Eragon
Is anyone else here reading Christopher Paolini's books?
I acquired a copy of Eragon not long after it had come out-- a couple of years ago, I think. I enjoyed the story, but felt mildly ripped off all the same. That is: It was a good, ordinary, standard fantasy-type story; but it did not impress me as the work of genius as which it had been promoted (and priced).
The most difficult part of the book to enjoy is the names. I suppose this is a bit ironic, since I commented here just a few days ago that JKR's innumeracy didn't bother me that much, since I could easily think of issues like September-2nd-always-on-a-Monday, how-many-students-are-in-Hogwarts-really, and why-don't-the-full-moons-line-up-properly as "not part of the story"; those issues only come up when I'm deliberately trying to dig deep (too deep) into the background. But the names are, for me at least, impossible to ignore; and here I guess I really have been (to borrow peachespig's comment and fling it in my own face once again) "spoiled by Tolkien." The personal and place names in Paolini's books seem an intolerable mix of Germanic, Nordic, Romance, and (at least once) Hebraic-type names, flung together without apparent rhyme or reason, other than "this sounds like a good fantasy-book-type name for this person or place." Some readers may not be bothered by that, but thus far I've not been able to mentally dispose of the difficulty.
Other than that, though, I think it's an okay story. I'll be interested to find out how it develops. But I think it's more a work of talent than of genius. In reading it, there's not really a sense of "oh my goodness, this is brilliant and I want to savor every detail of it." In some sense, I might say that Paolini has been taken advantage of by his editors, in that they've promoted his book beyond what his present level of writing skill can justify. Financially I imagine they're compensating him quite well for his troubles; but artistically, it seems like it might have been better for him to have waited until he was ready to pull off something really brilliant before letting himself get hyped all over the country with fancy displays in all the Barnes & Nobles. If Eragon had merely been published as an ordinary paperback fantasy novel, its author could have slowly built himself a reputation as a good fantasy author, and could have steadily improved over the course of his career. But as it is, I suspect that in ten years he'll be a forgotten footnote in publishing history, having been unable to produce the sort of enduring favorite that would be needed to justify the hype.
(Wow, this post is really sounding negative, isn't it? Seriously, I really don't think it's bad. I do like the story for what it is. I'm not anti-Eragon, only anti-hype.)
So, anyway... I've read the first five chapters of the second book, Eldest, sitting in the local B&N. I'll probably continue skimming it off the shelves, or maybe try to find it in the library. But I'm rather inclined to wait until it comes out in paperback before actually buying it. It's a good $12-or-so kind of book, but not $21.95. (Not that I can't afford it, just that I find it distasteful to reward the attempted corporate manipulation of artistic tastes.)
(Oh, and by the way, in case anyone's wondering: At this point I think I'm cautiously favoring Eragon/Nasuada, even though the only female to whom he's been attracted [that I've noticed] has been Arya. But perhaps that's the frustrated Aragorn/Eowyn shipper in me, seeking revenge after twenty-three years....)
I acquired a copy of Eragon not long after it had come out-- a couple of years ago, I think. I enjoyed the story, but felt mildly ripped off all the same. That is: It was a good, ordinary, standard fantasy-type story; but it did not impress me as the work of genius as which it had been promoted (and priced).
The most difficult part of the book to enjoy is the names. I suppose this is a bit ironic, since I commented here just a few days ago that JKR's innumeracy didn't bother me that much, since I could easily think of issues like September-2nd-always-on-a-Monday, how-many-students-are-in-Hogwarts-really, and why-don't-the-full-moons-line-up-properly as "not part of the story"; those issues only come up when I'm deliberately trying to dig deep (too deep) into the background. But the names are, for me at least, impossible to ignore; and here I guess I really have been (to borrow peachespig's comment and fling it in my own face once again) "spoiled by Tolkien." The personal and place names in Paolini's books seem an intolerable mix of Germanic, Nordic, Romance, and (at least once) Hebraic-type names, flung together without apparent rhyme or reason, other than "this sounds like a good fantasy-book-type name for this person or place." Some readers may not be bothered by that, but thus far I've not been able to mentally dispose of the difficulty.
Other than that, though, I think it's an okay story. I'll be interested to find out how it develops. But I think it's more a work of talent than of genius. In reading it, there's not really a sense of "oh my goodness, this is brilliant and I want to savor every detail of it." In some sense, I might say that Paolini has been taken advantage of by his editors, in that they've promoted his book beyond what his present level of writing skill can justify. Financially I imagine they're compensating him quite well for his troubles; but artistically, it seems like it might have been better for him to have waited until he was ready to pull off something really brilliant before letting himself get hyped all over the country with fancy displays in all the Barnes & Nobles. If Eragon had merely been published as an ordinary paperback fantasy novel, its author could have slowly built himself a reputation as a good fantasy author, and could have steadily improved over the course of his career. But as it is, I suspect that in ten years he'll be a forgotten footnote in publishing history, having been unable to produce the sort of enduring favorite that would be needed to justify the hype.
(Wow, this post is really sounding negative, isn't it? Seriously, I really don't think it's bad. I do like the story for what it is. I'm not anti-Eragon, only anti-hype.)
So, anyway... I've read the first five chapters of the second book, Eldest, sitting in the local B&N. I'll probably continue skimming it off the shelves, or maybe try to find it in the library. But I'm rather inclined to wait until it comes out in paperback before actually buying it. It's a good $12-or-so kind of book, but not $21.95. (Not that I can't afford it, just that I find it distasteful to reward the attempted corporate manipulation of artistic tastes.)
(Oh, and by the way, in case anyone's wondering: At this point I think I'm cautiously favoring Eragon/Nasuada, even though the only female to whom he's been attracted [that I've noticed] has been Arya. But perhaps that's the frustrated Aragorn/Eowyn shipper in me, seeking revenge after twenty-three years....)