(Let us not forget that authors as great as Jordan and Erikson were happy with just a glossary.)Īs for the story itself, I will say that it isn’t horrible as long as you ignore the flaws in his writing. There is nowhere near the work put into Paolini’s name creation to warrant such a chapter, especially when a simple glossary would have sufficed. It is nothing short of ludicrous and laughable. This is exemplified most clearly once you reach the end of the book, where Paolini feels that his story is deserved of an “On the Origin of Names.” In it, he shamelessly attempts to mimic Tolkien in explaining his characters names came from. Anyone who attempts to imitate the man is either very brave or oh so very stupid. Tolkien was a linguistic genius, having studied the topic for decades and taught it at the University of Oxford. But when you’re only in your early 20’s and trying to mimic Tolkien, you’re in for a big reality shock. Without a doubt, it is good to stretch yourself and aim big. An XKCD comic describes one of Paolini’s major flaws perfectly in a comic entitled “Fiction Rule of Thumb.” In it a graph depicts a falling curve which states that the probability that a book is good will decline as the number of words made up by the author increase. One of Paolini’s most obvious flaws is in the apparent belief that Paolini thinks he can write like Tolkien. No, Paolini’s problem in my eyes is that he has gotten everywhere without any actual writing skills. It’s not as if either of those two stories was entirely original anyway. I don’t hold with the idea that it is simply a rip-off of Star Wars meshed together with Lord of the Rings. I want to make it very clear though, that Paolini (and I guess Rowling as well) created an ingenious story.
Rowling, Paolini knew that he could survive on his popularity and the originating story, rather than any actual literary skill. Sadly, Paolini didn’t feel that was necessary in telling his best selling series.
I had enjoyed the first two books well enough, and was hoping that – as with many authors – the author’s skill would have grown. You forget just whether the book is any good or not, and tend to give it the benefit of the doubt because if nothing else, you’re looking forward to the forthcoming book, right?īrisingr by Christopher Paolini acquired that unrealism in my head as I waited for its arrival, all those months ago. When there grows a significant span of time between reading books in a series, sometimes the books will acquire a certain measure of unfounded love.
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