REVIEW: Eragon (Christopher Paolini)

Book: Eragon

Author: Christopher Paolini

My rating: 1/5.

Premise: When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

Somehow this book passed me by when I was younger, but I can't say that I mind. I knew this book was a fantasy with dragons and a young boy going on an adventure to find his destiny. A classic synopsis. For me, this book fell flat and the bulk of it was kind of boring. I was waiting to be hooked but ended up dragging myself to the end. The pacing was really weird I found. Most of the time it was really slow with not much going on other than Eragon travelling between places. When there was action, the pace sped up but then it was over too quickly. I also couldn't help noticing the lack of female characters. We had the dragon, an elf who was unconsciously for most of the book, and a witch who was more of a side character. When the elf woke up, she was pretty badass. And then the witch came back and was also badass. But that was all in the last 50 pages or so, when I was already losing interest. I wonder if I would've enjoyed this more back as a teenager, but it definitely didn't live up to expectations now I'm older. I don't think I'll read the rest of the series.