Eragon

This book came to me as a recommendation from my brother and I just finished it last night. The story takes the setting very similar to The Lord of the Rings (you'll hear more of this later) with elves, dwarves, and the like. It starts out with a boy, Eragon, finding a mysterious rock in the middle of the mountains. The story progresses with Eragon finding out what the rock really is and the adventure that ensues.

Sound like 500 pages? Well it is, and apparently there are 2 more books to go (one hasn't been published yet). Now let me start off by saying that I enjoyed most of this book for what it was, a story in a fantastical world. Will I read book 2? Probably. But I hear it isn't as good.

The ups: It reads pretty fast and doesn't go into too much painful detail about a tree and a leaf. There is a good balance between dialog and action and it doesn't linger to much in any one spot.

The downs: First off the book is Tolkien-lite. If you follow my wikipedia link above it lists pretty much a lot of the similarities between the two authors. It is very apparent and can really ruin the book if you let it. Another thing that bothered me was that the main character was such a pussy. Not to spoil too much for anyone but he blacks out in about every fight in the book. Plus he whines a lot and that gets annoying. Also I want to add that the cover sucks. I read the hardback version and took off the book jacket as to not damage it (it's Matt's book) so I didn't get to look at it much. But seeing it now on the internet strikes me as pure suckitude. Kinda stinks that the thing you will remember this website for is a big gay dragon.

Overall: It's good if you do not get all hung up on the blatant plagarism and just read it for what it is. 500 pages appears to be a big investment but it goes by fast so don't let that stop you. This book is for anyone who likes The Lord of the Rings more than Stine does.

Verdict: 3.5 Black & Tans out of 5.