Eragon

[dwndrgn]

I'm just playing devil's advocate here...

Consider, George Martin has been published for years so of course his work advertises itself. Comparing a new, just published author with Martin is like comparing apples to oranges.

Consider, when George Martin began if he had the opportunity to use the internet to market his work to thousands more people, would he have done so?

Consider, with the popularity of Harry Potter, what publishing house wouldn't want to hype a new, young author who has written a book that is considered to be for the same market as Harry Potter?

Consider, if your publisher decided that they could increase sales of your book by hyping it over the internet - do you think they'd say, nah his work is too good to need this, let's not bother.

Consider, if you are a publisher and you have the chance to market something to thousands of people with minimal effort and cost, would you do so?

[Lacedaemonian]

I own the book but have never read it yet. I like the interesting cover and bought it on the back of reading Pullman's Dark Materials. Childrens fantasy appealed to me at that time.

[I, Brian]

I think you've used an essential word there, dwndrgn - hype.

When I'm published, you bet I'll pull out all the stops to market it online. However, I've been developing my supposedly writing career for the past 9+ years now - and there's a lot of life experience behind it, as well as writing experience. I feel close to being in a position to write as a serious published author.

Paolini, though - without trying to disrespect the current membership - is essentially still a kid. I've met some very mature 15 year-olds, and some very immature 50 year-olds. But as a general rule, life experience comes relatively proportionally to age. And unless Paolini has lived a rather amazing life, then there is little he can actually write about that is his own. His ideas are formed from what experiences? Almost certainly a great deal is formed from reading other people, and that will leave him as seeming derivative. He needs to be able to add his own observations to really succeed, IMO.

Ultimately, that is what will shine through a work. I storngly suspect that G RR Martin's characters - so often well lauded - are based very much on his own developed experiences of humanity.

If the young author makes it through, then that's great for him. But if he expects to ride through the genre on a money horse alone then he's simply being set up to fall.

[erickad71]

My son has read this book and really enjoyed it. I haven't read it yet, but I recently purchased it. All this talk about it has peaked my interest. I'll let you know what I think about it after I'm done reading it. If you care to hear my opinion anyway.

[dwndrgn]

Just to set the record straight, Paolini is now 19.

[Lacedaemonian]

19 and still living off his youthful work. It is very impressive being published at that age, has he or will he be published again?

Brian if you could put the life experience of a seventy year old into the mind of a passionate teenager than the result would be great. Or not.

[dwndrgn]

Originally Posted by Lacedaemonian

19 and still living off his youthful work. It is very impressive being published at that age, has he or will he be published again?

He is apparently working currently on the sequel to Eragon.

[Devillishgirl]

As far as I understand it, Eragon is the first in a trilogy. The next one is Eldest and is due out in August of this year. I was pretty impressed with Eragon considering the age of the author, I'll definitely read Eldest once it's out.

[Doogkie]

as for the part about them having their own publishing company is not right

they published it themselves at first and then a child of a big time publishing company employee read it and got his father to read it and he loved it so he begged his boss to read it and well they published it

[thecripplewhoiswhole]

Sounds kinda like the way Tolkien got his start.

They're also making a movie out of Eragon, its supposed to come out in '05 I think.

[rune]

I just finished reading this book and I can see why some like it and some people don't

I think the author has done well to tell an interesting tale I very much liked the Dragon character, she was my favourite, closely followed by Brom who reminded me of Gandalf

There are some good action scenes and I thought the magic was used in interesting ways.

However, Eragon scenes were long winded, and needed to be sharper. I also felt the rest of the adult character lacked some depth and realism. Consider the young age this author was when he started writing Eragon I think this could be the reason behind the problem.

I ended up quite liking the story, there was enough in the plot to keep me reading, though the over detail at times frustrated me. I have faith that this young author will improve and will probably read the next book in the series to see if that comes true

[Mark Robson]

Wow, a couple of days away and this whole thread appears. I read Eragon shortly after it was released in the UK. I agree with those who say he is a child prodigy, for there are not many who could write a story of this length and lucidity at the tender age of 15-16. He is 19 now, but he wrote the initial script of Eragon some time ago. I can also see how young readers would enjoy his story, for the pace if nothing else. *Takes a deep breath* However,...

1. He is obviously a young writer - it shows painfully throughout the storyline. The number of times he sets his hero a stunning problem that would be material for an entire novel only to provide him with a convenient solution two pages later was agonising to follow.

2. He has been pushed relentlessly by his parents who arranged no less than 150 booksigning events for him in the first year after the release of the book - it's no wonder he's sold a few! With that sort of campaign, there was little chance of it not succeeding to some degree. The novelty of his age and the press hype surrounding this novel were never going to allow it to fail.

3. Unfortunately, although there are many who have bought and read Eragon, I fear that there will not be anywhere near as many rushing out to buy the next in the series. I certainly won't be.

Don't get me wrong, I wish Christopher all the very best for a long and profitable career in writing. I suspect that one way or another he will have that anyway, but at present I don't feel that the strength of his writing is enough to warrant the exposure he has received.

[dwndrgn]

Actually Mark, this is an older thread, one of our members just revived it as they had just finished the book. I will be one of the people buying the next book because I feel that, while his first book showed his young age, it also showed his potential and I have a feeling that the next book will be even better. My mom happened to find a copy of Eragon at a discount shop and she didn't know that I had already read it so I may be reading it again sometime soon (especially if we lose power because of the storm).

Most of the issues I had with the book come from the author's young age and inexperience in telling a complete tale. I thought that the world was well realized but needed some fleshing out and undoubtedly this will come in the next portion of the tale.

I really dislike 'hype' when it is manufactured to such a degree. I read this book in spite of it though (usually I would pass it up as being plain old carp because of all the hype). I'm hoping that all the mess they are putting Paolini through won't disturb his writing to such a degree that he puts out a book that isn't up to what it could be.

[Mark Robson]

Originally Posted by dwndrgn

Actually Mark, this is an older thread, one of our members just revived it as they had just finished the book. I will be one of the people buying the next book because I feel that, while his first book showed his young age, it also showed his potential and I have a feeling that the next book will be even better.

Ah, yes. I should have looked at the dates of the posts. *Feels very small and foolish*

Question: are you sure that you're not biased by the fact that the main character of this book is a dragon? I'm sorry, but I plowed through Eragon in spite of the many grindings of my teeth at his writing. I don't think that I'd get the next one for fear that my dentist would be robbing me of my wages for the next two months! When you say 'even better', all I can say is that I should hope so - particularly if it is going to be billed as highly as the last one. Personally, I feel that he would have done better to wait until he'd got a bit more experience of life so that he could add a bit more of a 3 dimensional feel to his world.

I got a similar feeling with G P Taylor's 'Shadowmancer', though he did not have the excuse of youth - merely inexperience as a writer. I did swear that I'd never bother with his sequel, but I've just blown that one and against my better judgement have shelled out good money on 'Wormwood'. I only hope that those who have insisted to me that his writing in this is better were not telling me porky pies, or I'll not be happy!

[Sci-fi_gEEk]

Well then, it's been awhile so I figured I should add my two cents...

I can understand, and definitly agree that an authors ideas are formed and tempered by his or her life experiance. But shouldn't there be some merit given to the imagination of a young boy? After all it is a fantasy novel, and ported to be a "childerens/young adult" book, who better to write a book then a young boy (or girl gotta be PC right).

gEEk