Eragon

A Review by BreAnn

Eragon, by Christopher Paolini is going to be the next great book, in my
opinion anyways. Or at least it should be. It is about a boy named Eragon, age 15, who is out hunting for food for his family to eat. He lives
with his Uncle and cousin because his mother left after his birth. While he
is closing down on his prey that he has been tracking for a few days, he realizes it that it has lead him to the Spine, which is a range of mountains that many say are haunted and cursed. However, Eragon is not afraid because he has been there many times before, without anything bad happening. As he closes in on his prey, ready for the kill, a large blast sends the deer running. Discouraged, he goes to find himself a place to camp. He comes across a clearing and in the middle of it is a large blue stone, with white lines going through it. Eragon thinks that maybe he can sell it and buy some meat with it, so he takes the stone. He tries selling it to the local butcher, but the butcher doesn't particularly like him or his uncle, so that doesn't work out.
So he keeps the stone until the trader comes to town a few weeks later. Hoping maybe to find out exactly what the stone is and its value, he takes the stone to the jewelry trader. The jewelry trader examines it and tells Eragon that he does not know what kind of stone it is, but that he is sure that it was worth a large sum of money.

That night Eragon is awoken by some odd noises. After being woken several more times he finds out that the stone is making the noises. He takes it down from his shelf and holds it. The stone starts to crack and by daybreak he has a beautiful blue baby dragon in his bedroom.

In the rest of the story he must hide his new dragon from everyone. He
learns that he can communicate to her though thoughts and decides he needs a name for the dragon. He goes to the local storyteller, Brom, and discreetly asks some questions and ends up getting a list of names of dragons. So now with a name for her he starts to fly her. Soon, word gets out that there is a dragon in the town. So Eragon must flee from the people working for the enemy Empire who want Eragon's dragon on their side. Brom later comes along and convinces Eragon to let him come with them. Along their journey together Brom and Eragon travel through many places and Brom teaches Eragon some magic and other useful skills. At one point, while being attacked they get help from a boy a few years older than Eragon. He soon follows joins Eragon on his journey.

Eragon goes in search of the Varden, a group against the Empire. He eventually finds Verden, after being attacks by Urgals and Shades, and being imprisoned only to escape and be on his way once more. After the Vardens secret city is attacked, the book ends, leaving you begging for more.

Eragon is the first book in the Inheritance trilogy. Book 2, Eldest, has
not come out yet and I have yet to find a release date for it. They are also making a movie about the first book. You can visit Eragon's website at http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/eragon/. If you enjoyed the Lords of the Rings trilogy I'm sure you will enjoy this book. The writing style and settings are much the same, but less complicated you could say. The age groups would probably be teens to adults, but I think everyone would enjoy it! The book is around 500 pages long, and its very clever I think, because the numbers are on the side of the pages in the middle, which makes sense actually. I hope you will take the time to read this book sometime because it is an excellent read. It has magic, adventure,
suspense, humor, and more!

Author: Christopher Paolini
Number of Pages: About 500
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