Dragon Spelled with an E

[oddler]

You know, Eragon. Has anyone here read the book or the series? I've just started in a way; I've finished the first book but have yet to start on Eldest. What did you think?

I thought it wasn't really my taste of high fantasy but I got into it after a while. It took longer to get sucked in compared to others I've read recently, though. And the author started working on it when he was... 16ish, I think? I thought that was pretty impressive. Some of the themes were pretty beyond a normal teenager's grasp, in my opinion. Not as in-depth and explained as well as if he had a little more wisdom beneath his belt but, given his youth, well enough.

[Freya]

The beginning of Eragon blew. It wasn't until the end that i felt it got good.

Eldest was pretty damn entertaining I felt.

Brisingr was pretty good.... I still haven't finished it cause I've developed like a Book ADD or something lately but you can tell that the writer has aged and it's much much better than when he started.... from what i've read which is half the book...

I like them enough. They are entertaining, I wouldn't say they are my favorite books but they are pretty Good.

[MJN SEIFER]

Eragon is SO based on a video game...

[Ouch!]

The first time I tried to read Eragon, I got through two chapters. The second time I made an attempt, I got through two sentences.

It reads like poorly written fanfiction.

[Bastian]

The first time I tried to read Eragon, I got through two chapters. The second time I made an attempt, I got through two sentences.

It reads like poorly written fanfiction.

Yes.

I saw the trailer for the movie and thought, "Oo! I want to see that! I have to get the book and read it before it comes out." And I started the book . . . and it was AWFUL. Ouch! worded it perfectly: it reads like bad fanfic. The deal is the guy wrote it when he was in high school. Which is fine. I wrote a book with my friend in middle school. We even sent it to Tor. Who rejected it. Because it was poorly written. Just like Eragon. The only reason Eragon got published is because his family self-published it and then self-marketed the hell out of it. So of course a major publisher saw that they could make a quick buck off of it by distributing it too.

Now, I'm not saying the book or author are without merit. I'm just saying that he needed a real editor to red-marker the hell out his manuscript.

After (painfully) finishing Eragon, I haven't the heart to read the other two books.

[I Took the Red Pill]

I thought the first one was pretty awesome, by the time I got to Eldest I was starting to realize it was pretty tily written, and by the time Brisingr came out I couldn't bring myself to get past the first 200 pages or so.

I call it the Harry Potter Syndrome; one slowly realizes the amateur nature of the writing as one grows older.

[Imperfectionist]

Oooh this is really weird, I was just talking to my friend about this book! Spooky...

Anyway, I found it was kind of boring. I read Eragon and Eldest, then I got halfway through Brisingr when I just gave up altogether. I felt like I was reading an amalgamation of every single stereotype of the fantasy genre, and it's pretty dull. Impressive for a 16 year old, but I just felt a bit meh about the whole thing.

[Bastian]

Impressive for a 16 year old, but I just felt a bit meh about the whole thing.

See . . . and I think that's the issue in a nutshell. It shouldn't matter if it's "impressive for a 16 year old" if it is poorly written. Even if a five year old wrote it it wouldn't matter because it's a poorly written.

That's the whole reason the book got popular. Because it was written by a kid.

Had the same book with the same exact words been written by an adult, it would never have been published.

[Imperfectionist]

Impressive for a 16 year old, but I just felt a bit meh about the whole thing.

See . . . and I think that's the issue in a nutshell. It shouldn't matter if it's "impressive for a 16 year old" if it is poorly written. Even if a five year old wrote it it wouldn't matter because it's a poorly written.

That's the whole reason the book got popular. Because it was written by a kid.

Had the same book with the same exact words been written by an adult, it would never have been published.

I disagree. I didn't even know how young he was til I bought the thing, I just like dragons and stuff

You're right, though, if he was an adult I wouldn't be quite so kind but he wasn't, and that makes it impressive for someone of his age but not impressive in terms of literature as a whole. Doesn't mean you can't appreciate it at all.

[Madonna]

It reads like poorly written fanfiction.

Yes; when a friend shoved first shoved Eragon my way, I could not help but shudder the same! While "original" in the general sense, I got the feeling it was a fan-fiction for the entire fantasy genre rather than adding it!

I did read all the currently published books, if only to shut up a certain someone, and despite how thick these books are, they are strikingly shallow in every sense! There is no epic-world building here, no great hidden history to read; everything is hastily constructed around the idea of one Dragon Rider and his destiny to save the world! Eragon moves from plot point to plot point in the series and few things exist beyond them! If you read a name, know that Eragon will encounter that character! If someone is described as remotely suspect, know too they shall turn on Eragon! The obvious goes on and on; you may as well feed me glass for my pains!

[Bastian]

You're right, though, if he was an adult I wouldn't be quite so kind but he wasn't, and that makes it impressive for someone of his age but not impressive in terms of literature as a whole. Doesn't mean you can't appreciate it at all.

I disagree. What's so impressive about writing a bad book and your family fighting tooth-and-nail to self publish it and self market it? I guess the impressive thing is that his family put that much effort into it. But I used to belong to several "writers' clubs" when I was a kid and as a result I read far more impressive stuff by far younger writers. None of them were published (last I heard) and neither would Eragon have been had his family not spent all that money to get it out there and get it marketed to begin with.

[Freya]

I don't understand what was so bad about it. It wasn't the best but not as horrible as you lot are making it out to be. It IS a fantasy book and once you go into a fantasy book you're going to come across some similar things.

[Raistlin]

I read Eragon back in high school, and it was entertaining enough, I guess. Didn't he write it when he was 16? That by itself made it impressive, but otherwise was average. I did not care enough to read the series further.

[Bastian]

Didn't he write it when he was 16? That by itself made it impressive, but otherwise was average.

*facepalm*

And I disagree with Freya that just because it's fantasy we should expect it to be cliche. I've read a LOT of fantasy, and Eragon was probably the most generic book I'd ever read. It didn't present even ONE unique idea. EVERYTHING seemed to be lifted from one famous fantasy series or another. And the writing style was utterly bland and fell into the traps that all bad writers fall into (telling, not showing; too plot-point to plot-point; there was ZERO sense of history, it just seemed like a generic timeless "fantasy world"). I could tell as I was reading it that he was young and inexperienced.

[Freya]

Well I disagree with your disagreement. I feel most fantasy worlds have a lot of the same things. Hello, dragons for one? How many fantasy stories make dragons a center creature of their stories? Yeah his characters and lore wasn't as thought out but i've read a few books like that, some are even ones people feel are good.