Reviews - Murtagh | The StoryGraph

2.95k reviews for:

Murtagh

Christopher Paolini

4.05 AVERAGE

_aurorac's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

onahill13's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

melbric's review

3.25

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The last quarter of this book saves it, the middle half is mostly filler. It was a nice edition to the series but definitely not needed or vital.

lmluft's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lis98's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have to preface this with that this review is extremely biased by the nostalgia I feel for the eragon series since it was such a big part of my childhood. I love the characters and the world so much that I would read anything about them. Because of this I also have very little qualms with the at times meandering writing style which Christopher Paolini is often rightfully criticized for, even though I thought he did better on this book.
To start off with the good things: I like the way Murtagh and his dragon are written and especially how their bond and their traumas are explored.

I think Thorn’s PTSD and claustrophobia was really well written, I just hope that in the next book he won’t be just simply over it just because he managed to overcome it to save his rider from that cave in the end. That would cheapen it a lot imo. If I remember correctly this might be the first book I ever read where the main character actually breaks under torture which i appreciate for its realism. I always think that it’s unrealistic for everyone to withstand this amount of pain.

The felt very much like real people, especially since Paolini didn’t shy away from giving them a few unlikable traits like bitterness and jealousy.

What I found to be quite weird is the way the plot went. Especially the part until they left Gilead felt like I was reading a video game play through. We were sent on a bunch of extremely random side quests (the magic fish really took me out) and I was wondering the whole time why we were here and what we were trying to accomplish. The whole arc also felt so inconsequential to the overarching storyline. The part in the village was really well written but when it came to the final fight we were back to the video game feeling. Like we were playing through a dungeon. This really took me out of the story. Maybe someone needs to tell Paolini that it’s not the end of the world if his book isn’t 700 pages.
I also didn’t read enjoy the way he wrote fight scenes. I can’t really pinpoint the problem but they were kind of boring and anticlimactic.
I’m not a huge fan of the ending.

I don’t know why Paolini chose this evil dragon god when one of the main criticisms for Eragon were its similarities to Lord of the Rings. And now he’s chosing a giant dragon as the antagonist for the second arch in a he series? I don’t really understand this decision. I also think it’s an unnecessary jump in stakes. We could have had so many more reasonable antagonists.

Overall I really enjoyed the character work and the plot so that the weird structure didn’t bother me too much. I’m not 100% sure about the path the story takes from here on but I’m still curious about the next book and will give it the benefit of the doubt until I see where we’re going.

Content Warnings

sumaya98smerdon's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

iracunda's review against another edition

4.0

If you had told me when I finished the inheritance cycle that we would be getting a book centering on Murtagh, I would have been thrilled. I still am. It was very good. Murtagh doesn't have the same grasp of the ancient language as Eragon. He didn't get the same teachings. He didn't have the same support. The book definitely centered on Murtagh's need to redeem himself in his own eyes and keep his own freedom. After blitzing through a reread of Eragon, Paolini's writing has improved a lot. Not that it was ever bad.

And the big bad in this one was always more mysterious until near the end. Even when we knew her band and who she was, she was a mystery.