Eragon, by Christopher Paolini

As part of my effort to keep up with Elliot's reading, I decided to pick up Eragon (on CD, of course) to see what all the fuss is about.  First things first: Paolini wrote Eragon when he was 15.  It's a pretty impressive work--for a 15 year old.  He's just published book 4 of the series; I hope, for his sake, his writing has gotten better.  But even not considering the age of the writer, Eragon is more like good fan fiction than an original work.

In terms of plot, the parallels to Star Wars are so numerous that it became downright ridiculous.  The setting is Tolkien-esque, with elves, dwarves, and men, but the plot is all Star Wars.  Did he realize this when he was writing?  Is it coincidence, plagiarism, or tribute?  I don't know.  I'm not a big fantasy reader (other than Tolkien) but my suspicion as I read, confirmed by other reviews, was that many of the other story elements here are derivative from other fantasy writers.

None of this is to say that Eragon is a bad book.  It's not bad, it's just a weak imitation of much better books.