Review "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini

"Eragon" is the first book of teenager Christopher Paolini.

The title character, Eragon, finds a strange blue rock in the mountains. The rock turns out to be a dragon egg and Eragon and his dragon find themselves thrust into the middle of a civil war.

"Eragon" is an entertaining fantasy read but it is not great. It is simplistic, predictable and copies many plot elements from other (better) fantasy authors. It is a nice, escapist, light fantasy but does not offer real depth.


The book has been compared to "Harry Potter" but I just don't think this is nearly as good. Having said that, my ten year old daughter loved this book. (of course, she hasn't read "the Hobbit" yet, so her view of what is great fantasy is limited.) But I have seen many 5th-9th graders reading it so I would view that as the real target audience. Overall, enjoyable but not great.