<p>No direct spoilers in this thread.</p>
<p>Did anyone else read it? It took me six days to finish, and it just left me feeling so disappointed and empty. The first three books were great.</p>
<p>I never made it through Eragon. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting…I started it at the end of a summer break and never got around to finishing it. Maybe some day…</p>
<p>You wouldn’t regret it.</p>
<p>In my opinion, it was better than Brisingr but still “meh”. But, there were some shining moments. I enjoyed the chapter with the storm over the ocean, yet the Roran - Aroughs chapters were annoying. Paolini has improved as an author, but he takes way too long to write.</p>
<p>It took me two days to read it, but I totally get what you mean by that “empty feeling.” To me, it seemed like the ending was a bit cliche. I like this book much better than Eldest (since Paolini needs to find a way to make Roran seem more exciting as an extra main character), but less than Brisingr.</p>
<p>^
It wasn’t that the ending was cliche; it was just utterly illogical on every level. I could rant for pages. There was absolutely no real reason for him to leave. And the “battle” with Galbatorix just killed the book for me. It was like he just gave up on writing the book and looked for a fast way to finish it.</p>
<p>The series as a whole isn’t exactly innovative. It’s basically Star Wars in the world of Lord of the Rings. He has some interesting concepts, but most of the stuff has been thought of before. Still, the series and his writing style have something to them that LOTR didn’t. I was never able to read LOTR for some reason; I just found it too boring.</p>
<p>I liked Eldest a lot. It was better than Brisingr to me. Inheritance, in my opinion, really showed a steep decline in Paolini’s creative ability.</p>
<p>I used to be obsessed with the series about the time that Eldest came out, but I never made it through Brisingr. I’ve heard the ending is pretty bad.</p>
<p>I hated Inheritance. I mean the middle was AMAZING! And so promising too… but to just leave it like that? It seemed so unfinished…</p>
<p>I agree, the ending was SO illogical. After all the talk about dragon riders being “separate entities from any king, queen, or authority,” Arya suddenly becomes Queen of the Elves even as a dragon rider? And what about all her talk about not wanting to be queen and about how uncomfortable she is when in the company of other elves? And why does Eragon have to leave forever? He really can’t go back at all, even for a short visit LOL? </p>
<p>Christopher Paolini had his chance and he absolutely BLEW it.</p>
<p>^I already finished it, but NO SPOILERS.</p>
<p>Nevermind about the no spoilers since they’ve already happened.</p>
<p>Anyway, the book was just miracle after miracle, which is just how most books go when the author knows that the protagonist sucks too hard and the bad guy is just too good. Why can’t we just let the evil guy win? I would love for that to happen. You could tell that was all the book was going to be just from the first 10 pages. They somehow find a death-spear that can own all dragons…what a coincidence.</p>
<p>I loves the series and still do but this left me feeling the aforementioned meh. It was interesting, but since when did Roran get all hostile about magic? I don’t remember him being so against it. And since when did Murtagh love Nasuada? That was never explained more like “im just gonna toss in some romance because why not?”. And the death to dragon spear, oh god. How fortunate! And the battle with Galbatorix. That was so anti climatic. No big fight, more like, “oh let’s make things extremely easy and not have the main character do anything”. I’ve waited like 4 years for this thing. It was so great and then a total let down. I’m just really disappointed.</p>
<p>Hey, “Be not” conquers all.</p>
<p>I tried, I really did, but after finishing the first four books of the game of thrones series Paolini’s writing was just too low a level for me to tolerate. It’s a shame that this series took so long to come out, because this was one of my favorite series years ago.</p>
<p>I laughed during the final fight because it was SO much like Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Like when Galbatorix forced Eragon and Murtagh to fight (Emperor forces luke and darth vader to fight), castle is crumbling and they have to escape (death star is destroyed and the heroes have to escape), Galbatorix knew all of the Varden’s plans and of their planned attacks (emperor was aware of the Rebellion’s planned surprise attack), and finally the end, where Eragon left “forever” on a ship with other elves. The last one was so like Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King, when Frodo, Bilbo, and Gandalf left on a ship with the elves to go to some faraway magical place.</p>
<p>Just to clarify my post, it was the fight with Galbatorix that I thought was clich</p>
<p>I’m sure he’ll come back to write some more. The character Angela, in particular, would merit an entire book on her own. I’d like to see that.</p>
<p>The ending was a bit strange, but it didn’t leave me feeling empty. I feel that it’s the only way it could really end. And the climax was amazing… inflicting empathy on a psychopath? Perfect, and original. I’m looking forward to his next books. </p>
<p>Also, @CantConcentrate, the fight with Voldemort was very different than the one with Galbatorix, most explicitly in that Voldemort never regrets his actions. His death wasn’t really a punishment-- his soul was already in shreds, and he really had nothing left to live for. Galbatorix, on the other hand, was made to recognize his wrongs, and that hasn’t been done in any book I’ve read. I think it’s a much more real victory, and a much better ending, this way. If only Rowling would donate some of her skill at tying up loose ends…</p>
<p>I’ll admit the parallel with Star Wars was a bit disappointing, but I didn’t notice until I thought back on it. And anyway, the Emperor is killed by Vader, and Murtagh does not kill Galbatorix. That makes for an in-kind difference: the hero, in this case, won his own battle.</p>
<p>^Ehh… I guess I was just looking for a more violent ending. It just seemed to me that Paolini hit 600 pages, decided he needed to end the book soon, and did it in the most convenient way possible.</p>
<p>Just my preference, I guess.</p>
<p>Maybe this is petty of me, but I got majorly annoyed when the green dragon FINALLY shows up after all the trouble is over and is featured for less than ten pages.
We get to know so much about Saphira, what about Thorn and the green dragon (Yes, I can’t even remember his name), huh? </p>
<p>And Saphira and the green dragon are just THROWN together, while Arya and Eragon have this weird parting, and Murtagh just decides to vanish for who knows how long. Poor Nasuada never gets her family and I am DYING to know what Angela’s true name is. </p>
<p>Seriously, what IS Angela’s story? It’s gotta be majorly good. The only resolved characters in my mind are Roran and Katrina who are like the ONLY characters who get a happy ending. </p>
<p>Galby’s death was kinda lame. If it was that easy, wouldn’t the elves have done it eons ago?</p>