Spoilery Book Reviews

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

Back of the book

Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives after the colossal battle against the Empire's warriors on the Burning Plains. Now Eragon finds himself bound by promises he may not be able to keep.

He must help rescue his cousin Roran's beloved from King Galbatorix's clutches. But he also owes his loyalty to the Varden, the elves and the dwarves, who are in desperate need of his talents and strength.

Eragon is the greatest hope to rid the land of tyranny. Can this once simple farm boy unite the rebel forces and defeat the king?

My thoughts

I feel that many of my thoughts about the third instalment of the Inheritance Cycle are similar to comments I had about the first two: notably, pacing. Brisingr started action-heavy, then with Eragon completing his original vengeance mission that had him leave Carvahall, Eragon felt purposeless. Or course Eragon still had other goals to achieve but I felt this book floundered with uncertainty of direction very early on. I will attempt to comment on new aspects instead of rehashing previous observations.

The chapter with Eragon and Arya travelling and camping together may have been a 'filler' scene but I really enjoyed a detailed example of their relationship deepening (yes I know how the series ends). Just when you think there are no more details about Alagaësia to uncover, Paolini injects a little more intrigue and magic into the continent.

I know from previous books I don't love reading about war. This is a crushing reality considering many fantasy/adventure stories slowly form into a rebellious war (ToG, ACoTaR, TKoNLG). As this book was more war-heavy I liked it a lot less than the previous two and I partially dread continuing to read about war in the next one.

Eragon feels like a passenger to events happening around him, not the decider of his fate and actions. During Brisingr it feels more that Roran is the true 'main character' with the interesting (and gory) events that he participates in. Meanwhile Eragon is bound to follow others' orders, and simply flaps about the continent, is straight up told everything instead of working to learn anything new.

The shocking twists in this book... Oromis and Glaedr dying was disappointing. Surely you'd expect a rider hundreds of years old to be able to prevail against a rider of twenty-something. I understand that this is to show just how strong Galbatorix is, and Murtagh/Galbatorix and Thorn had no reservations about killing Oromis and Glaedr, while the opposite was not true for the sake of dragon prosperity as a species. The second 'plot twist' that I disliked, was Brom being revealed as Eragons' father. It is supposed to come off as good news, but I liked the interesting questions it created with Morzan being Eragons' father. It displayed the old nature vs nurture argument about what personality traits are you born with, and what do you acquire from situations. I also feel bad for Murtagh, that he would feel a little more lonely knowing Eragon is only a half-brother instead of a full brother, not sharing the shadow of his evil father.

In conclusion, this story feels lost and purposeless early on after Eragon and Roran defeat the Ra'zac. I feel Roran's storyline carries the most engagement and purpose in this novel, elevating him to main character status above Eragon. Roran's passion and courageous (hideous) deeds bring more to the story than Eragon flapping about the continent. The plot twists in this book were bordering on predictable and disappointing.

TL:DR

This series was always heading towards war and now that war has arrived, I enjoy it less. Roran's chapters carry the story forward while Eragon flounders in incompetence and flaps about the continent.