Eragon?

[Rikilamaro]

Eragon was what got me into fantasy in the first place. I definitely think the series is underrated. Not the best series in the world, and certainly not very original, but all four books are enjoyable reads, and the ending is not as predictable as some would have you believe.

I also enjoyed the series, but the first book I could tell was definitely written by a younger person. There were some minor plot logic and descriptions that didn't quite make sense. However, in the end it is a good read and I own all four in the series. I hope Paolini writes more, but he may decide to move on.

I will also comment - the movie was TERRIBLE. It left out so much of what made the book enjoyable that it just ended up stinking. I don't know if that had to do with budget or time, but it almost made me want to cry.

 

[Hominid]

I also enjoyed the series, but the first book I could tell was definitely written by a younger person. There were some minor plot logic and descriptions that didn't quite make sense. However, in the end it is a good read and I own all four in the series. I hope Paolini writes more, but he may decide to move on.

I will also comment - the movie was TERRIBLE. It left out so much of what made the book enjoyable that it just ended up stinking. I don't know if that had to do with budget or time, but it almost made me want to cry.

I agree. The movie was very bad.

Paolini does plan on writing more; he's currently working on a scifi short story.

 

[Paradox]

Personally I feel that it become the cliche thing to do to hate on Eragon and the series. If you like it you can't be considered a "real" writer. Lets be honest he wrote the first one as a kid, and he wrote the books for people of that age, even the last one. His publisher had a huge hand on keeping the books just like the first one, thats what had success in sales and made them money and thats what they wanted him to churn out more of.

18 is still very young for most authors. Lets see what he turns out over the next few years before judging him so harshly.

 

[Steerpike]

Lets be honest he wrote the first one as a kid, and he wrote the books for people of that age, even the last one.

I read a lot of books written for that age group, and many of them are extremely well done. If he writes something better in the future, then I'll judge that future writing on its own merits. You can brush it off as cliche if it eases your mind, but Eragon was one of the most poorly-written books I've ever been unfortunate enough to start reading.

 

[ryan.morrison73]

Despite all of the negative press of having family members in the publishing industry, He still wrote the books, and although it wasn't the most complex series he did get better and better at writing. His vocabulary by the last book went beyond some books I've read by much older authors and they flowed better as well. All-in-all the books were a good read, although intended for a younger crowd.

 

[Shockley]

My opinion on this:

1. I won't give him any slack for publishing Eragon when he was eighteen (he didn't publish it when he was fifteen, folks. Just started working on it.). Isaac Asimov was twenty one when he published the first Foundation story, and that's one of the finest pieces of science fiction to ever exist. I'll say that it took a lot of effort and focus to pump something like that out at that age, but it's no excuse for some of the poor writing/plotting we see.

I'm not a great writer - I'm willing to admit that. I'm also not throwing my stuff out there or self-publishing before I have reached maturity as a writer.

2. The second point is that Paolini seems to have come to terms with the fact that he might have pushed his story a bit too soon, and I respect that he seems willing to learn from past mistakes. I hope he takes writing very seriously, and becomes better with time.

 

[shangrila]

I'll give him chances in the future, but the entire Eragon series just plain old sucks. The characters are all Gary Stus, the plot is more or less stolen from a handful of other stories and the amount of purple prose in there made me want to barf. It's just not well written and he doesn't get to brush that off just because he was young.

But, as Shockley said, he seems to have realised his flaws and is working to correct them, so best of luck to him. But his first series is a blight on this earth and one I doubt he'll want to remember when he's older.

 

[Endymion]

I don't know if there is any point in writing this (you have probably read it already) but when I hear Eragon my blood starts boiling. It is absolutely terrible! I read it when I was twelve and boy did I hate it!
It is not original at all, his writing is awful (okay, my English sucks but I mainly write in finnish) and the characters are... There are no words to describe them! DO NOT READ IT!

 

[Aravelle]

I'll give him chances in the future, but the entire Eragon series just plain old sucks. The characters are all Gary Stus, the plot is more or less stolen from a handful of other stories and the amount of purple prose in there made me want to barf. It's just not well written and he doesn't get to brush that off just because he was young.

But, as Shockley said, he seems to have realised his flaws and is working to correct them, so best of luck to him. But his first series is a blight on this earth and one I doubt he'll want to remember when he's older.

Funny thing is, he KNOWS he writes sues. He knew there was no going back, and now blatantly says he writes sues and he's proud. He's such a good sport about it. XD

 

[Gutendaug]

For a fifteen year old, I would say Eragon is about as good as I could expect it to be. The fact that his parents were in publishing pushed him into fame, and hey, good on him. I don't care if people get famous for trite, really. I like bad books (and bad everything; where would I be if Bruno Mattei were not renown?). They aren't good, though, and I think we need to stop giving him slack for being young. He was young when he wrote the first book. He's 27 now, and Brisingr was as bad as the first one. And even Eragon was only started when he was fifteen. It was published when he was eighteen or nineteen, if my math is right. I guess it might just be because I'm nineteen myself, and nearly all the writers I know in real life are in the general 'eighteen to twenty five' range, but this isn't young enough to be excusable.

And I really, really hate his elves.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[Hap818]

I read the first three and I'm gonna read the finale soon.