I hadn't realised how young Paolini was when he started writing it until I bothered to read the about the author bit. That was probably my second read through - when I actually got a copy of the book of my own.
As I said, the pacing didn't strike me as particularly slow - but I am raised on interactive fiction (that's text adventures to you), so I'm used to a lot of description.
Slow pacing was the section in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where it described Arthur getting to bed over about three pages, to make a point about 'long books, such as the American market thrives on'.

Oh, and if you're going to shoot up our rooms, please try and do it with a decent gun. Thanks.

Krim wrote: Mhm. Whatever, it's the matter of opinion. A lot of books are great, it's only Paolini's age when he SUPPOSEDLY started writing Eragon that made it a hit. - shoots up room with AK-47. - He seriously overdoes description, and he needs to figure out how to actually make a decently paced novel.

I dont think that he uses excessive description, he strikes a balence in be between description and action

So Paolini stole idea; what else could he have done? The whole might and magic genre is highly established; Tokien is the king and everone must build on his ideas.
The whole dragon rider thing is a bit of subtle rip of from the ancient Aziel (?)fandom. Or maybe from chinese mythology werein dragons represent the elemet fire and the emperor is the 'rider and master of the dragons' (Doubt Paolini has the IQ to look it up)
The Ra'zac are somewhat unique. Although they seem to be some twisted combination of the Roc (Giant ship killing chickens in the Indian Ocean) and Zacim (Egyptian tomb guardians; descriptions suspiciously match Uttuku)
Shades are your standard evil spirit\lost soul.
Anyone notice his ancient language burrows heavilly from english and latin?

Overall Eragon is a sad display of how many starved LOTR fans are out there.

Ptolemy123 wrote: So Paolini stole idea; what else could he have done? The whole might and magic genre is highly established; Tokien is the king and everone must build on his ideas.
The whole dragon rider thing is a bit of subtle rip of from the ancient Aziel (?)fandom. Or maybe from chinese mythology werein dragons represent the elemet fire and the emperor is the 'rider and master of the dragons' (Doubt Paolini has the IQ to look it up)
The Ra'zac are somewhat unique. Although they seem to be some twisted combination of the Roc (Giant ship killing chickens in the Indian Ocean) and Zacim (Egyptian tomb guardians; descriptions suspiciously match Uttuku)
Shades are your standard evil spirit\lost soul.
Anyone notice his ancient language burrows heavilly from english and latin?

Overall Eragon is a sad display of how many starved LOTR fans are out there.

actually the ancient language is taken from old Norse I think.
as I have said, tolkien was not the king, he borrowed like everyone else. Admittedly, Paolini borrowed rather heavily from SW and LOTR, but Tolkien did not invent the elves like some think.

Yes, the ancient language is based on Norse more than any other languages. I haven't spotted much Latin in it at all, never mind English.

maybe he means old english.

Maybe, but that's still Latin-based. It is definitely Norse-based, though.

:phrank: See, Tolkien may have taken other ideas, but he combined them in a way. You're allowed to sit there any use people's past ideas in science to formulate your own yet pretty original theory based off a bit of other evidence. Most writers base their stories on others, but seriously...mine is based off like none. I dislike how authors say 'reading will make you a better writer'. It'll give you a taste of the bestseller sample but I still feel it could be the same as subconsciously writing about other's ideas.

Anyway, there's not much more to the thread...Paolini stole almost all his ideas, but Tolkien took some though he had his own original storyline. Paolini based his story off what he wanted to read, and what he wanted to read was cliched crap and basically steal Tolkien's style.

His stories are still liked, though I personally dislike them, and there's not much to do to change it. Hopefully he'll pull it together in the last of the Inheritance Trilogy.

actually it follows the story of SW a lot more than LOTR. pretty much the olny BIG thing taken from LOTR is... what?

...elves...dwarves in the mountains...normal people who have never seen adventure are going to save the world...the names are kind of similar in parts...there's plently, I'm just not a Tolkien-Paolini fan. If you want prove, google it.

Krim wrote: but seriously...mine is based off like none.

You're bound to be biased about your own work. There's always influences, whether you realise them or not.



No book can be liked by everyone. Some people have a problem with borrowing of ideas. Whatever. I'm sure there's someone, somewhere, who doesn't like the Bartimaeus Trilogy.

Okay; i admit my arguement is based on arget and some words scattered around Book I.
As for english; you guys miss the point. I mean; look at words like reisa; meaning rise up. Thrysta, meaning thrust. or steina; stone.
He basically took the queen's language and tortured it into his ancient language,(With liberal use of 'na') and that with his ability to use the least used words in the theasurus fooled the world into believing he's got 'potential'
I particularly liked the name. Eragon. he took dragon and and changed the first letter. gotta admit, he's got balls.

PS oops... read the disclaimer.

Eragon > Era Gone. (Maybe switching the letter of dragon comes into it, I don't know, but there's more to it than that.)

'The least used words in the thesaurus' - what's that supposed to mean? I didn't notice anything unusual about the vocabulary. Examples please?

Yes, there are bound to be influences from other languages - it isn't a straight copy of Norse. You try creating a language - even one based on another language - without any influences from other languages (other than the one it's based on, if you want to do that. Doesn't matter).

Hmm... your right about the theasarus bit. read a chapter. Nothing unsual but rigid adherance to english. Sorry; hadn't read it for quite a while. (Ever since it was realeased)
As for the language; it seems half baked, any books on it lying around? seems like it has words but little grammar. But then again; doesn't really matter...