Skip to main content

Christopher Paolini: Brisingr--Book 3 Inheritance Cycle

I've been seriously debating how I was going to approach my critique of this book for the past week-ish.  Of the series, I think Brisinger is my favorite.  Paolini managed to keep the pacing up, he started in a good place by attacking the Ra'zac and ending with the deaths of Oromis and Glaedr, the attack on Feinstar, and the summoning of a Shade.  I liked the idea of Eragon's sword, and how Rhunon was able to get around her oaths.  The dwarves' deliberation over Hrothgar's successor was slow and felt a little dragged out.  However, it is understandable because few political matters like that are decided hastily.  The soldiers who couldn't feel pain was a clever and creepy problem to overcome.  Paolini managed to slow down the intensity to finish the book, leaving the reader desperately wondering how Eragon and his friends were going to defeat Galbatorix.

Despite this book being my favorite, I still have a couple of issues.

My first issue:  If Roran was so concerned about Katrina's honor, how then did Katrina become pregnant out of wedlock?  A temptation like that is not easy to resist, however, if Roran was so determined to keep her honor, he would have resisted.  Roran's will is like iron; that much has been made clear earlier in this installment and in Eldest.  I think that Roran should have been striving to protect her honor, as he claimed.  On the whole, that subplot was unnecessary.

While I liked the chapters that were from Saphira's point of view, I wish that her way of thinking would have carried over into her communication with Eragon in the chapters from his point of view.  We often think the way we speak, so why didn't Paolini incorporate her manner of description into the rest of the books?  He did make a weak attempt to do this while Eragon and Saphira are apart in Inheritance when Eragon labels something as Saphira would have.  I think that this was a weak and insufficient way to connect the two ideas.  Saphira's way of thinking also can be quite arduous and a little difficult to read.  The long, hyphenated words, while descriptive and give Saphira a unique voice, are distracting and difficult to read. I do think, however, that Saphira's point of view is needed.  I wish Paolini had a) introduced it sooner, and b) kept it consistent with what readers already knew of Saphira's character.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prince Harry: Spare

 My coworkers were all reading this, and I have to say that I'm fascinated by the royal family, so I gave into temptation and listened to this on Audible. Listening to the audio book was totally the way to go, since Prince Harry reads it himself. Spare  by Prince Harry is a heartbreaking memoir outlining Harry's treatment by the British tabloids. He outlines his experiences with the tabloids from the time his mother died until his departure from the royal family. This fascinating memoir gives an inside look into the workings of the royal family, and their relationships with the press. The memoir certainly makes it look as if all is not well in the house of Windsor, and attempts to set the record straight (from Harry's perspective) of what happened among the family members. Overall, I did enjoy this book. I loved the way Harry writes (and because I listened to it, the way he reads). I found his descriptions of events and places beautiful, and wish I could use it in AP! His p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brandon Sanderson: The Lost Metal - Wax & Wayne (Mistborn Era 2) Book 4

 I finally finished Mistborn era 2! I loved this series so much (though I think I love era 1 the most still). This story was an incredible addition to Scadrial's story. In this final installment, we pick up in Elendel at a time of great uncertainty. The outer cities are threatening war, their tentative alliance with the Malwish is falling apart over the Bands of Mourning, and Wax is still in the middle of all of it. Now serving on the senate, Wax is desperately trying to help the Elendel nobles maintain peace while hunting the Set. Unsuccessful thus far at locating his sister, the leader of the Set, Wax is still trying to uncover her plans. Can Wax, Marasi, and Wayne uncover the Set's plans before the invasion of Trell crushes Scadrial? This was a fitting conclusion for Mistborn's second era. I loved the character development we saw in each of the characters: Marasi, Wax, Wayne, and Steris. I love the involvement of some era 1 characters (one who I am not going to spoil), a...
Post a Comment
Read more

2022 Reading in Review

 I thought it might be fun to look at my reading challenge from last year and look at what I enjoyed the most. I picked my top 5 favorite books from 2022 to highlight one more time. Choosing only five was actually more difficult than I imagined, since I had a lot of favorites. It was also hard to rank them if I'm completely honest, but here is my list! #5 - The Girl Who Drank the Moon  by Kelly Barnhill I loved this book. I loved the whimsical storytelling style and the plot. I loved the characters and how they were developed. I loved how the author carefully crafted the foreshadowing and how she carefully guided you through the mystery of Xan's memories. Overall, this book was so well written. Even though it was a middle grade book, I found myself unable to put it down. #4 - I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys If you've followed my blog, then you probably know that I don't usually care much for Ruta Septys's writing. It's not that I dislike the stories she tells,...
Post a Comment
Read more