When it comes to books, bigger isn’t always better.
The longer a story is, it doesn’t always mean that the longer you get to prolong the feeling of enjoyment reading it.
And somebody desperately needs to remind Christopher Paolini that.
Inheritance, the long awaited ending to the Inheritance Cycle was heralded with much fanfare, with sales soaring through the roof (it is currently ranked atop the New York Times Bestseller List for 2011) as fans eagerly snapped up the books to finally discover the answers to the hundreds of questions that have been debated and discussed in fan forums: Will Eragon finally defeat Galbatorix? What of the mysterious green dragon, and who will be its new rider? Will Eragon really leave Alagaesia?
Paolini answers those questions and many more-albeit in a ridiculously long-winded and drawn-out fashion.
Now don’t get me wrong; I was one of those fans rushing to get their hands on Inheritance the very minute it hit bookstores so I’m certainly no anti-Shurtugal taking a swipe at Inheritance; I’m just a big fan that had quite a severe let-down.
I wasn’t a fan of Eragon, but Eldest was a big improvement and I really quite enjoyed Brisingr. Nonetheless, Inheritance is, to me; the weakest of the cycle.
The book opens with a battle scene (as do countless other chapters later on); possibly set a few days after that devastating loss at Gil’ead where Murtagh (or more accurately, Galbatorix through Murtagh) had slain Eragon’s mentor; Oromis and his dragon, Glaedr. We see Eragon, Saphira and the Varden preparing to storm the city of Feinster; the first of many other sieges as they continue their long march to Urubaen to confront the wicked, iron-fisted antagonist of the series, Galbatorix. The opening part of the book starts out promisingly enough; the discovery of the Dauthdaert; a long-forgotten dragon-killer weapon that Galbatorix possibly doesn’t know about; an interesting thought of Nasuada’s as she ponders marriage to Orrin as a way of resolving the mounting conflict between herself and the Surdan king among others; all of them pointed towards an exciting build-up towards the final showdown between Eragon and Galbatorix.
Filled with renewed courage and a hope of victory, we march with the Varden as they continue their journey across the Empire to Galbatorix’s lair. But eventually the plot begins to lose its shape and structure; melting instead into a never-ending description of battle after siege after capture. There were some interesting moments; such as the battle with the crazy Helgrind priests and Eragon’s narrow escape from becoming Ra’zac fodder but most of it sinks into unmemorable oblivion. One gets the feeling that Paolini could have spared his readers much of the painstaking detail, and instead focussed on what was necessary.
For me, a few good twists were the discovery of the secret stash of Eldunari and dragon eggs in the Vault of Souls within the Rock of Kuthian as well as Galbatorix having seemingly unstoppable control of the ancient language, having guessed its true name; however surprises such as these were few and far between. Many plot sequences felt clichéd and whisper it, generic. It was easy to guess that Eragon and Saphira would somehow manage to discover their true names in order to open the Vault of Souls; that somehow a spell that required “no language” would be the one to finally break Galbatorix (think non-verbal spells from Harry Potter) and that when push came to shove; Eragon would somehow defeat Galbatorix because Paolini has already said this will be the last book. Oh and Arya being the new Rider was another sadly, widely-guessed cliché.
IMHO, there were so many interesting subplots that could have been explored further; a good example being Angela. After relatively muted cameos in the first 3 books, Angela is given a much meatier role in Book 4 and she does not disappoint; proving to be full of tricks up her sleeve and more than a match for most foes, despite her being a mere “herbalist”. One of the more interesting characters in the series, she lends an air of intrigue and mystique that leaves the reader wanting to delve more into her surely interesting and storied past; but although Paolini leaves tantalising hints that he will answer those queries somewhere later in the book, he never does. The romantic in me was also vastly disappointed at the lack of relationship development in the book, despite all the potential that had been promised throughout the first 3 books. It is a great shame that Eragon and Arya’s love was not realized; as theirs had the making of an epic romance and the tantalizing feeling had always been that Arya would reciprocate Eragon’s feelings after the war with Galbatorix was over. The build-up to it had been promising, with Arya hinting in earlier chapters that she had begun to feel something more for the Rider but when the time came to say goodbye; it almost felt flat. Many readers were enraged that not even a kiss was written into the ending!
Another intriguing subplot was the hinted romantic feelings that Murtagh held for Nasuada. A popular pairing in Inheritance fandom, I was nonetheless surprised to see it used as an actual plot element, and that it actually ended up being Murtagh’s saving grace. Much was left unsaid of the pair, and the ending gives no further mention as to whether Murtagh eventually returns from his wanderings with Thorn and whether he returns to Nasuada. Another interesting character that was woefully underdeveloped.
As hinted above, insufficient character development has been one of my main gripes with the series; the protagonist Eragon himself is guilty of feeling at times, one-dimensional. He has an almost Gary-Stu feel to him; I was never really able to connect with him the way I did with Harry Potter, Darren Shan and all the rest of those great fantasy protagonists. His struggles are believable enough, but Paolini does not reveal a darker, more human side to him; Eragon’s goals and mindset have always been unwaveringly clear, his thoughts and intentions always noble and immune to temptation and personally, therein lies the problem-we can’t empathize with him because he doesn’t feel real enough. Sure he grows up much during the series; from the shy farmer’s boy who found a dragon’s egg to a fearsome warrior and proficient magician, but he lacks mental depth. One of my favourite parts of the Harry Potter series was the character developments of both Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore; where JK Rowling gradually explored both the good and the flawed aspects of their personality, being and background; leading us to understand and accept why they made the decisions they did, we could draw parallels with them and real people making real decisions.
Many parts of the book were also irrelevant and bordering on self-indulgent as they added little or nothing to the plot: Did we really need a whole chapter on Orik making a stone, or Saphira flying through a storm? The constant battle descriptions were also distracting and broke the flow of the story for the reader. Many a time I was tempted to skip yet another lengthy description of how Roran bashed yet another soldier but I read through them all, afraid of missing something important.
While the final confrontation with Galbatorix was decently contrived, the ending has left fans divided, with many expressing dismay that the series has effectively been “killed” off as Eragon can never return to Alagaesia. Personally, that conclusion was inevitable given Angela’s earlier prediction and after reading the remaining few chapters after the Varden’s victory, it also seems the most practical. Nonetheless, the ending felt rushed and unsatisfactory; as many loose ends remain untied and the reader is left with the half-hungry feeling in his stomach of insufficient satisfaction after too little to eat. What were the seven words Brom last spoke, what is Eragon’s true name, how was it that Galbatorix was able to have knowledge of every single one of the Varden’s activities, and who or what were his spies? What of the remaining Ra’zac eggs? Is the missing belt of Beloth the Wise ever found again? It has been suggested that an epilogue of all the main characters would have served the purpose better, but one could also argue that for a change, it is nice not to have the book end immediately after the villain has been killed; showing that there are still troubles and things to sort out even after the main course has been served and it is nice to learn a bit more about Eragon’s plans for the future. Of course, it could also be that Paolini has deliberately left these questions unanswered as he prepares to write a further book on Alagaesia, as hinted when he said that he might “revisit Alagaesia once again”, but one could also argue that he created too many plot holes than he could tie-up in the normal course of story-telling.
After visiting some major fan forums, an interesting yet unusual reason that has also been cited as an issue was the failure to kill off a major character (I had half-expected Murtagh to sacrifice himself to save Eragon, cliché as that might have been); just to add plot interest. Throughout the book, Roran seemed the most likely to die, Paolini having written in so many false alarms! As a sucker for happy endings, I’m not sorry that no major character deaths occurred; but one cannot deny that it would have made for a more interesting ending to see how Eragon might deal with the grief and possibly guilt that the victory had come at such a high cost.
Overall, for a book that had been hyped so much but ultimately failed to deliver on most counts, I would award Inheritance 2.5 stars out of 5, but the entire series deserves a 3.5 at least. Paolini has created a stunningly detailed world and for the most part, a spellbinding adventure despite its numerous flaws. The writing can often sink into dull recital mode but the wonderful imagery should be more than enough to counter that, and it is not half a bad series to spend a Sunday afternoon curled up with.
