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hedyharper's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Confinement, Pregnancy, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Alcohol, and Death
authorannafaundez's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
About the same pace as the previous book, Eldest, but Brisingr was definitely more character-focused.
Eragon does a lot of learning in this book. He grows up more than he did in Eldest, and I was glad to see him becoming more adult and growing into his own power as well.
Some of the series' biggest reveals are in these pages.
Overall, another great installment to The Inheritance Cycle!
Eragon does a lot of learning in this book. He grows up more than he did in Eldest, and I was glad to see him becoming more adult and growing into his own power as well.
Some of the series' biggest reveals are in these pages.
Overall, another great installment to The Inheritance Cycle!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Blood, and War
Minor: Racism
queenpebbles's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Ableism
The depictions of other cultures are painful and from a very white perspective. Depiction of disability is very ableist and treats any sort of disability as completely debilitating and "life ending" (PTSD, seizures, and limb loss for example)sweetheart_ok's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Grab your flaming sword and prepare for an adventure!
As a fan of the first two installments in this Christopher Paolini series, I was eager to continue the story of Eragon and Saphira. They set off immediately to help Roran save his betrothed, Katrina, who was taken away by the nasty Lethblarka and their foul spawn. The tale involves multiple battles, fights, and skirmishes. Eragon seeks a weapon now that Zarroc has been claimed by Murtagh. Eragon still faces the question of his lineage and what it says about his character. He finds out the truth, and it's not what you think. Eragon and Saphira return to their mentors and find out information that may turn the tides for the Varden.
I enjoyed the book. The action moved through the plot with admirable speed. Eragon remains my favorite character. His adventures in the Dwarven realm delighted me with lore from that interesting race. My absolute favorite moment occurs between Eragon and the elves as he seeks to find a weapon worthy of a rider, and I was awed in a chapter of beauty, creativity, and artistry.
The loss of a wonderful character left me saddened and sympathetic. I wish it could have been different. If you love adventure sagas, character growth, and plenty of fight sequences, this is the book for you
As a fan of the first two installments in this Christopher Paolini series, I was eager to continue the story of Eragon and Saphira. They set off immediately to help Roran save his betrothed, Katrina, who was taken away by the nasty Lethblarka and their foul spawn. The tale involves multiple battles, fights, and skirmishes. Eragon seeks a weapon now that Zarroc has been claimed by Murtagh. Eragon still faces the question of his lineage and what it says about his character. He finds out the truth, and it's not what you think. Eragon and Saphira return to their mentors and find out information that may turn the tides for the Varden.
I enjoyed the book. The action moved through the plot with admirable speed. Eragon remains my favorite character. His adventures in the Dwarven realm delighted me with lore from that interesting race. My absolute favorite moment occurs between Eragon and the elves as he seeks to find a weapon worthy of a rider, and I was awed in a chapter of beauty, creativity, and artistry.
The loss of a wonderful character left me saddened and sympathetic. I wish it could have been different. If you love adventure sagas, character growth, and plenty of fight sequences, this is the book for you
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Minor: Blood, Violence, Confinement, Torture, and Grief
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
It's kind of astounding how much better this book is than Eragon and Eldest on a purely technical level. It really feels like Paolini finally learned how to put sentences together competently. He has an editor now. He's talked to a woman he's not related to, even if that woman was the aforementioned editor.
Where Eldest's use of multiple points of view felt awkward at times because we stayed with the same character for SO LONG before switching again, in Brisingr it feels much more natural. We spend three or four chapters with Eragon and then a chapter or two with Roran or Nasuada or even, in one of my favorite chapters of the whole book, with Saphira as she goes about her routine in Eragon's absence.
The pacing is definitely strange. The first 45% of this book happens over the course of about a week, and then an unknown amount of time passes in the middle, after which things speed up again and the last section also occurs over the course of a week or so. There’s more action than in book two, but the overall plot doesn’t progress much with the exception of two big battles and two major reveals. I didn’t mind that, but I think a lot of other readers likely would.
Paolini cuts down somewhat on the excessive descriptions here, and there are a lot more moments where his passion for describing absolutely everything are put to good use with more intentional and economical writing than in the first two books (though Brisingr is definitely still overly long and wordy in many ways): the descriptions of all of the dwarf clan leaders, the forging scene at the end, the description of Blödhgarm, etc.
Speaking of Blödhgarm, what an absolutely wild character. I remembered that he was an elf furry but I somehow forgot that he is 1) blue and 2) described as smelling EXTREMELY sexy.
I love Arya in this book, and her and Eragon's dynamic is actually really compelling. In a vacuum, I would absolutely root for them based on their interactions here. Unfortunately, there is still about an 85-year age gap and also he HARASSED HER for most of the previous book.
Roran and Katrina are annoying. The human gender roles continue to be absolutely horrendous, and nowhere are the worse than in the framing of this relationship. Paolini has said that they are based on his parents, and maybe his parents have a good dynamic, but I don't like this fictionalized version. It's odd, because normally I'd be all for a man who loves his wife as much as Roran loves Katrina, but it comes with such a strong paternalistic vibe that I simply cannot bring myself to care. The wedding vows? Ick. Like yes they fit the world Paolini has created, but that's his own damn fault for creating it like that.
Elsewhere, however, women do actually feel like people in this book. Nasuada is an excellent leader who makes hard choices and whose gender and culture feel like actually important aspects of how she is without defining her. The random women who get their fortunes told by Angela also feel like real people who have lives beyond what we see and beyond the viewpoints of Eragon and other main characters. Same with the dwarf women we meet in this book, especially the clan leader of the War Wolves. And we learn a bit more about Eragon's mother, though she is still very much defined by her relationships with two specific men.
And there is finally an actually cute romantic relationship: Orik and his wife Hvedra. They are adorable people who admire and support each other. I love them.
I know that a lot of people don't like the dwarf politics section, but I love it. There are so many good moments. It develops aspects of the world we're already familiar with without getting too bogged down in exposition and while still moving the plot along. And the religion stuff is fascinating and continues the philosophical discussions introduced in Eldest and that are also present in Eragon and Arya's scenes as well as the Sloan stuff.
The disability politics are still awful but are much less present. And the ending is heartbreaking.
The Urgals have some weird cultural coding going on, but Eragon's racism finally gets questioned and unpacked, and in general both the Urgals and the Wandering Tribes are portrayed much more normally and sensitively than in the first two books.
Parts of the plot are still Star Wars, but the family stuff gets more complicated, and the themes of inheritance come into play much more seriously.
There are also some interesting explorations of codependency in Eragon and Saphira's relationship that I really appreciated.
I discovered during the reread that a lot of people don't like Brisingr, or at least remember not really vibing with it at kids. I think that could partly be because it's so much more mature. Eragon and Eldest are all vibes and action and worldbuilding, and Brisingr gets much more philosophical and intentional. The author is in his twenties now, and he's grappling with different ideas than he was as a teenager, and so the conversations here are much more interesting to young adult readers (like I am now) than to the tweens and teens who were the target audience for the first two books.
I am genuinely excited to get to my reread of Inheritance. I remember it being incredibly divisive when it came out, and I am interested to see what my thoughts are on it now, more than ten years after I first read it. I remember the basic plot beats but very little else.
For the first time in my Inheritance Cycle reread, I would genuinely recommend this book with only a few caveats. Basically, if you slogged through the first two and are wondering if this one is worth it, or if you remember not liking this book as much as a kid, I think you should give it a try.
Where Eldest's use of multiple points of view felt awkward at times because we stayed with the same character for SO LONG before switching again, in Brisingr it feels much more natural. We spend three or four chapters with Eragon and then a chapter or two with Roran or Nasuada or even, in one of my favorite chapters of the whole book, with Saphira as she goes about her routine in Eragon's absence.
The pacing is definitely strange. The first 45% of this book happens over the course of about a week, and then an unknown amount of time passes in the middle, after which things speed up again and the last section also occurs over the course of a week or so. There’s more action than in book two, but the overall plot doesn’t progress much with the exception of two big battles and two major reveals. I didn’t mind that, but I think a lot of other readers likely would.
Paolini cuts down somewhat on the excessive descriptions here, and there are a lot more moments where his passion for describing absolutely everything are put to good use with more intentional and economical writing than in the first two books (though Brisingr is definitely still overly long and wordy in many ways): the descriptions of all of the dwarf clan leaders, the forging scene at the end, the description of Blödhgarm, etc.
Speaking of Blödhgarm, what an absolutely wild character. I remembered that he was an elf furry but I somehow forgot that he is 1) blue and 2) described as smelling EXTREMELY sexy.
I love Arya in this book, and her and Eragon's dynamic is actually really compelling. In a vacuum, I would absolutely root for them based on their interactions here. Unfortunately, there is still about an 85-year age gap and also he HARASSED HER for most of the previous book.
Roran and Katrina are annoying. The human gender roles continue to be absolutely horrendous, and nowhere are the worse than in the framing of this relationship. Paolini has said that they are based on his parents, and maybe his parents have a good dynamic, but I don't like this fictionalized version. It's odd, because normally I'd be all for a man who loves his wife as much as Roran loves Katrina, but it comes with such a strong paternalistic vibe that I simply cannot bring myself to care. The wedding vows? Ick. Like yes they fit the world Paolini has created, but that's his own damn fault for creating it like that.
Elsewhere, however, women do actually feel like people in this book. Nasuada is an excellent leader who makes hard choices and whose gender and culture feel like actually important aspects of how she is without defining her. The random women who get their fortunes told by Angela also feel like real people who have lives beyond what we see and beyond the viewpoints of Eragon and other main characters. Same with the dwarf women we meet in this book, especially the clan leader of the War Wolves. And we learn a bit more about Eragon's mother, though she is still very much defined by her relationships with two specific men.
And there is finally an actually cute romantic relationship: Orik and his wife Hvedra. They are adorable people who admire and support each other. I love them.
I know that a lot of people don't like the dwarf politics section, but I love it. There are so many good moments. It develops aspects of the world we're already familiar with without getting too bogged down in exposition and while still moving the plot along. And the religion stuff is fascinating and continues the philosophical discussions introduced in Eldest and that are also present in Eragon and Arya's scenes as well as the Sloan stuff.
The disability politics are still awful but are much less present. And the ending is heartbreaking.
The Urgals have some weird cultural coding going on, but Eragon's racism finally gets questioned and unpacked, and in general both the Urgals and the Wandering Tribes are portrayed much more normally and sensitively than in the first two books.
Parts of the plot are still Star Wars, but the family stuff gets more complicated, and the themes of inheritance come into play much more seriously.
There are also some interesting explorations of codependency in Eragon and Saphira's relationship that I really appreciated.
I discovered during the reread that a lot of people don't like Brisingr, or at least remember not really vibing with it at kids. I think that could partly be because it's so much more mature. Eragon and Eldest are all vibes and action and worldbuilding, and Brisingr gets much more philosophical and intentional. The author is in his twenties now, and he's grappling with different ideas than he was as a teenager, and so the conversations here are much more interesting to young adult readers (like I am now) than to the tweens and teens who were the target audience for the first two books.
I am genuinely excited to get to my reread of Inheritance. I remember it being incredibly divisive when it came out, and I am interested to see what my thoughts are on it now, more than ten years after I first read it. I remember the basic plot beats but very little else.
For the first time in my Inheritance Cycle reread, I would genuinely recommend this book with only a few caveats. Basically, if you slogged through the first two and are wondering if this one is worth it, or if you remember not liking this book as much as a kid, I think you should give it a try.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, War, Xenophobia, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Hate crime, Ableism, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Pregnancy
jodean's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Death, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Grief, and War
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Slavery, Pregnancy, and Body horror
abby_can_read's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
📖
I adored this book. I love Saphira. The characters are amazing and their relationships are good. The worldbuilding is great. The pacing isn't consistent, it's slow at times and fast at others but overall it's fine.
I adored this book. I love Saphira. The characters are amazing and their relationships are good. The worldbuilding is great. The pacing isn't consistent, it's slow at times and fast at others but overall it's fine.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and Racism
Minor: Death of parent, Slavery, and Torture
coreyarch9's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
My favorite installment in the series yet - the action. The revelations. The urge to dive right into Inheritance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy and Slavery
_rowantree_'s review against another edition
adventurous
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I didn’t get into this series as a child but I love epic fantasy and thought I’d give them a go when I saw the audiobooks in my library app. I somewhat enjoyed the first two, although the main characters irritated me and the pace dragged a bit. My library had the abridged version of book 3 so that’s the edition I am reviewing. The audiobook was missing about 60% of the content and I had to keep rewinding to try to work out what was going on. I didn’t mind the narrator but compared to the previous narrator they used different pronunciations and accents which was quite annoying. I might read the last book at some point just to finish the series but I won’t be in a rush. I had wanted to like this series because I know a lot of people do and I usually love books with magic and dragons, but this just wasn’t for me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Death of parent
redhairedashreads's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars - I liked it
This book continues Eragon’s journey and starts a few days after the end of the previous book. Unlike the previous books, this book gives us multiple characters' perspectives and we jump all around Alagaësia as the story takes us back to the dwarves and elves and also into Galbatorix’s territory.
Some of the main things that happen in this story are that Eragon keeps his promise to Roran and helps rescue Katrina, Eragon kills the Ra’zac, he marries Katrina and Roran, Eragon travels to the dwarves to help elect a new king, he returns briefly to the elves and gets a new sword, Eragon learns that his father was actually Brom, how Galbatorix stays so strong was revealed, and we see Gladir and Orimis fall against Galbatorix and Murtaugh.
There were a lot of very important things that happened in this book, but also a lot of this book felt a bit tedious. There was a lot of time spent on politics and other descriptions that felt a bit tedious at times. It made me glad I was listening to the audiobook because I would have struggled reading multiple pages about crafting a sword or dwarven politics.
Overall, I did enjoy the continuation of Eragon’s story but this one felt a bit more tedious with all the political vows pulling Eragon all over the place and having to be explained to him. It is interesting to see such a well developed and thought out world but at the same time I could have done with a lot less explanation for some of these scenes.
CW: kidnapping and imprisonment; PTSD and nightmares; self-harm, whipping; war and mass death; gore and injuries; death of a friend and mentor;
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, War, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Kidnapping