Eragon

Eragon
Author	Christopher Paolini
Illustrator	John Jude Palencar
Cover artist	John Jude Palencar
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Inheritance Cycle
Genre	Young adult; Fantasy; Dystopian; Bildungsroman
Publisher	Paolini LLC (first edition), Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	2002 (first edition), August 26, 2003 (Knopf)
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback) and audio-CD
Pages	509 (Knopf) ; 544 (Paolini LLC)
ISBN	0-375-82668-8 (First Knopf edition) ISBN 0-9666213-3-6 (Paolini LLC)
OCLC	52251450
Dewey Decimal	[Fic] 21
LC Class	PZ7.P19535 Er 2003
Followed by	Eldest
	Copies sold: 24.55 million

Eragon is a book written by Christopher Paolini. It was published in August 2003. Eragon is the first book in the Inheritance Cycle. The second book in the Inheritance Cycle, called Eldest, was published in mid-2005. The third of the four books, Brisingr, was released in 2008. Eragon was made into a movie and released in cinemas on December 2006. It was released on DVD in March 2007.

The Story

A long time ago, the Dragon Riders kept peace in the world between the humans, dragons, elves, and dwarves. They were humans or elves bonded to dragons. However, the dragon of a human Rider named Galbatorix was killed by the Urgals (a species that fights a lot). Galbatorix became insane because of this. The Riders would not give him another dragon, so he decided to destroy them. He stole a black baby dragon and forced it to bond with him with evil magic. Then he and other traitors fought with the Riders. Finally, they killed them all and Galbatorix became king of the humans. The book Eragon begins 100 years after this. When it begins, Galbatorix is trying to find and destroy the elves (who are hiding in a forest called Du Weldenvarden), dwarves (who are hiding in the Beor Mountains - a gigantic mountain range reaching far above the clouds), and the Varden (a group of rebels hidden with the dwarves). He has not destroyed the elves yet, because he is still cautious of their power. He has not destroyed the Varden or dwarves because he cannot yet find them in the large mountain range.

The story itself begins with a young farm boy named Eragon finding a polished blue stone in the Spine (a smaller mountain range and woods). He tries to sell the egg, but no one buys it. The stone turns out to be a dragon egg, and the dragon that hatches from it is named Saphira. When Saphira is about 6 months old, Eragon's uncle, Garrow is killed by the Ra'zac (insect-like creatures that work for Galbatorix), who want to find and capture Eragon and Saphira. Eragon decides to find them and kill them in revenge because of his uncle's death. He and Saphira leave, along with Brom, an old storyteller who tells Eragon and Saphira many things about dragons and Riders and promises to help them. In Yu'Zuac, Eragon and Brom were ambushed by two Urgals. After Brom was knocked from his horse, the Urgals chased Eragon, when he used magic to defeat them. Brom teaches Eragon how to control magic after this. While they are travelling, they find a flask full of corrupted Seithr oil dropped by the Ra'zac. This oil is very rare, so Eragon gets the idea to go to a coastal city for shipping records to find the Ra'zac. The three travel to the city of Teirm to see Brom's old friend, Joed. Joed is a merchant who is secretly giving supplies to the Varden. However all of his ships are being destroyed somehow by someone who knows he is working for the Varden. He helps them find a record of where the Ra'zac are - a city named Dras-Leona. Brom, Eragon, and Saphira travel to Dras-Leona, but Eragon is seen by Galbatorix's soldiers. The three run away, but the Ra'zac find them and capture them. Then they are driven away by a stranger named Murtagh, but they wound Brom first. Brom dies soon, but not before telling Eragon and Murtagh that he was secretly a Rider whose dragon was killed by Galbatorix.

Eragon and Saphira bury Brom. They decide to go to the Varden to fight Galbatorix, with Murtagh who does not want to go, but will help them until they reach the Varden, but they do not know where the Varden are. They go to Gilead, another city, to find someone who knows where the Varden are. While Murtagh is in the city, he comes back and the next morning, Eragon is captured when the three are ambushed by more Urgals. His food and water is drugged to make him forget magic so he can not escape. He realizes he is being given drugs in his food and stops eating the food. Finally, the drugs wear off and Eragon can use magic to escape. He breaks out, only to find Murtagh breaking in. The two rescue an elf that is also in the prison. Her name is Arya. They are attacked by a Shade (a sorcerer controlled by evil spirits), but escape. Arya is unconscious, but Eragon can talk to her in her mind and she tells him where the Varden are. They must go across a desert to get there, and Arya is dying from a poison, so they must hurry. They finally make it to the Varden (who are hiding in the Beor Mountains with the dwarves), but on the way Murtagh tells Eragon that Murtagh is the son of Morzan, a Rider who helped Galbatorix kill the other Riders. When they get to the Varden, Murtagh is captured because he is Morzan's son, but Arya is healed. Then the Varden and their leader (named Ajihad) find out Galbatorix is attacking them with Urgals. Murtagh is released to help the Varden, which he does. There is a big battle. In it, the Shade appears. Eragon fights the Shade and, with the help of Arya and Saphira, he kills the Shade, but his back is hit with a sword by the Shade. While Eragon is unconscious, he is rescued from death by a mysterious elf, who touched his mind and blocked the pain. Eragon promises to go to the elves with Arya for more training. Eragon wakes up and finds he is scarred by Durza's strike. The book ends with Eragon promising again to himself that he will go to the elves.

Reviews

Christopher Paolini was only 15 when he started writing Eragon, which many people have found impressive. He has also been praised for his writing style and the world he created. His strong female characters were also praised. However, some people think he is not a good writer, because his book is too much like other books (like The Lord of the Rings) and movies (like Star Wars). They also think he uses many complicated words when he does not need to. Unlike the book, the movie of Eragon is not liked by many people. They dislike it because it did not follow the book very well and changed many parts of the story which would make making more movies of the series harder.