Eragon

[HoopyFrood]

Hehe I do indeed know where my towel is. As a good hitchhiker should!

Ack..Mountain Boy...Ack.

Ok, I should stop chewing on these grapes now, they're getting rather sour!

[Mark Robson]

Anyone who thinks he's a prodigy should try reading Freda Warrington's Blackbird series. She finished the first two books (which are actually one mammoth volume split into two) and had them accepted when she was 16. All right, so she was a year older than Mountain Boy, but the quality of the writing is in a totally different league. She had the maturity to write for the adult fantasy market and get accepted (quite rightly). Did the media catch that one? No. Which is a shame, for I believe Freda was far more of a prodigy than Master Paolini.

[HoopyFrood]

Oh Freda is the new author recently added to our dear little forum, right? Accepted at 16! Ah, another person to make me envious! But it's a happy kind of envy, because she was accepted through her own talent and not because of parentals having their own publishing company.
Woo, Mountain Boy nickname is catching on! Hehe.

[urmon]

Originally Posted by Cartazon

My husband was given this book as a birthday gift in November, from someone who doesn't read fantasy but had heard "good things" about it.

He couldn't go further than 20 pages.

Me, I couldn't get past the first.

"Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world."

What the hell. What slush pile editor would look further than that before tossing the book in the reject pile?

"The weapon was thin enough to slip between a pair of ribs, yet stout enough to hack through the hardest armor."

Yeah, right. That's where I stopped. Then I flipped to the back and read the Author's Note. Ahah! It was published by mom and dad, and they spent a full year traveling around promoting the book in person, until eventually someone at Knopf took note and decided to take advantage of the marketing ball the Paolini's had already started rolling. The book sold not because of it's literary merits, but because of the novelty of a teen author made a nice gimmick.

Don't get me wrong: Paolini is a competent writer, and may develop into a good writer as he gets older, but his prose reads very much like a 15-year-old's prose and it just burns me to think how many already good writers are being overlooked in the marketing hype about Eragon. It's just not worth it.

I completely dissagree, I understand you didnt like the book but thats just you. I loved the book/game and probably movie! Not everyone is gonna like this book but if you like sword fighting, dragon, and magic this is your kinda book. I saw NO resemblence to LOTR either

[HoopyFrood]

Hi Urmon! Welcome to the Chronicles! Hope you enjoy your stay here and I look forward to seeing your input around the site!

I suppose what many people do not like about the book is the fact that, although Paolini does have some talent (There are moments in the books that I do very much enjoy) his getting published relied more upon his parents and a great deal of their money being invested in marketing. Sure he needed some help in getting into the business (I know it's a very difficult area to break into) but it's unfair that he was able to do all this when there are many, many other aspiring writers who have so much talent but are unable to get the chance to get their big break. I think this is the biggest criticism people have of the books.

Also, of course, he was quite young at the time of writing, and this shows in the story.

But hey, each to their own of course. A story about dragons and epic battles between good and evil will always appeal. It's great that you enjoy them so much.

[the_faery_queen]

for me it's also a factor that he was accepted BECAUSE Of his youth. that is, they saw his age as a good marketting technique. i don't think that's fair to him, or to us, as readers, top give us a book just because the author was young and had parents who could help him market it. and im glad im not the only one who doesn't like the kid because of this! i do feel bad for him, though. as i've said before, i don't think being published that young, and getting this level of fame, is going to help him grow as a writer. it will, and has, from all accounts, give him an ego, and that's never helpful!

louise cooper was also published young. 17 i think. ok she's not an amazing writer, but she is good, and she definetly tells interesting, unique stories. not a dragon, a knight or a quest in any of them, (except the indigo series, that was a quest really)

[Saltheart]

Originally Posted by urmon

I saw NO resemblence to LOTR either

Anti-Shur'tugal

[the_faery_queen]

id' seen the website before, found it very useful for thing to avoid! but not that page. that page REALLY brings it home about how much he copied! even the names . . . god!

[Saltheart]

Yeah, I know, it really sucks. But the saddest thing is that no one will call him on it because he himself stated that works are deriviative; and if anybody does, they will be the "big, bad jealous" dudes who pick on poor, innocent prodigy (who, must I add, was fifteen when he STARTED writing it; not when he ended it!).

[HoopyFrood]

I doubt he deliberately copied them...it's just something that happens when you've grown up with fanatasy. I remember I drew my own other world-y map once and I showed to to my sister and the first thing she said was "It's a lot like Lord of the Rings, isn't it?" I hadn't meant it to happen, but when there's so many famous pieces of work out there, they seem to sink into your subconscious!
Hmm, that's twice I've defended Mountain Boy. I'll have to have rant soon to restore the bitterness against him!

[Coolhand]

Originally Posted by Saltheart

Anti-Shur'tugal

Wow.

As I’ve said in my previous rant, I’ve not read the whole Eragon book, just bits of it in bookstores and libraries so all I can say with any genuine knowledge is that the prose is, from a technical standpoint, terrible. Not terrible for a young teen, but certainly for a published author who’s getting a 125 million dollar movie of his book and who is hailed as a wunderkind.

Now usually I’m hugely wary of websites like this so but they do seem to go into quite some depth and give many references from the book itself so I’m tempted to think that they have a very serious point, especially when it comes to the Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back blow for blow plot rip-off.

And as to the suffocating Mary-Sue/Gary Stu nature of Eragon and his Elf chick, I can quite believe that because that’s how I used to write when I was about 14-15 years old. I wrote stories that were basically me with another name kicking bad guy ass and getting hot babes whilst everyone generally patted me on the back for saving the world.
But I am SO very glad I never got any of them published. I’d be so embarrassed now…

Much like Goodkind, I may have to get a copy out of the library just to see for myself if it's as bad as all that.

But based on what I keep hearing, either the screenplay for the book got a MAJOR overhaul or Malkovic, Carlyle and Irons are in this thing to simply take the money and run…

Originally Posted by Urmon

Not everyone is gonna like this book but if you like sword fighting, dragon, and magic this is your kinda book. I saw NO resemblence to LOTR either

Welcome to the site Urmon, and it's great that you've found a writer you like. I hope the movie is as enjoyable for you as the books. I have to say though, a lot of people here DO like swords, dragons and magic, and don't like Eragon. And it's not to hard to spot some of the Tolkien-eque bits, such the Orc/Uruk-Hai clones. Not a bad thing in itself because many other fantasy writers do it, but it is most certainly there.

[Majimaune]

Ok heres my stuff that I have to say about Eragon.

There is alot of stuff similar to LOTR in it. To see some stuff writen by me about it go here.

The second one is better then the first seeing as he was older when whats-is-name wrote it.

To get it published by your own fathers publishing company at 17 is no mean feat.

I will go and see the movie when it comes out.

I hate all the pronounceation that he puts in the back. Say it like you spell it for... I wont continue the rest of that sentance.

Majimaune.

[the_faery_queen]

i wrote a book at 15. i wrote one far younger. they were rubbish! i dunno, i guess because of that im not really impressed by the idea he started writing it at 15, because that's nothing special to me, i did it to. difference is, i didn't think anyone would take it seriously as i was only 15, and i didn't have parents with a company willing to print it for me.

so in short, I'D pick on him but then, i tend to say what i think anyway. they can call me jealous if they want, part of it's true. who wouldn't want a movie and a big publishing dealy? but i'd want it for something i thought was worth it. i'd never want the stuff i wrote at 15 in print (it was so bad! ) so um,, yeah. if i ever met him, i'd tell him what i thought, i'd tell him i thought it was a mistake, that he may not grow as a writer now that he has instant success and that i felt it was too heavily influenced by other works, and that just cos he admitted that, it doesn't make it a good thing.

and i thought he said that fantasy itself was derretive, not his work specifically? which kinda says to me he hasn't read a lot of fantasy

[Majimaune]

I think he was influenced alot by Tolkien. There are some many similarities, just to name one is the name: Eragon. Doesnt that remind you alot of Aragorn??? It does me. I mean Majimaune is the name of my main character. Try finding similarities to that.

[the_faery_queen]

well my friend said eragon is just dragon with an e and as it's about dragons, i figured that's why he had that name. but yeah, it does seem similiar.

and i mean, the odd familiar name is ok. i mean, not everyone is good at names, and sometimes you're bound to come up with one that is similiar to someone elses (david gemmel had a character in his knights of darkn renown that was also the name of a character in king's quest 3 game :P) but when you have a lot of other similiarties, that's when it's problematic.