ELDEST - by Christopher Paolini

Say hello to a book whose contents I have thought long, hard, and painfully about. It exceeds the expectations set by fans from it's prequel, ERAGON, with a thought-out plot, well-written words, and the classic "Whoa! Didn't see that coming!" The boy Eragon, now a great hero of the Varden travels to Ellesmera, the land of the elves to complete the training begun by Brom. Still scarred by his experience with the shade, Durza, he has a hard time of it, yet still is encouraged by his master. Saphira too, learns much from her dragon master, Gladyr, yet one of the "iffy" things comes in when Saphira realizes that she is not the last dragon as she supposed, and attempts to convince Gladyr (rather violently) to elope with her. It doesn't go into details and she is sorrowfull about her actions later, but it still gave me some grief, as I was reading the book partly to see if my younger siblings could read it too.

Remember Eragon's cousin, Roran? In the first book it seemed that adding Roran in was a little pointless, but in this book he defends his town from the Ra'zac and leads his people to safety. But... as you probably guessed, more sorry lovelornity. Roran ends up proposing to Katrina not only without her father's consent, but knowing her father would put his foot down and run him out of town with an axe! The father is the mean traitor though, but it wouldn't leave me reconciled to my actions if I were Roran.

Eragon and Saphira return later to the Varden to assist in battle against Galbatorix. There, in the last part of the book, the plot just comes together and jumps out at you in a stunning revelation.

There's a little more on the down side of the story here. A romance between Eragon and Arya was hinted at in the first book as you probably noticed. It is continued here by Eragon, but discouraged by Arya and everybody else. Basically if you don't think well of this kind of romance, this book is not for you. If I remember correctly there was also a word of mild language by Orik the Dwarf in a drunken stupor. Master Oromis teaches Eragon a theory that there is no god and nothing to worship in the world. I was disappointed that this book didn't quite hit my "great book" note, but I rate it PG. I wish my mom had read it first, because I am still iffy about this story.

Author:
Christopher Paolini
Illustrator:
John Jude Palencar
Country:
United States
Series:
Inheritance Trilogy
Genre(s):

fantasy fiction
Publisher:
Alfred A. Knopf