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Friday, May 05, 2006

Eldest

Eldest is the second in the Inheritance Trilogy Christopher Paolini. This 668 page volume follows Eragon as he journeys to pledge his allegiance with the Varden to destroy the Empire and later travels to the Elves in order to continue his training as a Rider. Judging by the cover the reader assumes that another dragon will appear in this book. And, boy, are we in for a shock. Eragon and Saphira learn quite a bit about using their strengths as Rider and dragon from an while with the Elves and young Eragon also grows in many ways. Later Eragon is faced with the battle of a lifetime and finds out more about who his family was and realizes one member has betrayed him.

Paolini has really out done himself with this book. I absolutely love the story and I particularly love the section with the elves. (For some reason, I keep picturing the Lord of the Ring Elves here :) )

One thing I didn't care too much about was having to flip back to the Pronunciation Guide and Glossary every time he had one of them speak in dwarvish or in the ancient language. He was a little wordy with the details, but he really does give a fantastic picture of what Alagaesia is like.

A lot happens in the last couple of chapters and I had to finish it during my plan time today. I cannot wait for the next, and final, book in this trilogy.

1 comment:

sandi said...

I agree, a lot of his stuff reminds me of other stories.
I can't tell you why it's called Eldest. But you won't find out until the last few chapters. You find out A LOT then.
Read it!