HP readalikes - Eragon

[kempermentor]

> --  -bgrugin wrote:
> >
> > 
> > > Paolini, Christopher. 
> > > Eragon 
> > 
> > MusicalBetsy:
> > I've heard good things about this book - has anyone else?
> > Just  curious.
> > 
> >
> 
> bboyminn replied:
> 
> I thought I would jump in an comment on 'Eragon' and now
> 'Eldest', the first two in the 'Inheritance Trilogy', 
> before the nay-sayers jump in.
 
Kemper now:
The nay-sayer jumps in.

> bboyminn continues:
> Many people claim these books are 'predictable' and
> 'derivative', but I found a fascinating captivating
> story filled with very likable characters. Perhaps
> I haven't read as much fantasy as these nay-sayers and
> am therefore less jaded.

Kemper now:
The nay-sayer agrees with 'predictable' and 'derivative' as 
appropriate adjectives to Eragon.  This nay-sayer has not read 
Eldest.

I have not read a lot of fantasy.  At least I don't think I have.  
As I type this I'm having to reconsider... I suppose fantasy/sci-
fi/horror are my genre's of preferrence.  Hmmm...

> bboyminn continues  
> I suspect, though certainly not universally true, that
> many of those who don't like 'Eragon' are people who are
> 'Lord of the Rings' fans, who simply can't stand any book
> that ventures into Tolkien territory. I personally found
> Tolkien to be a slow, arduous, tedious, grueling read;
> too many strange people and place names, I simply couldn't
> keep track in a story that seem to wander at a snails 
> pace.

Kemper now:
I am an Eragon nay-sayer who finds Tolkien exceedingly tedious.  To 
say LotR wanders at a snails pace speaks highly of a book that is 
like watching coal turn into a diamond (more inaccurately but 
symbolically true, cubic zirconium).  I didn't even realize the ring 
was destroyed.  I had to read back a few pages.

Eragon's pace is quicker, wandering like a hobbled dessert tortoise.

> bboyminn continues:
> Eragon, while similar to Tolkien in that it takes place 
> in the Mythical land of 'Alagaesia'... 

Kemper now:
and that it has Orc like things, and elves and dawrves...  I know it 
differs with the cool dragon mindlink. And the Shade thing.  I 
admire Paolini's made-up norse-ish language.  I do think that's 
cool.  Though I wonder at the linguitics of it, but that's not 
important.


> bboyminn continues:
> ...
> Deeper
> and more complex than Harry Potter, and probably not 
> for young readers who are not sophisticated. 
> ...
> Again, wonderful action adventure fantasy with deep
> sympathetic characters and a complex, yet easy to 
> read, story.  


Kemper now:
I am honestly surprised with this discription.  I would agree that 
it is deeper than LotR (all the characters seem flat to me, though I 
liked the relationship between the elf and the dwarf) but their 
complexity seems about the same.  
I would say HP is as deep as Eragon, but HP is definitely more 
complex than Eragon.

> bboymins conludes:
> Steve/bboyminn - feeling the need to defend 'Eragon'
> where ever he goes.

Kemper finishing off:
I know you feel that way.  It's part of what I love about HPfGU.  On 
the Main, I agree with most of what you have to say.  Your 
thoughts/ideas help push discussion.  On the Main, I disagree with 
Alla quite a bit.  But in real life, I think that we might have some 
similar philosophies regardless of views of Snape or of LotR.

I really want to like Eragon.  I think the story had plenty of new 
spins to be fun, but it didn't play out for me.  Maybe reading 
Eldest will help but it seems so long.  And DH is coming out soon.  
I wasted a summer on LotR many years ago... I don't know if I have 
the time for Eldest.

Kemper, who also hates Godfather I and II, and of course III but 
really, who doesn't hate that one?