The Inheritance Cycle

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is a series that I've read since maybe 2005 or 2006.  I can't remember at this point, considering that it was five or six years ago.  I actually wrote my first story (yes, it was fanfiction) based on my version of the third book because I was so tired of waiting for it to come out and I had just discovered fanfiction.

It's been a couple of years shy of a decade since Christopher Paolini released Eragon.  When I first read the book, I loved it.  Keep in mind, though, I was around thirteen and a friend of mine let me borrow her copy because she had bunches of books she wanted me to read.  It was worth reading and I really loved it.  It was amazing.  Once I got Eldest, too, it was great.  But then the three year gap between Eldest and Brisingr happened.  I grew up.  I wasn't the thirteen year old who thought it was amazing anymore.  By the time I got my hands on any version of Brisingr (it was the audiobook, which I highly recommend, though I still don't think Murtagh has such a strong Scottish accent or sounds like he's thirty-something.  That was my only real issue with the audio version.) I was seventeen and not nearly as interested.  It was good, but I began to find Paolini's writing shallow and one-dimensional in regards to some of the female characters.  And I'll be honest.  The whole eldunari thing?  I think it's stupid.  I had a whole bunch of issues with the whole book, and not just because my favorite characters are either dead or have done a face turn heel (they switched sides). 

So, I'm not entirely thrilled about the prospect of the last book.  I figure, I'll read it and I'll be done.  I have this thing about finishing a series if I liked it and/or had some emotional attachment to the characters.  That's the only reason I'm going to finish Tamora Pierce's Provost's Dog Trilogy, to be honest.  I loved the first book of that series and hated the second with a passion (there's a running joke among my friends that I call one of my most hated characters in that book Chipmunk Boy because his name is Dale...his name reminds me of Chip and Dale, actually.  And as much as I love them, I hate him.  So I mock him.  The only other character that bothers me is Okha, who freaks me out beyond all belief.  He's just creepy.).  I'm going to finish that when the third book comes out later this year. 

I may very well be done with Pierce for good after this book, but I don't think I'll be done with Paolini.  He has a lot of potential as a writer.  He's fairly good already - much better than the author of a certain series that has sparklepires as I call them (that's the Twilight Saga, which I refer to as Twinkle.) for example.  His career so far has been made up entirely of telling this one story.  He's not my favorite, but I think he has a great deal of potential to become a truly great author someday.  His Inheritance Cycle is a good story.   There are things that I don't like about it, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good book and something fun to read.  I've already got Inheritance on request from the public library near the college at this point. 

It'll be nice to finally see what happens to Eragon and Saphira in the end.  I just kind of wish I could read it now.