A review by bittersweet_symphony
Eldest by Christopher Paolini

3.0

Builds nicely upon the previous book that did well in setting up the world for the reader. However, I found that as Paolini took the reader deeper into the training of Eragon as a rider, the more he lost me as a reader. In the training he dabbles into some heavy philosophical and theological topics. He only touches them on the surface, but the results he comes to were highly disagreeable. Using Elves as his most advanced or "perfect" people, they are the voice for most of these things. The wise elf training Eragon derides the idea of faith/belief in religion and hypocritically champions the "flawlessness" of analytical reason, empiricism, etc. My friend said it best, "what else did you expect from a boy who was home schooled and never went to college?" Ignoring this, it is a fun read and has a couple major twists toward the end of the book. It is a great accomplishment and a great narrative for such a young writer.