Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1).

Book Review by Jane
It seems these days, with Harry Potter running rampant, reading books intended for young audiences is all the rage for adults. With that being said, it is a pleasure find this fantasy gem, especially if you love dragons. Eragon is a 15-year-old farm boy who finds a dragon egg. Shortly thereafter, he is forced to grow up very quickly, straight along with the dragon, Saphira, to set out on adventures. It is quite exciting to see the growth of the dragon from an egg into a most formidable presence, as well as the development of the sweetest friendship between Eragon and Saphira. But Saphira and Eragon are not entirely alone--as an older, very mysterious man from Eragon’s village comes along to help teach Eragon in the ways of the Riders--which apparently, he becomes through default of finding Saphira’s egg. However, there also seems to be more calling his fate than just finding the egg, but that comes later in the story.

The characters, although strange at times, really come alive and are very active, not just window dressing for the story. The use of different tongues, along with a very believable kind of magic based on an ancient, original language which is available to Eragon and some others in the story, show the writer’s genuine love and flare for creative language. The ability of the story to immerse the reader into the action involved is probably the biggest attraction for adults. However, young readers would love to grapple with the deep character lines and the generally solid rules of the land as far as the magic and development of the peoples involved. For this reason, it would make a good read aloud story for a family with older children. However, I would not recommend this book to very young children, as there is some contact with evil and sword fighting, which may be a little steep.

The author is a young person, himself, as he began writing the book when he was 15. The next book in the trilogy, Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2) is now out. If you want to learn more about the book or trilogy, go to the web site: www.alagaesia.com. The author now says there will be four books. On the site, Paolini writes about the development of his career as a writer so far, which is very encouraging to young people interested in writing. He seems well on his way to a prolific writing career.