A Review On “Inheritance”

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

So, I finished Inheritance, the last book in the series called The Inheritance Cycle, which started with the book Eragon.  It took forever. I started in in November, and finished it in March. It’s just so long that I got bored… there were a couple months where I didn’t read it at all, not because it wasn’t good, but because it was just so long. It really could have been two books; there was literally a point in almost the exact middle where the first plot ends, and there’s some swimming around time until the second one starts. Then of course there’s the whole Star Wars parallel (in case you haven’t heard, or didn’t noticed if you’ve read the other books, Paolini pretty much followed the plot of the Star Wars movies the whole way through), which took some of the suspense out of it, of course. I had previously said that I wished he (the author) would have kept the characters, trashed the story and made a new one with them. Then the other day I wondered if he could have kept the story and just taken the Star Wars part out of it. I started pondering how he could have done this and in like five minutes, I had figured out how to completely change the plot so as to take Star Wars completely out of it, while keeping most of his characters. He could have done that. I know he could have. There are pieces of those books that are pure brilliance, ingenious pieces of originality, like every book should be made of. Why he felt the need to fall back on someone else’s plot, I have no idea. I guess he just didn’t try hard enough. He didn’t care. From what I’ve read, he doesn’t consider what he did plagiarism  I’m not sure what his definition of plagiarism is, because there are a few parts that quote the movies so closely that I laugh in disbelief.

You’re probably asking why I even read them, then. Well, I mentioned the brilliant pieces, right? Plus it’s not Star Wars exactly, of course. There are dragons, characters that he truly did create, and deviations from the source that you wonder how he’s going to work out. So even though I was really pretty disgusted after reading Eldest, I ended up deciding to finish the series out.

Maybe it’ll help to kind of spell out what I thought of each installment in the series:

1. Eragon- I loved this one. I was immediately enchanted, and having not watched Star Wars yet, I was innocently oblivious.
2. Eldest- I liked the first half… about like Inheritance, I guess… and then Eragon started to get mushy, the story slowed down toward the middle, and as I had now watched Star Wars, I was now left without a doubt as to what the author was up to.
3. Brisingr- I finally decided to forgive Eldest of it’s faults and find out how he would end the thing. I loved this book; my faith was renewed. Yes, Star Wars still lurked in the background, but he actually changed some thing up in this one (which makes me more confident that he could have done things much differently had he wanted to).
4. Inheritance- I entered into this book with all the high hopes that the last book had left me with, but in most places, it failed. You know they say a bad ending can ruin a whole book for someone, and that’s what happened to me. That, and getting bored in the middle.

I won’t tell you why the ending upset me just in case you decide to read them. Because, after all, I’m not telling you shouldn’t, by any means, just… warning you. I enjoyed parts and hated others. I guess it depends on what you’re willing to put yourself through. I wouldn’t have done it for the main character, Eragon. He’s OK, but he’s not my favorite; Roran is. Well, that and Angela. She’s pretty funny. And I can’t forget Murtagh either. It’s not like Eragon is a poorly built character, or unlikable, just not really my type. Thankfully, he’s not the only viewpoint we get, so even if I didn’t like what was happening with Eragon at a certain point, usually the other characters’ stories in other parts of the conflict were enough to keep me reading.

If nothing else, I’ve learned a lot writing-wise from this series. I’ve learned certain things that work and others that defiantly don’t. I recommended at least the first book to a fellow writer friend simply as an introduction to mind speaking and bonds between humans and dragons. I’m sure there are other books that do it every bit as well or better, but surprisingly, as much as I love fantasy, I haven’t really read a whole lot of it (at least compared to what other fantasy fans seem to read). Plus every book seems to do those things differently, and I figure, the more perspectives you have on them, the better! The only other reason I would really recommend them is if you’re an absolute fantasy fanatic, or at least a dragon fanatic (After all, the dragons are awesome, and their personalities are completely original), because if you love stuff like that, you’re probably going to be more willing to go through the torture to get to the jewels. Or maybe plagiarism doesn’t bother you at all; in that case, go for it! Enjoy it for all it’s worth. Obviously there are quite a few people like that out there, because they’ve sold very well (even if the movie didn’t).

I guess, in the end, I just have to say that it’s mind candy. It’s fun but it’s got a lot of faults as well.

New Theme!

So who likes my new theme? I think this is the third one for this blog; I get bored quickly. I’ve actually been thinking that the old one was too dark for a while now… and with this one, I can change the header image as much as I like, so maybe I won’t get bored quite so quickly?

I finally did finish Inheritance, so stay tuned for a review!

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a painting I did in my pastel and acrylics class yesterday. We’ve been doing pastels all semester  so I was glad to finally use some paint!

 

They’re oranges, if you can’t tell. When I got it home I decided that at least the background oranges look like half finished flowers. But we were working with pallet knives, so it was very loose. Plus I’ve never used acrylics or pallet knifes before…

Third term is starting off well… I’ll show you all my books soon. I only just got one of them yesterday.

Hope everyone is having a good week! For now, adios, amigos!

End of Term Two

It’s end of term break, hooray! Now I’ve got to write reviews on all the books I just finished… seems like I just caught up with term one! Well, here’s the first two:

Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn

This book was given to me for economics, to teach a healthy view on money. It does that very well, but after the first few chapters, I got bored. The first few chapters were awesome! They present some very good ideas that got me excited! After that however, it seemed to carry on, simply going into the ideas presented in the first few chapters to the minutest detail. I began to wonder how many reasons this guy thinks people need to give. Some chapters would be more applicable for adults, but with the length of the book and especially with the length of the chapters, the book came off to me as long-winded. I had to drag myself through chapters that were so long they took me an hour. I ended up skimming. So… good information, but too much information.

Silas Marner by George Elliot

My sister didn’t really like this book. She thought it was boring until it got to the end. It is a slow book, progressing at the pace of the little country village it takes place in. I did like it, though. It was like a leisurely walk through the fields. Things are happening, however; there is a plot, a mystery, even. Now I did have the advantage of my sister warning me that the little girl on the cover and in the description doesn’t come into play until the end. She’s the center of the description because she’s paramount to the story, but she’s not the main theme of the story. So let you also be warned, so you’re not wondering the whole book through when she’s going to come in, because that was probably what frustrated my sister. On the other hand, it wasn’t what I would call a great book. My friend and I were just discussing this the other day, how though it was a good book and we liked in when we read it, it didn’t stick in our thoughts. when we think of it, we’re not sure what to recall. Nothing about it stuck out. I’m not sure why that is, though I’ve tried very hard to figure it out. So would I recommend it? I’m not sure. If you like leisurely books, this is for you. Perhaps you can find something in it we couldn’t.

So… that’s that. Now I need to get to work on Inheritance - I started it, oh, probably November, and I’m only two thirds of the way done. It is ginormous, people, and when I’m done reading school books for the day, more reading usually isn’t on the top of my list of things to do. But this week! I shall at least try.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Heart Day everyone! I thought this would be an apropo time to share some pictures I took with my awesome new camera of some wilting roses my sisters and I got at a Chick-Fil-A event. I used the black and white and color selective settings when taking these; no outside program involved! (I feel like an advertiser)

OK, so I lied; I had to flip the last one on BeFunky, so while I was at it, I straightened it a bit. I was having trouble with that while I was shooting. It still doesn’t look completely straight…

So, on most blogs when they’re going on about their cameras, they have DSLRs. I, however, am quite happy with my 14x optical zoom CoolPix. It’s way better than anything I’ve ever had before, and I didn’t have to save up my money for two years! Not that I wouldn’t mind having a DSLR, of course… but I might have been a tad overwhelmed with all those buttons? This one has just enough to amaze me without so many as to overwhelm me, lol.

By the way, my sister started her own blog today! It’s all about being homeschooled; check it out.

And my Dad’s had one for a while, though I’ve never provided a link to it; oops! Here it is.

Anyway, I’ll be back to book reviews next week, I promise! In the mean time, I think my About page needs updating… so here’s one last BeFunky edit: (I really can’t stay away form it, can I?)

Meet Our new Kitty!

Meet Marlin, the newest member of our household:

Isn’t she cute? I’ve been taking all kinds of pictures of her…

She tried to eat off our plates while we watched the Superbowl last night. She’s very friendly, except with our other cat, Casey. They’re gradually getting used to each other, but Marlin likes her space, so, there are no pictures of them together yet. She loves to cuddle though, so I’ve got plenty of pictures of that!

I’ve been taking pictures mainly as an excuse to play with my new camera, a Nikon CoolPix L610. It’s awesome. I’ll probably have to dedicate an entire post to all the things it can do.

Anyhow, back to the cat. We had to search what seemed like a million places before we found her, but I think she was well worth the wait. I mean, how can you resist this kitty charm?

I also couldn’t resist using BeFunky photo editor to make things even more exciting.

Well, that’s all folks; have a great week!