Brisingr is the sequel to Eldest and the third installment in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy, oops I mean Inheritance cycle...(I wonder how many early editions of Eragon were published with that subtext). Despite Paolini's amateur predictability, lack of originality, and the transposing of his weird quirks onto his fictional characters, Brisingr was compelling and very enjoyable. Mind you, it's nothing special, but as I've said before, I'm a sucker for swords and sorcery and dragon action (that sounds a bit sordid). And there's plenty of that in this novel, climaxing with an exciting battle between the ancient rider Oromis and his gold dragon Glaedr against the traitor Murtagh and his red dragon Thorn. And for the first time we get to encounter the infamous dark king, Galbatorix - albeit through his possession of another character viewed at a distance by means of a psychic link. Hmm that seems unnecessarily complicated. Anyway, the book is better paced than its predecessor Eldest, but still falls into stretches of irritatingly boring chapters this time concentrating on Varden and Dwarf politics. The scenes with Roran's rise to prominence among the Varden are compelling and well done, but all of the focus on the Varden leader Nasuada is little short of worthless (she is really one of the most uninteresting characters that I've ever read in fantasy fiction). The battles and scenes of magic are sufficiently exciting, and the plot feels well planned. But what is up with Eragon's wussy, momma's boy relationship with Saphira? Makes me wonder if Paolini feels his mother didn't give him enough attention when he was little. And you gotta love the awkward attempts at humor personified in the character of Angela the fortune teller, all of which reinforce my conclusion that home schooling your children socially retards them. In spite of its weaknesses (probably more apparent to me because I am insanely jealous of the author's quick success at such a young age) Brisingr is an enthralling story which I very much enjoyed. On a scale of 1-10, Brisingr scores an 8.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Brisingr means fire...
Brisingr is the sequel to Eldest and the third installment in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy, oops I mean Inheritance cycle...(I wonder how many early editions of Eragon were published with that subtext). Despite Paolini's amateur predictability, lack of originality, and the transposing of his weird quirks onto his fictional characters, Brisingr was compelling and very enjoyable. Mind you, it's nothing special, but as I've said before, I'm a sucker for swords and sorcery and dragon action (that sounds a bit sordid). And there's plenty of that in this novel, climaxing with an exciting battle between the ancient rider Oromis and his gold dragon Glaedr against the traitor Murtagh and his red dragon Thorn. And for the first time we get to encounter the infamous dark king, Galbatorix - albeit through his possession of another character viewed at a distance by means of a psychic link. Hmm that seems unnecessarily complicated. Anyway, the book is better paced than its predecessor Eldest, but still falls into stretches of irritatingly boring chapters this time concentrating on Varden and Dwarf politics. The scenes with Roran's rise to prominence among the Varden are compelling and well done, but all of the focus on the Varden leader Nasuada is little short of worthless (she is really one of the most uninteresting characters that I've ever read in fantasy fiction). The battles and scenes of magic are sufficiently exciting, and the plot feels well planned. But what is up with Eragon's wussy, momma's boy relationship with Saphira? Makes me wonder if Paolini feels his mother didn't give him enough attention when he was little. And you gotta love the awkward attempts at humor personified in the character of Angela the fortune teller, all of which reinforce my conclusion that home schooling your children socially retards them. In spite of its weaknesses (probably more apparent to me because I am insanely jealous of the author's quick success at such a young age) Brisingr is an enthralling story which I very much enjoyed. On a scale of 1-10, Brisingr scores an 8.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I am making myself keep reading. His rushed structure of paragraphs and poor handle of the English language in this book makes me sad. As predictable as the other two books have been, they at least kept me reading until the wee hours of the night. This I can put down and go eat celery, because it's more entertaining at times... I am about half way through right now and am praying it gets better... But the fight at Hilgrand or what ever that mountain is, was almost good enough for the whole book.
Post a Comment