Saturday, 27 April 2019 04:28 pm
Book Review: Eldest
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deckardcanineA little less than three years after reading Christopher Paolini's Eragon, I could remember about half the key points. Thankfully, the synopsis at the beginning of the second volume of the Inheritance Cycle is more than adequate to get one up to speed.
Teenage human mage Eragon and his bonded dragon, Saphira, are now highly honored among the Varden for a victory against Galbatorix's empire. Alas, that most recent battle left Eragon with a magical scar that normally makes no difference but, at random intervals, generates enough pain to knock him out. Since the two are no match for Galbatorix and his mount yet, they go to the elves' homeland to train intensively under the only other dragon, Glaedr, and Rider, elf Oromis, who are neither dead nor villainous. (I assume that the title refers to Glaedr.) There is some question of how much to rush the lessons, as time is running out.
Obviously, a story that focuses heavily on training could easily bore the readers, so in addition to the beginning and the third act, we get interludes with focal characters other than Eragon. One of them is his older cousin, Roran, who barely appeared before but has come home to find his father dead, their estate burned, and Eragon gone without explanation. Eragon's pursuers want to capture Roran for interrogation, followed presumably by execution, and they threaten the whole village of Carvahall for not handing either youth over. Roran becomes quite the badass as well as a charismatic leader to Carvahall, but he can hardly enjoy it until everyone he cares about, especially girlfriend Katrina, is safe. And he has a bone to pick with Eragon for precipitating these events.
The other focal character is Nasuada, new leader of the Varden and liege of Eragon. She's pretty adept for a young novice in hard times, tho she becomes aware of her room for improvement. It's interesting to get into the political workings, which add more nuance to an adolescent-friendly book.
Given how much time he spends surrounded by elves, it makes sense that Eragon would come to grips with his growing feelings for Arya from volume 1. But if I didn't have faith in the author's dedication to convention, I would not bet on her reciprocating. She's about a century his senior and, for all her emotional poise, gets patently irritated at his expressions of love. That may hurt even more than his scar. Still more promising than Saphira's crush on Glaedr, tho.
Speaking of convention, yes, Eldest continues with the Star Wars-type pattern and other predictable elements -- to a point. In some cases, I had a rough idea of what would happen, but I was surprised at when and how it did. The revelation of Eragon's parentage, for instance.
One way the book differs from all other fantasies I can think of is its statement of atheism. At least, the elves and dragons see no reason to believe in or worship any entity higher than themselves; they are absolutely certain that souls, while proven by out-of-body experiences to exist, never survive corporeal death; and however foreign these ideas initially are to Eragon, he realizes how much human superstition has been refuted by science. (Yes, in a setting with magic.) Most authors in the genre will introduce a transparent Christianity stand-in and/or invent a form of polytheism, often with compelling evidence if not proof that the gods exist, albeit not necessarily as noble as is preached; those writers who don't want to do such a thing usually don't bring up the subject. I don't begrudge Paolini his worldview, but it seems so contrary to the principle of fantasy to say, "Nope, sorry, this is actually mundane."
Much of the story, especially during the training, explores moral issues. It's evident that Paolini favors vegetarianism for those who can handle it but won't shame those who can't. Eragon comes to see the world as less black and white, including, to my relief, the once strictly vilified Urgals.
In general, I think Paolini matured a bit between volumes, or perhaps he got his own intensive training. There's not as much action as I seem to recall in Eragon, and Eldest is none the worse for that. It even runs about 170 pages longer without trying my patience, tho I had to keep a dictionary on hand for occasional old-fashioned words. I think I'll pick up volume 3, Brisingr, someday.
In the meantime, I'm starting on Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera. That ought to be amusing.
Teenage human mage Eragon and his bonded dragon, Saphira, are now highly honored among the Varden for a victory against Galbatorix's empire. Alas, that most recent battle left Eragon with a magical scar that normally makes no difference but, at random intervals, generates enough pain to knock him out. Since the two are no match for Galbatorix and his mount yet, they go to the elves' homeland to train intensively under the only other dragon, Glaedr, and Rider, elf Oromis, who are neither dead nor villainous. (I assume that the title refers to Glaedr.) There is some question of how much to rush the lessons, as time is running out.
Obviously, a story that focuses heavily on training could easily bore the readers, so in addition to the beginning and the third act, we get interludes with focal characters other than Eragon. One of them is his older cousin, Roran, who barely appeared before but has come home to find his father dead, their estate burned, and Eragon gone without explanation. Eragon's pursuers want to capture Roran for interrogation, followed presumably by execution, and they threaten the whole village of Carvahall for not handing either youth over. Roran becomes quite the badass as well as a charismatic leader to Carvahall, but he can hardly enjoy it until everyone he cares about, especially girlfriend Katrina, is safe. And he has a bone to pick with Eragon for precipitating these events.
The other focal character is Nasuada, new leader of the Varden and liege of Eragon. She's pretty adept for a young novice in hard times, tho she becomes aware of her room for improvement. It's interesting to get into the political workings, which add more nuance to an adolescent-friendly book.
Given how much time he spends surrounded by elves, it makes sense that Eragon would come to grips with his growing feelings for Arya from volume 1. But if I didn't have faith in the author's dedication to convention, I would not bet on her reciprocating. She's about a century his senior and, for all her emotional poise, gets patently irritated at his expressions of love. That may hurt even more than his scar. Still more promising than Saphira's crush on Glaedr, tho.
Speaking of convention, yes, Eldest continues with the Star Wars-type pattern and other predictable elements -- to a point. In some cases, I had a rough idea of what would happen, but I was surprised at when and how it did. The revelation of Eragon's parentage, for instance.
One way the book differs from all other fantasies I can think of is its statement of atheism. At least, the elves and dragons see no reason to believe in or worship any entity higher than themselves; they are absolutely certain that souls, while proven by out-of-body experiences to exist, never survive corporeal death; and however foreign these ideas initially are to Eragon, he realizes how much human superstition has been refuted by science. (Yes, in a setting with magic.) Most authors in the genre will introduce a transparent Christianity stand-in and/or invent a form of polytheism, often with compelling evidence if not proof that the gods exist, albeit not necessarily as noble as is preached; those writers who don't want to do such a thing usually don't bring up the subject. I don't begrudge Paolini his worldview, but it seems so contrary to the principle of fantasy to say, "Nope, sorry, this is actually mundane."
Much of the story, especially during the training, explores moral issues. It's evident that Paolini favors vegetarianism for those who can handle it but won't shame those who can't. Eragon comes to see the world as less black and white, including, to my relief, the once strictly vilified Urgals.
In general, I think Paolini matured a bit between volumes, or perhaps he got his own intensive training. There's not as much action as I seem to recall in Eragon, and Eldest is none the worse for that. It even runs about 170 pages longer without trying my patience, tho I had to keep a dictionary on hand for occasional old-fashioned words. I think I'll pick up volume 3, Brisingr, someday.
In the meantime, I'm starting on Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera. That ought to be amusing.