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bisexualwentworth's review
Rereading this book for the first time since middle school and it sure isn’t very good, huh?
I definitely couldn’t have written a better book as a teen, to be clear, and I still find this story very entertaining and fun and generally engaging. Saphira is one of my favorite dragon characters ever. Murtagh is wonderfully compelling. Christopher Paolini’s descriptions are very lush (sometimes overly so). And if I continue rereading more of the series I know I’ll enjoy Nasuada and Roran’s sections.
The gender of it all is just as messy and sloppy as I remembered, and the handling of disability is definitely abysmal and I don’t recall it getting better.
The worldbuilding and plot are generally unoriginal, but I really don’t care because 1) I enjoy it and 2) again, the author was SO YOUNG when he wrote it. There are some very silly aspects of the worldbuilding, though. I definitely assumed that the Ancient Language was much more of a conlang as a kid than it actually is. So much of it is just kinda sloppy Latin with some Japanese thrown in I feel like? Goofy.
Anyway I think that we need more overly long silly fun dragon books.
I definitely couldn’t have written a better book as a teen, to be clear, and I still find this story very entertaining and fun and generally engaging. Saphira is one of my favorite dragon characters ever. Murtagh is wonderfully compelling. Christopher Paolini’s descriptions are very lush (sometimes overly so). And if I continue rereading more of the series I know I’ll enjoy Nasuada and Roran’s sections.
The gender of it all is just as messy and sloppy as I remembered, and the handling of disability is definitely abysmal and I don’t recall it getting better.
The worldbuilding and plot are generally unoriginal, but I really don’t care because 1) I enjoy it and 2) again, the author was SO YOUNG when he wrote it. There are some very silly aspects of the worldbuilding, though. I definitely assumed that the Ancient Language was much more of a conlang as a kid than it actually is. So much of it is just kinda sloppy Latin with some Japanese thrown in I feel like? Goofy.
Anyway I think that we need more overly long silly fun dragon books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Ableism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual assault
books_and_cream_cheese's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book is a HUGE sausage party. Where them girls at? I'm sorry, Saphira doesn't count - the ladies either unimportant oh-so-hot side characters, georgeously unconscious damsels in distress or an old witch.
Apart from a unnecessarily long plot with so many things that lead absolutely nowhere and a far-too-flawless protagonist - this was surprisingly entertaining and a page turner. Written by a horny teenage boy dreaming about adventures for horny teenage boys dreaming about adventures.
Apart from a unnecessarily long plot with so many things that lead absolutely nowhere and a far-too-flawless protagonist - this was surprisingly entertaining and a page turner. Written by a horny teenage boy dreaming about adventures for horny teenage boys dreaming about adventures.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Sexual assault
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