(11/9/2005)
Eragon was okay, IMO. It wasn't great, or particularly original, but it was okay. I'm baffled that so many people think it was stolen from LoTR, but hardly anyone has mentioned Star Wars plagarism! The whole time I was reading Eragon, I was drawing plot/character similarities to Star Wars. Eragon is Luke Skywalker, the cocky, talented, young orphan. Brom is Obi-wan, the wise sage who teaches the main character and presents him with his first sword. Saphira's egg is equivalent to R2D2 since they both hold the means for destroying the evil emperor. Galbatorix is Emperor Palpatine. Eragon's Uncle is Uncle Owen. I could go on and on. There are other very spoiler ridden character parallels that I could draw, so I better end at that. No, I don't think this book is particularly well-written, it's actually pretty long-winded with unnecessary scenes and dialog. Still, it entertained me a little. The plot was very predictable, but I'm rating this a 3 because Eragon kept me somewhat entertained. It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was okay.