Although, it does make me feel a bit better because if he can get published, I, who even by my own admission write a lot better, can at least do the same.

Even if my mum doesn't own a publishing company.

DarkCrawler: Great essay...you pointed out all the things I hated in the book and showed me some more stuff I haven't noticed...and the hatemail is just so funny to read.

Saz: I agree with all your criticisms of Eragon and Eldest. It is cliched and unoriginal, filled with too much flowery prose and lots of plot holes.

But for some reason, there was "Something" that kept me reading it. I think Kawnliee's review is spot on. It's exactly what i feel. There ARE three categories, Good, Entertaining and Crap. Eragon is borderline Entertaining and Crap (mostly crap... probably 90%). Hmmm... it's a little strange that im admitting that i was entertained by Eragon because that means I'm ignorant and unread... but im not: i've always loved reading and have read many books in different genres. But, whatever i am, Kawnliee's review really rings true for me, and i agree with her. I read the books in pretty much the same way she did - because of all the praise it seemed to be getting. And also, i didn't notice all the things Paolini had copied from other books (except the LOTR copies, i noticed those!).

I agree with your criticisms - in fact, I LOVED reading all your criticisms because a) they were TRUE (and CP is a pretentious jerk), and b)you write really well and your style is "entertaining" (GOOD entertaining, not trashy entertaining).

However, you are, in your words, an "English freak" and an editor, so you WOULD be more focussed on the technical side of the books than most readers would. You have certainly proved that Eragon and Eldest are not good books (according to Kawnliee's definition) but the books do entertain. well, some people anyway.

T.R.: Yeah, okay. I know that there are a lot of essays on why Eragon is such a piece of crap out there, but I felt I should at least pay homage to the origin of what most of them have to say. :pays homage: Okay. Done now. When I first read Eragon my reaction was...blah. Dull. I was bored by "A Taste of Teirm." Then when the movie came out and I was at that point writing my own book, I decided to see (again) whether this "teen author" that so many people were touting as a role model for me had to offer.

I read it again.

For about a week I raged about its hideous sentence structure, purple prose, and terrible pacing. My topics ranged from "boring" to "poorly written" to "hackneyed" and back again, but by the time the week was up my family was thorougly sick of me and told me to shut up about it. I raged silently for about two more weeks before I found a little website called Anti-Shur'tugal, which led me to your essays. While the content on Anti-Shur'tugal is well thought out and entertaining, I didn't find so much...evidence, you might call it...as I found on your essay(s, because I just read the Eldest one), and as well thought out.

I just have to say that as a fantasy fan I'm outraged about what Paolini is doing to my favorite genre. Sure, all basic plotlines may have been used, but I do not believe that the human imagination has so reached its full capacity that we have to recycle our old stories in such boring, unimaginative manners. Yeah, that's my rant for the day. Thanks for spreading the word.

As always,
T.R.

Aliiak: Hm, I fully agree with you, damn, you took the words right out of my mouth. I rarely read, or even watch fictional works such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or Dragons of Perth (Aye- See?), but it was clear to see that something about Eragon was not 'right', damn none of it was right!

But um, some of your replies to comments left on here are rather childish, what you find on neopets. Be the bigger man! Don't go down to their level.

Aye- wonderful essay none the less with the views supported, and very agreeable.

Stephanie: That made my day. Thank you for being so articulate about what many young authors take such great offense at.

Alex (number 2): I sent a direct email to you just before, but in relation to Eragon my own opinion is that CP DOES KNOW HOW TO WRITE, it's just that his writing is constantly infested with cliches and he has had a real problem extracting hiself from the writings of authors such as Tolkien and simply does not know how to personalize his writing or be original in his ideas. Still, you'll probably say differently.

Nancy: Hi

I just read your essay on Eragon (While trying to find out More info because I’m writing an essay for my grade 10 English I.S.U) And have a few comments.

First off...I find the sarcasm at the Beginning of your essay quiet amusing.

I’m not a very experienced fantasy reader The only “good” books I’ve read are Harry Potter and Eragon. Yes I know I’m kind of ashamed of it. Anyway I really liked the book Eragon. However even though I am not very knowledgeable in this genre I defiantly agree that the plot was predictable and the names of the characters and
places were hard to pronounce. Especially "Alagaësia" I honestly thought the “G” was silent and was pronouncing it “ Al-aSia” throughout the whoooole book. (side note: yeah I’m not sure how I got “ Al-aSia” but that’s how it was)

Anyway… your essay has inspired me to learn more about fantasy And I got some pretty good tip offs for MY essay! So. If you know of any other good books (that wont bombard My brain with difficult language) please share the knowledge!

PS. Completely random but I have to ask

Is Murtagh’s name pronounced “MurtaG” or “MurtaH” :S

Michael: Although this is quite late in coming, I want to thank you for a very well thought-out essay review of Eragon. Although I agree with everything you have noted, I want to disagree with you on the book's overall unreadability. I've found that I was able to thoroughly enjoy Eragon, after only 2 hours of sifting through various fanfictions on Fanfiction.net- probably the equivalent to several days of fasting.

I do agree with the points you have made. As an amateur writer and hobby-linguist, I find Eragon to be very frustrating to read and enjoy.

Also, I'd like to add a point that I don't think you mentioned? Although it is a nice touch that Paolini *tried* to introduce a mysterious language (ooh, shiny!), having large blocks of largely untranslated pseudolanguage in the middle of a conversation is very off-putting. Especially if most of it is so foreign as to be almost unpronouncable. Think of a lecturer at Oxford University suddenly switching to Swahili for 5 minutes during a lcture on American History- I almost flung the book (and it's sequel) across the room. Several times.

Thank you again for a compelling review, and keep up the good work.

Oh, and if you do get published- be sure to provide an advertisement or a link? I'd be quite eager to read something written by someone with brains. Moreso after reading Paolini's work.

Regards,

Michael B.

Miriam Doyle: Hello. My name is Miriam Doyle, I'm 14, and you, ma'dam, are my heroine. Your essay was excellent, and it made me recognise faults in my own stories, as well in the art of writing itself. While I was reading the book, I didn't feel anything for it at all. I didn't worry about the characters, I never felt poor wee Eragon's heartache at not being able to win Arya's heart in Eldest. Quite frankly, if Eragon were to get run over by a truck, I would probably laugh. Throughout the entire thing, I couldn't help wondering where I'd read it before, and this is coming from someone who hasn't really read much of Tolkien, McCaffrey or whatever. When I finished, I found out why. Go to fanfiction.net, look in the Lord of the Rings Section, and you'll see it there, duplicated over and over again. Alagaesia is Middle Earth at a fancy dress party.
That, and the Dragon Riders are definitely the Jedi.
There were so many bits of the books that I forget, mainly because of the huge chunks of unnecessary description. All the time, I bet Paolini was just dying to describe Ellesmera and Tronjheim in another fifty pages, as if that makes him poetic or something. And all he had to do next was build a vaguely exciting story around it, so then he could get an excuse to describe how wonderful Arya's (single) tears are, as well as her hair, her eyes, her voice, and - (you get the point). I basically thought of Eldest as an excuse by Paolini for Eragon to immaturely lust after Arya (i.e, God and Kiera Knightley combined) while garnering his skills in an unbelievably short time. Take that inky dragon ritual thing. If it really made him that good, then why the gabbering fabberwaltz did all the other Dragon Riders not do the same thing? I mean, the Varden would have an entire army of Yoda clones, and Galbatorix would never have been a problem in the first place. Logic does not seem to apply where reality says it would.
People seem to think this book gets off lightly just because Paolini wrote it when he was fifteen. I am younger than him, and an aspiring author, and if this is what the world thinks people my age can come up with, I might just throw myself off a convenient cliff. It's depressing, and it puts me off from writing if people are going to see my work at his level, which, I hope I can safely say, is certainly NOT at his level.
I remember thinking when I first saw the book in the shop, 'Wow. That sounds like dragon.' And when I heard the placenames, I actually thought they'd been lifted out of an RPG. There was nothing new in it. It didn't inspire me, despite Paolini frequently claiming it does, rather it sort of killed me mentally. I read it all in a single sitting into the small hours, and realised I wanted my sleep back.
One thing that needs sorting out is the pathetic excuse people are saying that you hated it because, 'you aren't the target audience.' I am going to reinforce your point by saying, I AM the target audiance, yet I STILL despised it. Age is not something that should sway a critic, unless it is genuinely amazing for a such young person. If age can influence judgement the way Eragon has done, then a four year old who can scribble a bit of Shakespeare from a textbook in purple crayon can be considered a prodigy. Hooray.
Your essay has helped me reinforce my thoughts about the book, and has made me appreciate the authors who really have poured their hearts out into their work. I have done so before in my own (rubbish) works, but ever since reading the book I've always got this sinking feeling that if I ever publish it, it'll only be praised because of my age. I think I'll call it Paolini Syndrome.
One thing that saddens me is that there are not enough people like you to give such sound advice.
Behind you all the way,
Miriam Doyle.
(PS: I'd just like to add that Miriam Doyle is just my pseudonym. Also to the general public who might think I'm secretly a massive hypocrite, I have alot of my work at www.fictionpress.com~miriamdoyle. I will accept any criticism.)