Book #35: Eragon by Christopher Paolini

I have seen this book on my brother's shelf for years, so much so that it looks familiar enough to me that it feels like I should have read it already. I decided to finally read it after my brother-in-law said it was one of his favorite books/series, which he read while in middle/high school. Tommy started reading it first and was hooked on it, so I picked it up next. The story is about a young farm boy, Eragon, who finds a blue stone in the forest and takes it home. The stone is actually a dragon egg, and he unwittingly becomes the dragon's friend and owner, which sets off a huge adventure. He becomes the first of the now-defunct race of Dragon Riders to come back, and becomes the point man for the evil king's wrath. He learns how to fight and how to use magic, and travels around looking for revenge and a way to fight the king.

Overall, I was mostly disappointed in this book. After I was halfway through the book, I read in the author's blurb at the back that the author was fifteen years old when he started writing this book and was nineteen when it was published. And I felt like, OH, WELL NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE. The writing in this book is pretty terrible, actually. I was really distracted by how unrealistic the dialogue is and the relationship between Eragon and the dragon did not seem believable. The story also seemed a lot like a knock-off of LOTR, and Kurt mentioned tonight about all the connections to Star Wars (which, once you think about it, makes a lot of sense). However, if you don't think about those overlaps in the plot, it was pretty engaging, and I got immersed in the world he created (thank goodness always for the map at the front!). I feel like I could really get into this book if the writing wasn't so darn obvious and always pulling me out of the book. Eragon is always saying things that just feel so stilted and unreal and obnoxious, and I wish somebody could have fixed all that. However, I am still willing to check out the other books, because I imagine he probably got better as a writer in the later books (they were published much later) and because Tommy is still really enjoying them and urging me on to finish them.