My niece lent me this book and I didn't enjoy it at all. The writing is crisp but soon becomes monotonous as he recounts events each sentence the same as the last. I stopped halfway through but it felt like a decent RPG retold by a fairly coherent teen. This book is a major hit in America, can the fantasy genre be in such a sorry state? Was I just in a bad mood when I tried to read it ?Pterry ruined me for genre fiction and forced me into the litterature section. Is this what fantasy has become?

I thought it was ok. Nothing amazing, and didn't really try to add any thing new to the genre but a solid story, nonetheless.

I picked it up a couple of weeks ago.
I read the bio of the author and I think the fact that he is a teenager affected my opinion and possibly made me more forgiving of any flaws in the writing.

It was in the childrens literature section and to be fair whilst the writer does need to mature his style a little I think it belongs more in the fantasy section than in the childrens section.

If I remember correctly he was 14/15 when he wrote this... I think its a good sign for the future of fantasy literature that we are getting this stuff out.

The book I picked up had stills from the film in the centre as well and since then Ive seen the trailer on TV for the film of the book. I'll definetly watch the film at the cinema...heck it cant be any worse than Dungeons and Dragons the movie.

Then again, no film could.

I submit "Ghosts of Mars".

I got to watch it for free and walked out. that's 1 hour I'm never getting back....

back on topic: Haven't read Eragon yet, but I'd like too.

I've heard the film is terrible. The trailer looks awfull. It's like the director picked up Dungoens and Dragons and said ' I want to make something exactly like this'.

When I went to see Casino Royale, I saw a cardboard stand display thing advertising Eragon in the lobby. My thoughts were immediately: 'Oh look, Lord of the Rings but with kids.'

I won't be reading the books or seeing the movie, purely based on my possibly-incorrect assumption that this is just another Tolkienalike.

In other news:

Dungeons and Dragons = BEST FILM EVER.

I hope you are just being surreal, Chris. Or it's Ba's kitchen duty for you.

I read both Eragon and Eldest. I saw the plot twists coming a mile away, but I understand why teenagers would like it; they don't have the political, or life, savvy to fully appreciate Terry Pratchett at that age

If can summarize the answers. Was I too hard on the book ? Maybe a little. Is modern fantasy this sad? Yeah pretty much. I should have included a poll. Talk and hope of a good fantasy movie is another topic. Good film /tv fantasy is so rare the only one I can recall off the top of my head is The Princess Bride. I didn't realize how many people suffer from insomnia till they handed Peter Jackson an academy award. It may help to remember that cinema genres are different than litterary ones. Good fantasy film? Try Amelie or Shadow of the Vampire

um... I'm STILL trying to wrap my brain around the Shadow of the Vampire! Most of it seemed interesting, albeit so cynical it burned a hole in my brain, but then ...at the very end... it was just a great big WHAT THE ?!!!

Sorry the cynisism is just me pretending to be smarter than I am .The movies we're off the cuff. Anyone can mention bad fantasy films but good ones ...Princess Mononoke!

first off, don't ask for opinions and then ask people to sumarize them. that's just rude.

as for being too hard on the books, no, if anything you weren't hard enough. keep in mind, this kid wrote these books by taking everything he liked from other works and combining them into something new.

eragon is Star Wars with a liberal helping of Dragon Riders of Pern, Dune, Dragonlance, and Lord of the Rings.

its not 'derivative', its a blatant rip off work.

you can complain that robert jordan is just cashing in on the tolkein world building exercise by writing a 12 volume version of the silmarillion, but at least some of that world building is slightly original. the kid who wrote eragon's never had an original thought in his life.

Garner, I would disagree with you there.

No, they're not very skillfully written, and no, they aren't very original, but I would still think that they are not that terrible. They are well done for a teen.

Sacharissa, I would disagree, yes they are more suitable for teenagers who haven't read that much of the genre, but I don't think that teens don't have the life/political savvy to appreciate pTerry. I would say that a large part of his genius is that you can read it and not get a large amount of the jokes while still finding it funny. I would agree with you that the more life/political savvy you have the more of his jokes you will get, but I don't follow that savvy necessarily comes with age.

Blah to that. Either he writes well, or he doesn't. This whole 'for a teen' business is irrelevant; if he doesn't simply write well, without any supposed mitigating factors coming into it, you can't say that it is a good book.

And the fact is, if his ideas are just rehashes of Tolkien's or George Lucas', being a teen doesn't excuse it. It's still plagiarism, and he's still getting money for it.

And if they're not skilfully written or original...what's left? The fact that he's a published teen? Then...why is he a published teen?

My thoughts exactly.

Was it published because it was written by a teenager?

Because then it's just a marketing trick.