Christopher Paolini

[Rudhe]

Brisingr.....according to wiki...

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The Inheritance cycle was initially planned to be a trilogy. In an October 30, 2007 press release, Paolini revealed that the third book would have been so large that it would need to be published in two volumes. Brisingr is scheduled to be released on September 20, 2008;[1] release outside the United States will follow.[5] Book four's release date is unknown.

Regarding the title,

Paolini

"'Brisingr' is one of the first words I thought of for this title, and it’s always felt right to me.” “As the first ancient-language word that Eragon learns, it has held particular significance for his legacy as a Dragon Rider. In this new book, it will be revealed to be even more meaningful than even Eragon could have known.”

[1] Brisingr" is the Ancient Language word for "fire", used to summon and control fire by magic-users in the series.
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Worth the read?  

[Galad Aglaron]

I intend to read it so that I may be enraged and furious and rant about it.  

[Rudhe]

Heh sounds about right. Just need to find some time to read it.  

[Tears of the Siren]

I don't know if I'll bother with it. I might, but I feel no great desire to do so.  

[Ginny97263]

I don't think paolini is too bad of a writer. I mean, yes there are many things in his books that are very similar or "plagiarized" from Tolkien books, but nowadays, everyone has thought of almost everything, making things very difficult to make things original. I know that my books that I am writing do have similarities to the series's that I am into, but I hoe they will not be considered worthless scum. The kid did his best. I don't blame him.  

[Galad Aglaron]

You, my dear, are using the same arguments as Paolini. "Nothing is original". True, everything you write will be in some way (consciously or otherwise) be influenced by everything else you have seen and read, but that doesn't mean you can't give it your own touch, make it your own, make it unique. Paolini didn't do that. His attempt at making his elves "unique" was to make them vegan hippie nudist atheists. And don't even get me started on his dwarves.  

[Rudhe]

You have to give him some credit on on the elves at least? His elves were certainly different from anything else....what I didn't understand was Eragon's magic.

@Gaara, Anti-Shurtugal.com, all you ever need to know about Paolini.  

[Galad Aglaron]

Anti-Shurtugal

In fantasy novels which use elves, the elves in question are almost always wimpy hippie Mary Sues who whine and whine about how bad humans are and how they’re “fading away”. Inheritance is completely different- Paolini entirely manages a new spin on this most overused species of fantasy! Just kidding.

Paolini’s elves are, down to the last nudist vegetarian, entirely typical, unoriginal and very, very boring. They hate dwarves! They live for thousands of years! They help the hero to train! And, of course, they’re “fading away” for no particular reason other than Tolkien did it first. But I can’t tell you the amount of times I have read fantasy novels with elves who are extremely skilled at magic and live in forests spouting out New Age “one with nature” psychobabble in the freakin’ Middle Ages.

The thing that I really don’t understand is them “fading away”. The Elf Queen herself says “I am diminished”. But… why? There’s no real reason. It’s merely because Tolkien did it in his books, except Tolkien explained it. In Eldest, the elves are shown as being pretty much supermen. Why is it so unreasonable that they actually try and fight Galbatorix instead of sailing away? If they’re that powerful, they should be able to take him.

And, of course, they live in a wonderful hippie forest society. And none of them eat meat. I wish we could learn what their diet consists of, then. And isn’t it possible to be part of nature living in a desert, or jungle, or somewhere that receives heavy snows? And then there’s the age old complaint- if they don’t kill animals, where did Arya’s leather come from?

Oh, yes… they’re also atheist. They pull out a fairly sophisticated argument against religion. Which is odd, since not only are they meant to be living in the same sort of place where men burn heretics alive, but they have ****ing magic. Where do they think it comes from, then? If I had magic, and no-where near the same level of science as we have now, the most logical solution is that someone up in the sky gave it to me.

Why exactly do they hate dwarves? Tolkien had a reason, but Paolini doesn’t appear to. Okay, so the dwarves have a religion which the elves look down on, but then the humans follow religion too (like that pseudo-Voodoo religion Eragon comes across that for some reason uses chapels). To be honest, it feels like fantasy racism more than anything else, yet is completely looked over.

 

[Galad Aglaron]

Also, the source of Eragon's magic is Saphira. That's how most of the Riders got their magic, from their dragons. He's not like Brom, who had natural talent, or Durza, who used summoned spirits, or Angela, who uses herbs and potions. He's basically just feeding on Saphira's reiatsu.  

[Ginny97263]

Galad Damodred

You, my dear, are using the same arguments as Paolini. "Nothing is original". True, everything you write will be in some way (consciously or otherwise) be influenced by everything else you have seen and read, but that doesn't mean you can't give it your own touch, make it your own, make it unique. Paolini didn't do that. His attempt at making his elves "unique" was to make them vegan hippie nudist atheists. And don't even get me started on his dwarves.

Yes, but in seems you are saying that everything in Professor Tolkien's books is completely original, and that people such as J.K. Rowling and Christopher Paolini stole things from him. Yes they got some ideas from him, but Professor Tolkien also got some (or many) of his ideas from other writers, people, or from nature. He was not the first to think of elves, or dwarves, or wizards, but no one says anything about him plagiarizing because he is such a world renowned author. How do you know that Professor Tolkien did not steal many ideas from earlier and otherwise unimportant authors?  

[Galad Aglaron]

Yes, many of his ideas were taken from Celtic mythology, and Polish and Scandinavian, but he made it his own. He put his own mark on them, refreshed them, made them anew. He put his own Flame Imperishable into them, as it were. He reinvented them, put into them his own heart and soul and sweat and blood. Paolini just embellished Tolkien's works. He is the Melkor of this story: unable to create anew, unable to wield the Flame Imperishable, only twisting and perverting the creations of others into a mockery of their makers.  

[Ginny97263]

My, you are very poetic my friend. I will say only this; for one as young as he is, he did a fine job in writing his novels. I will not say they are perfect, nor will I say they are worthless scum either, but truly, could you do much better?  

[Galad Aglaron]

stare My dear, I am doing much better.

I will concede that as young writers go, Paolini is perhaps a little better than average. But as for writers, period, Paolini is less than mediocre.

EDIT: In any case, your logic is faulty. One does not need to be an actor to know that Orlando Bloom cannot act. One does not need to be a cook to know that sea urchin sushi is gross. One does not need to be a writer to know that Paolini isn't one.  

[ellawriter]

Gosh, I hate that man. I could kill him for stealing LOTR. Seriously, I think I'm going to cry if he says he didn't still from Tolkein. HE DID!! The idiot. Did you notice he also stole from "The Raven"? That bird in one of the books is almost exactly like that. evil evil evil evil evil evil evil evil evil evil evil  

[Ametrin]

Actually I would like to read the Eragon books. I haven't yet and I don't intend to buy them but I would like to borrow them from a library if they ever get there. Even when there's not much originality, I think I might enjoy the stories because of the classical fantasy themes, elves, dragons and such.