Eldest, by Christopher Paolini

Okay, so I take it back. I take it all back. Christopher Paolini worked really hard to get his name, and his parents could only have helped him so much. I hope he never reads my last post. Then again, no one reads this blog, a tiny dust mote in the vastness of the internet, right? Right. So let's move on.

Because the war against Galbatorix has begun, this book has a lot of battle scenes, and they are all very detailed albeit nodding a bit to the confusion of actual battle. In the first few chapters, I never believed that Murtagh was actually dead, but I was surprised anyway when he came back sometime at the end. Roran's story kept the entire book grounded, because it was a struggle of a normal human being without any special powers except his decisiveness and his charisma. This leads me to believe that he might become king of the land in the third book. I say it keeps the book grounded, because Eragon is no longer fully human as we humans know it - instead, he is half dragon, and half elf. There are so many expectations for him that the part of his personality that deals with expectations reacts like Harry Potter.

Aside from personally pleased that many strong women play roles aside from Saphira the dragon, I was amazed at how much the author had fleshed out the languages. There are complete alphabets somewhere in Paolini's office that he probably keeps as a reference. Most of us have enough trouble learning the existing languages, but he makes new ones. I have yet to decipher the specific differences between the ancient, elven and dwarf languages. The chapters have also gotten longer and harder to keep track of.

We are introduced to elf culture here, and it strikes me as very archaic. There are many rules, and many forms of courtesy with a strict hierarchy. Yet because of the existence of magic, most elves only need to do what pleases them - they don't need to really have a trade to have money or to make a living. I mean, they sing their homes out of trees, so there's no real estate industry, they sing their food out of plants, so there's no farming necessary. The only people who seem to do anything for society are the queen Islanzadi, her courtiers and the weapon smith, whose name escapes me, but who is also kind of a hermit and has no use for the mannerisms of the rest of elven society. Everyone else hones their magic, their fighting, does research and reads a lot - much like Oromis, except that Oromis has the additional job of making sure Eragon has all the skills he needs.

While the lessons Eragon goes through are difficult and detailed, and there's a lot of character development going on, he's just learning and so not much plot is going on there. So the part about plot has been delegated to Roran, who must make sure that his home - all the villagers - survives as well as go find Katrina, for the sake of his love and sanity. So he escapes for a while, and then comes back and helps everyone get rid of the soldiers, until the Raz'ac stole Katrina. Then he convinces everyone to be a part of the Varden, by demonstrating excellent oratory skills in addition to his warrior's prowess with a hammer. Is it bad that I feel our presidents should be selected more based on things like that rather than just oratory skills as in American democracy? While the way Roran came to power can't ensure that he's not evil, it's based upon trust and actions, not words, so I somehow feel that it's a lot more solid. It also brings up the question of whether the ends justify the means.

The other part of plot that Eragon has to go through is to deal with his infatuation with Arya. While everyone relates to this part because everyone has a first love, it just seems to diminish his character a bit - even though I agree with Saphira's words about how he's full of love and he's more so waiting for someone to receive it. I guess while Roran was leading humans, Eragon has to learn to lead people of three or four different races, if you consider the Kulls, so his job is more difficult. But Roran's journey just seemed so much organic, because they had to contend with things that humans are used to: poverty, starvation, sickness, sleeplessness and a race against time.

After Roran had to kill two soldiers at that port town, and had to raze a part of Teirm to escape, the part where they were sailing reminded me heavily of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. There was no albatross, though, only a giant whirlpool that everyone was afraid of. The way that Birgit kicked the balls of one random sailor and then held her knife at another against rampant sexism made me proud, and also reminded me of Dawn Cook's Decoy Princess duology. Duology is a word, right? Cuz bilogy wouldn't sound right. Or maybe it's just duo. And I was happy to see Jeod again, and that Helen loved him enough to make it to the ship on time.

By that time, the battle had started, and it was time for Eragon to move out. I was glad he was using his new skills to help his leadership abilities, and wasn't sure what would happen to Carvahall, because they were too tired to just join in the battle with the dwarves and the Kull and other soldiers. Galbatorix's plan to rebuild the Riders had the same problem as the comic the Watchmen. In fact, when an elf said, "Who watches the watchmen?" I thought it was even a direct reference. Maybe they should have the dwarves and the Kull exposed to dragon eggs to see if they would be accepted to, as a weird case of affirmative action for the Riders. Yes, I know I'm being strange.

Everything came together very well at the end, and even explained the title. The only things that this book managed to resolve was the relationship between Roran and Eragon, and decide the fate of Carvahall. The rest would have to wait til the next book, which I will eagerly dig up or buy.