Competitive Non-Fiction

About halfway through this book, I found out that the author was only 19 when he wrote it. At an age where most of us were doing keg stands and hoping that we could sign up for classes that started after 10am, this young man was developing a deep and engaging fantasy world. Even more impressive, he actually sat down and plotted out 4 books, put pen to paper to write them, edited what he wrote and took the steps necessary for publication, which is a mind-blowing amount of work for a 19 year old to commit to. And, perhaps more impressive, it’s a well-written, engaging story.

Eragon, as many of you are probably already aware, is a young man living a simple life on his uncle’s farm. One day, he finds a smooth, strange stone in the forest and brings it back to the farm to see if it’s worth selling. Eventually, the stone hatches into a small dragon, and Eragon begins his journey, becoming the first dragon rider born in generations. While the plot has been criticized (and rightly so) as too derivative of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, it is still worth reading, and after the first book, this comparison starts to break down. However, perhaps calling the antagonist government run by an insane tyrant “the Empire” wasn’t the best decision.

This book gripped me slowly. At first I wasn’t sure that I would read the whole series, or even the whole book, but as I read, I became more and more intrigued by the world Paolini created. My favourite aspect of the book is the philosophy behind magic. Magic is (like the force) present in everything, and a select few (like Jedis) have the ability to reach it and manipulate it. In the first novel, the basics of this concept are explained to Eragon by his mentor, Brom, and it is after this book that the concept deviates a little from how it is explained in Star Wars. There are more details added to this philosophy as the novel progresses and I’d rather not give them away, but I will add that I really enjoyed the explanation and exploration of the philosophies of magic use in this world.

In Eragon, I found a few plots points over-explained and sometimes too coincidental. When Eragon gets his fortune read, he was told that he would have an “epic romance” with a woman of noble birth, who is beautiful beyond compare. I felt that the author revealed too much, perhaps instead the fortune teller could have been more mysterious and allowed the reader to draw their own conclusions. However, it was nice to know there would eventually be a female character with an important role. Considering that the fortune-teller was the first speaking female character in the novel, Eragon wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test.  However, I did love that the book featured a strong male lead who is gentle, moral and still masculine, presenting a good role model. It took me a while to realize that the characterization of the female lead as stoic and mysterious wasn’t due to the author’s dismissal of women altogether, as it can be in this kind of story. Instead this is likely because to Eragon, and many men his age, women are mysterious and seem impossible to understand. Eragon also starts to interact more and more with women as he ages, which is another natural process. Without giving too much away, the later books would pass the Bechdel test with flying colours.

If nothing else, this series is intriguing because you have the uncommon opportunity to read the work of someone so young developing his literary muscle. Despite the fact that I am incredibly jealous of Paolini, I am also really looking forward to seeing him develop as a writer almost as much as I’m looking forward to devouring the last couple of books.