It was cool and new but like you sead, something was telling me I had alredy seen this somewhare else. Whenever I tell my friends about it I say that its a cross beetween Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

I have to admit that I still like it, but as an avid young reader it's made me more aware of what it takes to be a good athor insted of just wrighting somthing and getting it published.

And personally I think you should do this as a full time job, youer realy good at it!

Moriah

Xeheqlar: I forgot to mention that in my following of this horrid 'writer'--if you can even call him that--I have learned that his personality and behavior is as bad as his book. What honest writer compares HIMSELF to Tolkien and Beowulf? That is not the job of the writer; that's the job of the critic. Furthermore he is overstepping the sane borders of self-praise, writing himself into his own third installment: a squire becoming a knight. Immature.

Kim Shir'hal: Beautiful eassay, and I agree on all your points. I find Palolini's work to be absolute idiocy. Let me share a bit of my own ERAGON experience, and I assure you, it is not pretty.

My fiancee had to read the book to me because the format was too hard for me to comprehend on my own. I mean, I'm 18, I have a third-year collge reading level, and I could NOT understand ERAGON. It was too cluttered, too sudden, too cliché. Even though I've only heard several key paragraphs from most of the chapters, I know the main part of the story and once asked my fiancee to stop because I couldn't stand the torture anyomre. That just goes to show how aggrevating it must be to many other intellegent people.

"The Cripple Who Is Whole": Did you notice that bears are called "Beorn"? Hmm, sorta like LOTR.
And what about the "Mandrake Plant". I seem to recall something about that in Harry Potter. You'd think he'd be a little more discreet in his stealing.

But, overall, I thought it was a good book, despite what it says hear, although they are all true. I enjoyed reading it, even if it was stolen from others. But, on the other hand, very well written by you, and points well-stated.

swankivy: Well, since the above person left no address to mail, I'll reply to this briefly here:

I'm not surprised that the "beorn" was there because Paolini ganked a bunch of his stuff from Old Norse and whatnot just like Tolkien did. Mandrake plants were used in Harry Potter and Eragon because they actually do exist and their roots really do kinda look like a person, though they don't scream like in HP--these aren't really the things I feel like Paolini is "stealing." What he's taking is someone else's setting and much of their style, and definitely an unoriginal storyline. THAT is the unoriginality that I'm most annoyed with, not the piece-by-piece influence and mythological references--I didn't have a problem with "beorn" or "mandrake," because they weren't taken directly from another writer, but from the same thing those writers took it from. (Oh, and thanks for the comment!)

Kerasa: Very good, but then again, it was more of a list than an essay... But then again, you're only 14, so i should feel sorry for you.

swankivy: I have no idea why this person thought I was 14 since at the time she wrote me I was TWENTY-SEVEN, and it's a bona fide essay, not a "list" at all . . . but then again, the author of this comment doesn't seem to have her facts straight at all, so perhaps I should return the pity.

Hysterik: I agree completely with everything that was mentioned in this essay. I found this site after joining the Eragon Hatelisting a while back. I'm one of those people who couldn't even finish the book, but is still very interested in what's happening in the Eragon world, mainly because I want to find more similarities to make fun of. It wasn't so much the writing style that ticked me off, it was the blantantly obvious similarities between Star Wars and Eragon, and also the superficial nature of the land and the characters.

I had a very high opinion of a certain book critic, until I read his comments about Eragon. He said that Paolini created an 'intricately-laid-out fantasy world with much of the geographical and linguistic detail of The Lord of the Rings'. Personally I find this just ridiculous. Tolkien's world has depth and history to it, whereas Paolini's world is shallow and boring. He also said that Eragon is a 'magnetic young hero wrapped up in relationships you feel and believe in.' I find Eragon to be as boring as a paper cut out, and I didn't care about his 'relationships' in the slightest. This critic also placed the book in the top 20 books to read if you love Harry Potter.

I don't particularly respect his opinion anymore.

Cheyanne: Thank you!

Your essay nails everything that I had a problem with, but found trouble verbalizing. I appreciate that you had the time and inclination to write it.

I wouldn't recommend picking up the sequel, Eldest. I read it hoping that Paolini would improve, but, if anything, it was worse than Eragon.

Molly: When I read your essay, I breathed a sigh of relief: Finally, someone who sees Eragon in the same light as I do! Being I'm a creative writing major, I was pretty offended that this is the book that has become a symbol of a 'good story' in our culture, for it is not a good story. Rather, it is a rip-off of Tolkein and Star Wars. Swifties and dull characters abound. By the time I was finished reading this garbage, my eyes were about ready to bleed. I swear, if it was a hundred pages longer, my forehead would be more wrinkly than my grandma's. That's how much I frowned while reading this book. And another thing I'm wondering is why it seems a lot of teen writers (or writers in general) are copping to this? I like fantasy just as much as the next person, but it seems to me that a lot of people are just producing rip-offs of Harry Potter and LOTR. They're jumping on the bandwagon. And I can tell that Paolini did just that. It doesn't seem like he loved the particular ge nre as much as he acts like he does. I could tell his heart wasn't in the story. He didn't burn a pound of his flesh and heart into the thing. What I felt was that he wrote what was popular just to get rich. Although they say easy money is the hardest thing to earn, he somehow managed to make it. It baffles me. Well, the last thing I can do is quote Flannery O' Connor "Many a bestseller could have been prevented by a good teacher." And if Paolini had had a good teacher and not his parents looking over his work, I doubt we'd be subjected to this drivel today. Thank you, Ivy, for your enlightening essay. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

smoothbrat: I actually really liked eragon..And eldest..But I hated the movie!

Kellicat: Thank you so much for writing essays on both Eldest and Eragon. When I first picked those books to read I enjoyed reading them, but there were some severe flaws I noticed right away. What the hell was he doing having elves, dwarves and orcs (excuse me URGALS, like that makes them a different species) lifted straight out of Tolkein? I loved all the points you made in both essays, escpecially how robotic Eragon is. I have a (slightly ranting) feminist point of my own to make.

I found it rather tiresom how helpless most of the female characters were. Sure, there are the token strong female characters: Arya the scornful feminist elf, Nasuada the token black girl who takes control of the Varden (I didn't mind her so much) Elva the clone of Alia Atreides and Angela the eccentric witch. All the other women were the typical helpless women who relied on men. Maybe it's just me but I am sick to death of having women always be helpless in traditional fantasy stories. Just because women were considered inferior to men in our world in the Middle Ages doesn't mean it has to be that way in fantasy.

CP compounds the idiocy by having the Ra'zac kidnap Katrina instead of Roran! I mean come on! Roran's the one they want to question, so why don't they just take him? Then maybe Katrina could have been the one to rescue Roran. Or maybe Eragon would have to rescue him. Or they both could have rescued him. That would have been intersting but CP blew it and invoked "boy must rescue girl". Not only that, but Roran also has to drag his uber-annoying and childish cousin Eragon along with him to rescue Katrina. Why is Eragon leaving the Varden to get revenge on the Ra'zac and put himself in a lot of unneccessary danger when he and Saphira should probably stay with the Varden? It makes no sense for them to leave because woudn't Galbatorix love it if Eragon got lured into a trap with Roran by trying to save Katrina? (Katrina's basically a lure for Roran)Why not wait until he gets overconfident again? Eragon has never been noted for his brightness but this is dim even for him. The sneak peek at the third book confirms my suspicions: the two idiots stumble into a cave without realizing that the Nazguls' (Sorry Ra'zacs') winged steeds are in there. I'll have to watch Return of the Jedi to predict the rest, but it'll probably all be blatantly obvious when it comes out.

Anybody want to bet that Murtagh throws Galbie into the Vault of Souls to save Eragon?

Jace deRavn: Let me introduce myself, I am a future writer (I've only just begun looking for a publisher..), with a fantasy novel done, a possible sequel in the works.

Concerning your essay on "Eragon", all I want to say is that you're absolutely right to criticize Paolini in that his work's so derivative.
Even young writers like myself ought to try to be...I don't know...more "ORIGINAL"--if there's anyone out there who could honestly say there's Anything "Original" about Eragon (I Don't). Enough said.

PS: "Jace deRavn" is not my real name. I just want you to know that I also don't like what Paolini's done with Eragon.