First, some background. The story is set in the mythical land of Alagaësia, a place where Dragon Riders once ruled. One of them, Galbatorix, gained power and betrayed them all, killing those who were in opposition and eventually becoming the King. This betrayal came about after the death of his dragon, which pushed him to the brink of insanity because of the severance of the bond between dragon and rider. When the story starts, Galbatorix is ruling the land with an iron fist and trying to get his grubby mitts on the few remaining dragon eggs so he can control the riders they hatch for and cause even more mayhem. A group of rebels, the Varden, does its best to overthrow his tyranny, but isn't very effective because of the lack of resources.
Okay, enough background and on to the storyline. Eragon, the main character of the series, is a farm boy who lives with his uncle and cousin in a small town in the middle of nowhere. During a hunting trip, he comes into contact with a mysterious stone. Hoping to make a buck or two, he takes it home but is shocked to discover that it's actually one of the only remaining dragon eggs. The egg brings all sorts of unwanted attention to the little town, and the end result is that Eragon leaves his home with the now-hatched dragon in search of the Varden. He travels with Brom, a gruff storyteller who works on training Eragon to be the next Dragon Rider. Galbatorix, of course, is not horribly keen on having an independent Rider, so he sends out various assailants to try to stop their progress. Permanently, if you know what I mean. Their travels take them across the length and breadth of Alagaësia as they race to reach the Varden. In the interest of not completely ruining the story for you, I'm not going to give any specifics past this point. Suffice it to say that there's lots of magic, fighting, and tragedy, exactly what you'd expect from a good fantasy novel. Hopefully, this is enough to convince you to give her a go.
In terms of how it reads, it falls right between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It's not as tedious to read as Lord of the Rings and it's not as easy as Harry Potter. If you aren't following what's going on, it's not hard to get lost in all of the name-dropping. Because of that, I'd say the age range starts in the teens and goes up indefinitely.
I would be remiss in my duties as an honest blogger if I ignored the movie, as much as I would like to. I'm sure you've heard the expression "the book was better", and if you hadn't before, you have now. I'm sad to say that Eragon is the ultimate setup for "the book was better" complaints. It's not that they changed most of the major characters from their bookish selves (at least the ones they didn't completely eliminate), or that they totally changed the plot, or the absolutely horrifying simplification of an amazingly complex journey. I'm just joking, it actually is all those things. I can think of exactly one scene in the entire movie that went according to the book, and it was only about 30 seconds long. I was more disappointed than when I found out that Peeves wasn't in the Harry Potter movies and Tom Bombadil got cut from LOTR. I've found that the easiest way to deal with it is to pretend it's a standalone movie with no connection to the book. If you are interested in the movie, here's the trailer.
And, as promised, here's the summary of my summary.
Pros:
- HERE THERE BE DRAGONS!
- Intriguing and well-executed storyline
- Character development
- With so much name-dropping, it's not too hard to get confused by plot progression
- Does the movie count? No, seriously.
- Did I mention the movie?
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