Dragons and Elves and Dwarves, Oh My!

Boy was I excited when I heard Brisingr was finally coming out. Unfortunately, the interminably long wait meant I had forgotten most of the events of Eragon and Eldest. I remember I really enjoyed Eragon, and so I picked up Eldest, which I wasn’t as crazy about. Unfortunately, Brisingr hit bottom for me.

It begins where Eldest left off: Eragon  and his cousin Roran plan to infiltrate Helgrind in order to rescue Roran’s beloved, Katrina. Meanwhile, the Varden needs help (as always) and Eragon attempts to politick with the dwarves while they choose their new king, since Hrothgar was killed in the last battle against Murtagh.

Brisingr, which was supposed to be the end of the Inheritance Trilogy, is unfortunately now a middle book, with “middle book syndrome” to boot. Brisingr simply dragged on. And on.

Eragon did little to improve his knowledge of magic, maturity, or much of anything. He is still very much the immature farm boy from book one. In fact, Brisingr was more about Roran and his character development rather than anything else. Paolini also pulls the “I-am-your-father” thing on us again! In all honesty, that’s really something you can pull on your readers once. Twice is just stupid…It’s already been done!

Further, Paolini’s writing seemed very heavy, filled with tongue twisting words and excessive adjectives. I understand he is attempting to write in an “epic” manner, but considering this is marketed as a young adult book, even I was bogged down by the writing style. There were times I would go back and re-read a sentence, just to make sure I was understanding its meaning through all the purple prose.

Very little was revealed until the very last chapters of the book–this could have easily been edited down, making it a trilogy as originally planned. The most interesting part was when Eragon and Saphira attempted to communicate with a sentient tree, and Saphira ends up getting annoying and blowing fire at it, leading to all kinds of fun.

Overall, if it gets kids to read, great. But content-wise, Brisingr was sorely lacking any substance.