Eragon

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"Throw Star Wars movies 4, 5, and 6 in a blender along with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then water them down thoroughly, and this is what you get."

– An anon's summary of the Inheritance Novels

Eragon is the titular character in the Inheritance Novels, written by Chirstopher Paolini.

The Setting

While the books are alright, the setting is OC Do Not Steal a blatant copy of Middle-Earth (right down to having similar names for people and places). A few examples include the Princess Leia/Arwen figure, Arya (her name; Arwen + Leia = Arya. Or he read some of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' book series and took the name from Arya Stark). Her mother is the elf queen Galadriel... I mean Islanzadi, the latter seeming like a rip-off of the former at first; except Islanzadi proves to be a vengeful and incompetent queen who got the job because her hubby died and her daughter didn't want it... then she dies strangely easily in single combat with a human. The only similarities to Galadriel are her name being an elf queen who lives in a forest (called Lothlorien... I mean Du Weldenvarden) . There's also Dwarves and orc rip-offs called Urgals (the latter have Uruk-hai rip-offs called Kull) in the story along with language guides at the end of each book. Eragon also meets two Yoda figures in the form of the elf Dragon Rider Oromis and his dragon Glaedr living in a remote region. They're both admittedly badass as they eventually fight despite being handicapped. Glaedr's missing a leg while Oromis suffers from something similar to epileptic fits; SPOILER they both die, while Glaedr even has a form of existence after death to advise them. And then Murtagh is basically a Darth Vader substitute; he has a red sword, works for the big bad, and tries to turn Eragon 'evil'. And - GASP - he's actually related to the Eragon. which he tells him, after he defeats him in a big 'oh no, it's not possible!' moment. and the whole while he's a character striving for redemption.

Of course, many have pointed out the name "Eragon" is very similar to "Aragorn". Though the name itself comes from the word "dragon", but using an "E" since it's the letter immediately after "D", the idea being "dragon +1" (though a better name for that is Edragon; which actually isn't that bad a name) and...look, the reasoning is just as stupid as it sounds.

Tl; dr: Fairly mediocre series overall. More positive then bad, but not outstanding in any particularly category, and clearly not original in the slightest. There are a few reason it got popular though. One: because it was advertised as being a story the author wrote when he was a teen, and that was an interesting gimmick (although it sure didn't hurt that his parents owned the publishing company...). Two: they are as far as books go, digestible; that is to say a teen can easily read them, they're not dense like Lord of The Rings can be at time, so they're easy to get into at that sort of impressionable age demographic. and Three the fact the cover art for all the books is a big fuck off eye attention grabbing dragon probably also helped that aforementioned late child/early teen reader pick that book off the school library shelf for a read.

Compare and Contrast

Eragon himself is a medieval rip-off of Luke Skywalker, copying his story in damn near every way. See below for the evidence:

• Luke Skywalker: He was raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle because his parents both died (at least his mother) . He lives like this until he and his uncle come across some droids which were carrying information vital to the rebellion. He learns that he is force-sensitive, making him a candidate for the legendary Jedi. His home is destroyed and his aunt and uncle are killed by troops of the empire, who had been tracking the droids. Luke meets an old hermit storytelling wizard by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi (revealed to be a former member of the Jedi). Obi-Wan takes him on a journey to become a Jedi and join the Rebellion. Along the way they meet and get help from a smuggler on the run called Han Solo and his right-hand Wookie, Chewbacca, who prove invaluable after Obi-Wan's death. They rescue a strong princess (technically not with the destruction of Alderaan, but originally yes) called Leia. Luke is responsible for winning the first major battle in the movies by blowing up the Death Star, thanks to a distraction from Han Solo and Chewbacca.

• Eragon: He was raised on a farm by his uncle along with his cousin because his parents both died (at least his mother) . He lives like this until he comes across a dragon egg which was vital to the elven rebellion. He sees the egg hatch for him, making him a candidate for the legendary Dragon Riders. His home is destroyed and his uncle is killed by agents of the empire (NOT Ringwraith rip-offs actually, aside from being powerful henchmen of the main villain, wearing hoods and having some form of breath attack the Ra'zac and the Nazgul have nothing in common), who had been tracking the egg. Eragon meets an old hermit storytelling wizard by the name Brom (revealed to be a former member of the Dragon Riders) . Brom takes him on a journey to become a Dragon Rider and join the Varden. Along the way they meet and get help from a rogue on the run called Murtagh, who proves invaluable after Brom's death. They rescue a strong princess called Arya. Eragon is responsible for winning the first major battle in the books by killing the Shade, Durza, thanks to a distraction from Arya and Saphira.

BTW, this mentor once fought his father, who betrayed the Riders, in a volcano (albeit a dormant one). Also, the evil king's rise to power involved studying dark magic, killing his master and exploiting the racism in a civilization.

OC Do Not Steal

Okay, so did the author have ANY original idea?

Well, actually yes and it's the only saving grace of this entire trainwreck. It's about these dragons. Dragon Riders aren't produced by training, they're made. The dragons in this setting have been bred to form a magic bond with a human or elf they encounter while in the egg (they won't hatch until the right person happens upon the egg, and the selection criteria is unknown). After hatching, they leave a magical mark on the person in the form of a burn scar on the hand. When this occurs, EVERY dragon everywhere, and by extension, every dragon rider as well as some magic sensitive individuals, know. They can sense the emergence of the new power.

As the dragon grows the connection between dragon and rider becomes stronger until, ultimately, they are able to act as one if they so choose. The bond between dragon and rider is akin to telepathy. From the dragon's perspective the rider is an extension of their being which they are always aware of (albeit with an independent will), while from the rider's perspective they can communicate with dragons (a power riders retain even should their own dragon fall in battle). Since magic relies on the stamina of the individual, they can draw on each other's energy for magic, though dragons inherently have much more and a stronger but more instinctual control over magic.

When a RIDER falls in battle, the dragon inevitably goes into a killing rage, avenging their death (and usually expending their own life in the process). When a DRAGON falls in battle, the rider either kills themselves, goes on a violent rampage or sinks into depression for a long time. A Rider who lost their dragon can find and imprint on another dragon, but it's rare. A dragon who lost their rider cannot imprint on another one.

The Story

Eragon joins the Varden in their fight against the empire, ruled by the evil King Galbatorix, while learning what it means to be a Rider and their past.

He learns how to read and write, becomes an unstoppable swordsman and even begins to learn magic. All the while growing closer to his Dragon Saphira (which is pretty much the only original thing about the story) . Saphira is supposed to be wise, but often acts like a dumb teenage girl, which by the standards of her species she is. Get this... on meeting the only other non-Chaotic Evil dragon in this setting and being like "wanna fuck?" and he's like "no, I'm too old and your teacher", the result is a "how dare you reject me" angry scorned dragon-fight.

Describing the main events of the first two books is basically retelling Star Wars episodes 4 and 5.

There was also an exceedingly shitty movie and video game based off of the series made in 2006. Fortunately for all concerned, a sequel is impossible due to how badly 20th Century Fox fucked up the progression.

In book two he lives among the elves for awhile, meeting the rider Oromis and his dragon Glaedr, training under them. He struggles to overcome the crippling injury dealt to him at the end of the first book, which doubles as a curse, causing him random bouts of extreme pain. He is transformed into a half-elf near the end of the book, ridding him of the injury/curse, while giving him elf abilities. He leaves his training in elf land prematurely to aid the rebels, only to be met by Murtagh with his own dragon who's been magically enslaved by Galbatorix. Eragon is defeated and learns that his father is (supposedly) Murtagh's father, who was evil, making them brothers (this is later proven false as Brom was his father, who fell in love with Murtagh's mom) . He then steals Eragon's sword which used to belong to Murtagh's dad (though that was known since the first book) .

He also has a cousin, Roran, who cannot use magic, has a manly beard, and fights with a hammer.

Third book is a massive improvement (which isn't hard to do) and had a drunk aging elf blacksmith who bitches about how her fellow elves have become huge dicks, that's cool. Also has Eragon strangle an unarmed solder to death as he tries to run away and beg for his life. Continuing with the trend of ripping off Star Wars he gets a lightsaber. Okay, not really, just a blue sword, that can ignite in blue flames, big difference.

The fourth book has the most originality while also cranking up the Mary Sue meter for Eragon.

SPOILERS

The main villain is defeated with a fuck-you spell akin to the Ghost Rider's penance stare to get around his otherwise unbreakable magical protection, and his dragon is killed with an anti-dragon spear that almost literally fell into the heroes' laps. Then Eragon learns the true name of the magical language that the villain had discovered after spending all his efforts during the last however many years (a.k.a. ever since he fully came to power) researching, and that gave him (and now Eragon too) the ability to rewrite the laws of magic and physics. Then it suddenly hits him how OP he is so he leaves the entire continent behind after having pseudo mind-sex with Arya.