Brisingr!

[Maleficus1055]

So, the third book in the Inheritance trilogy is out. After 3 long years, Brisingr is here!

 

[hide=][/hide]

 

 

 

Discuss the Inheritance seires I guess, but ALL SPOILERS BETTER BE IN HIDE TAGS!I won't be getting my copy for a few days

[Nom]

Haven't read it yet, but I've read a pretty good chapter-by-chapter summary. From what I can tell, it's better than Eldest, maybe as good as Eragon. Which means it still blows.

 

 

 

Be prepared for another 500 pages of nothing and 200 pages of thinly stretched plot development. And massive disappointments. It's like Eldest that way, though judging from the excerpts in the aforementioned summary the prose is slightly less purple. Also has some major wtf moments.

[Skull]

It's out?!?

[ElkNight]

Why is this in music, movies, and television?

 

I'll probably read this after I finish my current book.

[Maleficus1055]

Because the description of this board is "for all your entertainment needs" and books are entertainment. It just seemed mroe fitting to me. Mods can move if it belongs in OT though.

[GordanFreeman]

Currently reading it...about half way through it so far and loving it. I thought the last two were awesome, I'm not really sure why so many don't care for them. Kinda sucks that we have to wait for a 4th now, though.

[warren211]

Zomg it's here?!?!??!1

 

 

 

 

 

Reserved it at library as soon as I read this thread. I'm on a waiting list of 44 people :wall:

[aquariusman]

According to certain people, it is either simple, or apparently copies the plot of Star Wars. I fail to see this, but I'm sure that N0M has some insight into why he considers this book so bad.

 

 

 

This is one sweet start of the week for me. First I rediscover my favourite song, I learn about this, I remember one awesome science project I did, find out just how funny the Bungie.net podcasts are, and TU2 is coming for Halo 3 tomorrow. I have way too much to be excited about. Also, first football game Thursday.

[PoorLepRecon]

I'll ask my grandparents to get me it for Christmas (they are the type who don't like modern gifts, only books and stuff like that) I do enjoy the Inheritance Saga, and I have been awaiting Brisingr for a while now. That and the latest Artemis Fowl.

[walka92]

[hide=spoiler]cya in hell, razac and lethrblaka[/hide]

 

 

 

also, not finished yet, but its pretty good

[Nom]

According to certain people, it is either simple, or apparently copies the plot of Star Wars. I fail to see this, but I'm sure that N0M has some insight into why he considers this book so bad.

 

 

 

I don't want to go bat-[cabbage] crazy on this, but I will say a few things.

 

 

 

I wasn't planning on touching the plagiarism point, but since you brought it up . . .

 

 

 

[hide=Plot Summary]A boy of foggy origins lives with his uncle in a remote place of a vast empire headed by an evil Emperor and his right hand man, who was once prominent in an ancient order of guardians with mystical powers.

 

 

 

Through fate or luck, depending on your point of view, this boy comes into the possession of an object vital to a rebellion against the Empire; this object was inadvertently sent to him by a princess in the rebellion, who had attempted to send said object to an old man who once belonged to the same order of guardians as the Emperors right-hand man.

 

 

 

This boy seeks the old man to learn of the ways of this ancient order, but eventually has to return to his uncles farm, which, the boy finds, has been destroyed by fire, and his uncle killed. The boy then sets off with the old hermit, who also gives him a sword which belonged to his father. As they travel, they train. The boy meets up with a rogue who is full of surprises, but turns out to be fiercely loyal, for all his proclaimed selfishness. The boy also begins "seeing" a beautiful woman imprisoned and in need of help.

 

 

 

The boy decides that he needs to rescue her, even though he doesn't know her; further, he thinks of her only as beautiful (Luke's first words are, "Who is she? She's beautiful?" Eragon can't stop thinking about her beauty). Long story short, the old hermit dies to protect the boy, the boy and the rogue help the beautiful damsel escape.

 

 

 

They then set off to the rebellion to give important information and return the object which the princess had sent the boy. They were followed by the Empire, and prepare for a giant battle that will either save the rebellion or annihilate them.

 

 

 

The boy proves his worth with heroics during the battle, but his crowning achievement is his destruction of a noun of much power that has the ability to destroy lots of things. The boy is aided in this by one of his friends, who arrives at precisely the right moment.

 

The boy is lauded a hero.

 

 

 

The boy has a hallucination of a powerful master who can teach him more of the ancient order. The boy travels to the powerful master to learn the ways of the ancient order's mystical power. While there, he grows very powerful. While he is away, the Rebellion regroups in a new area.

 

 

 

Just when the boy is on a roll with his training, and has grown very powerful, he has a vision of his friends in great danger. He decides he must go to help them. His master warns him not to go. The boy promises that he will return. He leaves.

 

 

 

He finds his friends just in time and is able to distract the enemy so that his friends will remain safe. He finds out that his father was the right-hand man of the Emperor--his father was the one who betrayed the ancient order and helped kill them.

 

 

 

The boy is shocked and ultimately defeated, but not killed. He finds out that someone dear to him has been taken by evil people, and promises to find this person.[/hide]

 

 

 

Note: I did not write this, and some may have seen it before.

 

 

 

Now, that should pretty much speak for itself. Fits Inheritance and Star Wars perfectly. With Brisingr it has branched off a bit, but that means little in the face of everything else . . .

 

 

 

Other plagiarisms:

 

 

 

Names: Since we are currently reading Beowulf in class, I'll bring out two names directly lifted from it: Hrothgar, the leader of the Danes, and Unferth, one of Hrothgar's Danes. In Inheritance, the dwarf king and one of the Varden council people.

 

 

 

There are also tons of names taken from other places, such as LotR (HUGE one) and Dune (Bid'daum = Muad'dib spelled backwards, the main character of Dune.)

 

 

 

One can argue whether Paolini has technically plagiarized, but the fact remains that he has taken these names from so many other sources that his credibility blows up in his face.

 

 

 

 

 

On to what I really don't like about this series . . .

 

 

 

Prose: Horrendous. Jerky, unflowing, awkward, and worst of all PURPLE. He swallowed a thesarus and regurgitated the contents like an owl pellet. The result is, like an owl pellet, rather revolting and full of dead things. And then we have the accompanying baseness, such as preachy elves, infodumps, and long pointless chapters that serve no purpose (most of Eldest.)

 

 

 

Characters: Who is your favorite? Murtagh? He's mine. Wait, he gets less than ten pages of screen time in Eldest (and seemingly Brisingr as well.) No POV from him as of yet. Why do I like him more than any other characters? Because he is not:

 

 

 

Eragon: the Gary Stu, the sociopathic [puncture]

 

Arya: the designated love interest [ice Queen]

 

Orik: Gimli rip-off and comic relief

 

Oromis: speaks not like this, for reason some

 

Saphira: flying, fire-breathing horse

 

. . . etc.

 

 

 

Murtagh is the only character in the whole series who actually has some human substance to him. Too bad he got shrifted by Eragon when he went TOTALLY EVIL.

 

 

 

The World: Best category to put my general complaints of Paolini's utter lack of research under. There are so many things in these books that make no sense, my forehead has permanent bruises. Horsemanship: FAIL. Battle strategy: FAIL. Swordsmanship: FAIL.

 

 

 

A special point on the swordsmanship. It takes Eragon a matter of weeks to reach the level of Brom, an extremely old, trained Dragon Rider. What? WHY HAS ERAGON "MASTERED" (lol) THE SWORD IN A MATTER OF WEEKS? Not. Possible. Period. Especially not with Brom's training methods, and using five-foot-long swords.

 

 

 

I'm going to stop here, since I've spent way too long on this post already. Feel free to respond or not.

[GordanFreeman]

I really don't think it's fair to compare Star Wars and the Inheritance Cycle, seeing as the Cycle isn't even done yet. Much of the comparison you quoted had incorrect information (at least, from the Inheritance Cycle point of view), and some information has yet to be proven correct. As for the plagiarism of names, is it really that big of a deal if he used a name he had heard of elsewhere and used it in his own work? If that were the case, pretty much every novel ever written would be filled with plagiarism. As for your viewpoints, most seem to be very biased. Also, I don't believe that Paolini wanted the readers to assume that Eragon had mastered the sword after his training with Brom, if so it would seem that he didn't understand his own story very well. I say this because when Eragon arrives in Ellesmera, the elf city, it's clear that many of the elves around him far exceeded his own abilities in swordsmanship. You also fail to mention that his explanation of magic and how it's used is very original and intriguing, and that the mental bond between Eragon and his "flying, fire-breathing horse" is also a great, original idea.

 

 

 

Why not just accept the book as it is, and not over-analyze everything? It's meant to tell a story, and it does that well.

[Nero]

Well to be honest I read a lot of Fantasy/Sci Fi books, and what really annoyed me about Eragon and Eldest was that after reading them, I couldn't really remember specifics about them. Both of them started blending in with other, better books I had read, because the story is so generic and predictable. The characters are horrendously stereotypical, and the plot, though it does have a handful of odd surprises, is so linear it's just not entertaining to read.

 

 

 

I know the series isn't done, and that I shouldn't criticize it as a whole so soon, but honestly, 3 (or is it 4) books to tell a story he's simply taken from somewhere else and added different names to the characters? If there's one good thing that came out of me reading those books, it's learning how not to write a novel.

[ThurinEthir]

Oh hey, we're reading Beowulf too! (YAY ROHAN)

 

The Inheritance Cycle will never make my top books list. I will read Brisingr when I get time, I will read the fourth as well, but they will pale in comparison to the Lord of the Rings and Ranger's Apprentice.

 

I can't remember a single thing from either Eragon or Eldest, and I only read them a year ago. I can't even remember the dragon's name, for goodness' sake. (Okay, it's like Saphira or something...) Really though, all I remember is that he travels around the world, trains, does some magic, and then there's a big battle and the good people win. Oh wait, that's basically every fantasy book.

 

I mean, it's kind of hard to come up with a completely original story now. However, Paolini didn't bring anything new to the table. They're way too predictable, I predicted the whole brother thing like halfway through Eragon...And it wasn't revealed until the end of Eldest.

 

The thing that annoys me the most is the close relationship to LotR. I'll admit, Tolkien wasn't the most original dude either. Like I mentioned earlier, he partially got the idea of Edoras/Meduseld/Rohan/Rohirrim from Beowulf, not to mention things like Mithril were used in previous fantasy texts. But seriously...Does "urgal" sound like "orc" or "uruk-hai" to anyone else? The exact same three major races...Men, elves and dwarves. DÛR. Barad-dûr. Farthen dûr. Isenstar? Isengard? Evenstar? Hmm...(I won't say that these are definitely copies, they could simply be coincidences. But I know for sure that LotR had some influence of Inheritance, it's way too obvious.)

[Bloodredsword]

I'm about halfway through it right now...and I have to agree with penguin that I'm noticing alot of fantasy novel cliches(not saying I didn't in the other two books). It's a pretty decent read so far though...I can't say I'm not enjoying it.

[Nom]

I really don't think it's fair to compare Star Wars and the Inheritance Cycle, seeing as the Cycle isn't even done yet. Much of the comparison you quoted had incorrect information (at least, from the Inheritance Cycle point of view), and some information has yet to be proven correct.

 

 

 

Every single line of that summary is dead-on correct. It summarizes the first two books of Eragon and the first two movies in the Star Wars Original Trilogy, both of which were out at the time it was written. What is incorrect or yet to be proven? Yet to be proven? Eldest was released in 2005, The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Nothing in there is speculation, it is fact taken directly from the books and movies.

 

 

 

As for the plagiarism of names, is it really that big of a deal if he used a name he had heard of elsewhere and used it in his own work? If that were the case, pretty much every novel ever written would be filled with plagiarism.

 

 

 

This argument becomes tiring. Paolini did little more than transfer names from other works into his own world, which is conicidentally spliced together from many other fantasy worlds. Add that to the Star Wars plot, and you have more than the expected name or two or one plot point that shares similarities. You have a fantasy shake with a forgetable, if not disgusting, flavor.

 

 

 

As for your viewpoints, most seem to be very biased.

 

 

 

This statement:

 

 

 

Christopher Paolini is not a good writer.

 

 

 

is a fact. Sorry, but it is. When I can tot up that much criticism (and believe me, I have craploads more) and hear similar things from other readers, some of them writers themselves, some professional reviewers, some the average Joe with a good taste in fantasy, the author is doing something wrong.

 

 

 

The sheer amount of awful prose is indicative enough of Paolini's incompetence with sentences. Take, for example, the prologue to Eragon. Six times a character says something. Five times the character does not say it. Instead he shouts, barks, hisses, etc. The one time he does say something, the modifier "icily" is tacked on. Clearly, Paolini does not understand that the word "said" is a GOOD word. It does not make you a better writer to come up with a colorful replacement, because that just draws the reader's attention, which is not wanted. "Said" is invisible. Invisible is good, as it helps the flow of the story. This is a fact, no, a rule of the literary world.

 

 

 

I would go on, but I have other things to go on about . . .

 

 

 

Also, I don't believe that Paolini wanted the readers to assume that Eragon had mastered the sword after his training with Brom, if so it would seem that he didn't understand his own story very well. I say this because when Eragon arrives in Ellesmera, the elf city, it's clear that many of the elves around him far exceeded his own abilities in swordsmanship.

 

 

 

Funny you should say that he doesn't understand his own story . . .

 

 

 

Anyway, might I entreat you to a quote from Eldest?

 

 

 

"If I were an elf or you a human, you would not be able to match my blade." (Page 394, American hardcover.)

 

 

 

Paolini makes it pretty darn clear that the only reason the elves beat Eragon is because of their UBER SPESHUL STRENGTH. Accordingly, during deus ex machina prime [also known as the Blood-Oath Ceremony] Eragon is granted all of the elves' UBER SPESHULNESS, and therefore can beat them.

 

 

 

You also fail to mention that his explanation of magic and how it's used is very original and intriguing, and that the mental bond between Eragon and his "flying, fire-breathing horse" is also a great, original idea.

 

 

 

Incorrect. See The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin for the exact same magic system, years earlier. See Dragonriders of Pern (yes, dragonriders) by Anne McCaffrey for the telepathic bond between man and dragon. Also years earlier.

[Alg]

I'd think you could enjoy a book better if you don't pick every flaw in it apart...

 

 

 

Even if it's Star Wars with dragons, I personally am enjoying it.

[AdioLovesSquall]

I'd think you could enjoy a book better if you don't pick every flaw in it apart...

 

 

 

Then what does quality matter? Quality is essential, if the book sucks, it sucks and deserves to be panned into pandemonium. If you think differently, then so be it.

[Nope12345]

must buy....must buy....must buy....must buy....

[aquariusman]

Wow, I wasn't aware that the plagiarism ran that deep. I do agree with you. Everything you said was as true as I can remember it, and I trust you enough go to on your word about other books. I enjoyed the books, but they were only a one-time reading thing. I'm not really surprised that this happened, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Paolini came up with the idea when he was sixteen. He probably was older, according to where I heard it thought.

[warren211]

Woah, I never realized how many names were blatantly copied from something. I mean, you could have at least spelled em backwards or rearranged the letters as a little easter egg for observant readers. But no, you take huge characters from the biggest works of fiction and stick em in your book.

 

 

 

I always knew Hrothgar was from something but couldn't put my finger on it. I'm reading the book nonetheless because I want to see how it ends, but I won't look at Paolini the same way again...

[Boris5000]

I have the book next to my bed, just the thing aboout picking it up and reading it is the problem...

 

Seems like a good book but I had recently read the Farseer trilogy by robin hobb, what a great trilogy that was...

[Kalphite]

I thought that it was incredibly boring, even more so than eldest.

[Hawks]

Rocked. Seriously. Much better than Eragon, better than Eldest. Dunno why people have to keep harping on it. It's nothing like Star Wars. except the movie... WHICH WAS ABSOLUTE CRAP!

[Nom]

It's nothing like Star Wars.

 

 

 

Hate to keep harping on about it, but just because there aren't lightsabers and spaceships does not mean it shares no similarities. Why does that keep going over people's heads?