Some comments on your writing: while everyone likes humor, sometimes your sarcasm and jokes make your essay less professional and seriously undermine the intelligent reasoning that you are so proud of. At times you really do come across as somewhat jealous and/or bitter of the author's success. You may also find it interesting that at first, I thought this essay was written by a teenaged male. My advice: clean up the essay a bit and make it sound more scholarly. Citing some passages from different books will also help to better illustrate your point. No, I don't mean turn it into a college paper, but it can definately use some improvement along those lines.

swankivy: ::shrug:: It's not a scholarly essay. It was not meant to be. It is in my voice, with my jokes, and some silliness. If you're reading jealousy into the essay, you're projecting. I'm jealous of Paolini only in the remotest of ways--in that I also want to be published, and said "jealousy" (IN QUOTES, NOTE!) applies to every other published author in the world in the same amount. Note that it did not drive me to make critical essays about other authors' books. Being annoyed that he sucks and was rewarded with a publishing contract is not the same as being jealous, sorry.

chad: u r retarded ok if u r going to argue with everything about this book fine but find other ways of doing it. so its a little over dramatic with the said things and mabe it doesnt quiet equal tokien but it was a good book and the second was spectacular it has absolutely nothing to do with lotr and for your info i have read alot of great fantasy books and this falls into 3
Harry Potter-awesome
Lord of the rings
inheritance aka eragon eldest ____ now stop being retarded dont make a whole webpage about a book u dont like.

[Yes! Response here!]

Me: I hope you suffocate in your own stench.

swankivy: Thanks, "Me." Well-argued. (Dumbass.)

Anonymous: who do you think you are?????????? Are you a proffesional criticizer, let me guess no. Just because he is able to write a fantastic novel and you who is a "I am a young writer myself" probably will never get any of your books published doesn't mean that you have to talk about a writer who has gone far, very far probably farther then you will ever go. But your able to say whatever you want because of the constitution. "LUCKY"

swankivy: Ahh, dorkass here didn't leave me a name or e-mail address because it's always better to hit and run. That means I get to reply publicly!

Hmm, who do I think I am? A person with an opinion--and a well-stated and well-supported one, I might add.

Am I a proffesional criticizer? No, but I am what they call an EDITOR, and furthermore I know how to spell "professional." And yes, I AM one of those. I would say that criticizing is one of the skills I use in my professional editing job, so if you're asking me here to justify having my opinion by saying I make money at it, yes I do, thanks.

As for how "far" Paolini has gone, I've already made it clear that no matter how many copies he sells, I don't consider his work to be worthy of the popularity it's attained. Everyone knows that hype sometimes drags an undeserving product into the mainstream. He got the popularity he did because it was published by family and thrown into the spotlight as a miracle written by a child. Almost everyone you talk to about this book has the facts wrong about how old he was when it was published and how it got published.

And you seem awfully bitter that I'm allowed to say what I want. Why does it bother you so much that I have an opinion that's different from yours and I said so?

Sardonyx: o_O

...And the Grammar Fairy runs her motocross carriage over the necks of those who forgot to pay attention in first grade. Grammar Fairy has....[issues]. Her pink tights and charred and ripped. Her librarian hair bun is loose and lopsided. The star on the tip of her wand is sagging cardboard. Her fairy dust is the innards of previous victims whom she rendered to ashes. Grammar Fairy is drunk, pissed, and sociopathic. Mutilate the English language at your own risk.

Ivvvvyyyyy....! Where's the idiot repellent? Why do you put up with these people? whut da f_k u r so retarded why do u thick eragin bad???

Floyd: While I write this, I can already here the comebacks you are sure to deal out (simpleton, lack of taste etc.). However simple and uninventive you may think Eragon is, you cannot disagree that Christopher Paoloni accomplished what he said out to do. LoTR is indeed an epic story that all love, but that's not what Christopher wanted to do. His goal was to create an exciting fantasy that people would enjoy. I think that as an editor, you pick and pry too much into the story and don't see the story as what it's meant to be. I'm a musician. Too often I find myself dissecting songs into keys, time signatures, and chords progressions, and fail to appreciate the song. On the note of unoriginality, Tolkien was not the first to write about elves and dwarves. George Lucas was not the first to write a story of a boy who loses his old life and has to fight a greater evil. If you claim that Eragon is a book of unoriginality than we must brand all literature as unoriginal . And if you read Eldest, it is significantly different than how you predict. As far as the language, I thought that it was inventive and colorful. When the author spends a paragraph or so describing the items on his bed table, if I'm not mistaken, it's when he desribes the rock that Roran had given him which underlined the basis of Roran and Eragon's relationship. Also about the physical impossibilities of the wind pulling the wings and such. If Saphira was straining to pull her wings in, then a 150-200 pound youth put his full weight on the wings, then it might be the extra push that's needed. A bit of a stretch, but I think that arguing the physical impossibilities of a dragon is a little nitpicky. Also in Eldest they tell Eragon that they never told Riders how to use magic, but under extreme circumstances they would discover it. Similiar to the way that a wizard discovers he/she is magical in Harry Potter (I am reminded of Neville's uncle pushing him out the wind ow so that he might bounce). All and all i think you are too critical of a work that is very enjoyable and an author that one might owe a lot of credit.

[Response here. It's civil and has a cool music analogy.]

Kevin: Ivy-
Personally, I agree with your essay very much and I found it extremely useful and after reading the book, I found that all of what you said was true. And as a side note, I like your throw-ins about the "sexy elf" and other things which makes reading the essay very enjoyable. When I first looked at the scrollbar on the right, I was like there is no way I'm reading this whole thing, but I just kept reading. lol Anyways, nice article, congrats on the amazon thing.
-Kevin

fandorin: that was deadly funny. I haven't read the book (I can imagine it very well now), but the way you're verbally foil fencing was highly amusing. forgive typos, grammar, i'm not a native speaker (btw, yn fäct ay kam from germany ent wee don't hef a e-umlaut).

Mikey: I am thankful for essays like this I for one would not like to read anything that was taken from one of the masters in any form especially that close. This writer Christopher Paolini seems to be spit in the eye of original thinking. 15 or not

Bosco: This is quite certainly the best essay on the faults of Eragon out there. I've seen a lot more, but most of them are watered-down versions of this, and actually copy from it a lot. I encourage any Eragon fan to read this, just to have an objective viewpont.

Colin: writing is not a simple thing to do. im sure you understand this as well as others. i dont think it very appropriate to down ones work when you have not produced your own. If you dont like the book then shut up about it, but if u really want to make a change how about you show everyone how a good book should be written in your eyes.Until you have produced a book of your own i think you are merely jelous that a young man is reaping the fruits of his work and that you can not do the same.

[My response to this, you say? Check here.]