didn't feel like a weight world history. It felt entirely artificial and more annoying like someone persisting in a hoax after all of the tricks have been revealed.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
I remember the time when the first Eragon book was ubiquitous in bookstores, but it wasn't until the movie came out that I learned he wrote it at age 15. But the moment I walked out of the movie, without ever reading the book or heard about its detractors, I thought its plot sounded suspiciously like the very first Star Wars movie. Even Eragon's actor resembled Luke Skywalker to my eyes. So basically it was Star Wars with a vaguely Tolkien-inspired, pseudo-medieval window dressing.

I did like the Nasuada character, or at least looking at her, but she didn't appear often enough to redeem the movie.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Honestly, I didn't think Eragon was that much worse that the typical first book for an epic fantasy author. It wasn't worse than say, The Eye of the World or The Magic of Recluce or Lord Foul's Bane or many others. I read through it easily and while I didn't enjoy it to the point that I wanted to continue the story with book 2 (the same way I felt about The Eye of the World and The Magic of Recluce and Lord Foul's Band, among others) it also didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth (like The Eye of the World and The Magic of Recluce and, say, Witch World, among others). I didn't really have any complaints. It was just an average epic fantasy novel.

I think a lot of people heard about it being written by a teenager and being a Tolkien ripoff and went into it expecting it to be horrible and so they found what they expected. Either that or they went in thinking, "Oh, so this book got published when he was a teenager? It had better be good then." Thus unconsciously applying standards to Eragon they wouldn't apply to any other author's first book which it was all but guaranteed to fail.

Man, people are hard on Paolini. But didn't we all wish we could publish our crappy fantasy stories when we were teenagers? Did we all think we were writing the best thing since sliced bread? At least the guy openly acknowledges all of his influences. And the story of the publication is actually kind of inspiring.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
Honestly, I didn't think Eragon was that much worse that the typical first book for an epic fantasy author. It wasn't worse than say, The Eye of the World or The Magic of Recluce or Lord Foul's Bane or many others. I read through it easily and while I didn't enjoy it to the point that I wanted to continue the story with book 2 (the same way I felt about The Eye of the World and The Magic of Recluce and Lord Foul's Band, among others) it also didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth (like The Eye of the World and The Magic of Recluce and, say, Witch World, among others). I didn't really have any complaints. It was just an average epic fantasy novel.

I think a lot of people heard about it being written by a teenager and being a Tolkien ripoff and went into it expecting it to be horrible and so they found what they expected. Either that or they went in thinking, "Oh, so this book got published when he was a teenager? It had better be good then." Thus unconsciously applying standards to Eragon they wouldn't apply to any other author's first book which it was all but guaranteed to fail.

Man, people are hard on Paolini. But didn't we all wish we could publish our crappy fantasy stories when we were teenagers? Did we all think we were writing the best thing since sliced bread? At least the guy openly acknowledges all of his influences. And the story of the publication is actually kind of inspiring.
I will give him credit for having a whole novel finished and getting it published. That shows an incredible self-discipline many older writers, myself included, would covet. And I don't really mind the superficial Tolkien influences, as that's par for the course for the genre. It was really the Star Wars plot parallels that raised my red flag, but I suppose those would be harmless if he had passed it off as a simple medieval reboot.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I will give him credit for having a whole novel finished and getting it published. That shows an incredible self-discipline many older writers, myself included, would covet. And I don't really mind the superficial Tolkien influences, as that's par for the course for the genre. It was really the Star Wars plot parallels that raised my red flag, but I suppose those would be harmless if he had passed it off as a simple medieval reboot.

I don't really think it parallels Star Wars. I just think that they both take a lot from The Hero's Journey. I mean, Star Wars is just The Hero's Journey in Space. It's not as if it's original. Anything that uses the Hero's Journey is going to have similarities to Star Wars, no matter what the author had in mind when writing it. And the book is less like Star Wars than the movie was anyway.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I think Paolini made the Robert Jordan and Stephen Donaldson novels cited look like Dostoevsky. But Eye of the World wasn't Jordan's first fantasy novel.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I think Paolini made the Robert Jordan and Stephen Donaldson novels cited look like Dostoevsky. But Eye of the World wasn't Jordan's first fantasy novel.

Really? I was constantly astounded by how awful Eye of the World was. I mean... some of the worst characters I have ever had to displeasure to encounter. I can accept that Lord Foul's Bane has some creativity behind it, but oh. my. god. was that book a slog to get through. It was sheer agony. Eragon wasn't great. But it was a lot easier and more enjoyable to read than either of those two.
 
Like many others on here, the Inheritance Cycle was great when I was a young-mid teen - by the time Inheritance came out, I was in college and finished it out of a sense of duty. I remember how many I adored Eragon - I was too young to critically compare it to Star Wars or devise the archetype of the Hero's Journey (which both of them are). I didn't mind that it looks like CP "copied" Star Wars - the story is still entertaining.

However, Eldest was a trial. It was like the Half-Blood Prince for CP. The dwarves were ridiculously obstinate. The elves were, let's be honest, pricks. Eragon was at his emotional worst. The only thing that redeemed Eldest was the introduction of Roran's storyline, and the battle at the end. *sigh* Roran... *swoons*

I know that Brisingr barely advanced the plot, but I enjoyed it. It got into the nitty-gritty of battle and the war. It was the long haul. It was exciting! But, I would rather have had Brisingr be three hundred pages longer and CP cut out Inheritance entirely. When I finally got to Inheritance as a college student, I was bored. And to be honest, Eragon and Roran aren't that likable. I didn't read Inheritance from a point-of-view where I felt like I had to admire Eragon and Roran. I was honestly critical of them. I didn't like their methods or their attitudes. I thought they were selfish and not very good leaders.

I read Inheritance in a manner similar to chapters of ASOIAF featuring characters I don't like. I'm not reading to support you, I'm reading to see where it goes. And the folly of the Inheritance Cycle is that it ends exactly how you expect it to. No surprises. That's where the curtain rises on George Martin.

TL;DR: The Inheritance Cycle was more enjoyable as a kid, it had its ups and downs, Eragon and Roran suck.
 
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