The Inheritance Series

[DragonNighthowler]

Found a synopses.

 

Called it.

 

I'm going to continue reading Lovecraft now and wait for the sporks to roll in.

You, my good sir, are being the wisest. Since I'm masochist, I might read the book.

[Dr. Paine]

You, my good sir, are being the wisest. Since I'm masochist, I might read the book.

I'm just a bit upset for my friend- she follows the series and was not wanting that particular character to be what they are...

 

-sighs- As much as she tried to reason it away, who else could it have been?

 

Meh. Disregarding this crap now, going to acquire ponies.

[philpot123]

So far... ehh. Useless descriptions abound. A few grammatical mistakes. A good battle scene at the beginning though, I'll give him that. It was quick enough to where it wasn't drawn out IMO.

 

 

I'm not expecting anything groundbreaking though. Predictable plot ending is what I'm calling. I'm not going to read anything yet to spoil it though

[Getpwned]

Just got Inheritance. Lol, I definitely prefer inheritance cycle to MW3

[DragonNighthowler]

Read the sipnosis. Everything of importance was predictable. The rest is just scenario.

[Kursedfire]

Newest Eragon Book comes out today... hehe I know that cause its me B'Day! hehe Happy 18th Me

Time line is different Its 9/11 9:07 am

Edited November 9, 2011 by Kursedfire

[sir_horsey_XIX]

I totally forgot the series between Brisingr and now, so I have to re-read it again...

I'm finding that the longer the book is, the slower it is. Kinda seems like the author had plenty of detail in his mind but no direction. I just hope he stops that with the fourth book and makes it short and sweet like the first.

It could just be wishful thinking, but I think it would be awesome if the green dragon has a dwarf or urgal rider. Problem is, I bet it's highly unlikely.

[Dragonhatchling]

Just got the new book about a half hour ago. Have yet to start reading it... hope it'll be better than Brisingr (without the long drawn out sword making process....)

[Kursedfire]

Just got Inheritance, like 1 hr ago. haven't started yet hopefully start tonight.

[Elena]

I got my copy of Inheritance today... er, I mean yesterday, since it's the 9th now

I'm about 200 pages in now, and I'm loving it. Can't wait to see what happens!

[Moonbeam22]

Omg I have to wait 'till this weekend to get it, and I'm gonna DIE

[philpot123]

I will give it this so far, I think the writing has improved personally. At this point it is my favorite out of the 4. I'll type out detailed thoughts when I finish

[WhyllasTorch]

Inheritance is out already? Dammit, I didn't know that.

 

And it will be months until it's translated into my native language...so I have to be patient. Unless I buy (more likely borrow) it in English, like I did with Brisingr. I really can't wait to read it. I know it's kinda badly written but that won't stop me from enjoying it.

 

Is Inheritance any good? Does it improve? Has anyone stopped being a Sue/Stu yet? Is it anything like fanfictions crack it up to be?

[philpot123]

Inheritance is out already? Dammit, I didn't know that.

 

And it will be months until it's translated into my native language...so I have to be patient. Unless I buy (more likely borrow) it in English, like I did with Brisingr. I really can't wait to read it. I know it's kinda badly written but that won't stop me from enjoying it.

 

Is Inheritance any good? Does it improve? Has anyone stopped being a Sue/Stu yet? Is it anything like fanfictions crack it up to be?

It's... interesting. There's a lot of useless garbage, for instance, the fact that in one chapter Eragon goes into depth in his head about how he considers Katrina fully family now, no holds barred, totally the same as flesh and blood, etc etc etc with as many descriptions as you never wanted... Then he proceeds to tell us a couple chapters later how much he worried about Roran on a mission because "he's his only family." DOH!

 

Overall so far it IS better than the first books though. I'm only about halfway through at this point.

[Evangeline]

I forgot it was coming out today. *goes to put a hold on it*

[philpot123]

Alright guys, here goes my in-depth condescending review of a book I actually liked. Ready?

 

(paled for spoilers)

 

Our story begins with a pretty stereotypical setting. A battle, LOVELY! There haven't been enough of those in this series yet. (Can you feel the sarcasm? It's dripping from my post)

During the course of the battle, we are led to believe for but a brief moment that RORAN DIED!!! That's right, mind = blown. Paolini just did something I didn't expect, he killed Roran! What a plot turn, what a surprise, how could he ever work this out?I mean, a WALL fell on his HEAD! There's no possible way he could... oh, wait... yeah, he survived. Eragon magicked his way through a few hallways, gives us some useless descriptions of people in side rooms who apparently care nothing about the battle at hand, uses his ZOMG AWESOME TEH PWNAGE SWORDZ to cut through a door and...Roran is fine? He got saved by some... overhang. Or... something. That's right kids, Roran just survived. A wall. Falling on his head. /Overpowered

The story draws on for a fairly lengthy time before anything of importance happens. Basically they try to sneak into the next city by means of a tunnel Jeod found by using records of smells and weird noises in the city. Yup. He plotted a tunnel based on RECORDS of sights and sounds. Man, I want to live in THAT kind of world where things are that easy to communicate.

 

Then an elf dies...

 

Yeah.

 

I don't know what to think at this point. Am I supposed to feel bad? I didn't even really know this elf character, and then you just kill him off... oh well?

 

 

Blah blah, priests of Helgrind, blah blah capture, blah blah escape... you get the drill. They, go figure, end up winning. Not that I expected that or ANYTHING.

 

 

Then Nasuada gets captured.

 

 

I'm going to jump ahead of myself and say that the whole storyline with Nasuada being captured did NOTHING for the story. The ending would have worked out the same either way, and the only purpose of it I can think of is to increase word count/page number like a NaNo-er, or just to add a little love interest between Nasuada and Murtagh. Gag me with a rusty spoon please. Speaking of, Nasuada kills a few SOLDIERS with a SPOON. That's right. Trained soldiers, felled by a young girl in her 20s, armed with nothing but her charm and... a spoon.

 

Basically at this point we're treated to a long back and forth between Nasuada and Eragon, the latter of which decides to go find the Vault of Souls and the Rock of Kuthain with the help of Glaeders Eldunari (heart of hearts gem thing that dragons throw up into the waiting arms of someone special to them, basically the embodiment of their being/soul). The rock and the vault are apparently located on the island I can't spell that was home to the Riders.

 

Alright guys, I want you to hazard a guess RIGHT NOW of what the Vault of Souls contains.

 

Do you have it?

 

 

Okay, after a good 5-10 pages of unnecessary storm battling, and another 50+ pages of Nassy to Eragon back and forth with quite a lot of Eragon angst, ERagon discovers his true name.

 

What is it you ask?

 

 

Well...

 

 

I don't know.

 

 

that's right, after all this lovely talk about true names and how important it will be to the story, all we know of Eragon's name is that when he figures it out and speaks it he feels funny. Well, for all we know he could just be getting a hard on, or he could have ate the wrong mushrooms. Way to kill my excitement about names Paolini.

 

 

Okay, they open the vault. Of Souls. Guess what it contains?

 

 

Yeah. Dragon Heart of Hearts. Lotsa souls.

 

Show of hands, who guessed right? All of you? Wow. Good call.

 

 

 

I'll edit more in later

[Ruins]

At this stage, the only reason I'm going to read it is to finish the series...

 

I hate not finishing book serieses. I always wonder what happened to them.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Ruins

[Stromboli]

Wait. I haven't read the last two books, so let me get this straight.

 

When dragons die, they put themselves into rocks? And the reason Galbatorix is so strong is because he has a lot of these rocks?

 

... What's so evil about having a rock collection? I mean, yeah, enslaving dead dragons is probs not exemplary behavior, but really This is his big evil. Rocks. I was expecting something... I dunno, darker? Like him actually having to perform some dark dastardly magic to trap the dragons' power rather than just gathering up what's already there.

[WhyllasTorch]

Haha, philpot123 that's...

...

...

...

 

bloody disappointing.

 

I've read better fanfictions than Inheritance.

 

you, Paolini.

 

Thanks for telling, philpot123. I would've wasted a lot of money on that book. Now I have enough patience to wait until it comes to libraries and then I might consider reading it.

 

 

Now I feel sad. That's a shame I couldn't find Pride and prejudice DVD from the shop...that would make me feel better.

Edited November 10, 2011 by LwyllasLaVey

[philpot123]

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!

 

Not only does this "vault of souls" contain the souls that you so aptly guessed to be in there, but it also contains...

 

Eggs.

 

 

Dragon eggs.

 

 

Lots of them. Hundreds in fact.

 

 

It's as if Paolini suddenly realized, "HEY! There's only one female in this world, and only 2 potential mates. It would take FOREVER to repopulate dragons with that many... how can I remedy this? How... How... How... HUNDREDS OF EGGS!!!"

 

Now, I'm going to walk you through something that Paolini might have missed. Without actually telling us what their true names our, we are told Eragon and Saphira figure them out. We are given descriptions of the names, but not the actual names. Part of the description of Saphira's true name is her "sorrow at being the last female of her kind" or some nonsense of that sort. Got that in your head? Great. Fast forward, we're in the vault. Hundreds of eggs. BOOM. Unless, by some curse of fate, all of the eggs hatched male, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY she could be the last female of her kind any longer. No chance at all. Alright... So... poof goes her true name? LOLWUT!? That's right folks, if she is no longer the last female of her kind, shouldn't her true name have changed right then and there? But the way Paolini attempts to reconcile this (I assume that's what he's doing. He might not even have thought about it) is by making it such that after the Eldunari are removed from the vault, leaving the eggs for the time being... they forget about the eggs. That's right, for all purposes they NEVER discovered the eggs. No memory whatsoever. So that was useless. He could have made the whole thing SO much more dramatic if they didn't find the eggs until 400 FREAKING PAGES LATER. Why did WE, the reader, need to know about the eggs RIGHT THEN if he was just going to remove it from all the characters' minds? That's ridiculous. He should have saved it till the end.

 

 

Oh, and Paolini also attempts to throw in some sort of archaic, draconic version of atomic theory and E=MC^2. Yeah. It doesn't work.

 

Moving on.

 

 

More Nasuada being tortured. We learn Galbatorix (or Galby as some are fond of calling him) doesn't want her for information because apparently he already knows everything. I guess he's God or something. He really wants her as some sort of apprentice or something, and rather than forcing her to bend to his will with his mind, he decides to do it with hot irons and torture. Presumably because he felt that using his mind would be too quick, and lead to a much less satisfactory ending to the book. I think Galby is so powerful he's breaking the fourth wall.

 

So. Moving on once again.

 

 

There's more battling. Lots of it. Storming castles, the whole deal. Eragon abuses Elva yet again for her power, except this time it's "voluntary." I don't know if anyone else saw this, but uh... I think her personality completely changed between Eldest/Brisingr and Inheritance. COMPLETELY.

 

 

Basically Eragon and Murtagh end up in front of Galby and start dueling at Galby's request. Really? Galbatorix is sooo conceited that he doesn't just kill Eragon then and there, he makes him and Murtagh fight for pure amusement? Oh, and Galbatorix knows the "true name" of the ancient language. With is basically a trump card for magic. "You want to use spell? Well I CANCEL your spell by use of X word and make your spell do something different!! MUAHAHAHA!!!" Yeah, as if Galby wasn't powerful enough, now he's basically the god of magic. -sigh- Well, as could be expected, in the course of the fight, Murtagh suddenly realizes his true name has changed. That's right. We don't know when. Or how. Or why really. It just did. Now, let's look at something for a moment. Galbatorix = God. God = Omniscient, all knowing. God also has COMPLETE power over Murtagh, such that Murtagh has practically no free will to do anything. Now, if God... er, Galbatorix, suddenly lost control of his pet servant, do you not think he would NOTICE!?!? "Hum dee dum... oh... I can't feel my grip on him anymore... better put some more spells on, just in case." But no, he didn't do that. He also taught MURTAGH the name of the Ancient language. So Murtagh trumps Galby, Galby trumps back, blah blah, Elva yells DUCKKKK!!! To Eragon, and he ducks... surprise!

 

How Eragon kills him is weird. Read the book. But basically he explodes from the sheer weight of all his crimes. Or something like that. Idk.

 

 

 

 

Now. Galbatorix has died, the world is in order. Everything is right. The book should end now. Like, RIGHT now.

 

But no.

 

It's got about a hundred more pages.

 

I'll sum this up fast, because most of you called this 3 years ago.

 

 

First, Urgals and Dwarfs are added to the "rider contract." Now, let me explain the reasoning behind this. The Urgals are bloodthirsty. They make a pact to not attack people, but the leader, Nar Gahsdhdghashammalammadingdong, says that their children will grow up. and they will attack people. Go figure. So what is Eragon's answer? To make them Riders.

 

Maybe you don't get this yet. I'll sum it up for you. Basically this is what is going on. The Urgals are equivalent to men who have a history of violent crime, living in an urban neighborhood, owning a gun. They say they won't use it for now, but at any time they might decide to pop some caps in a few kiddies. What is the cop's answer? "Here, let me give you a bigger gun."

 

Yeah.

 

Eragon just gave the Urgals a bigger gun.

 

*headdesk*

 

The green egg hatches for Arya. She becomes another rider.

 

Roran, surprisingly, DOESN'T become king. Nasuada takes command of the country.

 

And, also somewhat surprisingly, when Eragon leaves the place forever, Arya doesn't come with him. I actually got a little emotional at this part, so I think Paolini did at least ONE thing right.

 

 

Basically, I really liked the book. Yeah, I did. It's long, drawn out, probably could be about half the length, and was horribly predictable, but I think it's the best out of the series so far. I'll never call them "good" or "quality literature," but they will always hold a special place in my heart because they played a big part in my childhood. They really stuck with me. That's just my opinion ^.^

Edited November 10, 2011 by philpot123

[Ruins]

Mah brain just died.

[Evangeline]

Stink you philpot. You tempt me, but nnnoooo. I shall not look ahead.

 

Me and my sister did the "It's out!!!" dance yesterday. I have the book on hold, hopefully, it won't take too long.

[Elena]

I actually really liked the book. I spent all day reading it yesterday, and I admittedly still have about twenty or so more pages to go, but still.

philpot123, you do make some very good points, no doubt about it. There were definitely pieces of the book I wish had been cut out entirely, due to their pointlessness. Like just about any chapter with Roran in it. Roran, to me, is an uninteresting character that C.P made no attempt to endear me, as the reader, to (or so it seems to me).

And hey, it's his own fantasy world, let him try to come up with whatever piece of magic (no matter how silly and impossible) he wants. I have no problem with that.

Thar be spoilers ahead:

I actually didn't mind the fact that there were conveniently hundreds of dragons eggs hidden away. At first I thought I did, but then the reaction of the characters I'm most endeared to (Saphira then to a lesser extent, Eragon) seemed to sway me a bit. And then I got to thinking about what the eggs meant for the dragon population of this fantasy world I had come to love over the past nine years of my life: It wasn't so much, I think, to make sure dragons repopulate quicker, but to make sure the dragon population doesn't end up as a ridiculously physically and mentally deformed inbred mess. Because think about it; Only one female and two males. Every resulting dragon would either be half-siblings, cousins, or some other relative to the dragons they breed with, creating even more inbreeding the more generations there are. Though, I will admit that all of this is assuming dragons would allow themselves to breed with someone of their own family.

 

Other than that, I definitely realize that there are many things that needed to me fixed (like C.P's overuse of the words 'alit' and 'even'.), but to me it was a book that was just as good as many others. And I think, most importantly, I will remember the story and I will remember the characters (except Roran, I think). Like you philpot123, these books were a huge part of my childhood and will be with me forever.

 

---

Now the question is, will C.P leave Alagaesia as is and let out imaginations take over, or will he overdraw it and write out prequels and spiritual successors? I read somewhere that he was thinking about writing more stories based in Alagaesia.

Personally, I feel it would be a waste of C.P's time and effort to write a prequel. A spiritual successor could be interesting though, as long as it has to do with what we have all come to care about over the years (the new dragons and Riders, for instance) and not something ridiculous.

 

 

 

[Dr. Paine]

Huh. He actually did a couple things I didn't expect.

 

... but that doesn't make up for the millions of other things that anyone with a brainstem could see coming a mile away.

 

Here's hoping that he can put this festering pile of tree corpses behind him, and either move on to something that is not writing, or can learn from this mess and do something good.

 

Yes, that did come off rather mean-spirited. But whenever I see Eragon, I see wasted potential. Something that could have been fantastic, reduced to nothing but tripe. And it really saddens me to the point of near-anger. If they had just given him a little more time to learn and fix his mistakes, he wouldn't have been saddled with all the issues the previous three books had, and could've done something... good. Instead, the foundation was just too rotted to really make anything out of.

 

I hope those who enjoy the series like it though, and don't let someone who has a different opinion get you too down- you like what you like, no massive shame in that

Edited November 10, 2011 by Dr. Paine

[WhyllasTorch]

Oh god, philpot123 that is even more disappointing.

 

Y'know, I had a fanfic in my mind, where Eragon manned the up and did something. I am going to write it, just to make myself feel better.

 

you, Paolini!

 

First, I crashed Eragon/Arya, just for lulz. Mwahahaha! Then the green egg hatches for a avid (female) supporter of Galby and together with Murtagh they force Eragon into hiding and running. LOL! He realizes that he really needs backup and goes to...um...Vroengard, was it?...with two elves to, y'know, get help or something. That part needs more brainwork.

 

Then foreshadowing! Lots of it! So, they stop at that old Rider outpost, Utgard. And, SURPRISE, SURPRISE! The Vault of Souls is there instead! Mwahaha! It does not contain Eldunaris, oh no! It contains four dragon eggs. Ha. So they go back to the Varden to get the eggs to hatch, one egg hatches for one of the elves who are with Eragon. I decided to call the elf Radhur and the dragon Ohen. He is black. Oh, and two of the eggs are female.

 

So, they get back to Varden (who haven't gone anywhere from Feinster. Frrrr.) and let people to try and get the eggs to hatch. But, OHNOES, Murtagh and [green Rider] show up again. But this time Eragon has a plan. He works together with the elves and cuts off Murtagh's Eldunari supply and gets them to work against [green Rider]. LOOPHOLES! Eragon takes Murtagh's Eldunaris so Galby can't use them anymore. Murtagh falls captive along with Thorn and [green Rider] escapes. And yes, she has managed to do a lot of damage.

 

First, she cut off Eragon's right hand, so he has to learn to do things only with his left hand. Hrrr. Secondly, she killed Katrina, who had given birth meanwhile. (Timeline needs work.) And this drives Roran half-insane and he blames her death on Eragon. Roran absolutely hates Eragon. EMOTIONAL CONFLICT IN YOUR FACE, PAOLINI!

 

So, Eragon tries to set things right but Roran doesn't listen to him anyone. It's just him and the baby. And Eragon has more important things to do. Like getting info from Murtagh. Watching over new dragon eggs and Riders. Getting a freedom license from Nasuada (He's bound to her, remember?) to establish a new Rider order. He hasn't got time for a grieving cousin.

 

Meanwhile, another (orange) dragon called Briam has hatched for a human called Huril. He's with the Varden. Eragon and the elves need to train him. So they do. The remaining two eggs are sent to the elves, where a blue female hatches. (Why do dragons hatch so rapidly? I came up with an explanation that they sense that they are needed and try to repopulate really fast or some like that. Needs work.)

 

The war turns into the waiting game. Varden wait for their dragons to grow up. Galby waits for the Varden to come to him. Eragon talks to Murtagh. Is nice to him. Gets him a cat. Tells him about his plan to build a new Rider order. Tries him to coax to give the Varden a second chance. Promises to take him into the new Rider order so Eragon's reputation would protect Murtagh being revenge murdered.

 

Meanwhile, Thorn and Saphira get close and have eggs. That seems a bit too out of character, so I probably need to cut it out. *thinks* Yeah, I'm going to leave that out. Or have them do it towards the end of the fanfic.

 

happens. [green Rider] may or may not have something to do with this. Needs work.

 

Ha. The Varden have decided to take the first step and conquer...Belatona, I think it was. Murtagh overcomes his hating on the world, changes his true name and helps the Varden. Thorn having a crush on Saphira might have something to do with this but IDK.

 

Glaedr comes out of his shell and continues to tutor Eragon. Eragon figures from the hints Murtagh has been dropping that he's gay Galby is looking for the true name of magic. So he casts the same spell on the name of magic that Galby cast on his own name. Some assistance from Murtagh, Glaedr and Radhur is needed. Or some like that.

 

happens. [green Rider] may or may not have something to do with this. Needs work.

 

The new order expands even more; a human girl called Ciala and her dragon Luadha join it. Ciala is from Belatona but Eragon convinces her to join him. Possibly with his ruggedness and the 'Trust me. I'm a professional and I know what I do.' attitude. A giant dragon standing behind him might have something to do with this but IDK.

 

Lots of time pass, dragons mature and stuff happens. Stuff that I won't discuss here.

 

happens. [green Rider] may or may not have something to do with this. Needs work.

 

Ciala and Eragon get close. She's a fiery, short-tempered thief girl and he has ALL THE RESPONSIBILITY!!! They're opposites. Opposites attract. He's also her mentor.

 

Too bad she gets killed in the final battle. That will be gruesome. Eragon fight Galby, others fight [green Rider], yaddayadda.

 

Galby is really powerful and tries to show that he has even more dance moves power and tries to speak the true name of magic, the universe and everything. He dies. [green Rider] tries to resist but Eldunaris, now free from Galby, refuse to assist her and she is killed.

 

Eragon decides that he can't live in Alagaesia anymore and leaves. Before leaving, he passes the leadership of Riders over to Murtagh and Radhur and tries to mend the broken family ties with Roran one more time but he still won't listen to him.

 

Eragon flies away with Saphira.

 

THE END. There may or may not be a sequel to this.

...

And I'm totally not insane.

...

...

...

What do you think?

 

*brick'd*

 

*shot*

 

*brick'd again*

 

*brutally murdered*

Edited November 12, 2011 by LwyllasLaVey