NOTE: If you’ve not read Eldest by Christopher Paolini nor seen the movies from which it borrows freely, here there be spoilers!
An orphan boy who knows little or nothing about his parentage grows up on his uncle’s farm far from the political center of the Empire. Because the boy accidentally finds something that evil Emperor wants, the Empire sends soldiers to capture the boy. He escapes, but they destroy his uncle’s farm and kill his uncle. He is befriended by a wise mentor who teaches him to use the forces of “magic” to protect himself and to defeat his enemies. He pursues the agents of the Empire and eventually is able to rescue a young woman who has been captured by the Empire, but his teacher dies at the hand of the Emperor’s soldiers. Our young hero travels through many dangers to join the forces of the rebels against the Empire, and he is able to help them win a key battle fighting an Imperial army. However, he is wounded in the battle, and he comes to realize that he must have more training if he is to finally defeat the Evil Emperor and his henchmen. He goes to a hidden land and finds there another teacher whom he calls “Master.” His training involves swordplay, meditation, and learning the many uses of magic. Before his training is complete, he must leave to go and help the rebels who are under attack by the Emperor. Near the end of part 2 of the story, the hero finds out that his father is really the Emperor’s right-hand man, an evil traitor.
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar?
How about this? A young immature hero travels with a dwarf and an elf through a mythical land. They must find a way to defeat the Evil Lord of the land who wishes to make all living creatures his slaves. Only an alliance of men, elves, and dwarves (with a few other assorted creatures thrown in for good measure) can hope to defeat the overwhelming forces of evil.
OK, one more. Dragons hatch from eggs and upon hatching choose a human partner, a dragonrider, with whom they share a telepathic connection. The dragonrider and his or her dragon work together to keep the peace and defeat the enemies of peace. They are almost inseparable and come know each other in a way that mere friends cannot understand or emulate.
I don’t mean to be too critical, and there are many things to like about Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Trilogy, the first two books of which are Eragon and Eldest. But I must say that as I read through Eldest, in particular, I kept feeling as though I had read this story before somewhere. I like fantasy, but this trilogy is far too long and not nearly as absorbing as the stories it borrows from. As you can read in my review of Eragon, I began by being skeptical about that book, and ended up liking it very much. However, Eldest just didn’t hang onto the goodwill built up in my enjoyment of Eragon. I found myself skimming–a lot.
I did like the parts about Eragon’s cousin, Roran, and the villagers that Eragon left behind when he left to become a hero and pursue revenge against his uncle’s murderers. I also enjoyed the description of the elves’ celebration of Agaeti Blodhren which featured a sort of craft/poetry exhibition in which each person in attendance brought something he had created or written. The battle scene was well done, but hard to follow, probably because of the aforementioned skimming (my fault).
I’ve had many people come to this blog looking for a Christian perspective on Eragon. I certainly can’t claim to give The Christian Viewpoint on the books, but I do have a couple of observations. First of all, I don’t believe The Inheritance Trilogy derives from a Christian worldview. Religion is dealt with in this second book of the trilogy. The dwarves are polytheistic; they worship many gods represented by idols of stone, including a creator-god named Helzvog. Their beliefs and practices sound rather Norse in origin. Humans, according to Eragon, “lacked a single overriding doctrine, but they did share a collection of superstitions and rituals, most of which concerned warding off bad luck.” Basic pagan superstition. The elves of Alagaesia, however, the epitome of the fantasy’s civilization, do not worship anyone or anything. When Eragon asks his master what elves believe, this is the reply:
We believe the world behaves according to certain inviolable rules and that. by persistent effort, we can discover those rules and use them to predict events when circumstances repeat. . . . I cannot prove that gods do not exist. Nor can I prove that the world and everything in it was not created by an entity or entities in the distant past. But I can tell you that in the millennia we elves have studied nature, we have never witnessed an instance where the rules that govern the world have been broken. That is, we have never seen a miracle. . . . Death, sickness, poverty, tyranny and countless other miseries stalk the land. If this is the handiwork of divine beings, then they are to be rebelled against and overthrown, not given obeisance, obedience, and reverence.”
So in the world of Alagaesia, we can choose between pagan polytheistic idol worship, pagan superstition, and “enlightened” closed-system scientism. Those options are limited and short-sighted. In addition, the themes of meditating and becoming one with nature and wielding magical powers for the good of all humanity are not Christian, but rather New Age spiritualism.
If you’ve read Eldest and disagree with my opinion, you’re free to share your ideas about the book in the comments. I’m rather disappointed that with such a promising beginning in Eragon, Mr. Paolini didn’t give us a better sequel.
