Fantasy Inheritance
A while
back I was handed a couple of books and was told “Here read these, they seem
like they’d be up your alley.” I’m speaking of my Mother-In-Law in this case,
who I might add reads ever so much more voraciously than I, and the books in
question were the first two books in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance
Cycle. I’d never read them despite
purchasing several of the books for my younger brother who like myself is a
sucker for a story involving a dragon. I even watched the film which thought
was okay but not great.
I took
them, started reading and ordered books three and four because I dislike having
an incomplete series if I can avoid it.
Alas, if I were a man of more means I would definitely have a much more
extensive library than I do now. It took
me quite some time to finish between work, the need for sleep and other reasons
I’ll get to in a minute, while reading I found a lot of people who’d read them
and wanted to know what I thought of them. Not willing to pass judgment too quickly I shared
some of what I liked so far and moved on. I was also quite blocked for writing
for Brain Wrapped and while talking with David (my co-worker, fellow blogger
and all around nice guy) about what to write next, he suggested this and here
we are, albeit a little long after that conversation. I try to keep things
relatively spoiler free here but in this case it isn’t going to happen, sorry.
At any
rate the Inheritance Cycle consists
of four books: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance,
each more of a tome than the one prior to it. A part of its increased length
was that the start of the second through fourth book included a synopsis of the
story so far, which while well written, seemed unnecessary. This also like many fantasy novels has a map
of its fictional realm and a glossary of words and phrases used in the
languages of the various races we meet, which again can be cool but also is
unnecessary. The editions I got had some beautiful cover art, each a Dragon
that you meet during the story.
Of the
four books, Eragon was probably my
favorite. I believe this is because it held the most promise. It was new (to
me) and I tried to give it a chance despite any skepticism I had that I would
fall in love with the series right away. But I did enjoy it overall and like
many stories there were parts I liked and parts I didn’t.
Likes:
·
Cause and Effect – One of my favorite parts of
the way these stories were written was the depth that Paolini delved into when
it comes to dealing with the consequences of the actions taken by the
characters. Of course without cause and
effect you have no story but the decisions made by the characters in these
stories often had lasting effects that lasted throughout the four books. The
prime example of this would be Elva. Elva shows up later in the first book as
an infant, whose caretaker asks Eragon to bless the child. Eragon who at this
stage still relatively new to the role of a dragon-rider and new to the
language of magic, does so without much thought. The result is that he causes a
transformation in Elva that lasts throughout the series and is something
Eragon, who wants to correct essentially forcing this blessing upon the girl
and dealing with Elva in both positive and negative light. Simple honest
mistake, life altering complication. I loved it and of course there are several
other examples of this, but Elva was probably one of the biggest.
·
Eragon/Arya – Human boy meets attractive
(technically much older than him) Elven girl and becomes utterly infatuated
with her. This relationship is probably one of the most honest parts of the
journey that Eragon travels. Pretty much
anyone who was ever a teenager could probably relate to this relationship. And
(spoiler) my favorite part about it is that in the end they’re friends. But
that’s it; he has to get over it even after the ending of the last page.
·
The Jaws
Treatment – You remember Jaws, right? Remember when you first saw the scary
shark? It was way, way into the movie. One of the things I liked about this is
that while we deal with the dark empire run by Galbatorix, you don’t actually
deal with him directly until the last parts of the last book. Even if I wasn’t so stoked about how the
interaction between he and Eragon turned out, not having to deal directly with
him was nice.
And…speaking of what I didn’t like…
Dislikes:
·
Roran Stronghammer – I mentioned earlier that
this series took me a long time to read. If I could point blame at what caused
me to take the majority of that time, it would have been that I HATED Roran
Stronghammer. The parts of the storyline featuring Roran were by far the
hardest for me to get through. I soldiered through with the promise that I can
catch up with Eragon, Saphira, etc. soon enough. This got to the point where I
would periodically look to see how many “Roran pages” I had remaining. I found him more awkward than Eragon and
found his tendency to brood highly annoying, he wasn’t Holden Caufield
annoying, but he got damn close sometimes.
One of the few things I find myself considering a slight redemption of
the character is that his fighting style was to smashy-smash with a hammer.
This was probably the hardest dislike for me to overcome in the series. He went
from being minor-ish sort of character in Eragon to being all over the place in
the remaining novels and I don’t know what exactly it was about him but he and
I never got along.
·
The End?!?
- After reading them one of my co-workers asked me how I felt about how
the series ended. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love having loose ends. Leave them
wanting more it’s been said. However my response to this was more of a “Meh.”
You leave Eragon and Alagaesia for that matter with a lot unsaid and
undone. I’ll leave it there. Read it and
decide for yourself.
·
Inheritance - The biggest nagging thought in my
mind is that this series, The Inheritance
Cycle, aptly named. This is both for the fact that inheritance is a major
theme throughout the sage but also because of the story feeling inherited. Let
me explain what I mean. I in no way want to discredit Mr. Paolini for the work he’s done, making his mark in
the world of literature as he did at such a young age. Honestly it’s more than
I can say about myself currently much less than when I was his age at the time
the story was penned.
However, when I say it felt inherited in
that I was aware of story formulae progressing as I moved from page to page. There’s a clear mix of coming of age as well
as hero journey patterns that are so much a part of the story that I feel like
I’m being beaten over the skull with it. Do most stories have these constructs?
Yes. Should you be so aware of them that you have trouble focusing on the
story? Not necessarily.
We have the common elements of the hero’s
journey of course which I won’t break down in detail here for fear of creating
a term paper. You have the common races
and elements of fantasy (elves, dwarves, dragons and the like). There’s also the concept of magic (and
naming, for that matter) stemming from ancient language, which those who know
it can use it to wield great and potentially dangerous power. Which as a side
note also has been a part of an odd knack I’ve had lately to randomly choose to
read novels with similar concepts, in this case I’m making a connection to
Ursula K LeGuin’s Earthsea trilogy,
which I recently finished.
Am I calling the story unoriginal? Not in the
slightest. But what I am finding is that it almost feels like blueprints were
laid in which Mr. Paolini was directed to make his narrative fit into. He did a
fine job with it to his credit, I just wish I couldn’t see the blueprints
behind the creation, for me it
takes away some of the magic.
