Teens are from 12 to 18. A large portion of them have no political savvy, period.

Besides, it's the way minds work at that age. When I was 12 I read Shakespear's Julius Ceasar and I took that bit where Marc Athony was making the speech standing over Ceasar's corpse at face value. Some years later, I read in another book about how skillfully manipulating that speech was, inticing rebellion while saying how honourable Brutus was. I felt like a tool then and made a point of learning the basics of politics and so many funnies and jokes made sense after that.

It's a marketing blurb. People said 'oh my god, he's fifteen and wrote this amazing thing' and never stopped to ask 'wait, haven't i seen something else where a farm boy grows up in the shadow of an evil empire, then accidentally gets his hands on the one secret key that could defeat the empire, then has to take this to some wise old mystic who happens to have known the farm boy's real dad, and offers to train the farm boy to be a mystical knight-thing like the boy's dad, and they go off to fight the empire with a cocky scoundrel type of character, only the wise old mystic gets killed by some evil henchman of the evil emperor, and it turns out (later) that the evil henchman is actually the farm boy protagonist's father'

i dunno... i mean, sounds kinda like its been done before.

then there's anne macafree or whatever her name is. dragon riders of pern, etc.

i mean, i'm not putting down derrivative work. like i said earlier, i enjoy Robert Jordan, warts and all. i enjoy star wars, even though it was basicly a rip off of a couple of japanese films by kurosawa, set in space.

but if you're gonna rip off star wars, at least do it a bit better than this guy did. I mean, it's just blatant.

Pfft. I have enough political savvy to know that one day I'm going to take over the world.

How come you claim twelve year olds as teenagers, but not nineTEEN year olds?

ARGH! DIE TYPO DIE!

Sorry about that

Anyways, rip-off though it may be, it's light-years ahead of Terry Brooks' "Magic Kingdom for Sale-Sold!".

I haven't read Eragon, but I have read an interview with the author, who said that he took all his favourite bits of his favourite stories, which he listed - I remember him mentioning Star Wars and LotR, among others - and rewrote them into one story. In other words, the world's most successful multi-crossover fanfic.

Nuff said.

Abernathy was nice.

At the risk of being lynched here...

blatant commercialism ripping of classics is not neccesarily bad.
It brings new fans and so new ideas into the genre.

Yes the kid wrote the same book that a million other authers have already written but if he can grow from that its good for the future of the genre.


The writing itself wasnt that bad either, obviously some of you on here are very technically adept writers ( I've read and enjoyed a lot of the work on this website guys props to all of you) and so maybe this guy annoys you cos he isnt.
Now Me I aint'nt as good a writer as you clever chaps...but I am a punter who buys books and I liked what a I read see .....well mostly a little maturity wont do him any harm.

Like I said, I haven't even read the books, so I couldn't comment on his writing style. I just couldn't find the logic in some earlier comments where it was being said that the books weren't very skilfully written or original but were still good because they were 'good for a teen'.

And I still don't see why he's published if this is the case. I don't see how poorer quality versions of the same story filling up the shelves in the fantasy section is a good thing for the genre. If he's a competent enough writer, and like you said 'he can grow from that', then let him grow from that and develop his own ideas before he gets published. That way, he actually might contribute something worthwhile to the genre.

While it might bring more kids to the genre purely through its commercial presence, new fans doesn't mean new ideas. If anything, it's going to encourage other competent writers to sink into the same mould. Then the genre loses its innovation. I actually don't read all that many fantasy books because I glance at the blurbs and so many of them sound the same.

Plus, why should this guy be making money from ideas that are so blatantly not his? I just think there's something wrong with that, whether his books are well-written or not.

I liked the film but not the ending, which didn't seem to complete the story.
But then I was told it's a trilogy so I guess I'll have to read the books to see what happens. Don't think they will make any more films.

i suppose we can be thankful for THAT at least.

i dunno, i mean, this kid rips off star wars, pern, and a half dozen other fantasy settings and then he gets to sell the rights to this plagirism for god knows how much to the movie studios?

meanwhile, where the hell's the film adaptation of Neuromancer or, hell, even Xanth?

lets face it: book publishers want to publish books that will sell for big money. this kid took a lot of successful ideas, put them in the blender of his imagination, and (more than likely) cast himself as the hero. this is teenage fantasy audience gold. sure its glorified fanfic, and the kid never should have gotten a publishing contract for fear of a hundred different lawsuits, but maybe its just 'original' enough to avoid that kind of problem.

and, after all, the book publishers just want to sell books.

It's the pity, actually: LOTR prooved you could make good* films out of fantasy books and lure lots of people into the movie theatres. And instead of giving all the good books a chance, they ruin it with films like these.

*Good in terms of moviemaking. Some will never like to see the book of their heart on the screen, and every film could be more perfect. But in terms of movie standards, the LOTR series was really good.

I agree with everything CJ just said.

Exactly! So much of what is written is rehash pf previous stuff so other than being slightly more obvious how is he any different?
My favourite fantasy series is the Belgariad by David Eddings. Amazing story telling, brilliant characters and writing that can make me laugh and cry. I read the rest of his stuff and enjoy it as well, but purely for the writing and the characters because he tells the same damn story everytime ( I have a theory that he does it for a reason to do with the constant battle between good and evil but thats a conversation for a different topic)

I read fantasy for escapism, every now and then I fall on something close to unique and if its written well I count myself blessed for finding it, but I dont expect everything to be unique , just enjoyable to read.

there is another arguement as well but Im not educated enough to make it... something about there only being 7 stories to tell or something? Dunno if any of you who can clarify that or not.

Musicians make money on cover versions. Peter Jackson made money telling Tolkiens story, I could go on for ever with examples of people making money from others idea's. (though to be fair just cos I can give examples it doesnt make it right)
THing is he can only make money from it if people buy it, and much as people may dissaprove for whatever reasons the fact is more people are giving him the money.

Chris if you want to read it in order to make your mind up for sure if its well written but dont want to "sell out" by giving him your money let me know andI'll send you my copy


I have no idea if his writing is technically good or not. I spotted a few things that "I" would have done differently especially in fight scenes etc but then I couldnt have written it in such a manner as people would enjopy reading it ( believe me Ive tried plenty)[/quote]

I must have missed something, I tortured myself through the series and came out on the other end feeling I had been raped.