Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3)

I have to say that the this series is getting worse with every new book. Every weakness of Eragon gets amplified in Eldest, and amplifed more in Brisingr. The writing style is boring. It's too verbose. The characters just talk too much and unnaturally. If Paolini could write this same book in half the number of pages, it would be excellent. It's a book that I just could not read for more than an hour or so. I just had to put it down because the reading was just too boring--too many words (or pages) used for a simple idea. But the story line is the saving grace and is what kept me coming back every couple of days to see how the story progresses. And the cycle repeats: too boring, must put down, then curiosity made me pick it up again some later time. Sometimes I had to resort to skimming through the pages just to get through the boring part.

In short, 4 stars for plot, 1 star for writing.

And it makes me want to go back and re-read The Lord of the Rings one more time (now that's good writing).

No, this book is perhaps the worst fantasy book that I have ever read. I actually thought the first book Eragon was a decent read, a nice story. Eldest was the beginning of the end. Paolini started making some terrible choices in writing style, vocabulary, and motive. The entire story got lost in the drivel.
Brisingr picks up where Eldest was clearly headed, into a complete writing disaster. It was too much too soon for this young Author. He started with a good story then started trying way too hard. This book is everything that you don't want a novel to be. It has absolutely no voice, no flow to the story. It is explained and not told.
I love the story of Paolini, homeschooled and with his family throwing all of their love and finances into his writer's dream. And they had a good story and a fairly decent world. Brisingr is just a disaster. Is it wrong of me to hate this book? I'm sorry to say I do. It's awful. Nice cover though.

I, like many others, eagerly awaited what was to be a thrilling tale of magic, dragons, and merciless plajorism of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I even found the book while I was in Budapest, for goodness sake (just to put my devotion in perspective!).

Well, I was totally jazzed when I was almost immediately rewarded with some healthy blood and gore in the course of enemy slashing. I read on, waiting another thrilling plot development....

700 pages later, I was brutally disappointed. I like character development as much as the next person, but not when we dispose of insignificant things like, um, THE PLOT, to do it. Why on Earth Paolini decided that he HAD to have a four book series is beyond me. The characters were already a tad flat - all Paolini really accomplished in this book was glue a few cliched problems to every character, give them ALL magical immunities, and fail to reward us with some well earned plot arc.

I await the fourth book. I pray that it has a plot, and Galbatorix doesn't turn out to be a misunderstood, moody sorcerer who lost his mind when trying to provide for the poor.

I had no idea that so many people hated this book until I read all these 1-2 star reviews. It wasn't the best of the series, but it was all right.
Many people have complained about the gore. But if Brisingr were made into a movie, it would be so much more bloody. I have seen plenty of bloody movies and read plenty of bloody books, and they were a lot worse. Although it was a bit much at times, it didn't give me nightmares or make me think morbid thoughts.
I was happy to find out that Brom was Eragon's father, not that I hadn't suspected it. Paolini strayed off the path that Star Wars set, and the revelation mostly came as a suprise.
I liked the parts from the dragons point-of-view. It proved their inhuman-ness, in a good way.
Some parts frustrated me though. Roran went from hating killing to slaughtering 200 men in an hour. In the middle, the dwarf politics dragged forever. And nothing happened between Eragon and Arya.
Overall, though, I enjoyed the book and I will buy the fourth one happily.

But it is not. There will be a book 4. That's ok though, the books are entertaining so I will gladly read another one. Very entertaining!