The Inheritance Trilogy

The Inheritance trilogy, the brainchild of American Novelist, Christopher Paolini, took the world by storm. It is now a multi-million dollar franchise that has captured the imagination of children and adults alike, and with a movie (and game tie-in) of the first book, Eragon, coming out in December, people are just tearing their hair out to get a glimpse...

The story starts near Carvahall, a small farming community in north-western Alagaësia, where 15 year old Eragon grew up in the care of Garrow, a mild-mannered farmer; with his brother Roran. Eragon is a skilled archer and huntsman, and one of the only citizens of the village who would dare to venture into a hazardous mountain range known as The Spine to hunt for food. After tracking some deer for a few days he is about to bag an injured doe, but as he draws his bowstring, an almighty explosion scares his target away, and scars the surrounding landscape

...In the middle of the charred area he finds a mysterious blue stone, about a foot wide; and decides to see if he can sell it; but he is unsuccessful.

After a day at the market he takes the stone home, only to find it hatching to be a dragon's egg! He is faced with a tough decision, of whether to keep the elusive, magical creature and become one of the legendary Dragon Riders; or whether to dispose of it...but after some careful consideration he decides to raise the dragon, and devote his life to helping the people of Alagaësia.

The novels see Eragon's adventures around the land helping to over-throw the evil King Galbatorix, with Sapphira and Brom, an old storyteller, who is surprisingly knowledgable of dragonlore and magic, as well as combat.

I found the first two books of this series to be a very exciting read, with many twists in the tail ('scuse the pun), and a very complex back-story and social elements. I give it 9 out of 10, and I would recomend it to fantasy-lovers and loathers alike.

- Review By Man-Spider