A CRITIQUE ON THE INHERITANCE CYCLE BY CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI

I have been following the debate regarding the books by Christopher Paolini. The fans (or fanatics?) of Paolini maintain that the book is a masterpiece, that Paolini ranks right up there with the greats in the genre. The detractors are equally vehement in their denunciation. They claim the book is just trash, that Paolini is nothing but a cheap plagiarizer who would never have been published had his parents not owned a publishing house. Well, seeing such a lot of people getting so involved in the book and the controversy, I thought I’ll jump into the bandwagon as well. Hence this post.

First off, I am a great fan of fantasy literature. I don’t claim to have read everything there is to read, but I have still read a lot. And I am always trying to find new and new books in the genre. As such, when I first heard of Eragon (and the hype of a 15 year old author), I just had to buy it. I found the book extremely entertaining, but the first thing I noticed was that the plot seemed to have been lifted scene by scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Now, a lot of people have already commented on this and so I’ll refrain from drawing comparisons or in pointing out the similarities in plot points. In spite of the fact that I found the book entertaining, I was disturbed that nobody seemed to mind the fact that the plotline has evidently been copied. Now the theme of young farm boy being pushed into a role where the fate of the world rests in his hands is one as old as the genre. Many authors before Paolini have successfully created masterpieces on the basic storyline. The Prydain series by Alexander Lloyd, Belgariad by David Eddings and The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind are just a few examples of stories that follow this storyline. While it can be argued that all Paolini did was follow the same pattern, the glaring similarities with the Star Wars Movie puts the lie to this line of argument. After all, none of the aforementioned stories reads anything like Star Wars. That Paolini’s book does and disturbingly so, indicates to my mind that he had deliberately copied the plot. Now this is understandable and even excusable. After all, he was only 15 when he started writing Eragon. Now, if your 15 year old were to come to you with a book he had written and it had a plot lifted scene by scene from another story, what would you say? Would you say, “Son, the book you wrote is good, but the plot is not your own. This is plagiarism and it is as bad as stealing” or would you say, “This book is good, so who cares if its plot is copied from somewhere else, we own a publishing company, so let’s get you published”. As Molly Weasly comments on Mundungus Fletcher in Harry Potter, “I don’t know where you learned your ideas of right and wrong, but you seemed to have missed a few crucial lessons”. Maybe Paolini and his parents should take the time to read ‘The Winter of our Discontent’ by John Steinbeck.

On with the critique. Eragon, on the whole, was not a bad book. It was, as I said before, highly entertaining. But, unfortunately, that is all it was. There was no depth to the book or to the characters. There is not a single character who remains with you after you close the book. There isn’t a death in the book that moves you, not Garrow’s, not Brom’s. You read of them and you move on because to you they never become people, they just remain as names. Now, fans of fantasy literature know this is not the case with good fantasy novels. A good book of the genre makes you feel as if you have been in the world inhabited by its protagonists. It does not require longwinded narrations from the author to make you experience the world. And when you close the book, you wish you could really go to the world and meet with the people. Eragon doesn’t invoke any such feelings. In fact, it evokes no feelings. You read it, you forget it. Period.

Eldest was worse than Eragon in terms of writing and plot. At least, Eragon was entertaining. Eldest fails to do even that. Apart from the bit about Roran, there was nothing new. Nothing was happening and lengthy narrations were used to describe the fact that nothing was happening. Paolini has said "I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf". Well, it’s evident he’s striving, but we are yet to see any signs of his success. Tolkien’s narrations read like poetry, Paolini comes across as merely boring. And to compare himself to Heaney! What an ego he must be having!!

As for Brisingr, well, what a letdown!! Of course, it does seem as if Paolini listened to at least some of his critics, the revelation of Brom as Eragon’s father does add a little more originality to the plot that is otherwise a dead ringer for Star Wars. Of course, that is the only original point in the plot. The way it starts off with a rescue, the way Oromis tells Eragon that he has “ taught him everything that might help defeat Galbatorix” all follow the Star Wars plot so minutely, that one wonders if the book was written for a dare (Dare you to write a story about dragons with the plot of Star Wars!!). The book was boring in the extreme, even more boring than ‘Eldest’. In Eldest, it was boring because nothing was happening. In Brisingr, it is boring in spite of battles being fought and people being killed.

I forced myself to re-read the entire series recently after getting caught up in the debate. And it really was a torture. Of course, it was then I decided to write this critique. I never had a problem with re-reading a book before. In fact, I enjoy reading books again and again. But this was really a torture. I fell asleep quite a lot of times in the middle of various passages.

As for Paolini’s praising the elves to high heavens, what can I say except that he must admire Tolkien quite a lot. Even though his elves are but pale shadows when compared to Tolkien’s, they were still “borrowed” from Tolkien. And his treatise on vegetarianism is just –ugh! The way Eragon declares so loftily that he will not eat the flesh of something whose mind he has shared and the way he later on changes his mind is strongly reminiscent of Richard in The Sword of Truth Series.

His views on atheism are so absurd, they do not even deserve to be commented upon. The ground on which he stands seems flimsy at best. He could do well to take lessons from Xenophilius Lovegood when he tells Hermione to “prove that it doesn’t” exist!!

And in spite of the atheist beliefs, Paolini does create a few miracles in the books, one when Eragon is healed of his debilitating injury and made as near an elf as was possible, next when Rhunon forges a sword for Eragon when she had sworn she would never again do so. Paolini makes Rhunon use Eragon’s body to forge the sword, so technically she has not forged the sword and thereby broken her oath!! One would have to assume that it was her body that swore the oath.

The inconsistencies in the book and the fallacies in Paolini’s arguments are too numerous to be pointed out. Ditto with the “borrowings” Paolini has done from other sources. Paolini must be part kender, I think from the way everything from other people’s works seems to fall into his book. Tas will be delighted.

The biggest plus point I can find for Paolini is that he had the perseverance to write this book. Of course, I cannot agree with the detractors of Paolini who claim that this is not an impressive feat since he was a homeschooled kid with not much of a social life. To say that the reason other teens are not writing books is because they have better things to do is petty and indicates nothing but jealousy. Books are not written because their writers have nothing better to do. And if you think it’s easy, try writing at least a chapter.

I cannot agree with the fans who claim Paolini has made kids interested in reading again. I think the Harry Potter series did it long before. But maybe all this debate about Paolini may lead to kids discovering the true masters like Tolkien or Ursula Le Guin (whose Earthsea series provided Paolini with the basis for his theory of magic).

In conclusion, I will say that the books are neither well-written nor edited, Paolini is yet to attain any sort of maturity in his writings inspite of reaching his twenty sixth birthday, his characters have no real depth and worse of all, his too numerous “borrowings” leave a bad taste in the mouth of the reader. The books will probably have a fan following for a few more years till most of his fans grow up. But these are not books that are going to survive the test of time.

Strange how difficult it has become to write these days.... the words just don't seem to come, i have to force them out. Yet, I could remember a time when they used to flow so easily....... All I had was a starting trouble - and a stopping one, because once I started I could not stop. Now it's all become so difficult. Probably because I am out of practice. Started this blog to get me back in shape, so to speak. And has been avoiding it like the plague. Didn't like to see one more sign of how lazy I've become, I guess. Oh, there are so many excuses, work, children, partner all of whom are demanding, blah blah blah. But sooner or later, I had to face the truth, I guess. I have grown too lazy, didn't want to take the trouble. And also, am not comfortable with the whole concept of a blog. I mean to write down your thoughts and maybe even your feelings where anyone can read it just doesn't seem right......or even safe!! Anyway, I guess everyone has enough to do with their lives to pay attention to somebody else whom they had never even seen!! So finally, I'm off to a start with this. About time too!!

There are days and then there are days. Today was one of the good ones. At least on the work front. I managed to clean up my desk and left the office with a feeling of accomplishment!!
Home front is not very encouraging right now. My partner has gone on a training and will be away for a few more days. So it's rather tough on me right now, no one to share the load, no one to help me unwind at the end of a long day and as always, work seem to follow me home!!