Having previously covered Eragon, The Fork, The Witch, and the Worm, and Murtagh, we now return back in time to cover the second book chronologically released, Eldest. You can check out those other blogs above if you'd like, but be mindful of potential spoilers!
Christopher Paolini published Eldest three years after the release of his first novel. In that time, readers can immediately tell the author has grown; not only has Paolini put many more pages to print, his style has also matured and breathes a bit easier. Eldest benefits the most by genuinely featuring multiple viewpoints; in Eragon, the audience is treated to third-person limited narrative, in which basically the entire story is centered around the title character. For the sequel, the narrative jumps back and forth between Eragon and his cousin Roran, who had been introduced in the first book but left behind. Much of the newer book is spent catching up with Roran and the village of Carvahall and what befell them while Eragon was training to become a dragon rider.
Without spoiling too much, Eragon's adventures and training do continue. He finds out that he may not be as alone as he once thought, and that hope yet remains for the other dragon eggs kept by Galbatorix. The, uh, red dragon on the cover indicates that at least one other dragon becomes relevant to the plot.
Over the years, certain reviewers have critiqued the Inheritance series, this being book 2 of 6 so far published, as being derivative of certain other franchises, namely Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. I consider this unfair, if only to say that Star Wars is itself just a new version of The Hero's Journey, opens a new window Literature students might recognize as one of the primordial archetypes in storytelling, describing the journey a seemingly ordinary hero takes, is transformed, and conquers adversity before returning. Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, both follow this archetype, so Eragon was hardly unique on those grounds. In fairness, Eldest does diverge a bit and follows its own story beats, though enough similar scenes happen that one might be wary of continued similarities.
It is also worth further discussing some of the fantasy races Paolini introduces and fleshes out in his work. Admittedly, elves, dwarves, and urgals are treated with all of the pomp of traditional depictions of elves, dwarves, and orcs in literature. In Eldest, the author further describes the cultures of his races, differentiating them from the norm. The urgals are more akin to satyrs instead of orcs or goblins, and it turns out they have a fiercely proud warrior culture and language and history; they are far from the monsters Eragon himself initially thought of them as. We learn that the elves used to be much more mundane in ancient times, but forming a pact with dragons to form the Riders brought changes to both races. Dwarves, perhaps, receive the most distinction and attention, with a whole clan structure and more language than one usually expects even in other fantasy works. Frankly, it's impressive.
So if you are interested, consider giving Eldest a read.
Been a while since we did a Teen Spotlight, hasn't it? We used to call these YA (Young Adult) Spotlights, but that has changed! The St. Tammany Parish Library has done some recent modernization, renaming the YA collection into the Teen collection. Books formerly marked as YA in the call number (like here, previously YA Paol), are now called Teen (TEEN Paol). Neat!
You can find this and other TEEN items on our online catalog, opens a new window !
Happy reading!
Add a comment to: Teen Spotlight: Eldest