Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend, whether it was action-packed (like mine) or chill and relaxed. Today I’m going to be reviewing Christopher Paolini’s series The Inheritance Cycle.

Eragon by: Christopher Paolini: The first book in the Inheritance Cycle is about a boy named Eragon who finds himself with a dragon, then has to leave his hometown as not to be seen with the dragon. When he finds out about who he is, and what he can do it’s up to him to live up to the name he has. A complete fantasy story filled with dragons, mystical creatures, and magic. It’s everything the reader thought fantasy could be combined into one novel. The novel is very action packed, and words aren’t wasted on useless things in the book. The author has made everything as descriptive as possible so the reader can visually see everything. It was a wonderfully crafted, and intense read, it’s definitely something worthy to check out.

Eldest by: Christopher Paolini: The second book in the Inheritance Cycle. Here we pick up right where we left off from the first book, Eragon. Eragon has accepted a challenge to defeat King Galbatorix because of what he has done to his family, and his village. He is sent on a journey to Ellesmera, the land of the elves to receive training to go up against the King. On the other side there is his cousin Roran who has become the leader of their village, Carvahall, to help defeat King Galbatorix as well. It’s a novel of great adventure and great perseverance. Also a little romance is thrown in the mix for some good measure, which doesn’t take away from main plotline, but adds a little more to it. Overall it’s a great follow up to the first, and it is set up greatly for the next.

Brisingr by: Christopher Paolini: The third novel in the Inheritance Cycle. This novel is the lead up to what is going to be the biggest battle in this world. Eragon and Saphira have one goal in mind, and that is to defeat the dark king, Galbatorix. But before they can do that, they have to prepare and regroup. The novel is lengthily, and goes into extreme detail about how they plan to attack. But it also gives the reader a lot of back-story into why things are the way they are, and why certain things happen. The novel is filled with a lot of foreshadowing and exposition into character back-stories, mainly Eragon, as he learns of his parentage, and attains a Riders sword. Speaking of swords, it only took until three quarters of the way into the novel to get the meaning of the book title. The author did a really good job creating characters that are so different from one another, and yet so lovable. Although the characters can get a bit lost in all the purple prose, the dynamic between Saphira and Eragon is incredibly written. It all ends on a rather sad note, but the author also gives the reader a sense of hope is coming with the final novel.

Inheritance by: Christopher Paolini: The fourth and final novel in the Inheritance Cycle. The battle that everyone has been training for has finally arrived; to beat Galbatorix and restore the land of Alagaesia. It’s up to Saphira and Eragon to lead this army. Between the smaller battles, leading to the big battle and characters getting kidnapped the novel takes the reader through a roller coaster of events. The novel takes its time to get to the battle, but it needs to in order for the reader to get the full effect of what is happening to fill in all the gaps. The romantic plot lines were subtly in the background, and it was perfect; the reader didn’t feel bombarded with it as there were so many other plots going on. Paolini ended his series so well, it didn’t just end with the end of the battle; life continued after it and the reader got full and complete closure. Overall this series was well written, with great plots full of dragons and imagination.