Without knowing his mother or father Eragon lives a simple life on a farm with his uncle and cousin. They sell surplus produce at the market in the town and hunt for meat in the surrounding mountains. One of Eragon’s expeditions leads him deeper to the cursed mountains where he finds a peculiar blue stone in a patch of charred ground. Eragon then decides to sell the stone in town and buy meat supplies as the winter has been cruel that year. However he’s turned down by the merchants. He returns home, places the stone in his room and quickly forgets about it. Later Eragon is awoken in the middle of the night by the stone cracking. As it turns out the ‘stone’ is a dragon egg and the hatchling is the first dragon born in centuries. Vicious King Galbatorix with his dragon has betrayed and slaughtered all the dragon riders and the whole Alagaesia suffers under his tyranny. Eragon faces a difficult decision; he either joins the king and becomes his minion or joins the Varden – a small group of resistance fighters. He has little time to decide because the news about the blue stone has spread and a couple of strange cloaked beings are on his track.
This book is very close to my heart and as you know I don’t like re-reading books, but this one will always be an exception to the rule. The story is very easy to follow and all the history of Alagaesai is effortlessly explained – Paiolini tells you enough to understand but doesn’t flood you with information. Eragon is the first of four books and the complexity and maturity of the story expand with each book but it’s still easy to follow the narrative. You can trace how Eragon changes and grows up from a farm boy to a mighty rider.
I’m quite sad that the books are unjustly ignored in the fantasy world.
Maybe it’s partly because of the dismal movie version that should never have happened but that doesn’t change the fact that this saga is a masterpiece.
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