Eragon

[eldar005]

Originally Posted by Rathgar

I haven't read these books yet - currently engrossed in ASoIaF - but I was thinking about picking them up afterwards. I understand the kid was 17 at the time, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but if the plot seriously plays out like that summary... that's sickening. The fact that this guy is raking in cash for this sort of pseudo-plagiarism is just wrong.



That's also fucked. I suppose I'll be looking into Malazan next.

Let me tell you from experience: You aren't going to want to read Eragon directly after ASoIaF. Trust me, you won't make it a hundred pages before you put the book down in disgust and never pick it up again.

I thought it was "okay". Paolini's super-obvious plagiarism and heavy-handed use of deus ex machina and extremely weak dialogue are almost painful to read, especially when directly compared to the masterpiece that Martin has created.

I barely made it through Eragon and Eldest, and that was because I was given them as a Christmas present and I didn't have anything else to read.

[GrobbeeTrull]

Haha, man, that Anti-Shur'tugal site rips that kid apart.

Great stuff!

[Etadanik]

Man, that site's about as bad as they make the book sound. Holes in logic aside, it's slander masked as amateur criticism. Fitting, I suppose, considering that the best critics of a book often possess a dash of whom they criticize. Nevertheless, it's giving me far more pleasure than reading Eragon ever would've, I imagine.

I particularly like this part:

The Epistler acknowledges that the internet is not known for inspiring good spelling, mature behaviour and intellectual discourse. However, he has noticed a significant difference between fans of Inheritance and fans of, say, Harry Potter (the Epistler has chosen to compare and contrast using Harry Potter on the grounds that it, too, has children as fans). Here are some typical examples of things written by some Inheritance fans, quoted from a fan forum:

“could the dragon healing have been a form of the vault of souls. like the vault of souls contains all the souls of the dragons and somehow eragon finds a way to tap into that power source. If you remember what the dragons did for him not even the elves could do. If that was the vault of souls and eragon could use it he would most definatly be the most powerful rider ever.”

“I don't know about the dragon soals thing, but other wise it could be possible.”

“WWWWWOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!
I've just had the best idea about the VOS. you know in book 2 when they'er flying over the desert and they see the mountain were all dragons went to be born, mate AND DIE. that place is the VOS and when a dragon dies its essence is absorbed into the VOS”

“i dobt he would do that in the book”

All of these posts display a slender grasp of proper spelling and grammar, and are at best vaguely coherent. By contrast, here is an example of a debate on a forum thread at the Harry Potter fansite, Mugglenet

Ron and Hermione not turning back is no new piece of information that makes them "stronger then ever". They have been doing that since book 1 when Harry planned on going through the trap door alone. Since this is nothing new and they have been doing it since book 1, I don't see how it is proof that they have overcome any differences such as Ron's jealousy.

You are comparing 11 year olds to 17 year olds here. People grow up and learn from their experiences, and Ron had learned his share of valuing his best friend after that fight in GoF. And after all that Ron had been through with Harry and especially after finding out what Harry's up against, do you honestly think that small trivial things like getting jealous of fame and fortune will matter?

Quote:

You agree that Ron has faults as do other characters, that is good. As it is obvious. But some here seem to think GoF was the end of Ron's jealousy of Harry. Then they go on to contradict themselves and say it ended in HBP. Bottom line is that the jealousy is still there.

Incorrect again. No one here thinks that Ron's jealousy persisted till HBP. His jealousy towards Harry ended right then and there in GoF. And that quote from HBP says that Ron, who would've been jealous about Harry being followed by girls before, does not envy him anymore. There's no point in twisting canon here again because Ron does not feel jealousy towards Harry and he will not betray him.

This example is very impressive, and there were many others to be found on the site. The fans at Mugglenet, in the main, write clearly and show evidence of intelligent analysis of the books they love. This happens very rarely among Inheritance fans, at least as far as the Epistler has experienced, and be assured that he has spent some time trawling through various forums in search of evidence.

Yeah. Because we know that all hardcore HP fans are sophisticated souls whose timbred minds resonate perfectly with the "great J.K. Rowling's" peerless prose, and not adult pedophiles looking to score

[Asmadai]

Originally Posted by Etadanik

Yeah. Because we know that all hardcore HP fans are sophisticated souls whose timbred minds resonate perfectly with the "great J.K. Rowling's" peerless prose, and not adult pedophiles looking to score

C'mon, we all know it's cool to hate Eragon. All the cool kids are doing it.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Finally read it...even getting away from him "using" everyones work (the Earthsea magic system had me actually laughing from it poping up) its a horrible fan-fiction style novel with explaination after explaination, characters asking questions to try to find loop holes only to have it explained.

The biggest thing though, was just bad plotting. Killing one "mysterious" character and having another "mysterious" character magically appear, and then having the required big battle at the end of the novel just to have the required big battle with out the proper build up for it...

Tsk Tsk.

[Araxen]

I love both books and I can't wait for the 3rd. The movie though looks horrible.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Lost Ranger

Exactly!
Take LoTR and spend a few hours on it changing names/locations and add a few plot changes and youll have a damn awesome trilogy on your hands. Doesnt make you an author.

Worked for Terry Brooks for the first Sword of Shannara books. Plagirism is good stuff.

I won't touch Eragon -- I had my fell of generic fantasy back when I was a teenager -- you can only read so much of it and then you start limiting yourself to the good stuff. It's like food -- hot dogs and beer are great and all, but after a while you really just want a nice steak with a glass of wine or some tasty sushi with sake or a good phad thai with what ever the hell they drink in Thailand. Once you start reading only good stuff its impossible to read the bad anymore.

That being said, George Lucas is no slouch when it comes to plagarism either -- his horrible fantasy movie was (like Brooks) pretty much a ripoff of Tolkien with a few other elements mixed in. And of course the original X-Wing and Tie Fighter "dog-fight" scenes in Star Wars were copied directly from old WWII movies. Somewhere I have a video that was supposed to go on the Star Wars collection DVD that directly compared the old WWII films Lucas used and the action -- they were identical. Lucas cut this particular video from the DVD.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Umm, its in there. And its from actually RL dogfights, not a movie.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Nebuchadnezzar

Umm, its in there. And its from actually RL dogfights, not a movie.

Hmm. My video has movie dogfights. I'm pretty sure (as I was told by the guy who produced the DVD) they got cut by GL precisely because he didn't like the fact that they were exactly like the original dogfights in SW.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

No, I've seen a documentary with him talking about how he made an animatic for the first star wars using old WW2 combat footage, pretty sure its on the Episode 2 DVD.

[Saidin]

While this book traditionally gets bad ratings ( due to it being very similiar to other brand name authors ), I thought the book was actually pretty damn good. I have had a better read ( WoT hasn't had rival yet, atleast when it was at the Rand destruction times ), but I would go out of my way to get the newest book.

When he got turned into an elf I was ecstatic, because he was already a kick ass fighter to begin with. He left the story at a high point when he got his ass kicked by the newest dragon rider ( remember his good friend ? ) and his sword got taken, so the next book will keep me on my toes.

[Azrayne]

It's unacceptably plagiarised, and the writing is, without question, the worst I've ever seen in a published novel. Hell, I managed to force myself through the awkward and stilted writing of Dragonlance, but I couldn't even get past the first chapter of Eragon. I know he was 17 when he wrote it, but it sounds like he was 12. I've read fan fiction on the internet that flows better.

The worst series I've ever read. I can't get past how anybody over the age of 13 can actually enjoy this crap.

[Brand]

The best thing I can say about Eragon is that its not the worst thing I've ever read in the Fantasy field. That is the best thing I can say.

On another note, I'd love to see Khorum's opinion...Since Eddings looks like a Masterworks level author in comparison.

[k^M]

honestly if you stop trying to compare it to other books, its not a very bad 2-3 hour book to read imo. some of the parts of shitty, but there are some damn good parts as well, its really a shame that i cant pick it up and enjoy it to read after watching the movie though, good fuck all they screwed the pooch on that one

try and read the 2nd one as well even if you hated the first, its probably 10x better. i just wish after years he'd get off his ass and finish the series with whatever he's calling the 3rd book

[Millie]

Originally Posted by Asmadai

This book is intended for children. Children would never in a million years come up with such a specific critiquing of this book on it's borrowed story aspect. Children would read this, and think that it kicks ass. [/color]

Is it a book for children, or was it just a book written by a child? There's a difference there.

I don't know one way or the other; perhaps someone else can shed some light on whether the book was intended to be taken as adult or young adult fantasy or whether it was actually written for young children. I've never read it, and I don't know enough about it to pass judgment one way or the other. But everything I've heard about it makes it seem as though the author took it very seriously, and intended for it to be "adult."