Inheritance Cycle 2: Eldest by Christopher Paolini ISBN 9780440239963, 0440239966 instant download

Inheritance Cycle 2: Eldest by Christopher Paolini ISBN 9780440239963, 0440239966 instant download

Surpassing its popular prequel Eragon, this second volume in the Inheritance trilogy shows growing maturity and skill on the part of its very young author, who was only seventeen when the first volume was published in 2003. The story is solidly in the tradition (some might say derivative) of the classic heroic quest fantasy, with the predictable cast of dwarves, elves, and dragons--but also including some imaginatively creepy creatures of evil.

The land of Alagaesia is suffering under the Empire of the wicked Galbatorix, and Eragon and his dragon Saphira, last of the Riders, are the only hope. But Eragon is young and has much to learn, and so he is sent off to the elven forest city of Ellesmera, where he and Saphira are tutored in magic, battle skills, and the ancient language by the wise former Rider Oromis and his elderly dragon Glaedr. Meanwhile, back at Carvahall, Eragon's home, his cousin Roran is the target of a siege by the hideous Ra'zac, and he must lead the villagers on a desperate escape over the mountains. The two narratives move toward a massive battle with the forces of Galbatorix, where Eragon learns a shocking secret about his parentage and commits himself to saving his people.

The sheer size of the novel, as well as its many characters, places with difficult names, and its use of imaginary languages make this a challenging read, even for experienced fantasy readers. It is essential to have the plot threads of the first volume well in mind before beginning--the publisher has provided not only a map, but a helpful synopsis of the first book and a much-needed Language Guide. But no obstacles will deter the many fans of Eragon from diving headfirst into this highly-awaited fantasy. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell

Meet Author Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini’s abiding love of fantasy and science fiction inspired him to begin writing his debut novel, Eragon, when he graduated from high school at age 15.

"Writing is the heart and soul of my being. It is the means through which I bring my stories to life. There is nothing like putting words on a page and knowing that they will summon certain emotions and reactions from the reader. In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf." --Christopher Paolini

The Eragon/Eldest Boxed Set

Want to learn more about the series? Check out our review of Eragon: Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords. Read more

Order your copy of the boxed set today

Learn the Lingo
Our quickie pronunciation guide will help you get to know some of the names and places in the Inheritance series.

AjihadAH-zhi-hod The Leader of the Varden

ArgetlamARE-jet-lahmElven word to describe Dragon Riders meaning "silver hand"

AryaAR-ee-uhA powerful elf who is both beautiful and a master swordswoman

EragonEHR-uh-gahnA Dragon Rider from Carvahall

Ra-zacRAA-zackEvil creatures

Saphirasuh-FEAR-uhEragon’s dragon

*Art copyright © 2004 John Jude Palencar

Grade 5 Up–Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have survived the battle at Tronjheim, but their challenges are not over. Galbatorix, the corrupt emperor, still rules Alagaesia and is looking for them. The magically bonded pair must help the rebellious Varden regroup after their leader is slain. Eragon helps deal with the resulting diplomatic complexities and then leaves for Du Weldenvarden, the home of the Elves, in order to finish his training as a Dragon Rider. Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must unite the small town of Carvahall as it is battered by Galbatorix's forces, including the nasty Ra'zac. The story alternates between Eragon and Saphira and their political maneuvering and Roran and his more traditional adventure over land and sea. Paolini provides a worthy companion to Eragon (Knopf, 2003), though it does not stand alone (a summary of the first book will be included in the final edition). The plot–indeed, most of the fantasy conventions–is heavily inspired by Tolkien, McCaffrey, and especially George Lucas. The momentum of the narrative is steady and consistent: a problem presents itself and is neatly (and conveniently) solved before the next one arises, making it appealing to some adventure-quest fantasy fans and runescape.com players. Eragon's journey to maturity is well handled. He wrestles earnestly with definitions for good and evil, and he thoughtfully examines the question of good at what price.While there's nothing particularly original here, the book will find its fan-base.–Sarah Couri, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

• File Size: 2407 KB
• Print Length: 1042 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0440239966
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; Limited edition (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000JMKVEY

• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled

• X-Ray: Enabled

• Lending: Not Enabled

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,658 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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3.7 out of 5 stars

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“ This book is the second in the series, and I have read the first book. ” Ray Ray | 284 reviewers made a similar statement

“ Skip this book and anything else paolini writs there's too many other goods books to read to waste your time. ” S. F. | 221 reviewers made a similar statement

“ Things seemed to move very slowly with little to no plot/character development. ” Joie | 219 reviewers made a similar statement

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Where was his editor? July 17, 2006

By C. Blek

Format:Hardcover

The first book was a fairly solid read. Not great, but entertaining. And coming from a 19 year old, the future looked promising. But as often happens to those who experience success very early, things start to go downhill quickly.

This book needed an editor to step in and say no. It is long and boring and the entire subplot with Roran is mystifying. Brom and Eregagon need all of their skills and magic to get away from the bad guys (which kills Brom), but Roran just needs a hammer and a bunch of villagers???

The time Eragon spends with Osmosis (or whatever the heck his name is) in the dark mysterious Elven woods reads way too much like Luke and Yoda on Degoba. And it just goes on and on and on. I don't blame the writer, the professionals around him let him down badly.

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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of the Problem is at the Heart of the Argument... September 10, 2005

By Morwynn

Format:Hardcover

I have read quite a few of the reviews and felt I needed to respond to some of the criticisms back and forth. First, it IS true that Chris Paolini used themes that have been around since homo sapiens first sat at the campfire and exchanged tales and myths. Secondly, yes, there ARE limited themes to write about, simply because the scope of human experience is so universal. Thirdly, very few people opting to write in the fantasy genre can escape the extremely long shadow of Tolkien, who really set the bar high for all fantasy authors present and future.

That being said, there's yet plenty of room to wiggle about under such limitations. We know this to be true. Stories from "Beowulf" to the "Harry Potter" series have proven that even with familiar themes, a good story is simply...a good story. There are lots of fantasy authors--Lewis, Alexander, LeGuin, Zimmer Bradley, Anthony, Kennealy-Morrison, Salvatore, McCaffrey, Donaldson...even the Pinis (of ElfQuest fame)--who took these basic common threads of storytelling and created a vivid tapestry which allowed readers to see the things they wrote about as "real".

It IS a given that reading is a matter of taste and preference. For example, I happen to admire Thomas Hardy, but abhor James Joyce. But I can, in some way, find a merit for both because they gave me something to think about. Some have insisted that they find Mr. Paolini entertaining...ok, that's fine. Unfortunately, once the hype over this book has long faded (and it will), I highly doubt it will stand the test of time the way say, S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" has (She also published at a young age). And I doubt if these same fans will likewise read Paolini's books again with the same zeal 20 years hence.

If, as some argue, that this young man is a genius, then we must hold him to a higher standard than an "ordinary" person his age striving for the same thing. This means we must be so transported to the world he created as to simply not care if he "borrowed" some elements from the Greats (and even They "borrowed" from each other). In fact, we would smile and get on with the story. But if the story is poorly executed (and I believe in this case it has been), then these "borrowed" elements look like a crutch, an obvious tool to use whenever young Mr. Paolini's imagination got stuck. And that does both us and him a grave disservice.

Lastly, I want to emphasize to the reviewer who earlier stated that the negative reviews were obviously written by children...well for the record, I am 40 years old and it is MY belief that old or young, bad is bad and good is good. Age has little to do with talent or preference. The overall feeling is that many were simply let down by something that seemed so promising with the first novel. It is my hope that the author will read some of these reviews and listen to some of the critics, if only to gain some true perspective of where he stands with those he wishes to read his works. It does no good to have so little regard for your audience, that you choose ego over substance and originality. My fear is that if Mr. Paolini is not careful, there may BE no audience left to pay heed to his words.

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102 of 130 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Even worse than the first book December 10, 2005

A Kid's Review

Format:Hardcover

Most authors improve as time goes on, but Christopher Paolini has gotten worse since his lamentably poor first novel "Eragon." This book, the second in the Inheritance trilogy, shows all the flaws of the first book, with even more on top.

For starters, the parallels with "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" are so blatant that it's almost funny. Oromis is a blatant Yoda clone, and Nasuda is an obvious rip-off of Eowyn. And of course, there's the "shocking" plot twist which we all saw coming from a mile off, in which it's revealed that Murtagh is Eragon's brother (identical to how Darth Vader turned out to be Luke's father...I suppose even Paolini realised that resorting to the "I am your father" cliché was one plagarism too far), followed by the phrase "Search your feelings, you know it to be true" which is taken straight from "Star Wars." Oh yes...and let's not forget Morgothar and Elessari, whose names are clear copies of Morgoth and Elessar from "Lord of the Rings." And those are just the rip-offs of two series! He's also stolen from the likes of Anne McCaffrey (the parallels with her "Dragonriders" books are so blatant that I'm surprised she doesn't sue him), Ursula K Le Guin, David Eddings, JK Rowling, and hundreds of other authors. He even steals from the James Bond films (the idea of Eragon becoming an elf sounds suspiciously similar to Bond becoming Japanese in "You Only Live Twice"). Note to Paolini...you seriously need to get some ideas of your own, or it'll reach a point where nobody will read your books as they'll just be rip-offs of others.

Paolini also inserts complicated words every few pages (his favourite one being "stymied"). Most of them are out of place, and none of them are likely to be familiar to the target audience. There are bucketloads of forced dialogue (such as the infamous "last words" exchange near the beginning), and the same long, boring description that plagued "Eragon" shows up here too. The subplot involving Roran and Katrina was dull and uninteresting, and will probably amount to nothing by the time the Inheritance trilogy is over. He uses the word "aye" over and over again, and endlessly violates the "show it, don't tell it" rule of writing. Oh yes...and there are his pathetic attempts at trying to sound wise and philosophical by sticking in blatant morals about vegetarianism every few minutes. All of these come to together to make "Eldest" one of the worst sequels ever written.

And sadly, Paolini is going to continue making these mistakes. He refuses to listen to advice from his reviewers, and goes around crowing about his ability to write with "lyrical beauty." The fact of the matter is, he isn't a writer, and probably never will be one. His attitude to writing is summed up perfectly in his now infamous quote "Characters are born out of necessity" (we could probably have guessed at that anyway, as he is totally incapable of creating a three-dimensional character). As any true writer will tell you, characters are living, breathing creatures almost with minds of their own. Unfortunately, Paolini doesn't seem to have grasped that yet, hence the reason why he clearly thinks he's God's gift to the world of books.

I'm not going to bother reading the third book, as I already know exactly what will happen in it. The whole thing will be a blatant rip-off of "Return of the Jedi" with even more "Lord of the Rings" clones thrown in. And I know precisely how the last scene will go. Eragon will give himself up to Murtagh, who will take him to Emperor Galbatorix. Murtagh and Eragon will duel, and Eragon will mortally wound Murtagh. Emperor Galbatorix will torture Eragon, but Murtagh, with the last of his strength, will kill him. Then he will die in the arms of Eragon, who will escape just in time to avoid death. Meanwhile, the Varden will destroy the Empire despite the Empire having phenemonally powerful weaponry at their disposal. Oh yes, and Arya will realise she loved Eragon all along, and the two of them will get married and settle down. Yawn, yawn, yawn. I certainly won't be reading it, and I advice people not to read this piece of garbage either.

And by the way, I also have a few words to say to fans of the Inheritance trilogy. I honestly don't think I've seen a more obsessive fanbase of any book or film series before. This pages are swamped with Eragon fanatics who cannot bear to hear a word against this supposedly wonderful piece of literature. They give low helpfulness ratings to poor reviews, and come up with increasingly silly reasons as to why its awfulness should be allowed. As others have done before me, I intend to refute the main arguments put forward by Eragon fans in defence of their favourite book series. Here goes...

• "He's only a child, leave him alone." For starters he isn't a child any more. And secondly, he's a published author, and therefore we have the right to criticise him despite his age.
  

• "It's a children's book, so it's alright for it to be poor." That is cruel and untrue. Children have as much right as adults to be given good books to read, and to say that its awfulness is okay because it's a children's book is just wrong.
  

• "I don't see you writing a book at his age." So what you're basically saying is that only published authors have the right to criticise books. Sorry, that's not true either. You don't need to be an author to recognise a bad book...you simply have to be a reader.
  

• "It's not plagarism, it's influence from other authors." There's a line between being influenced by your favourite authors and plagarising from them, and Paolini crossed that line almost from Page 1 of "Eragon." Many authors use ideas that others have used before them, but they will make the ideas their own, and take them in their own direction. Paolini has used hundreds of ideas from other authors, and not once has he added his own touches to them. And if you still think he hasn't plagarised from other authors, compare the names "Aragorn," "Arwen" and "Isengard" to "Eragon," "Arya," "Ardwen" and "Isenstar." The parallels are right there.
  

• "If you liked the authors Paolini stole from, you must like Paolini." No we mustn't. An earlier reviewer said it better than I could...we want to read an original, well-written book, not a flimsy rip-off.
  

• "You're just out to criticise it." No we're not. The majority of "Eldest" haters picked the book up with the intention of reading it, not with the intention of coming to Amazon and saying "Urgh, it stinks!"
  

And last but not least, my personal favourite...

• "You all suck." If you can't accept that other people have a right to an opinion, you're not going to get very far in life.
  

The Eragon fanatics need to accept that there are people out there who dislike Paolini's work (and justifiably so). But I don't know why I'm bothering saying this...the fanatics ignored all the previous reviewers who tried to put them straight, and I don't see why they'll pay any attention to me. But at least I can say I tried.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Very long and drawn out

I listened to this book on audio to/from work, otherwise I would not have continued "reading" this series. Read more

Published 3 days ago by bfz

3.0 out of 5 stars There are still some flaws Paolini needs to work out...

My overall opinion: Eragon was much better than Eldest, although I didn't hate Eldest in the way a lot of people seemed to. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Christina

5.0 out of 5 stars The best series I've ever read

This series was by far the best read I've had in my experience of reading. Do yourself a favor and buy all of them at once.

Published 1 month ago by S. Slater

5.0 out of 5 stars My contrary opinion.

Huh. Based on my experience, you shouldn't disapoint the expectation of the fans or else...
Or else the average review of your book if you are an author would be just... Read more

Published 1 month ago by tarek bassil

5.0 out of 5 stars Go Roran!

I love that Roran gets brought back and with so many extreme adventures, I always thought he was a more vital character and now you see a whole new spin on things. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Mrs H

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable follow up. Bring on book 3.

The book begins in the aftermath of the great battle. Eragon has proved himself a hero and everyone wants him as an ally. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Peter Shermeta

4.0 out of 5 stars creative

This book takes you for a ride for sure. A little slow leading up to the big part, but it was fantastic at the end. It made me jump into the third book immediately. Well done.

Published 1 month ago by Greg Deal

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome book

I started reading this after the first of the series and I LOVE IT, I WISH I WAS AN ELVEN DRAGON RIDER

Published 1 month ago by aroonshaeq

5.0 out of 5 stars How about a fifth book

An amazing series for 12 years upwards.

Written by my son.

He wants a fifth book in the series. Really. Really.

Published 2 months ago by beech hill

1.0 out of 5 stars Yeah, yeah... Been there, done that.

I was mildly excited about this book back in middle school because I had enjoyed reading Eragon. I rushed over to the book store and spent my entire week's allowance on this book,... Read more

Published 2 months ago by couchpotato

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Topic From this Discussion

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions

I think you're absolutely right about all the slamming between the Eragon haters and the Eragon fanatics. All the reviews are either 1 star or 5 stars, and they either rave on about how great Paolini is to have written a book at 15 (I'm not going to even start on that) or about how stupid you... Read more

Mar 26, 2006 by Sis | See all 777 posts

What did you think of the Eragon Movie?

How can we ever forget (although I want to badly)
Brom: You're hardly trained! (or something to that tune)
Eragon: I got skills!

Nov 5, 2007 by Heejun Seok | See all 38 posts

Glaedr

It should be interesting. Potter will likely be released in July, with an initial printing of 15 million copies. (HBP had an initial printing of 10.5). In its first week, Potter will sell more copies than whatever glob Paolini publishes, which should hit the stands in August or September.

Knopf... Read more

Jan 31, 2007 by Jonathan Appleseed | See all 26 posts

Eragon fans; Read this,haters can read it to.

Rabid fans? Yeah, okay... Why do we like the book? Hmmm... You know, I can't honestly come up with a good reason (and all the old arguments for it are LAME). I guess I just enjoyed it for what it was, though after reading a lot of the posts on here, I have to wonder myself: why exactly DID I like... Read more

Nov 25, 2007 by Breezestar | See all 89 posts

Is Eragon Gay?

Eragon is just in denial. He is afraid his manly image as a Dragonrider will be tarnished if people start suspecting his homosexuality. That is why he stalks Arya around like a clueless creep, incessantly spouting stupid nonsense about how much he loves her. Forget the fact that he doesn't... Read more

Feb 19, 2008 by heliacal rising | See all 14 posts

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