Subject: Also
Author:
Posted on: 2012-01-12 21:15:00 UTC
Did anyone else find his insertion of Platonic ideals having names interesting?
Subject: Also
Author:
Posted on: 2012-01-12 21:15:00 UTC
Did anyone else find his insertion of Platonic ideals having names interesting?
Welp
It's that time again. I have Inheritance. I am going to read Inheritance. And I am going to critique inheritance, chapter, by chapter. (Hopefully not kill myself)
If you want to read along come here:
http://kippurcritiques.livejournal.com/profile
First part is here: http://kippurcritiques.livejournal.com/67852.html
Heya! So you're Kippur. I've heard about you.
I actually like IC. Even if I never could get into it like I do with Redwall, Harry Potter, Death Note, and so forth, I still like it. I know, I know, stolen plot, major Gary Stus/Mary Sues, etcetera, and most PPCers don't approve in any way. I just have a few things to say.
On the subject of Sues/Stus- yes, yes they are. Arya, no doubt about it. Nasuada, kninda. Murtagh and Eragon aren't so bad- Murtagh is a bit more gray than good or bad, and Eragon would be a total Stu if he wasn't Too Dumb to Live. Roran is demi-Stu. He's super-strong, but there's a logical explanation of all that time spent doing farm work and, after that, helping in Horst's forge. It's not an excsue to kill around three hundred soldiers in one go, but still. Also, he's only slightly less thick than Eragon, still TDTL. Saphira, I'm not sure about. Yes, she's infintely wise, incredibly powerful, and rather emotional, but she's also so vain and proud it makes Draco Malfoy look humble. And then there's one other character we need to bring up on that charge: Angela. She's uber-powerful, probably old beyond measure, her mind is razor-sharp, and she spends a lot of her time being unbelievably badass. But she's also amoral, bats**t crazy, and isn't exactly charismatic.
On the stolen plot: I agree completely. It follows the same basic line. Poor farmboy becomes part of a long-forgotten order of badass people of various races, goes on a journey with an old dude who teaches him stuff, gains special powers, a special weapon (he even participates in the forging of Brisingr, much as Luke made his own lightsaber), and many strong allies, and eventually brings down the big bad Empire. I don't know if Paolini did that intentionally, but it seems like it. It was almost a matter of just replacing names and terms.
Urlple Prose, I didn't actually spot much of. Certainly it was there, especially when they talked about Arya, Saphira, or many Elven or Dwarvish cities. And it was horrible. But the books aren't truly riddled with it.
And yes, the Ancient Language, Dwarvish, and Urgal are cat-on-keyboard. Although that does make them unbelievably fun to try and pronounce!
The Cycle does have some small merit, basically. The books are fairly large, and an entertaining read when you can't sleep or have a long car ride (provided you're a passenger, of course!).
I know the lot of you are virulent Paolini haters, but I thought the second part was fun to read.
The first part, now, that was a bunch of pointless Iliad-style, "And then I swung overhand and crushed his shoulder and then he tried to stab me but it didn't work because a random dwarf came up and axed his head off which was good but then the dwarf got hit by an arrow" sort of thing.
*goes off to read pluggage*
Nothing wrong with liking it. It's sort of a "So bad it's good in some sort of weird way" thing. The ideas are very good, it's just the follow through that is the biggest issue. That and the fact that Eragon consistently engages in non-heroic behavior but we're told that he is heroic.
Did anyone else find his insertion of Platonic ideals having names interesting?
Ohdearlord Paolini.
Good luck... you'll need it.
I can't seem to find the previous books on there... I shall continue looking. The Internet confuses my head, though.
Eldest: http://kippurcritiques.livejournal.com/tag/eldest%20book
Eragon: http://kippurcritiques.livejournal.com/tag/eragon%20book
And apparently I forgot to put Brisingr on the community. Brilliant.
To see how awful it is.
Yay! I've been waiting for this for a while now! Thank you for reading this!
Hopefully you can stay sane while you read the book!
Assuming that we call what I am now currently "sane" then yes, we will have to see if I can keep up this level of sanity.
I just finished reading it. I think part of my brain was actually consumed by plot holes and bad science. Oh, and the constant urple.
Good luck on the critiquing. I'll be reading with interest.
With any luck you'll enjoy a full nervous breakdown into gibberish.
It'll be AWESOME. :D
... I should not be happy about that.
I too am reading the book, and I'd just like to say that there is a nuclear physics uberfail in there somewhere. I was tearing my hair out for days afterwards.