Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords.

Eragon, a young farm boy, finds a marvelous blue stone in a mystical mountain place. Before he can trade it for food to get his family through the hard winter, it hatches a beautiful sapphire-blue dragon, a race thought to be extinct. Eragon bonds with the dragon, and when his family is killed by the marauding Ra'zac, he discovers that he is the last of the Dragon Riders, fated to play a decisive part in the coming war between the human but hidden Varden, dwarves, elves, the diabolical Shades and their neanderthal Urgalls, all pitted against and allied with each other and the evil King Galbatorix. Eragon and his dragon Saphira set out to find their role, growing in magic power and understanding of the complex political situation as they endure perilous travels and sudden battles, dire wounds, capture and escape.

A promising start

Christopher Paolini may be a newcomer to publishing, but in "Eragon," the first of what he promises will be a trilogy, he does a fine job of holding high the rich fantasy tapestry woven by masters such as Tokien and others.

Paolini borrows a significant amount from an already-strong fantasy tradition, but he still manages to bring his own unique offerings to the table. His characters are well-developed, his imagery strong, and his wit keen but subtle enough to avoid seeming forced.

At times, he gets bogged down in descriptive detail, but the book and its engaging storyline easily overcome such minor flaws, and it ends up developing into a true page-turner.

And unlike much of today's mass-produced fantasy fiction, Eragon has literary merits. It it well-written, has satisfying depth and offers tantalizing hints about what is to come in the next two books. (Who is Eragon's mother? What's the deal between Eragon and Arya? Is Murtagh a good guy or not?) Fantasy lovers will also enjoy the appendices, which include a glossary, a pronunciation guide, a series of language guides, and a map that readers will find themselves referring to constantly.

Paolini is a young author with promise, and "Eragon" is a must-read book that is bound to lure new fans to the genre while satisfying old ones.

Good, solid Sword & Sorcery tale! A favourite!

So what if it draws settings from J.R.R. Tolkien, themes from Anne McCaffrey, and plot from George Lucas and Frank Herbert?
That's actually one of the things I liked about this book, besides the fact that Christopher Paolini can tell an excellent story!
Here we come across vivid depictions of mountains, woodlands, deserts, and rivers,and travels through them.
No boring Terry Brooks-like travelogue here!
Eragon finds a mysterious polished blue stone in the forest. He thinks he can sell it to earn money to buy food for his family, but a sleazy butcher named Sloan
My favorite character of all was Angela the witch. You've got to see her slay seventeen Urgals with her double-bladed sword, ala Darth Maul's lightsaber! And I want to find out more about her werecat.
A lot of names of the places in Carvahall, I noticed, were tributes to characters from Star Trek:Deep Space 9, which I found as incredibly funny in-jokes.

The ending kept me waiting for the next installment in the series! I want to find out more about Brom's ring and about Eragon's fate!
Keep up the good work, Mr. Paolini!

Really monotonous...

They say one should ask questions if one does not know something and that one shall learn, but... Paolini might as well tell the entire story in an interview if he liked asking and answering questions so much... Eragon asks twenty questions and when someone has only answered one, he asks fifty more. For example, when Eragon is talking to Brom:<br /><br />"Dragons have no beginning, unless it lies with the creation of Algaesia itself... Their world was unchanging until the first elves sailed over the sea on their silver ships.'<br />'Where did the elves come from?' interrupted Eragon. 'And why are they called the fair folk? Do they really exist?"<br /><br />That gets really annoying and if Eragon was a real boy, I'd slapped him after the third question. It's probably just me... who knows.<br /><br />I'll brush away the fact that Paolini's story is derivative from other fantasy novels, but let's look at the view of a person whom has never read any fantasy novels and a close up on the writing.<br /><br />Descriptions are good, but too much of a good thing makes it bad. It's like he inserted descriptions of places and things randomly and messed up the flow of the story. The beginning chapters aren't very engrossing and I find myself getting easily distracted by things like a piece of lint floating through the air. When I read a well-written book, that sort of distraction does not happen.<br /><br />The dialogue... is a joke... It may seem harsh,I laugh at them not because they're funny, but sometimes they're so ridiculously corny, they're funny. It makes the characters seem so flat and and unable to relate to the readers.<br /><br />I really am too lazy to type anymore critisms, since you can read most of them from the other reviwers.<br /><br />Paolini is a very good writer... with practice. So an advice to you Paolini, go to college like you should of did, take some writing courses and then come back with something we can work with.