Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr on 9/20

Kids lit and YA Lit today is so much more sophisticated than it used to be. I LOVE that adults are reading HP, and Eragon, and the Spiderwick Chronicles and The Series of UNfortunate Events etc... If you like fantasy, try books by

William Nicholson
Tamora Pierce
Iain Lawrence
Phillip Reeves (The Mortal City Chronicles-- soooo good)

and one of my faves of all time, (although not a series) is Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

Slightly older, VERY political and spiritual, is the Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox. I know plenty of adults who found them inscrutable, but my sharpest teens rave about them,especially in today's geopolitical mess.

Absolutely AWESOME Trilogy Cycle.  I stumbled upon it a coule of years ago about the same time I started reading HP.

It is very well written.  And, like you noted, he wrote Eragon when he was 15 and self-published.  Went around to all the "festivals" and then finally got picked up by a major publisher.  I just got the e-mail the other day about the new book "Brisingr" (fire). 

These books are great and I HATE to read!

We had Eragon and Eldest, Tom lent them out and now they are missing!!  argh!!!   And I was gonna read them.   

madkat - 2008-03-21 4:47 PM I have not read Eragon, but we did see the movie.  I liked the idea of the movie, but I think the execution was a bit weak.  I'll have to check the book out from the library.

As is almost always the case, the book is so much better. There is a lot more involved in the book, especially in his journey that they really glossed over in the movie. I haven't read it in a while but I remember being very disappointed by the movie.

For the love of anything that is sacred or holy in your life... DO NOT see the movie... a series of thin scenes that barely portray an actual story being told...

John Malkovich horribly overacts... pathetic really...  The voice of Saphira is totally wrong, IMHO... and horribly acted... it was like she was just READING the lines... and the story lacks any suspense...the scenery did not portray the richness of the world the book described.  

I loved the books.  I thought Eragon was getting slightly derivative, but Eldest broke some wonderful new ground.  And while I was able to guess the restoration of Eragon in Eldest.. I thought Paolini did a marvelous job in writing that scene.

It was very nice to watch Paolini's writing mature between the first and second books.   I did not hear about the third being released... AWESOME!

-Brian