Written by:
Tanay Singhvi, Year 12
Fantasy. The very word sends shivers down our backs. The very word inspires visions of battlefields and wars. The very word brings to mind the heroes of heroes, champions of the light and defeaters of the dark. Fiction is a genre where new lands are borne out of an author's imagination, containing fantastical beasts and powers beyond any true comprehension. There has been no genre as deep, as capturing, and as expressive as fantasy, whether it be classic Tolkein's Lord of the Rings or Modern Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. In this review, I’ll be looking at the tale of a poor farm boy, who by chance, finds something of his torn nation's heritage – a dragon egg - that thrusts him into a world of battle, magic, and political intrigue. Of course, I'm talking about Eragon.
Spanning four books and fourteen years, this epic saga was the masterpiece of its young author, Christopher Paolini. Or at least, it was meant to be. Each book hovered near the one thousand page mark with lengthy back-stories and multiple character viewpoints. We'll only be looking at the first book.
The tale revolves around a poor young teenager called Eragon. Something that should be pointed out is that this series is based around dragons and, strangely enough, if you replace the ’d’ of dragons with an 'e' you get the name of the main character. Continuing on with what I hope wasn't a typo, the story begins with a ‘warrior elf maiden princess ambassador lady person’ who attempts to send the dragon egg off to safety, while being chased by the evil king's soldiers. It isn't too bad of a start, not much different from some of the regular fictional stories you get, so it stays on familiar ground. But, it’s by no means original. In fact, the book's first line is “Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world”, foreshadowing that change is soon to come.
As the story progresses - with Eragon’s Uncle murdered, the villains having fled, and the dragon hatched from its egg - Eragon decides to chase after the killers with his dragon's help. The village storyteller, a knowledgeable old man named Brom, also joins Eragon. As they travel, Eragon turns away from the empire after his uncle's murder and becomes stronger with the help of the wise old Brom. Eragon then learns that one day, he must fight and kill Galbatorix, the evil emperor. If star wars’ creator, George Lucas, were to read this, he might just be a little suspicious.
Magic is usually at the centre of fantasy. With powers and abilities that help place warfare on a whole new stage, the best tales always have something different, something never-before-seen. In Eragon’s case, it demonstrates a mixture of old plot lines with new twists. Magic in the series comes from an old power that was bound to a language, the “Ancient Language”. The control over this language is what gives magicians their powers. The more words you know, potentially the more powerful you are, repeating the old 'power from words' that is evident in stories such as Discworld and Harry Potter. However, the twist comes from the history of magic described in the series as the idea that magic originally came from thoughts until it was bound for the safety of the world. This entire back story makes this special ability much more interesting and lends Eragon an authentic feel.
We've mentioned many clichés before this, and now it’s time to really air them out.
Zar'roc, the Rider blade, was given to Eragon by Brom and was meant to be a testament to the former’s heritage as a dragon Rider. What was supposed to be a moving and touching seen was impinged upon by visions of Bilbo Baggins handing Sting to Frodo or Obi Wan giving Luke his first lightsabre.
Eragon's skill set seems more than a little impressive, seeing as he's a farmer. After only a few months of learning, he has mastered the sword. With this, Paolini stretches the plausibility of his story a lot in this, but he goes even farther in giving Eragon the ability to master most things without fail, in a short amount of time. Eragon somehow gains the aptitude to stand against the Varden’s Master Magicians, despite the short duration of his training.
Eragon doesn’t know his father lived with his uncle, a man who refused to talk about his mother. We have seen this heritage crisis constantly in everything around us, both in the realm of fantasy, and without. This crisis is apparent in the stories of fantasy greats such as Luke Skywalker and Superman. Tales centre around the hero with his mysterious parents, of whom he knows nothing, and wants to know about.
This is where I feel that Paolini got it right. The wealth of the writing is immense in the details of the lands of Alagaesia. Paolini's descriptions of the mountains and deserts that Eragon crosses are painted in your mind as you read the words, especially in his depiction of Ellesméra and Tronjheim. The only flaw is that some details of the most trivial subjects are taken in account like house utensils or unimportant buildings such as Eragon’s attic. The description of Eragon’s attic consists of nearly an entire paragraph and it isn’t essential to the progression of the plot. This is not really what you want to read about.
Eragon is the first in a four book series and despite its clichés and plot holes, it happens to be the best one simply because of the amount of action in the story. The main problem with the other books is that they don’t reach their conclusions fast enough and bore the readers to tears half-way through. Eragon takes a lot of elements from other great fantasy novels, making it unoriginal and rather irritating to a seasoned fantasy reader. However, the book's writing is top notch, detailed and expressive, making the book very interesting. Eragon might be most enjoyable for someone new to the fantasy genre.
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