Inheritance

I was very excited for this book! Its the final book in one of my favorite series, and I was ecstatic that I got to finally read it!

The fighting scenes were a bit tough to get through at times (its the same rigamarole as in Brisingr - we are shown every minute detail of how exactly that soldier's facial bones were snapped, it got to be a bit much to read through.) I felt that overall, how things were handled was excellent....


...until I got to the end.


THERE BE SPOILERS HERE, ARRRGGHHH






























First off, Arya becoming a Rider was hella predictable. We all saw that coming.


What was not predictable-

1. The absolute lack of resolution between Arya and Eragon. Yes, omg, they held haaaaands! But it seemed like once Arya reached a certain level of character development, she stopped. She remained the barely likeable character that I experienced in Eldest. Even after all the growing Eragon does (and it shows in Inheritance.) she is still aloof and unlikable.

So I thought to myself, “Well, now that Eragon has matured, maybe she'll give him the time of day and we can stop hearing about her beautiful hair or graceful fighting style.” Nope. Total cockblock.
The Wiki entry states that “Eragon and Arya recognise their true feelings for each other.” Not really. I barely saw anything, except her telling him her true name and them holding hands. Nothing else. It was a HUGE letdown. Its like I followed a rainbow all the way down to... nothing. Paolini could have worked this a bit better, and don't tell me he's incapable of going back to Alagaesia or Arya is incapable of going with. The whole thing was so contrived.


2. The ending, where he sails off into the distance. This is a blatant ripoff of Return of the King's ending, only Tolkien did it better because he wrapped shit up first.


3. The hell with Murtagh and Nasuada? Apparently Paolini has been mastering the beginning of storylines and then tossing them off into the distance, because this shit wasn't wrapped up either.


Overall, a great book, however I felt that all the minor storylines I invested so hard in (Eragon and Arya) were quickly wrapped with barely any resolution, if any. Paolini discussed in the end about returning to Alagaesia, though not with the same characters. Hopefully we can glean some more type of closure, ie Eragon finds a partner, because Jesus he certainly deserves one!