[Originally posted on tumblr on 4. April 2013]
Third one down, one to go.
What can I possibly say that no one else ever said before about this book? I wouldn’t know. It’s beyond me why he had to split this thing into two parts: There wasn’t much relevant plot in this book and I bet there won’t be much in the next one either.
The thing is, the initial plot for the ‘Inheritance’ series was that Eragon becomes a dragonrider and defeats the evil overlord Galbatorix. Easy enough, right?
Not so with this series. The many subplots are extrremely unnecessary to reach this goal. I mean seriously, was it necessary to include Roran’s POV all the time? Or the POV of any other character that wasn’t Eragon? Only if this was a RPG Paolini had with his friends - then this would have been a great adventure. For them! As a reader you stand puzzled why the author of this series includes such unnecessary things. My guess: This wasn’t edited beyond correcting typos and obvious grammar mistakes. I even found a review on Goodreads that actually had the same theory: that the editor didn’t give Paolini any pointers (it’s actually a review for the last book).
So my actual complaint about this book or actually this series is: Why wasn’t this properly edited when a pro publisher picked this up? Just so you know, that’s not only something that makes books bad, it’s also something that makes the publisher look bad. Seriously. If you publish unedited crap people will start talking “Why should I buy books by this publisher if they can’t guarantee to work with their authors?” because obviously if you work with an author, show him where he could do better and of course: CUT OUT UNNECESSARY THINGS you’ll have a chance that a book could actually become readable or even really good.
I don’t know Paolini but let’s just assume he’s willing to listen to critique - the good kind of critique - don’t you think this could’ve turned out better? At least a little bit? Overly obsessing and loving something despite its flaws isn’t helping the author.
Ever wondered why there are so many badfics on the internet? Check the comments section.
Also a more random note: when I listened to this audiobook I unintentionally skipped a chapter or two but I didn’t even notice it much because everything’s the same stuff and the plot gets summed up so many times! (My mp3 player sometimes doesn’t play things in the correct order. I can’t figure out why.)
