swankivy: I just don't get how you can begin a comment like this saying you agree with me on everything and then ramble on about how wrong I am on everything I said. I've said it plenty of times before but I'll say it again: THE FACT THAT OTHER WRITERS USE ELVES AND DWARVES DOES NOT MEAN THAT PAOLINI'S USE OF THEM WAS NOT EXTREMELY UNORIGINAL. At least other writers seem to make these creatures their own; his has so little originality that it reads like fanfiction, and that's all there is to it. And the bull about having elite creatures . . . it's nothing like Navy S.E.A.L.S. They were described just like the difference between the orcs and the elite Uruk-hai in LOTR. But the cutting him some slack because he was fifteen at the story's beginning is the last straw. No! I won't cut him any slack! Because I *too* wrote shitty when I was fifteen, and I don't expect that anyone should protect my feelings or give me a get-out-of-criticism-free card because I was a kid when I wrote that! If you need to make excuses for your age or experience when your work is considered--if your work does not stand up for itself and needs explanation of your limitations--then it just plain does not deserve to stand on the same ground with others of its kind. If it sucks it shouldn't be published. If it's not polished it shouldn't be published. Forget his age. He didn't win a contest for teenagers. He's a published author and his work should be considered like a published book always is. Nobody looks at other people's work and says "Well, it's pretty good for someone who didn't finish high school!" You shouldn't have to excuse people for poor work based on education or circumstance. And that's all I have to say about that.

Bob(as in what ihateshutugal.com or whatever you call it calls ppl who dont leave a name): I respect your feelings, and I think it honorable that you are willing to put fourth such a powerfully negative essay about the book Eragon, and it's companion, Eldest. But with all due respect, I think you could have givin it a little more credit, not because I absolutly LOVED the books, (which I did) but because it was written by a very young man, and I think that sort of creditability is great. Negative reviews are bound to come up in the Eragon-fans that wallow in the wonderful mush of the book, (such as myself) but it's nice to have a negative side under your belt, to know what those who are NOT in favor of the book are thinking as they watch the movie. I have seen the previews, and desperatly looked for a negative review. I FINALLY found this, through the Ihateshutugal.com site or whatever it's called, and I must say, if your going to do it, do it right! I had to look for a WHOLE YEAR until I found this, and that's a LONG TIME!!! Up until now, I thought everyone were stuck up freaks jumping on the bandwagon. I actually read it because my grandma sent it to me in a lovely box set, before that, I thought it was a cheap imatation of harry potter or somthing. Well, I've talked enough, and wasted my time on a comment that will be lost after i hit the SEND FEEDBACK button. PLEASE respond, I'm curious to see what you say.

swankivy: Hmm . . . apparently I'm supposed to respond to someone who also purposely didn't leave an e-mail address or a name, and said in the same breath that this feedback was going to be lost after being submitted. Maybe this person thinks I screen my comments. No, actually, the only time I will not post a comment is if it is not on topic.

But, should Bob here actually go back into the comments and read what I have to say, they will see my response.

"I should give it more credit because it was written by a very young man." I've already addressed that a billion times, but here we go again: I judge the work by itself, regardless of who wrote it. If it isn't on the same level as other published material, it should not join the shelves. I doubt Paolini would like to hear that he is not expected to perform up to adult standards and in fact that everyone's excusing him for poor performance because of his youth. He wants to play with the big dogs, then let him get bitten.

Not to mention that I have encountered lots of young writers who wrote with a higher quality than Chris did at a younger age. Being nineteen and writing this junk is not amazing.

"It took a long time to find anyone saying anything negative about this wonderful piece of literature." My review's been up for a very long time. And since it first went up, there have been dozens--probably more than a hundred now--of people who have written to me to say how much they agree with me. Some of their responses are public. And the fact that there are anti-Eragon whole websites and forums should tip you off that it's not exactly some widely beloved book whose only detractors are a bunch of sour-pussed Scrooges.

"I wasted my time on this, please write back." Um? Just don't know what to say to this . . . it's a submit form and it gets submitted, so what's the problem?

Sorry. I'm not trying to be rude, but you have absolutely nothing revolutionary or eye-opening in your message. I really wish people would stop sending critical comments to me with points in them that they obviously assume I've never heard before. Reiterate if you want, but don't act like it's anything new. I've had this argument before.

Dear Ivy,

thank you very much for your intelligent essay on the Book Eragon. I have recently tried to read the book (so far I got to the point of Brom’s death) and occasionally listen to the read version on CDs to fall asleep (which sometimes works really nicely).

In general, I was really extremely disappointed in the book, and even apalled at what a low level of unoriginal plagiatism writing can become such a bestselling phenomenon. When I browsed the internet for reviews, I have at first found only praise: (OK, suspiciously unanimously) positive official reviews (marketing influence?), plus a lot of blogs and comments of fans. Then, last week, I for the first time realised that it is going to become a major movie due out for this Christmas, and with John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons, no less! This left me dumbfounded, until I finally stumbled across your essay.

There is very little I have to add to your essay, in particular concerning the style, since German is my native language – btw, forgive any misspellings and errors of mine here, there probably are plenty – and I read the book in German. The translation, by the way, apparently does the original justice; OK, at least it seems to iron out some of the worst style blunders. Anyhow, maybe on this comments page I can contribute to what you have written, since I feel there is a bit more to it than what has been said so far in your essay, similar comments and on the hatelistings…

First of all, why the heck is this book such a success if it is apparently written so badly? You have provided various theories, all of course drawing flak saying you are only jealous bladiblabla etc. You seem to have tread cautiously on this subject to avoid such reproaches, focusing more on the failures of the book itself.
All of your- probably correct- theories have to do with 1) the influence and opportunities good connections will give you in the publishing/media industry and 2) what good marketing can do (“Hey, he’s a 15-year-old prodigy” –despite the fact that he finished it when he was 19, an age when most college graduates can write better but do not dare to).
This is somewhat akin to the abhorrent plots that we sometimes see coming from Hollywood blockbuster movies, which – surprise here – also often are stamped with apologies of critics saying “but it’s done in traditional epic way”. But these are movies. And books do not have the flashy special effects that can make you forget plot and style shortcomings. How was Eragon then able to compensate and prevent word of mouth to stop the book becoming a success? Some people commenting on Eragon praised the nice cover art, but that is only a small part of the marketing.
Then you mentioned timing and I guess a lot seems to have to do with it. I remember that after the 1970s sudden success/1st renaissance of the Lord of the Rings books, a first wave of Tolkien-esque clones hit the book shelves. I read some of them (as a teenager), but still I was taken aback by too obvious clones like Shannara. And none of these titles really made such headlines like Eragon.
Maybe in these days, the Potter-mania paved the way for a large children’s and teenager fantasy market. And we could kick ourselves for not being faster than Paolini to make use of any gap the last of the LOTR movies maybe left in a Fantasy-hungry audience.
But why then are the infinitely better DarkMaterials books not greater bestsellers? Because of their dark atmosphere, unappealing (to most parents I guess) atheist hints and difficulty to understand from the beginning? But there are plenty of other, better children’s books – why then are the Eragon books so popular?

Basically, I am at a loss. Maybe it really has a bit to do with the fact that most of it is written for kids, meaning a “they simply do not know better” syndrome. But heck, I read Lord of The Rings when I was a teenager so what makes this book more alluring? And even some of my (young adult) friends liked the book and found Saphira “cute” etc.

Then there is one vague idea of mine that may explain it. And this has to do with Mr. Paolini’s age, or rather, the childlike way in which he wrote the whole thing. This may be a style a lot of people, primarily kids and teenager (but some grown-ups, too) quickly warm to. No offence meant here, but it could be similar to why so many people in the U.S. voted for President Bush – not in spite of his obvious mistakes, but BECAUSE of them (in their eyes, it made him more like them, or say…human). So this would actually mean that what readers liked about Eragon is that
1) Eragon himself behaves in a completely young boy’s fantasy-like-way (and gets away with it!). There are so many examples of this. Take as first motivation his blind drive for revenge which is not stopped by his wise teacher (the “parent” role here), but encouraged! And of course his dream-girl is sexy, but aloof, and ripe for the story by volume 3 to be humbled because of it. Another very dominant aspect of this boy-like-attitude what obviously many young readers like is that everything happens quickly to his advantage. His dragon grows up quickly to be independent and helpful and always entertaining (not like the stupid dog puppy that you buy and of which you have to take care for a long time). His powers come quickly and are superior to everybody else’s. Of course he learned for it, but only a couple of months. This is the ideal high school length and effort/reward ratio for many kids, I guess ;-) . Etc. etc.
2) Saphira, his sister-friend-like companion is one of the most annoying, precocious characters that I have ever met in a novel. After only a couple of pages where she appears cute and a reader looks forward to an interesting story of a boy with a dragon GROWING UP together, she is bloodthirsty, disobedient and supposed to be nice and good-hearted all at the same time. And did I already mention precocious? Basically, she epitomises a child’s fantasy of “do what you want to do, how you like it, and still feel good about it”. Or, in short: complete lack of responsibility. Actually I stopped reading Eragon, after Saphira just like that, without explanation, turned the tomb of Brom into crystal. Oh my…there goes respect to the dead for the sake of simply showing off. A child behaves that way, not a dragon supposed to be the superwise being to help the hero.
3) in general, the plot is always steered to a way that fits the heroes’ path best, and not the other way round: that the story truly challenges the protagonists and thus contributes little side effects of a book like suspense and character development.
4) in general, the whole thing is written so badly – but people may like the book not in spite of, but because of its shortcomings in style and pace and suspense, always subconciously thinking “Ah this reminds me of my own fanfiction/ideas/fantasies”.

Altogether my impression is that the novel is written from a child’s perspective, with the vocabulary of a child (albeit with enough perseverance to write hundreds of pages of it), and with no sense of the basics of a good plot, suspense, character interaction and what have you that is normaly the core element of a good novel. As such, it is truly different from most other children’s or teenager fantasy books, or most other fantasy literature at large. And here may lie the secret of Paolini’s success, something we could not emulate.
Now theoretically, a child/teenage author is a very interesting thing, because of the potential uncut, genius, adult-undiluted ideas that could be found there. But sadly, a minimum quality is needed and Paolini fails simply because he gets nothing right in his novel. If he would have let his heroes behave in such a way and then run into a trouble described with the lack of understanding from a person of that age, it would have been worthwile.
Here is basically what I expected when I heard friends of mine recommending the book (but only vaguely saying it’s about a boy with a cute dragon written by a 15-year old). I thought that it would really delve deeply into this 15-year old boy who is cast into a strange, incomprehensible world. And the focus would be on him and his dragon and the way the grew up and met slowly rising challenges. With a local princess to save and a baddie terrorising the neighbourhood to bring to justice. But not a war of world proportions with him in the main role, simply because such a thing is (usually) beyond the scope of a 15-year old to write about, except as a badly comprehensible background. In a way, I expected something in the likes of Astrid Lindgren’s: Ronja (Daughter of Robbers).

But Paolini (at the age of 19!) PRETENDS that everything is OK the way his heroes do it, the way everyone else around them reacts, and that the “wisdoms” uttered by supposedly wise people in there is really wisdom., and rewarded as such by the plot. Just consider as one example among many the way Brom behaves as a wise teacher. What is the use of him not staying NEXT to the boy to guard him, why does he live in the next village? What is he supposed to do there when evil guys attack the boy’s farm? Why has he not trained him before from his childhood? Then, when he flees with Eragon, why the heck does he not tell him everything? Why? Why does he not explain to him the dangers of unleashed magic BEFORE the boy finds out for himself (as Brom knows he will, since he is a dragonrider himself, something the reader simply has to foresee as soon as Brom wants to flee with the boy)? You know why? Because he gets away with it! The boy is unharmed (OK, just gets some showy injuries), on track for becoming instant dragonrider with 0% background information, and Brom only gets killed in a chance side encounter. ARRRRG!

The sad thing about all of this is the impression this book may have on kids and people who read this stuff. Because it basically says: behave like this, do it the easy way, and you can get away with it.
Now Rowling and her Harry Potter novels are a nice benchmark because they are full of dangers, mistakes by the protagonists etc. But they also pay the price! And THEY LEARN from their mistakes! The best about the Potter novels is that the perspective of the novels change with the perspective of Harry Potter himself. As such, the figures of teachers Dumbledore and Snape are the way an 11-year old would see them: strangely mind-absent and nice the one, the other ununderstandably evil and mean. By the sixth book, this perspective changes profoundly…

Well, that’s about what I can add to the essay and the comments page. I believe Eragon to be not only a bad book, but a very annoying one at that. It is able to lower the quality of the Fantasy genre in the eyes of many, plus have a kind of negative influence on children and teenagers the way the DarkMaterials trilogy of Pulham (which embodies an atheist, or rather anti-theist view of the world) can never have.

It may become a decent film though since Hollywood, for once, cannot spoil a book it wants to film and can simply concentrate on a bunch of nice actors and special effects ;-)

Regards,
Erayawn

Steph: First, I would like to say that I enjoyed your essay immensely. I found it to be revealing, honest, and funny. I had heard a lot about Eragon at my workplace (a bookstore!) and decided to pick it up. Seeing me with a copy, all of my co-workers immediately started to gush about it, saying "It's the best fantasy I've ever read!" and "That book is so well written!". That night, I eagerly snuggled up in my couch and began to read. Halfway through the book, I stopped and put it down because I just couldn't make myself read any more. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I wasn't immediately sure why I was unable to read further and that troubled me. For days I pondered over this new development. I had never before been completely unable to finish a book, no matter how tedious the literature (try Tess of the D'Urbervilles!) I later tried several times to read Eragon further, but I just couldn't do it.

After puzzling over this issue further, the answer suddenly struck me. The grammar, the descriptions, the dialogue were so hackneyed--so stilted! I kept seeing Luke Skywalker astride that monsterous dragon instead of Eragon. And didn't Arya have a sister named Arwen?

I am so very glad to have found (finally) that I am not the only person with such opinions. Nothing against Mr. Paolini, of course. I just think that the hype and attention his book has received is somewhat unfair. Surely a 40-year old would not have received such praise for the same work?

So, thanks again for your essay. I hope that it will inspire future authors to develop their characters and storylines instead of following the path of least resistance. It has certainly inspired me.

Oh, incidentally, I hope that your, er, opinion of Mr. Paolini has not been tainted by the fact that he was homeschooled. There are many brilliant homeschoolers out there and, having been homeschooled myself, I feel obliged to point out that some of your comments might be taken the wrong way by others.

Sincerely,

Steph

Katya: Almost everything I wanted to say has already been said. Except-

The movie. I CAN NOT believe they're making this into a movie. I saw the trailer and, well--it's really just a mediocre copy of the Lord of the Rings, with a blond kid thrown in there instead of Elijah Wood.

It just really gets to me because there are so many other books that really deserve all this--the bestseller list, the movie adaptions, the praise for a "prodigy". However, I don't want to disrespect Paolini, I hope that over time he'll develop a more original, mature style (and his own plots).

Ryn: Okay. I understand jealousy. But really, this "essay" was unnecessary. If you really have such a problem with Paolini's work, than write a better trilogy yourself.

swankivy: It's funny how people read all my well-supported arguments and then the only way they can figure out to argue with me is to suggest I'm jealous. Find me one bit of my essay that indicates jealousy. Go ahead. No, actually I think everything I said was supported with a logical reason. That's the difference between people like me and people like Ryn above.

The essay wasn't "unnecessary." Apparently the hundreds of people who have commented on it didn't think it was pointless and decided it was worth their time even if they didn't agree. Calling it "unnecessary" just because you don't like it suggests you think people should only write things if they're in support of stuff YOU believe. As for me writing a better trilogy, guess what? I did.

Tora: You mentioned Digimon. You make me happy (yes, I am one of those types who cling to their childhood media outlets throughout their adolescent-and-onward life).

On another note, this essay is pretty much the culmination of my own opinions about this book that I have never been able to give voice to. Please accept my compliments, applause, and thanks.

Anonymous: predictable, inexperienced, cocky = Paolini

M. Arkenburg: I applaude you, though I'm not about the join the Eragon hatelisting. (That would be hypocritical--I'm younger than he was when he started writing, and I'm big on giving the little guys a break). Actually, though, I'm commenting because of that little thing you said about Eragon's father betraying him and what-not. Bet you're feeling a little silly now, huh? It was patently obvious that Eragon and Murtagh were brothers, if you'd only read the dialouge (though I'll admit paying attention was somewhat painful).
Well, I agree with you on everything else, I just had to mention that. Thanks for putting this up!

swankivy: I don't "feel silly" for suggesting Paolini would follow the Star Wars blueprint, since he already did so all over the place. Changing the line to "Luke, I am your brother" doesn't mean it's not the same thing. What's funny is after he got all kinds of crap for having Luke's father be Darth Vader (albeit dead), he played bait-and-switch and changed the story in the third book. Who knows whether he actually planned that all along or whether he just got tired of being told he was a copycat and decided to shake things up a little since it was a work in progress? Late-stage, patchwork editing happens all the time in low-quality work, incidentally. I can see the stitching.

Laura Brewer: Yeaa!!! I am so happy I found some one who hates the book and its flaws as much as I do. Almost everyone at my school is OMG I LOVE this book, and its just like you idiots. Anyway I'm rambling again, hopefully thanks to your review people will start thinking. I congratulate you on having the guts to post this, most people wouldn't. I am also glad to hear that people share my opinions on this matter because it is quite annoying to hear eragon this and eragon that. I don't understand people sometimes. Anyway I thank you,
Laura