Helpful Score: 6
This is the story of Eragon and Saphira's adventures. I liked reading about the deepening bond between the two, and watching Eragon grow up. The story centers around Eragon's visit to Ellesmera, the land of the Elves, where the two continue learning about their skills.
I well recommend this book!
I well recommend this book!
Helpful Score: 5
One of the best books ever, but Eragon was better. Love how it twits adventure, battle, excitment, a hint of romance, and fantasy in a wonderful world called alageasia. Beautifuly written
Helpful Score: 3
If you liked Eragon, you're going to like this too. Sometimes stilted, but also compelling.
Helpful Score: 2
Awsome look forward to the 3rd book.
Helpful Score: 2
great read love it and cant wait for the final book.
Helpful Score: 2
I think that I liked this better than Eragon (Book 1). I read it much faster, anyway. I look forward to the third book. I don't usually read this kind of fantasy, so the fact that I enjoyed these books either says alot or absolutely nothing. You pick.
Helpful Score: 1
I'll admit it: I'm a glutton for punishment. I trudged through Eragon and found it mediocre at best. And yet I still gave Eldest a try. I was left with the same unimpressive results.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
Helpful Score: 1
I really liked this book. It may not have as action packed as Eragon but just as good on its own. It went through a lot of Eragon's training. Even though that may sound boring, I enjoyed it. I loved the way it was written and felt that I needed to know exactly what Eragon was going through. The ending was fast paced and left me anticipating the next book. I can't wait!
Helpful Score: 1
Very good book. Better than the first! Loved the elves home - beautiful!
Helpful Score: 1
I quite enjoyed this book. I found the storyline to be interesting and exciting. I liked reading about the developing relationship between Eragon and Saphira, and very much enjoyed reading about their experiences in Ellesmera. I was really surprised by the twist at the end. I like the series and recommend it.
Helpful Score: 1
This has been a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed the next step in Eragon's life as he learned the ways of elves & dwarves, as he endeavors to become a full-fledged Rider. What a great story.
Helpful Score: 1
A lot of people prefer Eragon over Eldest. However, I love Eldest a lot more. There is a great detail in the life of the Elves, and it also features Eragon's cousin after Eragon fled with Brom. I'm impatiently waiting for the 3rd book.
Helpful Score: 1
This is the second novel in a series by a very young author. I wasn't impressed at first that the author had matured much since the first novel, but about halfway through I think I could sense a change. The story is good: this is definitely not a Lord of the Rings copycat (although if I recall correctly the first book may have been). At first it felt like the author was trying too hard. It's ok if he said something, he doesn't always need to aver, assert or pronounce it. He uses "big" words sometimes where they just felt out of place. But halfway through it got better. New characters were added who were very interesting. I liked the way the story was told alternating between Eragon and Roran's points of view. I didn't see the ending coming and it's a doozy. You don't find out why this novel is titled "Eldest" until 40 pages from the end. When you get to the end the story is definitely not finished. This is a good book--not fantastic, but definitely good. I'll be reading the third book soon.
Great book. You'll never guess who "eldest" is.
Excellent book. Paolini is a great author and can really bring the world he created to life.
This book does have more twists than the first. Though I did enjoy the book and basic story I was a little disappointed as to what the answers to Eragons questions. They either didn't make since or was to basic and anyone could of answered.
Overall I felt it was a decent book, and has convinced me to read the third.
Overall I felt it was a decent book, and has convinced me to read the third.
It was definately hard at first to get into reading this book. Sometimes it got so boring that I couldn't go on. I often had to reread chapters because I would put the book down, and then 5 months later pick it up again. I was convinced I would finish it. And I'm glad I did. It turned out to be a pretty good book if you do not mind the middle section in which nothing happens.
The Inheritance series is a great line of books. I really enjoyed Eldest. Wishing they would make a movie out of the rest of the books. I highly recommend all of them.
This book continues where Eragon left off. I really enjoyed the book.
Continuation of a good story. Could have moved along a litte faster.
Wonderful Book a must read for the fantasy buff..
Great continuing adventures of Eragon and Saphria. This book keeps you moving.
I complained about this book the whole time I was reading it but did like it. There was just way too much in it. There is such thing as too much detail. I thought that the first book was very vocabulary rich but this one didn't have as much. Not one I would read again but if you have read the first one then you should read this one too. Still very impressive for such a young writer.
Eldest was a great follow-up to Eragon. I enjoyed reading more about Eragon and Saphira. Not as many characters to remember.
I really enjoyed this series. I thought it was well written and suspenseful.
The Second book in this awesome series didn't disappoint. The plot thickens, new enemies and new friends enter the picture and you just can't wait to read the next one to find out what happens!
I found this book more enjoyable than the first book, Eragon. Reading about Eragon's training with the elves was interesting although it brought to mind many other stories--Star Wars and the Karate Kid for starters. The major complaint I had about both Eragon and Eldest is that it is incredibly long--both books could have been edited down by at least 100 pages without harming the story. Eldest stoodd out because it keeps you guessing down to the last few chapters. Reading the chapter titles, I thought I knew what was going to happen but I was wrong. Looking forward to reading Brisinger to see how the final chapter plays out.
This is my favorite book in the cycle so far! Most people like Eragon best, but this book is great and it has a surprise ending where Eragon learns of his connection to Murtagh. I must admit the part where Eragon gets magically transformed was a little annoying, but still a must read.
This book was great, except for one chapter which was very inappropriate.
This was not as good as the first one in the series, but it is still an amazing book, with an exciting plotline and an excellent writing style.
Fantastic sequel to Eragon and both are infinitely preferable to the movie. Very well-written for a teen author and certainly a different take on elves, dwarves and dragons. This was to be #2 of a trilogy, but the 3rd volume became too unwieldy, so the author is now calling it a cycle; volume 3 (Brisinger) will appear in print September 2008 and I can hardly wait.
Although marketed to young adult readers, this fantasy world keeps me engrossed and reading long after bedtime (and I am over 50). Highly recommended also for the morality inherent throughout--no character is unflawed and no decision faced is black versus white or good versus evil.
Although marketed to young adult readers, this fantasy world keeps me engrossed and reading long after bedtime (and I am over 50). Highly recommended also for the morality inherent throughout--no character is unflawed and no decision faced is black versus white or good versus evil.
Great book!
Paolini definitely matured between Eragon and the writing of this book. This is a lot more original but still keeps the solid foundation. Very enjoyable. Eragon comes into his own as a rider, only to have to fight against the next dragonrider to have been turned by Galbatorix. If you've read any amount of fantasy, the foreshadowing from Eragon gives it right away, sadly. Along with the "surprising" revelation :-) Good YA stuff though, so I am not really knocking it. Should not be compared in the same league as regular fantasy.
My son and I loved it.
An amazingly indepth writing for a young author, Wonderful story. Appeals to both young and older readers
I really enjoyed this book!
Well written: This is book 1 of 4 books. Each has an ending but I found I could not wait to read the other two books currently available. Last one will be released in next few weeks.
I'll admit it: I'm a glutton for punishment. I trudged through Eragon and found it mediocre at best. And yet I still gave Eldest a try. I was left with the same unimpressive results.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
I've been curious about these books, since they've been such bestsellers, and are already being made into movies. However, when I saw a co-worker reading one of them, and asked her how it was, she said "Eh. Not so good, actually."
And, I'd have to agree.
Admittedly, this was the second in a series, so perhaps I didn't start from the ideal perspective, but I was just not impressed at all.
The subject matter is completely unoriginal - a dragonrider, a la Anne McCaffrey (complete with the telepathic bond and 'whirling' dragon eyes) meets elves and dwarves that are straight out of Tolkien. Nothing new added at all - and not only that, the lack of effective description seems to indicate that Paolini just assumes that we've read McCaffrey and Tolkien, so he doesn't need to reiterate all that stuff - we already know it. The young dragonrider, Eragon, seems anachronistically contemporary in his speech and actions, even though he lives in a faux-medieval-fantasy world. And he soon becomes wish-fulfillment-ly handsome, strong, and talented, due to the gift of a magic spell. Boring. Most of the other characters are very two-dimensional.
I just realized I was about to finish this up, and I didn't mention anything about the plot. That's 'cause it was barely memorable. An evil warlord wants to take over the world with dark magic and the good peoples of the land want to stop him, of course. But not much actually happens.
At least it was a really fast read - although the book is physically large, the pages are thick and the typeface is pretty big - it's not really a very long story.
And, I'd have to agree.
Admittedly, this was the second in a series, so perhaps I didn't start from the ideal perspective, but I was just not impressed at all.
The subject matter is completely unoriginal - a dragonrider, a la Anne McCaffrey (complete with the telepathic bond and 'whirling' dragon eyes) meets elves and dwarves that are straight out of Tolkien. Nothing new added at all - and not only that, the lack of effective description seems to indicate that Paolini just assumes that we've read McCaffrey and Tolkien, so he doesn't need to reiterate all that stuff - we already know it. The young dragonrider, Eragon, seems anachronistically contemporary in his speech and actions, even though he lives in a faux-medieval-fantasy world. And he soon becomes wish-fulfillment-ly handsome, strong, and talented, due to the gift of a magic spell. Boring. Most of the other characters are very two-dimensional.
I just realized I was about to finish this up, and I didn't mention anything about the plot. That's 'cause it was barely memorable. An evil warlord wants to take over the world with dark magic and the good peoples of the land want to stop him, of course. But not much actually happens.
At least it was a really fast read - although the book is physically large, the pages are thick and the typeface is pretty big - it's not really a very long story.
First one better, but, this one was still good. Can't wait for the third one.
Got halfway through and couldn't get myself to finish it. Felt there was more books that were better I could spend my time on unfortunately.
I couldn't finish it. I liked "Eragon," although I found it verbose. It was written by a teen and it showed, but it still had sparkle and was enjoyable. It seems Paolini got a new thesarus for Christmas and used it without reserve. The story is predictable and drawn out, and by half way through I realized I didn't care at all what happened to any of the characters so why finish it? The story just doesn't move fast enough to be interesting and the writing is painful. I'll keep the book because I'm starting a collection for if and when I have kids. I can see a tween or teen getting into this series but it's just not good enough to keep me reading.
I thought it was good if you read the first one because is a follow up and the beginning of the next one. The Eldest novel is a description of Eragon's transformation to be a rider. Maybe Saphira is not alone in this journey. Looking for the third book.
Enjoyed very much!!!!! Great continuation to the series.
This is the same review for all of the books in this series.
This book is part trilogy called the Inheritance Cycle although it must be pointed out that it's four books, not three and should be called a tetralogy. The books are (in order) called Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger and Inheritance. For best effect, read them in order as it is in part a coming of age story.
Our protagonist is Eragon -- a 15 year old boy -- and his dragon is Saphira and they struggle to overthrow the evil King. If you are in to these fictional fantasy books set in a world far away, this is one series you should definitely you should read.
I loved each book and I loved the rich characters, the clarity of the fight between good and evil, the variety of species who must work together, and the visions of glorious battles with dragons and their riders.
I'm a big fan of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Star Wars, and these books rank right up there.
Well worth the read.
This book is part trilogy called the Inheritance Cycle although it must be pointed out that it's four books, not three and should be called a tetralogy. The books are (in order) called Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger and Inheritance. For best effect, read them in order as it is in part a coming of age story.
Our protagonist is Eragon -- a 15 year old boy -- and his dragon is Saphira and they struggle to overthrow the evil King. If you are in to these fictional fantasy books set in a world far away, this is one series you should definitely you should read.
I loved each book and I loved the rich characters, the clarity of the fight between good and evil, the variety of species who must work together, and the visions of glorious battles with dragons and their riders.
I'm a big fan of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Star Wars, and these books rank right up there.
Well worth the read.
I'll admit it: I'm a glutton for punishment. I trudged through Eragon and found it mediocre at best. And yet I still gave Eldest a try. I was left with the same unimpressive results.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
I'll admit it: I'm a glutton for punishment. I trudged through Eragon and found it mediocre at best. And yet I still gave Eldest a try. I was left with the same unimpressive results.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
Once again, I found the sory predictable, simple, and cliche. I will grant Paolini some improvement in his writing style (not sure I want to use the word 'maturity') but as a whole it was somewhat better. The characters are still only semi-developed, and once again I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them.
I don't want to say that the story is completely without merit... there is a semi-surprising twist at the end and on a very basic level I did find myself a little curious as to what would happen next. As with Eragon, as long as you aren't expecting great, ground-breaking fantasy literature, then this book makes for very easy reading without making much of an impression.
I had put off reading this book for the few years I've had it because I was so disappointed with the first one in the series. This one fulfilled all my expectations of failure because what little does happen is overly explained to the point of it being boring. I got to 100 pages and had to stop torturing my mind. If I'm lucky, they'll improve this story, like they did the first one, by making it into a movie.
Eragon and Saphira are just annoying. They both are exceedingly immature and when they don't get their way, they pout. Yet, they are both made to seem so worldly that they know everything as well. Such as when the council of wanted the pair's support and they knew they were being used. It was irritating at how Eragon's character is written to always know what others are planning/thinking when he himself hasn't the experience on his own to feasibly know all these things. It's like the author has made him too omniscient because the writer is too immature in his ability to be able to use foreshadowing and employ deeper plots effectively.
The dialogues in this book are also very corny and stereotypical. It's like the author pulled everything he's seen in movies when it comes to what the characters in the book have to say. There's a lot of over-dramatization that leaves you rolling your eyes and it got old fast--like within the first 20 pages.
This book also reminds me of playing an RPG game where you are lead along by your nose. Such as when Eragon has to travel to the elves and he has to travel with Arya because communications aren't able to reach the elves due to wards that only allow messages out... What?!?! It's just stupid. There's a lot of this in the book for other situations as well and it just made for a poor read.
Overall, I'd avoid this book because there are a lot of other fantasy writers out there who have proved their worth because they can write and not because they're bragging about graduating at fifteen as a result of being home-schooled. It's obviously affected his ability to see things outside the box.
Eragon and Saphira are just annoying. They both are exceedingly immature and when they don't get their way, they pout. Yet, they are both made to seem so worldly that they know everything as well. Such as when the council of wanted the pair's support and they knew they were being used. It was irritating at how Eragon's character is written to always know what others are planning/thinking when he himself hasn't the experience on his own to feasibly know all these things. It's like the author has made him too omniscient because the writer is too immature in his ability to be able to use foreshadowing and employ deeper plots effectively.
The dialogues in this book are also very corny and stereotypical. It's like the author pulled everything he's seen in movies when it comes to what the characters in the book have to say. There's a lot of over-dramatization that leaves you rolling your eyes and it got old fast--like within the first 20 pages.
This book also reminds me of playing an RPG game where you are lead along by your nose. Such as when Eragon has to travel to the elves and he has to travel with Arya because communications aren't able to reach the elves due to wards that only allow messages out... What?!?! It's just stupid. There's a lot of this in the book for other situations as well and it just made for a poor read.
Overall, I'd avoid this book because there are a lot of other fantasy writers out there who have proved their worth because they can write and not because they're bragging about graduating at fifteen as a result of being home-schooled. It's obviously affected his ability to see things outside the box.
Unfortunately almost exactly like Eragon; uninteresting plot, heavy "borrowing", predictable plot "twists"...Eldest has the works. Mr. Paolini needs to work on his skills before his next book.
Hah..how did this *ever* get on the bestsellers?? Paolini spent so much time describing details we don't care about, while the interesting stuff was swept quickly and abruptly away. Also, Paolini should be sued for eerie similarities to Tolkien. As if anyone could be as great as him!
Dull and tedious -- as most 2nd books are in trilogies. Again, like Eragon, the story is predictable and unoriginal.
Neve read it was given to me sat down a few times to read it and wasnt able to get into it
