Inheritance

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

In 2002, at the age of 19, Christopher Paolini burst onto the scene with his hugely popular book Eragon. The book was the first in what was supposed to be a trilogy known as The Inheritance Cycle, but as I'm starting to figure out the more fantasy series I read, a lot of fantasy authors can't count. Inheritance is the fourth and final book in a series that I think got better with each book.

Despite the popularity and success of Eragon, I really didn't think it was that great of a book. I fell asleep halfway through trying to watch the video of the movie based on it and haven't had any desire to try again. But to the author's credit, he was only a teenager when he wrote it. By the time I turned the same age as Paolini was when he published his first book, my only vocational accomplishments were bagging groceries, working at a video store, and digging trenches.

So I cut him some slack and tried the second book when it came out. Eldest was noticeably better than Eragon and the pattern continued till the end; each book getting noticeably better than its predecessor. Inheritance was good enough that it had me up reading late into the night. Something I usually don't do.

With Inheritance Paolini concludes his story about the Rider Eragon and the dragon Saphira who have been training in the arts of spellcasting and warfare in hopes that when the day finally comes, and they have the opportunity to kill the evil magician and ruler Galbatorix, that they'll succeed.

The Inheritance Cycle isn't in the same class as Tolkien, Martin, Rothfuss, Sanderson or the other fantasy authors I enjoy reading. But now that it's complete, I can say that I enjoyed reading it. I'm interested to see what Paolini will write next.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆