Eldest

After a second read-through, Eldest felt like a better book than Eragon - this was not how I'd remembered it. It seemed to me that Paolini's writing had become sharper. The introduction of Roran's viewpoint helped somewhat, though it would have been better if the two characters had been a little different, the fact that they're (foster) brothers notwithstanding. They're basically twins as far as character is concerned.

i don't know how i feel about this book. it started off worse than the first (which i wasn't a huge fan of anyway), far too long winded and boring, devolved into oddly detailed tales of horniness, even more cringey pining than before and then it actually got kind of interesting. The last 15-20% of the book hooked me and spoiler coming back is of course going to make me read the next book. though that was very predictable. but I'm not particularly happy about it.

I already read Eldest, this time I decided to listen to it as an audiobook and it was awesome! Mostly because of Martin Stránský, who is one of our No.1 actors. I can't wait to listen to Brisingr and Inheritance as the books are really thick. I expect to enjoy listening a little bit more this time, and then sometimes in the future, I may read book 3 and 4 in a printed copy.

Rating: 3.5 stars
Rounded down to 3

Eldest is a great continuation of the story that began in Eragon. However, it is slow and can become monotonous as Eragon's training and learning take priority of this narrative. The story deepens the lore and expands the knowledge of the dragons from the perspective of the elves. Is this book groundbreaking? No, but it is enjoyable and sets up many of the important information for the next books.

This 2nd part of the Inheritance Cycle was painfully long and very boring at a lot of times. Even towards the end of the book the climax fell short of what it could've been. I had hoped that the immature storytelling of the first part would diminish in the second part but it didn't which was quite disappointing. I'd probably read the next book more out of wanting to check it off my to-read list than any eager anticipation of knowing what'll happen next in the story.

I'm a very, very old fan of Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle. Re-reading Eldest after 8 years or so has been a blast of nostalgia, happiness, and grief. Nostalgia from the memories of many late nights trying to finish this beast of a book. Happiness from finding more about the Elven life and Eragon's training. Grief for Eragon as he lost his humanity but gained the strength and willpower to take what he wanted because the world deserved it 10x over. I have no qualms with Eragon or his friends, Nasuada and Arya and Orik.
However, Roran? Eragon's cousin? Yeah. He can go.
I disliked his constant obsession with Katrina and Katrina's obsession with Roran. Call it love. Call it infatuation. I call it an annoyance. In fact there are several lines in the book that constantly explained his undying love for the woman. I see nothing of quality in either Roran or Katrina so I'm quite baffled at their swooning with each other. To be honest, I skimmed or out-right skipped many of the Carvahall scenes or the ship scenes. I only read the part with Jeod.
This book is 4 1/2 because of Roran. But it truly is 5 stars because of Murtagh and Eragon. Thank you Christopher Paolini! I will finally proceed with this series.

Below is mostly my review posted on Eragon with some rehashing/added stuff...

So this is my third time reading Eldest, (Eragon, Eragon/Eldest, Eragon/Eldest/Brisingr...) this being my first time listening to the audiobook. To put it simply, Gerard Doyle is fantastic. His character voices and narration fit perfectly, and I loved the job he did. I'm actually going to continue on with Brisingr now because he does them all.

I obviously fell off for some years seeing that Inheritance was released 9 years ago, but what can you do...

I'm sure there's a hundred reviews on here talking about how this all started when Paolini was fifteen so I'll just say–WOW.

He takes so many things from others (in terms of influence) and handles them all so delicately that he created this wonderful, lush, dense lore that continues to grow throughout the rest of the novels. He was like a mini-Tolkien with his languages and flushed out geographic ideas. He created the Urgals and Kull instead of just recycling the typical Orcs and Uruk-hai. I found multiple points of similarity between Martin's ‘Game of Thrones' dragons and Paolini's, and yet past those he once again branched off and created his own world and lore for them in a refreshing way. I think the training and wiseness from Brom most similarly matches the ideas of Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker, including the necessary death of a mentor/father figure that thus propels the main character towards greatness. I suppose you could also easily argue that it is also like Gandalf/Frodo, however I think it's a harder argument to make that Frodo actually grew based off lessons from a knowledgable mentor (HE IS A HERO, JUST A DIFFERENT KIND!). Or, you could also point out Harry/Dumbledore–I'm sure we've all seen the memes about needing an old man mentor and a young hero to make a successful series–even though Dumbledore hid questionable important details from Harry, he still fulfilled that role.

I actually read a bitter sounding review under Eldest on here where they claim the opposite of what I am saying–ie. that Paolini does not do any of these things delicately/well and all I can say is that I'm genuinely surprised by that reaction. The main complaint I saw was drawing a comparison to Star Wars and almost calling these similarities blatant stealing. IE. “I am your father [Morzan].” And also saying that the reemergence of the twins and Murtagh was stupid/not earned. All I can say is that 1. I am a HUGE SW fan, as you can obviously see in my read books section, and I think that if your basis for disliking this book/series/author is that you think SW is the end all for original ideas, you're just misguided. I mean right off the bat, just read Dune and see how many things are super close to some of the original SW ideas in A New Hope... 2. I have now read this book three times and each time I have loved the “surprise” of Murtagh coming back. Every single time. Sure, I also thought he was alive, but riding atop a new RED DRAGON? No, that hadn't crossed my younger mind at all. 3. If you dislike reading things that have any kind of similarities at all, I'm sorry to inform you but fantasy is not the genre for you at all. Find me something that doesn't pull strings from Tolkien, Lewis, Herbert, Martin and many others. I don't believe it can be done. Those similarities are the reasons WHY I love these kinds of books and genre. Originality would come at a cost. Probably the cost of that comfortability many look for in fantasy and that wouldn't work for me and many others.

I'm sure there are also countless ideas and influences that he drew from the million and one dragon rider series that exist in this world. However, I first started reading these books in the sixth grade, so as an eleven year old I hadn't much experience elsewhere, and afterwards this was more my basis for that kind of story than any other.

I know we've all seen/heard Paolini say things like “trying to write like Tolkien at his best” and various other stupid and pompous sounding things, but he was young and humility doesn't come easy for everyone. He had great success with these books at an early age, that could certainly do that to your head. And to be honest, it'd have been better for someone else to have said that for him, but I don't really disagree with it. I even call him a mini-Tolkien at the beginning of this review... (but lets be real...Tolkien was always at his “best”)

I understand that his writing style, and seemingly his incessant need to write bible length books, is not for everyone, but this has been a 5*/100% novel since the first time I read it. Now after finishing it for my third time I really still don't have any complaints. I love it and not just for the nostalgic feel, it's amazing.

I remember liking this book better the first time. Maybe its because I've read better fantasy books since first reading it. The quality of the reading seems subpar.

Overall it was ok, but not great. I liked it better than the first book, which I also just re-read.

I find myself caring about the characters, yet hating much of the dialogue and the writing style.

If you enjoyed the first book, you should find this one better at least.

A marked improvement on book one, more time and care is taken to write full scenes rather than one line summaries. The side characters are further fleshed out over the course of this book (and one in particular that I remember fondly is introduced). The plot begins to weave more complex patterns.

This is the last book I completed when I originally read the series, so it will be interesting to see how the story finishes.

I may need to go back and change my Eragon rating from 5 stars to 4 stars because this book way better than the first one that it just shouldn't have the same rating.

This book offers better action, love, politics, and world building. I love Roran's POV more than anybody else. He's just a badass. I also really liked Eragon's training from a fellow rider.

Nu-i rea în sine și are o doză bună de originalitate, dar m-a cam plictisit și, după prima din serie (față de care nu e sequel ci sidequel) cam e dezamăgire.
Un urban fantasy destul de lent și cu un POV extrem de limitat. Partea bună e că acum e zero YA, prima tindea puternic spre asta.
Nu voi mai continua seria, pe mine m-a pierdut.
Ediția Paladin are și probleme de redactare (de foarte multe ori nu sunt despărțite alineatele de dialog de cele de narațiune) și cea mai urâtă copertă ever, după cea de la “Marea de Fier” (același “artist” total incompetent).
Per total, o experiență mediocră.

Things I had forgotten from 1st read:
How Tolkien wannabe Paolini is: very descriptive, creating languages and showing it off throughout the book...
How obvious are Saphira's comments. 
How Roran arc is much more interesting than Eragon's
How philosophical Eragon's training was. I have even highlighted to remember in the posterity.

Another thing I noticed is the bring up of people's prejudices against other races. I hope the next books will develop it better, it would be interesting.

The second of the Inheritance Cycle is much better written than the first one, though at times feels like an SAT vocabulary study book.

Unfortunately, in his attempt to come off as a more mature writer in his second novel, Paolini overcompensates with a ton of big, and often unnecessary, words. It was a good refresher in my vocabulary but didn't flow so well.

Other than that, the story is even more engaging than the first, and it starts to become truly addicting.

Matches the pace, intensity, revelation, complexity, and excitement of the first book with ease. Paolini seems to have written these books with a very clear gradient of conflict/character capacity in mind. His protagonist does not overpowered too quickly, making later installments of the series seem entirely unbelievable within the rules of the world laid out at the beginning. Each book flows naturally from the other.

Age range: 12+
May be too expansive for younger readers. There is a fairly large cast of characters and a large capacity for memorizing geographic details is necessary.