Crossing over to the fantasy-fiction side of the book shelves, I was attracted to the vivid book covers with pictures of dragons on them. These were the books of the Inheritance cycle namely Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr. The Eragon movie was a childhood memory together with Dungeons and Dragons and its likes, but the books were on sale and Twilight was not my cup of tea so I picked up these three (of course the fourth and final of the Inheritance cycle was not out yet).

 

As soon as the book covers came on (Golden Rule one – Don’t let your books get dirty!) I dived into it and was quite pleased with what I found.  Quite well written indeed for an author as young as Christopher Paolini with inspiration obviously lying deep in the Lord of the Rings and if I may venture C.S. Lewis too perhaps.  He had gone the entire distance to create languages for the different races as found in the book; the ancient language for the elves, a tongue for the Dwarves and even for the Urgals- a ram horned creature, something like a human-minotaur.  For people like moi who struggle to master a foreign language, creating a language of your own is quite a task indeed!  That’s why I suppose author’s like J.K. Rowling merely stick to Latin and other Word play for the books’ names and spells.

 

 

What else really impressed me is how Paolini succeeds in unraveling the story not only through the life and times of the hero but also through his contemporaries, (the good guys of course) thereby giving the story a truly comprehensive approach.  We first find Mr. Hero in his not-so-heroic-state as most books begin.  But then Eragon meets his fate when he finds his dragon Saphira’s egg (or when Saphira finds him, if you please).  Eragon then realises that the fate of the whole of Alagaesiawill henceforth depend on him, including the elves, dwarves, urgals, dragons and even the foul creatures called Raza’ac and their parents- theLethrblaka. And from there onwards Eragon begins his journey in defeating the bad guy- the ruler of the Empire,Galbatorix.  

 

Quite a few interesting battles and fights are included to spice up the whole story and though the story has the same old ‘good fighting evil’ plot, it also has a few unpredictable events that makes it quite a good read.  Even ‘el literati’ would find Paolini’s imagery compensating for the lack of some other writing techniques.  

 

But quite unfortunately Paolini does get carried away many a time too often.  From the very beginning of the series Eragon knows that he has to fight the evil Galbatorix but even at the end of Brisingr he is still far from even capable of the challenge.  So it costs Paolini a fourth and final addition –Inheritance: The Vault of Souls- to give his hero a chance to defeat the tyrant king and to find out that the elf he loves has feelings for him too. The author further doesn’t forget the cause of the dying race of dragons and gifts Alagaesia with 200 dragon eggs.  

 

Nevertheless this fantasy is good enough stuff to get this generation’s youngsters reading.  I myself have failed in getting my hands on the fourth book, and it seems that Sri Lanka too has contributed for the international record breaking demand for The Inheritance.  Many games, websites and fanpages too have been launched in the honour of Alagaesia for the good old die hard fans and I even read somewhere of University degrees onPaolini’s Ancient Language.  I personally find this another one of those good reasons for reading the book before the movie spoils it and would definitely recommend it to those who haven’t read the books yet especially to those who fancy the world of fantasy.     

 

So until then, ‘May the stars watch over you!’

 

(Text by Melanie Pereira)