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First of all, I usually agree with and like almost everything our own JeanneT has to say. I tend to find her opinions useful, helpful, and more than reasonable.
But I ran into something funny today. Someone had left this computer (a public one) up on youtube, the video they had watched was some eragon fan video. But what caught my attention was the following comment.
JeanineT (1 year ago) Show Hide Marked as spam 0 Poor comment Good comment (Reply) (Spam) i hope the movie doesn't let down the book too much i love the books and can't wait for the 3rd.
And I thought it would be hysterical if secretly JeanneT was Paolini's biggest fan, and her apparent distaste for him is all some kind of giant conspiracy.
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If JeanneT liked Eragon, I think the universe would just cease to exist. I mean, the universe puts up with a lot, but that would be too much.
Posts: 657 | Registered: Jan 2007
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This is the ultimate Paolini/Eragon thread which no doubt makes it the perfect thread, topping any and all other threads. But the fact that I'm connected scares me. Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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So then in how many of these realities did a threesome emerge between you, he, and Paolini? I would guess most of them.
Posts: 2195 | Registered: Aug 2006
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LOL I'm afraid we've irritated Kathleen. We'd better stop, but I'm quite amused at it going to 16 posts. Maybe I'm not the only one procrastinating? Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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Wow, it's been a while since I've been here last due to a very busy semester of school, but thought it too hard to resist commenting on an Eragon thread.
I had heard from a friend that the two books so far were actually pretty good so I was intrigued to read it. When it was on the list of books to read for my Children's Lit class, I figured, "Hey, I get to kill two birds with one stone!" by reading a good book and getting a book out of the way for class.
Well, I never did get time to actually read it so I listening to it instead during work on my iPod. Turns out, some parts were pretty good, and I think it helped having some voices for the characters. When I got to the end, I realized that the beginning and middle of the book were decent, but the ending was full of holes and just kind of stupid in general.
I was once excited to read both books, but am hesitant to even purchase Eldest as I know that these aren't exactly the best books ever and my time could be better spent reading something better.
thoughts? comments? hello! good to see you all again, even the new people!
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Kaichiki, if your critique of Eragon was that it had a good beginning and middle, poorly executed end, I would predict that you would dislike Eldest. It has an OK beginning, a slow and just plain weird middle (the bit about the guy making himself more elfin was just so strange to me) and the end...oh, the plot holes, inconsistencies, and ... yeah. Disappointing is how I would sum up. It's just a book, it's not a waste of time to read, particularly not a waste of time to read something that sells a lot of books to figure out what it is that the author is doing right. I am not entirely sure what that is in this case, but something (all snide remarks about the author aside, they've sold by the caseload. There's something that readers, maybe particularly the young ones, get from these stories.)
Anyway - point is, though, the second book seemed to rather quickly fall apart for me. There were some standard plot elements in there, a love left unfulfilled, a journey, an apprenticeship with an apprentice (or in this case, 2) who isn't always on the same page, a war between cultures, bad timing, family relationships, a weird savant kid, a few tragic deaths, etc.
I find it helpful for me from time to time to read stuff I don't particularly like, because it helps me see what it is that I do like all the more clearly. Which then, hopefully, I replicate in my writing. The stuff I like, that is, not the stuff I don't like.
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The part in the middle was like Hemingway's run-on dream/drunk ramblings...you finish and have no idea what just happened.
I think what Paolini does right is he writes in easy to understand language...it's got all the good stuff from LOTR/ other great fantasies without complex vocabulary. I think it's partially why HP is so popular too.
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If you want to know what Eldest is, I'll tell you. Eragon goes off to learn the force from a crippled old Jedi. Before he finishes his training he goes off to save his friends (his mentor telling him not to go). He has a battle where he almost gets killed and someone's love interest gets kidnapped by bounty hunters. Sound familiar?
Oh, forgot the fact that Eragon finds out that Darth Vader is his father (seriously).
All in all, Eragon was much better than Eldest.
[This message has been edited by RMatthewWare (edited December 05, 2007).]
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