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Eldest

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Eldest
Cover of USA first edition
AuthorChristopher Paolini
IllustratorJohn Jude Palencar
Cover artistJohn Jude Palencar
LanguageEnglish
SeriesInheritance cycle
GenreFantasy
PublisherAlfred A. Knopf
Publication date
August 23, 2005
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD
Pages704 pp (hardcover edition)
ISBNISBN 0-375-82670-X (hardcover edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byEragon 
Followed byBrisingr 

Eldest is the second book in the planned Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. It is the sequel to Eragon. Eldest was first published in hardcover on August 23 2005, and was released in paperback in September 2006.[1] Eldest has been released in an audiobook format,[2] and as an ebook.[3] Like Eragon, Eldest became a New York Times bestseller.[3] A deluxe edition of Eldest was released on September 26, 2006, including new information and art by both the illustrator and the author.[4] Other editions of Eldest are translations into different languages.[5][6]

Eldest begins following several important events in Eragon. The story is the continued adventures of Eragon and his dragon Saphira, centering around their journey to the realm of the Elves in order to further Eragon's training as a Dragon Rider. Other plots in the story focus on Roran, who leads the inhabitants of Carvahall to Surda, and Nasuada as she takes on her father's role as leader of the Varden. Eldest ends at the Battle of the Burning Plains, where Eragon faces a new Dragon Rider, and a new dragon, Thorn.[7]

The critical reception of Eldest was mixed. Negative reviews often pointed out the similarities between Eldest and other works such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.[8] Positive reviews praised the themes of the book, such as friendship and honor.[9] Several of these reviews commented on the style and genre of Eldest,[10] while others considered the possibility of a movie adaptation similar to the movie of Eragon.[11]

Background

Eragon, introduces events and characters that reappear in the second book of the series, Eldest. These include: Eragon, the hero, a poor farm boy, Saphira, Eragon's blue dragon; Murtagh, the young warrior who Eragon meets on his way to join the rebels, and who later reveals that he is the son of Morzan; Arya, an elf who Eragon helps rescue and has feelings for, and Brom; the storyteller and former dragon rider who trains Eragon before the Ra'zac--servants of King Galbatorix--morally wound him..

Characters who play a large role in Eldest include Roran (Eragon's cousin), Elva (a girl Eragon blessed as an infant in Farthen Dûr), the Twins, shifty, mysterious(magicians)who serve the Varden commander, Ajihad, and Orik (the nephew of Hrothgar, King of the Dwarves), who becomes Eragon's guide and friend in Farthen Dur.[7]

A climactic battle occurs at the underground city of Farthen Dûr between the forces of Galbatorix and the Varden, led by their commander, Ajihad. The Varden are victorious, but Eragon is nearly killed by the shade Durza. While he hovers between life and death a mysterious voice comes to him, calling itself the Mourning Sage or Osthato Chetowa: The Cripple Who Is Whole.

Eragon is healed by the witch/herbalist Angela, but is left with a knotted scar across his back. He decides to go to Du Weldenvarden, to seek out Osthato Chetowa, the Mourning Sage and to train as a dragon rider.

Eldest begins three days after these events.[7]

Plot summary

As the book opens, Ajihad and his men are ambushed by Urgals and slaughtered. Also, by the end of the Battle of Farthen Dur Murtagh has disappeared and The Twins, have been captured by Urgals and are presumed dead.

Ajihad's daughter Nasuada, is elected the new leader of the Varden andEragon swears fealty to her in the wake of political infighting among the Varden's Council of Elders.

Back in Carvahall, Eragon's cousin, Roran--the last of Eragon's family--is being pursued by Galbatorix, who has sent the Ra'zac and a unit of Imperial soldiers to capture him and thus lure Eragon out of hiding. After several attacks, the townspeople repel the Ra'zac, but Katrina, Roran's fiancée, is captured.

The villagers decide to leave Carvahall and travel to Surda. Roran earns the title "Stronghammer" because he defended Carvahall with a hammer given to him by Horst, the blacksmith.

After many adventures on the way, Eragon reaches his destination and meets Islanzadí, Queen of the Elves, and discovers that Arya is Islanzadí's daughter. Eragon is introduced to another Dragon Rider, Oromis; the Mourning Sage or Osthato Chetowa: The Cripple Who Is Whole, Togira Ikonoka; who shielded Eragon in the first book.

Eragon and Saphira begin their training with Oromis and his dragon Glaedr. Tutored, Eragon becomes fluent in the Ancient Language, and develops magic skills. While Eragon's romantic feelings for Arya intensify--unrequited--he continues to train under Oromis and dispite bouts of pain from the scar on his back.

On a traditional elvish celebration day of the pact with the dragons, called the Blood-Oath Celebration, or Agaetí Blödhren in the Ancient Language, Eragon is healed of his wound and, as an unprecedented gift from the dragons, gains elvish qualities that enhance his strength and agility.

Nasuada has made a momentous decision and moved the Varden to Surda. Here she learns that the blessing Eragon bestowed on the baby Elva in Eragon was worded wrongly due to his lack of basic knowledge of the Ancient Language at the time, becoming a curse of sorts. Eragon, too, is horrified when he hears of this, and promises to try and rectify it. Elva, serves as a sort of bodyguard to Nasuada against Galbatorix's assassins, the Black Hand, who are discovered within the Varden.

As the threat of war with Galbatorix grows more imminent, Eragon immediately leaves for Surda. The armies of the Varden and of Surda camp on a plain opposite the vast armies of Galbatorix. Meanwhile, Roran and his men seize and take command of a new Empire ship, the Dragon Wing, and arrive in Surda, joining the Varden.

On the eve of battle, a group of 100 Kull (the elite warrior Urgal shocktroops)arives and pleads to join forces with the Varden, claiming they were forced to aid Galbatorix earlier by the dark magic of the now-dead Durza.

During the battle Eragon is able to repel the opposing armies for some time with his new training, but the tide soon turns. Then, with the appearance of the Dwarves from the east, the power changes again, until an unknown Dragon Rider appears and kills Hrothgar, the dwarf king. Eragon then senses two new, powerful spell casters arrive on the field of battle and recognizes the Twins, believed dead. The Twins systematically start killing off the Varden's of magi and sorcerers.

Eragon faces off with the unknown rider and ultimately unmasks his opponent--Murtagh! Murtagh tells Eragon that the Twins betrayed the Varden and taken him to Galbatorix. Galbatorix made Murtagh and Thorn, his red dragon, swear fealty in the ancient language so that their oath cannot be broken. Galbatorix knows the true names of both Murtagh and his dragon, and thus is able to control them.

Murtagh also tells Eragon that one of the two remaining dragon eggs has finally hatched and that Galbatorix is working to save the dragon race by capturing Saphira and mating her with one of the two remaining dragons--one still unborn in its egg, the other, Thorn, having hatched for Murtagh. Murtagh tells Eragon that Saphira holds the key to a new era, because she is the sole surviving female dragon.

He and Thorn prove to be more powerful than the battle-weary Eragon and Saphira, while Murtagh displays the great and terrible potency of his magic powers, using spells that would have killed a normal human. Together, they watch Eragon's cousin, Roran, kill the traitorous Twins.

Murtagh decides to have mercy on them, but before leaving them, he reveals that Eragon is the younger son of Morzan and Selena, and therefore Eragon's elder brother. Murtagh takes Zar'roc, Eragon's sword, away from Eragon, saying it should rightfully have been his, as it once was Morzan's and he is Morzan's elder son.

Eragon decides that even though Morzan may be his father, his uncle Garrow, who raised him, was his true father and that Roran, his cousin, is more his brother than Murtagh.

The arrival of the Dwarves, the death of the Twins, and Murtagh's departure force Galbatorix' army to retreat.

The book ends with Eragon and Roran pledging to rescue Roran's beloved Katrina together.

Critical reaction

Eldest received mixed reviews by critics. School Library Journal noted that Eldest lacked originality, but would still find reception among fans. It also acknowledged that themes of Eldest are based generally on the works of other writers.[8] BookBrowse also criticized Eldest, but said, as School Library Journal noted, that nothing the reviewers can say will stop some children from reading the book.[10] Entertainment Weekly rated Eldest as one of the worst five books of 2005, calling it a "700-page drag."[12] The Boston Globe gave a negative review for Eldest, criticizing the very low points and for "drama that rises to a wet pop."[10] The Christian Science Monitor gave Eldest a C+ grade. Similar to other reviews, it criticized the long plot and its similarities to Lord of the Rings and Dragonriders of Pern, as well as the lack of humor. The review commented that Roran, one of the secondary major characters, had the best part of the book.[13] SFSignal also gave Eldest a poor review, giving it one out of five stars. The main reason of this was for its dull pace. The SFSignal review, like The Christian Science Monitor, did say that Roran had the "strongest sequence"[14] in the book.

There were also some more positive reviews of Eldest. Bookmarks Magazine saw Eldest's similarity to other works, but said that Eldest displayed more emotional depth than Eragon.[8] Publisher's Weekly also gave a positive review for Eldest, praising the revelations in the final pages.[10] Barnes and Noble gave a very positive review for Eldest, in particular for its style, characters and themes such as friendship, forgiveness, responsibility, and honor.[10] Eldest won the 2006 Quill Award in Young Adult Literature.[15][16] Eldest also was nominated for a British Book Award in the Children's Book of the Year section,[17] the Disney Adventures Book Award, the Colorado Blue Spruce Award Young Adult Book Award, and the Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award.[18]

Themes

Several themes in Eldest have been noted. A Barnes and Noble reviewer praised the honor, friendship, responsibility, and forgiveness in the book. The reviewer called these themes "age-transcendent".[9] School Library Journal commented on how Eragon looked for a definition for good and evil.[9] A third review, while not identifying any specific themes, said the author was "layering his themes" to make the book more exciting.[19] Another review praised the story for the themes of power, family, and maturing.[20] Paolini commented on the theme in Eldest of vegetarianism:[21]

"One of my goals as an author is to explore various aspects of human nature. It’s my job, then, to attempt to understand why people act, even if it differs from my own point of view or practice, and to present those reasons to the best of my ability. The actions and beliefs of my characters are not necessarily my own."

Literary style and genre

Eldest falls in the genre of juvenile fiction[22] and fantasy.[23] Reviews often commented on how Eldest borrowed from the fantasy genre.[8] Other reviews criticized and praised the writing style of the author. Los Angeles Times, while noting that the writing was more matured, criticized the novel for being inconsistent and having an archaic style. An Entertainment Weekly review was negative toward the story because it was slow-paced, while The Washington Post said Eldest needed to be shortened.[24] A reviewer from The Boston Globe said:[10]

”He is to English as a bad dog to a chainsaw: he worries it, and worries it, and devastation spreads around him.”

On the other hand, Barnes and Noble called the writing style fluid[10] and Children's Literature praised the story for being richly detailed. Kirkus Reviews compared the story to a patchwork of fantasy elements and characters, then concluded that it, despite being derivative, was exciting and held together well.[24]

Film adaptation

Whether or not the book will be adapted to film remains a matter of speculation. When asked whether there would be a movie adaptation of Eldest at the premiere of Eragon, Christopher Paolini replied, "I think we'll know after opening weekend."[25] Since the opening weekend passed, Paolini has not commented. Many critics have considered the possibility of a sequel in their reviews of Eragon. One critic said that 20th Century Fox's plans to adapt Eldest was "jumping the gun" and that "they will have a tough time convincing anyone but the most die-hard fans to return for another helping."[26] Even some critics who gave the film positive reviews were skeptical towards the possibility of a sequel: "That the studio hopes to build a franchise on this, now that—that is expecting way too much."[11]

According to an interview with director Stefen Fangmeier:

I'm not quite sure what is currently going on. My own personal perspective is that until we sort of figure out what happens in the third book. Evidentially, I asked Christopher [Paolini; writer of the Inheritance cycle]..., about that and he was not volunteering much of what was going to happen. I think it's very important to see where this ends up; how it's resolved. I think until you kind of have an understanding of what the third piece of that puzzle is, it's kind of hard to look at that second book, of course I read it, it's very much a transitional story element. I think one would be best off to write the third film first, and then, being happy with that, going back to the second one and doing all the set-up work that will pay off in the third. Then probably filming two and three together as they did with Pirates of the Caribbean; as one production." That means, given the time frame, it might still be another year before there are actually are scripts for both films and these things can move ahead. I don't know if Fox is waiting to see the revenues the DVD will create. I think they were modestly happy with the worldwide box office."[27]

Fangmeier's comments were made in March 2007, before the October 2007 announcement that the trilogy was to be expanded into a four-book cycle.[28]

Australia's Randomhouse page claimed that Eldest was scheduled for a mid-2009 release, until Inheritance fan site, Brisingr.net[1], inquired about the statement and received a response stating: "This information has been taken from an outdated media release written several months ago. Since then we have not heard anything about a new film in the Inheritance series and will take down that information shortly."[29] Since then, the information has been deleted from the web page.[2]

In a letter to a fan in mid-June 2008, Inheritance author Christopher Paolini said that he currently has no information on a film adaptation of Eldest.[citation needed]

On July 29, 2008, 20th Century Fox officially announced that Eldest will not be made into a movie.[citation needed]

Other editions

A deluxe version of Eldest was released on September 26, 2006.[30] It was published by Random House.[31] The deluxe edition included an excerpt of Brisingr, a poster of Glaedr, the history of Alagaësia, art by Christopher Paolini, and a list of characters, places, objects, and dwarf clans.[31] The deluxe edition was also released in an Ebook format.[32]

Eldest has been published in forty-one countries,[33] several translations from English into different languages have been made. Translations for languages such as Spanish,[34] Portuguese,[5] and Serbian have appeared.[35] Worldwide Eldest has several publishers including Gailivro, which publishes the Polish and Portuguese Eldest,[36] and Gramedia Pustaka Utama, the publisher of the Indonesian translations.[6]

An omnibus of Eragon and Eldest was published on July 8, 2008. Inside is never-before-seen manuscripts by Christopher Paolini.

References

  1. ^ "Eldest paperback". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
  2. ^ "Eldest audiobook". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  3. ^ a b "Eldest eBook". eBooks.com. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  4. ^ "Eldest - Deluxe edition". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2006-05-27.
  5. ^ a b "Eldest". Gailivro. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  6. ^ a b "Detail Buku". Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
  7. ^ a b c Paolini, Christopher (2005). Eldest. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-82670-X.
  8. ^ a b c d "Reviews of Eldest". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  9. ^ a b c "Eldest (Inheritance Cycle #2)". Barnes & Noble.com. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "BookBrowse reviews of Eldest". BookBrowse. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  11. ^ a b "Eragon films review". Hollywood Video. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  12. ^ "Books: The 5 Worst". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  13. ^ "Book Roundup". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  14. ^ "Review: Eldest". SFSignal. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  15. ^ "The Quill Book Awards". Borders. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  16. ^ "Eldest wins a 2006 Quill Book Award". Alagaesia.com. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  17. ^ "Winners". British Book Awards. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  18. ^ "Eldest". Random House. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  19. ^ "ELDEST: Inheritance, Book II". Bookreporter.com. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
  20. ^ "Eldest: Inheritance, Book II (Audio CD Unabridged)". Buy.com. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  21. ^ "Talking Trilogy with Christopher Paolini". Alagaesia.com. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
  22. ^ "Eldest". Random House. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  23. ^ "Eldest". Common Sense Media. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  24. ^ a b "Eldest (Inheritance Cycle #02) by Christopher Paolini". Powell's Books. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  25. ^ "Interview with Christopher Paolini". Shurtugal.com. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  26. ^ "Eragon film review". TheMovieBoy. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  27. ^ "Interview with Stefan Fangmeier". Movieweb. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  28. ^ "Series will be expanded to include a fourth full-length novel" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  29. ^ "Settling Random House AU Movie Statement". Brisingr.net. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
  30. ^ "Eldest Limited Edition". Random House. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  31. ^ a b "Eldest (Inheritance Trilogy #2): Deluxe Edition". Barnes & Noble.com. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  32. ^ "Eldest Limited Edition eBook". Ebooks.com. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  33. ^ "News". Alagaesia.com. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  34. ^ "Eldest Spanish language translation". Barnes & Noble.com. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  35. ^ "Spain's "Eragon CE", Serbia's Eldest". Shurtugal.com. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  36. ^ "Eldest covers". Shurtugal.com. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
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