So What’s It All About?
 
I’m a jaded old science fiction and fantasy writer, ancient enough to be Christopher Paolini’s mother. Imagine my surprise to learn that at the age of twenty, Paolini had sold over one million copies of his first fantasy novel, Eragon. How did this happen, I wondered, and is the book any good?
 
I rushed out to my local bookstore and grabbed (well, bought) a copy of Eragon.1 Weighing in at 503 pages, the novel featured a dragon on the front cover and the prestigious announcement that Eragon was “The #1 New York Times Best-seller.” Totally impressed (remember, I’m a jaded old writer with seventeen books to my name, and I’ve never sold one million copies of anything), I flipped to the acknowledgments in the back of the book. Here, I learned from Paolini’s notes that he began writing Eragon when he was fifteen years old and that his parents’ publishing company, Paolini International, LLC, first published Eragon in 2002. His mother arranged book signings throughout the United States, and at one of these events, Paolini met Michelle Frey, now his editor at Knopf Books. The rest is history: USA Today best-seller, New York Times best-seller, an upcoming movie called Eragon being released from Twentieth Century Fox in December of 2006, a second book called Eldest with a first print run of one million copies, and a young author with many millions of fans around the world.
 
Immediately, I returned to the front of the book and started reading.
 
Now I assume that you, the reader of this book, have already read both Eragon and its sequel, Eldest.2 If you haven’t read these two books in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance trilogy, then I urge you to race to the bookstore and buy copies right away. Of course, if your school or local library has copies, then you can check out the books rather than buy them. The important thing is to read the books because they’re a lot of fun. My guess is that schools are letting kids read the Inheritance books for English class, so you may actually get copies simply by going to school and attending class.
 
So what’s it all about, this world of Eragon and Eldest? And why is it so popular?
 
Basically, the series concerns a teenager whose name happens to be Eragon. At the age of fifteen, Eragon is living with his uncle Garrow and working on the farm, wondering about the identities of his real parents. His mother, Selena, may still be alive. She left when Eragon was born. And his father is totally unknown to him.
 
Clearly, when a book opens the possibility that someone’s mother may still be alive, she’ll probably show up somewhere before the series ends. It’s like the old smoking gun: if a novel, play, or movie has a smoking gun sitting on the mantel of a fireplace (or elsewhere) in the opening act, there’d better be a reason for the gun later on!
 
As for the “totally unknown” father, this is another smoking gun. We expect Eragon’s father to show up at some point, to be someone powerful (think Darth Vader or a king, major magician, or major good guy), and to either create enormous obstacles for Eragon or to help him. At minimum, we expect to find out if he’s dead or alive; same for Eragon’s mother.
 
At any rate, Eragon likes to wander around a no-man’s land, a dense mountain range called the Spine, and there he finds a blue stone that happens to be a dragon’s egg. Out pops a baby dragon, later named Saphira, and she bonds with Eragon, making him the first Dragon Rider in a very long time.
 
It seems that thousands of years ago, elves and dragons fought, and Dragon Riders brought peace to the land. Eragon’s world is still packed with elves, dragons, black spells, dwarves, and magic of all kinds. There are bad guys, such as the evil king Galbatorix and the Ra’zac, some deadly beetlelike guys. Thrown into the mix are Angela, the herbalist and fortune-teller, and her werecat, Solembum. Eragon and Saphira use mental telepathy to communicate, and the elf princess Arya also uses mental telepathy to “talk to” Eragon.
 
The notion of Dragon Riders has been in other fantasy novels. For example, a book by Cornelia Funke is actually called Dragon Rider. In ancient China in the Han dynasty, people believed that immortal humans rode dragons. They considered dragons to be closely associated with clouds and the seas, lakes, and rivers.3 If somebody was riding a dragon, it meant that he was in perfect harmony with nature, and hence, would live forever, which is what the word “immortal” means. In the famous Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, Frodo encounters a wraith who is riding a dragon. The examples of Dragon Riders are endless.
 
Anne McCaffrey, possibly the queen of dragon fantasy novels, wrote the famous Dragonriders of Pern series and explains on her Web site how she came up with the idea of dragons who are good guys with mental telepathy and deep, symbiotic relationships with humans. She says, “Back in 1967 . . . I had to develop a planet which needed a renewable airforce against some unknown menace and came up with Pern, dragons, Thread and humans who Impressed a hatching in a lifelong symbiotic relationship. Rather wonderful to have an intelligent partner that loves you unconditionally. Who wouldn’t like a forty-foot telepathic dragon as their best friend?”4
 
In the Dragonriders of Pern novels (fourteen books have been published to date), Dragonriders are chosen because they are able to communicate telepathically with giant sentient dragons. The lifetime friendship and close bond between Dragonriders and dragons begins when the dragon hatches. Sound familiar to you? It’s what happens in Eragon when Saphira hatches and bonds with the hero.
 
Even the folk song, “Puff the Magic Dragon,”5 refers to a boy who is riding a dragon. In the song (I don’t know about you, but my teachers made us sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” from kindergarten through sixth grade), “Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff’s gigantic tail.”
 
The first book in Christopher Paolini’s trilogy, Eragon, is filled with chases, kidnappings, adventures, sword fights, fistfights, dwarf kings, weird bald magicians, death, friendship, and love. It is a complete book, round and full of plots and subplots, dozens of characters, and dozens of places. It is what is commonly called an epic tale, one of vast proportions and sweeping storylines.
 
For me, one of the most fun aspects of Eragon is learning about Saphira, the dragon. Sure, dragons have been done before in fantasy books, over and over again. But when an author’s really good, his presentation of dragons is unique. In Eragon, Saphira is lovable from the beginning, and readers can’t help but enjoy watching her grow up alongside her human friend. At first, she cannot breathe fire or fly well. But she grows very quickly, and soon, rather than standing as tall as Eragon’s knees, she is an enormous beast the size of a plane. He makes a harness for her that will grow as she grows, and the description of the harness and how it is created is...