Percy Jackson v.s. Eragon

[G-Dove]

So, what did you pick? I said Eragon.

Based on a little argument that me and my friends had.

Edited August 3, 2010 by G-Dove

[satyr76]

I have to say Percy Jackson. Eragon was okay, but I got bored by the middle of Eldest.

[ThatDeadGirl]

I have to say Percy Jackson. Eragon was okay, but I got bored by the middle of Eldest.

This happened to me too.I got so bored with it I actually put it down and have yet to pick it up again. I've never done that with a book in my entire life.

[Hawktalon]

i'be been meaning to read eragon, but i loved percy jackson.

[crazywargod]

I want to say eragon but PJ is also good.

[DragonNighthowler]

I love both, really I do.

But from the way Eragon impacted my childhood I'd say Eragon <3 because it inspired my love for dragons and other mythical creatures.

 

NOBODY SHOW ME ERAGON SPORKINGS. *DISGUSTEDLY HURLS THAT SITE TO THE GROUND* Seriously. No one noticed any of the plot holes that were apparent until the guy pointed them out and ruined the series.

I noticed them. I have a few posts in blogs here and there talking about the book, and the endless plot holes, comparison with other books and movies, etc.

 

I just never took the time to analyze the whole damn book page by page. Read it once, was enough for me, served great as a weight for the lid of my terrarium to keep my tarantula inside.

 

I haven't read Percy Jackson, so I can't judge. But I've seen the movie, and while I thought it was X-Men with demigods instead of mutants, and while the movie was... ok, whatever, it was still better than anything Paolini ever did.

[shelle58704]

I haven't read Percy Jackson, so I can't judge. But I've seen the movie, and while I thought it was X-Men with demigods instead of mutants, and while the movie was... ok, whatever, it was still better than anything Paolini ever did.

The movie and the book are quite different. Surprise, surprise . . .

 

I enjoyed Eragon, but I do think PJ was better. I love mythology. I think Rick Riorden has to have more intellect writing PJ to keep it true to mythology.

[Qwackie]

Both of them are wayyyy overrated.

[Shay-la!]

They were about equal, but Eragon is a Star Wars parallel. I chose Percy Jackson.

[Infinis]

I personally prefer Eragon, mostly because i like dragons way more than demigods.

 

One of the biggest flaws in Eragon was its similarities to Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Like, if a rider dies, so does his dragon, etc. Stuff like that. I didn't notice that one until a friend pointed it out to me, but I like Eragon anyway.

 

PJ was okay; the latter three books were the best of the series.

[soupnazi]

Percy Jackson isn't the greatest thing ever, but it's MILES above Eragon.

[Qwackie]

They were about equal, but Eragon is a Star Wars parallel. I chose Percy Jackson.

Eragon is nothing like Star Wars. Star Wars is close to a classic and it's something people will be watching 10 years from now. Eragon is not.

 

Percy Jackson was an overrated screw up that's just like all the books that have been turned into movies, some director has kids, the kids read the books, the kids like the books. The kids say "OH HEY DADDIO, MAKE A MOVIE OF THIS BOOKY. :3" and he makes the most sh*tty movie imaginable after a sh*tty book.

[Qwackie]

...so, Qwackie, after that nice post, are you voting for Eragon? Or is your opinion mof that even lower than your opinion of PJ?

 

Oh and about the parallel to StarWars, I think they're talking about the quote in DragonNightHowler's siggie....

The one about different colored swords that are able to hack through anything and are only meant for oneperson: definitly Lightsabers.

I don't read people's sigs...

 

I'm not voting for either, rather read Twilight or Warriors than either of them, and that's saying something.

 

Nulled~

[Dragonhatchling]

Eragon. Enough said, otherwise someone will be yelled at (me, people hate me for no reason).

[DragonNighthowler]

It's not about my siggy. It IS a ripoff Star Wars.

 

Farm kid discovers dragon egg. He meets these strange hermit who teaches him he's a Jed... excuse me, a Dragon Rider, and they go off into a crazy quest, after Kid's Farm has been burnt to ashes by the bad guys. They go off to find the rebels, who are hiding in the mountains fighting against Evil Emperor, and his Minions.

 

On the Way, Kid finds out Hermit used to be a Dragon Rider before the Rider's downfall, and thus teaches him all he can about Dragon Riders, but unfortunately dies. Then Kid reaches the Vardens (rebels), and sometime after, he takes off to the depths of this magic forest protected by the elves, where this eminent old, and wise Dragon Rider (Yoda, or whatever), teaches him the ways of the Force... excuse me, the ways of the Riders.

 

Then there is all the c.... about his family. The friend he's been going along with turns out to be his half brother, who tells him he's the son of the Evil Emperor's second hand, who used to bear a red lightsaber... excuse me, Sword.

 

Yup... got nothing to do with Star Wars. AT ALL! /Sarcasm.

 

The whole thing about Eragon's real father and all is pure BS. I believe LucasArts must have told Paolini to keep similes down because it was being a bit TOO obvious already.

 

And about his mother, more BS. She was an assassin but really didn't want to do it? How crazy is that? And why didn't she save Murtagh? PLEASE.

 

That without mentioning Paolini has declared himself a Tolkien AND Star Wars fan.

 

On a sided note, can't stand his elves.

 

Edit;

 

This webpage is cute.

 

http://everything2.com/title/Comparisons+b...n+and+Star+Wars

Edited August 4, 2010 by DragonNighthowler

[Voxezi]

@DNH, I believe Paolini was, at some point, told by LucasArts to keep the references down.

And yes, the two plots are very similar, merely switching genres at some times.

[kadoatie]

Dear [...], I'm not fond of either ._. If I had to tell someone to read either, I'd pick Percy Jackson.

[kadoatie]

Sort of OT, but a book's sales doesn't prove a thing about its quality. For me, being high on a national bestseller list would actually encourage me to read a book less for my own happiness (instead of reading it purely because it's popular).

 

The high positions on bestseller lists for fiction tend to be topped by things like

- romance novels by well-known series, not my cup of tea

- new books in well-known crime/mystery series, most of which seem to get more and more repetitive as the series continue

- fiction by political leaders or celebrities, such as Beck's The Overton Window, which are usually either bad quality (because the author isn't a writer or can make money regardless of book quality) or ghostwritten

- books movies were recently made from; major studios tend to produce certain kinds of books over and over again, so that's honestly not my thing either

- whatever was recently controversial, which makes no statement on literary quality whatsoever

- books like The Da Vinci Code that were practically a clone of previous books by author

- books like Twilight

 

In almost all of these cases, these books are carefully written to market to certain groups. They follow tropes and old storylines to a ridiculous extent. Anything that might be considered "cerebral" is not going to make it: there's lots of pressure to sell to the lowest common denominator. Most of them make me feel like the author presumed stupidity in his/her readers.

 

If you have a particularly original book, it's not going to make it up there. No existing market.

 

TL;DR: So I don't exactly associate bestselling with quality.

 

(ps, this isn't specific to Eragon; I didn't think the book was as bad as the hatedom can make it out to be, but it wasn't exactly one I care to remember either)

[DragonNighthowler]

Bestseller =/= quality.

 

Some of the best books I've read were not even on bestselling lists. For example, Nineteen Minutes was a wonderful insight into the problem of school bullying, but people prefer reading about the abusive relationship between a vampire thing and a plain Mary Sue.

 

The Cathedral of the Sea, was another great book.

Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, was an original, interesting book.

Ars Magica, I loved this book, and I don't believe it made it out of Spain.

 

Eragon was just a lucky book. Paolini did the perfect timing to publish it, because the LOTR movie was just out and people were thirsty for more fantasy books. It was there, it promised an adventure similar to that of LOTR, so a huge number of people bought this book. Some liked it, some, like me, wanted to burn it feeling insulted by the endless similarities between Eragon, LOTR, Star Wars, Pern's, and The Wheel of Time among others.

Many of us kept reading out of curiosity, others out of fandom, others simply dropped it. Eragon was at the bestselling list, was Brisingr? Not here, I barely saw it in a couple of libraries.

 

Now its time for vampires, not fantasy. Paolini will not sell half of what he sold when Eragon came out, when it was time for fantasy. And as his writing gets worse by the book, and as many of his fans were enraged by the fact he was trying to make a buck with a book that was pure fillers, I presume his days of glory are pretty much gone, unless he becomes a bit more humble and recycles himself.

 

Twilight is on the bestselling lists as well. It's not a good book. It's actually a piece of..., but since it's light, and simple like a pencil's mechanism, many non readers, teenagers with their brains corrupted by visual media, and bored housewives, found it to be an entertaining lecture. And it is, really, I read it, I even "enjoyed" it a bit as it was easy to read.

Paolini has a "deeper plot", but yet his writing is terrible, and his lack of imagination is offensive.

 

Another thing that may have attracted a younger population of readers to this book, is the easy, cliché plot. Boy made hero. Light Vs Darkness. War. Evil Emperor. Resistance. Etc.

 

Those of us used to reading fantasy, who have devoured every single Dragonlance book, and loved most, and even ended up hating them for their simplicity, those who have gone through the Dark Elf saga, those who read LOTR long before the movie, those who have roleplayed great stories, can't find anything mildly interesting in Paolini's flowery purple prose, Sueish characters, simplistic plot, and not so discrete plagierism of other great works.

 

But I truly enjoy analyzing the political depth Paolini has, unknowingly, introduced into this book. It's absolutely ironic, and interesting, that his hero star is nothing but the head of a terrorist group.

[DragonNighthowler]

Ugh, hate Eragon's elves as well. Except the blacksmith. She rocked!

[darkangel787]

the blacksmith...?

oh right! the one who made the sword! ;D yep favorite elf.

[Shay-la!]

Oh and about the parallel to StarWars, I think they're talking about the quote in DragonNightHowler's siggie....

The one about different colored swords that are able to hack through anything and are only meant for oneperson: definitly Lightsabers.

Also, similarities: These were pointed out to me by another person...

 

Star Wars - Princess Leia ambushed taking valuable data to rebels. Data in form of droids lands and is found by farmer boy. While gaining wisdom from a creepy old man, he comes back to see his home burned. Old man helps him travel in revenge, revealing he was once a Jedi. Going on...

 

Eragon - Arya ambushed taking egg to Varden. Egg is found by farmer boy. While talking to Brom about dragons, he returns to see his farm burned. Brom helps him travel in revenge, revealing he was once a Dragon Rider...

 

They're like the same.

[Walker]

Also, similarities: These were pointed out to me by another person...

 

Star Wars - Princess Leia ambushed taking valuable data to rebels. Data in form of droids lands and is found by farmer boy. While gaining wisdom from a creepy old man, he comes back to see his home burned. Old man helps him travel in revenge, revealing he was once a Jedi. Going on...

 

Eragon - Arya ambushed taking egg to Varden. Egg is found by farmer boy. While talking to Brom about dragons, he returns to see his farm burned. Brom helps him travel in revenge, revealing he was once a Dragon Rider...

 

They're like the same.

The reason they are so similar is not cause Eragon blatantly copies many elements of Star Wars (although there are some similarties) but because both Star Wars and Eragon follow what is known as the classic hero journey (or a monomyth as another term), which is a plot derived from mythology and has been used in thousands of types of literature over the years. The classic heo journey steps can be found here:

 

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00800/journey.htm

 

The classic hero journey is an archetype, which is an element of literature that pop up over human history in all kinds of literature. Ghosts would be another type of archetype for example. They showed up in all sorts of different cultures writing long before there was extensive interaction. So what I'm saying is Star Wars and Eragon are just one in a long line that follows this type of plotline. There is no stealing involved. It is just something humans have integrated into their literature over history long before either of these existed.

 

Oh yah, I love dragons, so I'm more for Eragon.

Edited August 6, 2010 by Dashidragon

[DragonNighthowler]

Erm... I know about the hero Journey and all, but the similarities are just TOO close to be considered a mere coincidence, archetype. I mean, it's the same story, but with dragons!

[zephyr_123]

It's hard to say because both are really contrasting. I'd say the Percy Jackson series is kind of more trite and amusing, and the Inheritance Cycle has just as little meaning, but just expresses that in a different, more convoluted way.

 

Paolini's language is so archaic it surprises me. I mean, okay, it's supposed to be in sword-fighting times, but is it really necessary to write that way? It makes stuff seem more cliché and awkward to read.

 

And the Percy Jackson series was pretty predictable, because the whole plot of the storyline is always told by the prophecies at the beginning of the book.

 

I think I enjoyed the Percy Jackson series more though, not for meaning, but because it's fun to read, and funny. Some of the jokes are corny, but a lot are not. Still, the plot of the Inheritance Cycle is enjoyable to read.

 

As a disclaimer, sort of, just because I am not a huge fan of the Inheritance Cycle, doesn't mean I don't like dragons.