davidaolson 's review for:

Eldest by Christopher Paolini
1.0

So bad. So ridiculously bad. The first one was better for several reasons, but mostly because it's not bloated like this.

This review says almost everything I have to say on this novel, but says it better and more thoroughly than I could.

http://swankivy.com/writing/essays/info/inheritance/eldest.html


I did listen to the audio book and wanted to comment on that. Gerard Doyle, the reader, has a pleasant voice that for the most part works well with this novel. However, he does run out of voices. The dragon sounds like one of the dwarves. Rorrin/Perrin and Aragorn/Eragon both sound essentially the same (whiny teenagers), which does fit their personalities but makes it hard to tell which is talking.

Now this is weird, and there may be a reason for it, but sometimes he pronounces "privacy" as with a British accent and sometimes with an American accent. I have no idea what that was about.

Anyway, I'll continue the series after a short break. The best part of listening to this book is that now every other book I listen to will seem better because I've seen how bad bad can get.