Hi all! I'm back with a new book review you can devour if you so choose. In other news, I took the ACT again today... I hate that thing. i'm a slow test taker, so I didn't finish any of the sections 
but I tend to do a good job of getting all the ones right that I did answer, and I at least guessed on the others, since it's good to guess on the ACT. I got a 25 last time (grr! horrible!) so I'm hoping for a large improvement. I'm expecting one too, because last time I nearly fell asleep during the Science test.
No gaming news, but I did finish Deception Point by Dan Brown (don't know if I've said that before). I'm now well on my way through The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla. Before I read VI and VII I'm going to read a bunch of King's other work though, because a lot of his other books connect into The Dark Tower. I also have The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, a million books by Stephen King, Pendragon 10: The Soldiers of Halla by D.J.Machale,and Storm Front by Jim Butcher to knock out. Oh, and I'm re-reading the whole Harry Potter series. 
Maybe I should do reviews of some other series (like the ones above), but I'm just finishing this one, since I've done the other two and I might as well just finish it.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: 10
Grand Theft Auto IV: 10
LittleBigPlanet: 9.5
BioShock: 9.5
inFamous: 9.0
Killzone 2: 9.0
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: 9.0
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: 9.5
Dead Space: 9.0
Resident Evil 5: 8.5
Valkyria Chronicles: 8.5
Resistance: Fall of Man: 8.5
Resistance 2: 9.0
Batman: Arkham Asylum: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: 8.5
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: 8.5
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King: 8.0
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
The Lord of the Rings, Part One: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: 10
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
Eldest by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King: 9.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Third: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer: 8.0
The Lord of the Rings, Part Two: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: 9.0
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman: 9.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Fourth: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer: 9.0
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King: 9.5
The Lord of the Rings, Part Three: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
That's a mouthful, huh? Now here's the review:
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
It's been a total of nine years for Christopher Paolini, and he's written a total of three (very large) books in the process. At the age of fifteen, he began writing Eragon, the first book in an intended trilogy called Inheritance. At eighteen, he self-published the book with his parents. At nineteen, Random House found out how well it was selling and bought the rights to mass produce it. But during this time, Paolini had already begun writing book two. At twenty-one, he published Eldest, book two in the Inheritance "trilogy."
Now, at twenty-four (200
, he published the third book, Brisingr. However, he announced before the release of the book that it is only half of the original book three, because he felt the plot was too long for one book. So we now have an Inhertiance Cycle, consisting of Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and the upcoming book four (probably 2011?).
Everyone that ever read Eragon said, "Oh, this is a great book... for his age." Having written this book from fifteen to eighteen years old, Paolini wasn't very original with his story, to be honest (although not all authors are unoriginal at seventeen 
). It was essentially Star Wars in a Lord of the Rings setting. With dragons. Still, as you can see, I gave it an 8.5. His writing gets stronger as the book goes, as does the plot, which slowly gets more original, too. Despite a slightly dull opening, which is savedby Brom the storyteller (Eragon, the dragonridingmain character, and hisbaby dragon,Saphira, are pretty dull until they learn some skillz),the middle is action packed, and the ending is some serious fun.
Eldest, on the other hand, was a major improvement. While it has a bit more exposition, the section where Eragon (the main character, by the way),meets the elves is still very intriguing, because Paolini's set-up of the magic system improves as it grows. The dwarves were a bit dull, but they're made up for by the new section told from Eragon's cousin's perspective, Roran. There are still remnants of Star Wars, but overall, much improved.
Brisingr is the biggest book yet in the series, and as I've said many times before, bigger is better, right? Yes and no. Eragon was just shy of 500 pages, Eldest was over 600, and Brisingr is over 700. And this is half of what book three originally was?! Anyway, it's better because the best sections in the book are generally the best sections in the series so far (although the ending to Eldest was pretty awesome), but the worst sections hearken back to the opening of Eragon.
We begin with Eragon (spoilers from Eragon/Eldest/beginning of Brisingr) in Surda, the country farthest south in the land of Alagaesia, just after the conclusion of Eldest. He is with the Varden, a group of rebels fighting against the evil Empire that controls a large part of the land. It is ruled by King Galbatorix, another dragon rider that's ridiculously powerful, and has been getting stronger for over 100 years (dragonriders are immortal unless murdered). He now has an "apprentice," Murtagh, who is apparently Eragon's brother, as we learned at the end of Eldest. He too has somehow gotten very powerful very quickly. Eragon's dragon, Saphira, hatched for him before Murtagh's dragon, Thorn, did, so Eragon started learning magic earlier. Saphira is a stronger dragon, but somehow, Murtagh's power is far more powerful than Eragon's, even though Eragon had been transformed to be half-elf at the end of Eldest (elves>humans).
My point: Eragon is royally screwed if he can't get some more training from the elves, particularly Oromis, who rides the golden dragon, Glaedr, on the cover. But first, he and his cousin, Roran, are off to go kill the Ra'zac, who previously killed Roran's dad, Garrow, who raised him and Eragon, and kidnapped Roran's lover, Katrina.
It's really a great opening. Eragon, Roran, and Saphira go in and kick some serious ass (against the strongest enemies Eragon can face and not get wailed on), and get thigns off to a great start. As a sidenote, Roran's a great warrior, but he's still human, so he's much weaker than Eragon. On another sidenote, Saphira's the blue dragon on the cover of Eragon, Thorn's the red dragon on the cover of Eldest, and Galbatorix's dragon is Shruikan, a black dragon.
We then go back to the Varden to get another glimpse of Murtagh, who, by the way, is fighting for the Empire against his will (Galbatorix is forcing him into it through weird magic stuff). Eragon gets help magically from some powerful elves to stand a chance against Murtagh, and again feels that Murtagh seems to have multiple minds in his head, as happened in Eldest. Eragon gets the feeling that he's using some magical power that makes him super powerful, so he decides he needs to go talk to Oromis again for more training.
While Roran gets married and fights for the Varden(yet again, Roran's story is awesome), Eragon heads off to Ellesmera, land of the elves, where Oromis is. The reason Oromis doesn't go fight himself is because Glaedr's leg was torn and he is mentallyweakened from some magic attack used on him, so all he can do is train Eragon... or so we think.
The beginning's great, both in the Ra'zac's home (Helgrind) and in Surda, where the Varden are. What really bogs down the story is Eragon's trip to Ellesmera. He goes off to the Beor Mountains again, where the dwarves are electing a new king, since the old one, Hrothgar, died in book two. He sits through the entire thing, being an emissary from the Varden saying he supports Orik, his friend, and it just gets boring. Some politics in there are pretty realistic, so that's kind of interesting, but most of it is just banter that doesn't do much for me. I don't see why we needed to learn about the dwarves' religion in book two and their politics in three, because neither advances the story. Besides, why couldn't the winner of this election (take a guess who it is) have just started as king, so we didn't have to go through this? Alternately, did Eragon have to be there? The ninja dwarves toward the end of the scene are cool, but it's just not worth it...
Yes! Back to the elves! For some reason, the things Paolini says he loves most, blacksmithing, dragons and dwarves, are focused on so much that it makes the reader NOT like them. Dragons are still interesting (because they're dragons), but he does overdo his details on them, and dwarves are fine normally, but there's so much useless bilge in the story about them that I just about hate them. Blacksmithing... Well, Paolini is actually a blacksmith, so I suppose I get it, but when we get to a scene where an elf is making a sword, he goes into pages and pages of how to make a sword. As in, it's practically an instruction booklet.
That said, what Eragon learns from Oromis about what Murtagh and Galbatorix are doing to be so strong is just plain awesome. Roran, meanwhile, is workingon making connections between the Varden and Urgals (kind of like orcs or something, but they're more complex than Tolkien orcs, something I admire about Inheritance). Eragon discovers a new revelation about himself: one I won't tell you, and even more about magic that he'll need to finally pose a threat to Murtagh and Galbatorix.
Okay, sorry about all the storytelling. I'm not ruining the ending, but that's the general premise. It repeats itself in that Eldest also had plot points of the Varden, the dwarves, and the elves all having a scene, so that's one thing that bugs me. I thought I should get thatacross.The dwarf and blacksmithing scenes drag on a lot, too. But if those had been edited a bit harder, this would easily be the best book in the series. Again, Paolini makes his story more his own with every book, and this one's hardly recognizable as a Star Wars rip-off. Even the elves and dwarves feel original now, which they certainly didn't in Eragon.
Paolini's writing was pretty mediocre at the beginning of Eragon. His ideas certainly outstripped his prose, even though he was taking a lot from some of his own favorite storytellers. By the end of Eragon, it was pretty good, passable by full-on author standards. In Eldest, I got the feeling the guy took college courses. Things improved dramatically. Here, yet again, his writing improves. It's not as big a leap as Eragon-Eldest, but I'm even more impressed by his work here. He does what he did in Eldest every once in awhile in overcomplicating things, which bugs me (a few of you know what I mean), but he makes things more intriguing through his improved writing.
Paolini no longer has the "good for his age" excuse, being twenty-four now. He's also certainly a millionnaire, having spent plenty of time on the New York Times Bestseller List. Fortunately, he doesn't need it anymore. He's (almost) truly original now, hasdone a great job transitioningfrom the immaturity of Eragon to the masterful passages of Brisingr, and, despite those pesky dwarves, has made me thorougly excited for book four.
9.0 out of 10: Superb
Comments
Aside from books... I had a really weird dream about not taking the ACT and dieing and going crazy because my family got mixed up and mad at me. But in my school, we take a bunch of these stupid tests in the spring time instead. Or are you trying to take the test again to get a better score to apply to colleges?
Sigh, I wish I could go back to those days.btw, I took the ACT also. I'm aiming for a 29--and I believe I got it. I completed all the tests with the exception of 5 from the math test.
I took a PSAT last week, I have no idea how I did, but...
I took the real ACT in 7th grade as part of a Duke University program. I went to the actual testing with the people who were taking it for college entry. I scored a 26. Out of 36, and for a 7th grader, that's pretty damn good.
But I guess I understand his point, if this is half of book four, that's 1400 pages, which is a bit long for one book.@nate1222: Cool! It looked pretty good, so I took a chance on it. Hoping for the best. Thanks!
@Yuna7780: You seem to get bored with books easily though.
Just messin with you. Yeah I want to improve my score, even though CSU (which is the place I want to go to most) only needs a 24. Schools seem to like dumping a bunch of tests on you at the end of the year.@nicktarist: Well there is better, but I still like these ones. On the ACT, like I said, I try really hard to get them all right, and by the time I do, the test is just about over. I at least guessed on all of them though.
@itsTolkien_time: I guess I don't lose interest in a series because of a long wait between books- I don't know. I dominated the PSAT, I got a 95% on that one, and colleges look at that because you only take it once. The ACT... Bad test day that time. Hoping for the best this time through.
@VXLbeast: That's a good call, but I got the first two in hardbound so I thought I'd be consistent.
And I couldn't wait that long!
So whats your favorite or leats favorite kind of book? That question just kinda struck me.
What I don't like is non-fiction, without exception as far as I know... Realistic fiction is rarely good, but there's some Stephen King (like Shawshank Redemption) that are awesome. I think I'd like some mystery or horror, but I haven't really read any good stuff. Reason being, I like the mystery elements in Harry Potter and the horror elements in The Dark Tower. There's some western in Dark Tower too, and that's the part that doesn't interest me as much, even though King does it so well.
I like anything that's done well, essentially. It's just that some genres are rarely done well. Still, there are fantasy stories I didn't like, such as Inkheart. Idk why anyone likes those books, the first one sucks. You?
I don't even have the will to retype it all right now....
The first 2 only count for National Merit Scholar stuff. The last one is the actual one colleges look at.
I don't know. I just kind of,... lost interest in the series.
Maybe it was my transition into more videogaming last fall. But I still like reading other things.Have you read any Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett? They wrote a book together a while ago called "Good Omens". I really enjoyed it.
But don't expect everything to be serious.I saw that you have reviewed Philip Pullman's trilogy. (can't remember it's name, but it includes the Golden Compass)
I read those last year. I enjoyed them, but found them to be quite bizarre. That's really why I suggest Good Omens to you. Although Good Omens has more comedy, so beware.
I own the first three books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I never got past the first.
I like Raymond Feist, sometimes. You may want to look into him.
And I do recommend Pendragon 10. I liked that series. Book 9 was very interesting, and 10 goes deeper into some of Halla's mysteries, of course.
You don't like realistic fiction OR nonfiction?
I'll admit, most realistic fiction novels are bad, but I love realistic short stories. Realistic fiction lends itself so well to short stories.
Not all short stories are realistic, of course, but near all good ones take place in the real world, even if they have a supernatural touch.
I am reading a nonfiction book right now called "Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar". I bought it in Canada.
It is a philosophy book, riddled with jokes and things to make you think. Much more interesting than other philosophy books, and not as political or imposing as others, either.
I hate that! And of course, when I write such a giant book review and it's erased... That doesn't make me happy either. Okay I'll try to remember...
All I've read of Gaiman's is Coraline, for the movie (which was awesome!). Maybe... I have a big pile of books to read though, just to let you know.
They're called His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. I love them! One of my favorite book series, even though New Line ruined the movie (if they'd let the director do what he wanted, it would've been great).
Well see, I bought the first book in the Wheel of Time, Shannara, and Sword of Truth series, so I'll pick which first book is my favorite and keep reading that series. So far, I think Shannara was better than Sword of Truth, even though it ripped off Tolkien a lot. Well, the first half did, the second half was much more original. I still need to read Wheel of Time.
Pendragon isn't bad. I mean, the story is good (except book one made the series hard to get into). The sad thing is... For lack of seemly modesty, I'm a better writer than Machale.
That's a... different choice of book.
Well nonfiction reminds me of textbooks, so I can rarely stand them. Realistic fiction can be fine... Sometimes. Like with Dan Brown. Maybe I'll start reviewing those books. Depends. But I like escaping from reality when I'm reading, so that's why I want a thorough envelopment in a fantasy world or something.
I suggest more Gaiman, he is an excellent writer, and Pratchett's books are often very funny and thought provoking.
I also have a large stack of books I have yet to dive in to. Including many classic books like A Tale of Two Cities, and A Farewell to Arms. Both realistic fiction, and darn good ones at that.
Ugh. Textbooks are horrible.
But trust me, a good nonfiction book is nothing like a textbook. They often read like stories, or (in the case of the book I'm reading ) comedic annals of knowledge.He, don't worry about the modesty. If I have the chance to read the rest of your story (published, I hope) I will decide for myself.
I think any book takes you out of reality. Well, any good book, that is. Everyone has a different mental world.
Thanks for the reminder on the trilogy title.
"His Dark Materials". I'll remember it now.
Well Inheritance is cool, but Paolini's nothing compared to Rowling to be honest...
hazelnutman
Actually, I was an absolute nut. When I was at my reading prime, I read Eragon and Eldest dozens of times - drooling over each page and dreaming of the next sequel.
But slowly as I was waiting for book #3, I lost interest completely. I bought Brisingr on the very first day of release, but never even read a word out of the book. Maybe it has something to do with that fact that I lost interest in reading. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I lost interest after having to wait so bloody long. Maybe I was a little bitter at the fact that Chris decided to make it four books instead of three.
Whatever the answer is, I really wish I could get back into it - but I know I can't