Reading Eragon into it

[Sir Kohran]

I'm sorry but I just hated Eragon. Inspiration from others to create an original work is one thing, but Paolini's constant theft from George Lucas and JRR Tolkien was so blatant and the result so bland it put me off reading anymore of 'his' work.

[Matt BeDar]

Here here Sir Kohran!! I agree wholeheartedly! He is a thief that really has no originality at all.

[Voran_the_Scholar]

Bigger as in... Larger. The Alps are moutains. The Himalaya's are bigger moutains. Is that what you were asking about?

Well, it was confusing because you didn't say "Mountains in the east and bigger ones in the west." Without the pronoun, I was a little lost. Thanks though. I got it now!

True but he could at least have tried not to make the story line so predictable.

And when was the last time you wrote a five hundred page novel that wasn't predictable?

I don't think you guys give him enough credit. He wrote what he thought was a good story. He didn't ask to become a world-renowned success. But he's probably thanking his lucky stars he's earned so much money by "stealing" someone else's ideas.

I have written a book, so I know how hard it is. And it was very copycatish at first. But I'm changing a bunch of it because I don't want to be torn to pieces on forums like this just because people like my book(...well that's one reason why I'm changing it.)

You can complain all you want about how bad and copycatish a book is, but I guarantee you that you'd be hard pressed to write a book of your own that didn't incorporate some ideas from your favorite authors.

God bless.

Tom

[Robin Hood]

Can't help but post. I've read the Eragon and the Eldest, and I can't wait for the third one to come out... I thought I'd like to point something out: In Eragon, they have mountains in the west, and bigger in the west. In Lord of the Rings, they have mountains in the west and bigger in the east. And guess what? In the Wheel of Time series, they have moutains in the west and bigger in the east. And all the west moutains have mystery to them... Like dissappearances in Eragon, Moria in LOTR, and anceint ruins in Wheel of Time... And don't forget all three have uber forests somwhere on the map!

And I can't help but point out this. In the Lord of Rings, the mountains are actually bigger in west, or least that is the general jist that Tolkien seems make. I'll admit that he doesn't actually specifiy sizes ever. Just my half bit.

Dan

[Matt BeDar]

I stick to what I said earlier. The story line was remarkably predictable no matter how you look at it. The side story with Eragons brother, the one that lead the village through heck and high water, was also predictable and so highly improbable that it could hardly have happened at all. When something unbelievable happens in a book, I would like to have a certain story element make it possible.

Eragon is a flat, boring, predictable and copied book in my opinion. You can have your opinion and try to convince me to see things your way, but I'll still stick by what I said. Boring book. Also ill planned seeing as how he originally wanted to write a trilogy(copycatish) but has now had to change to four books as three wasn't enough to get the whole story in. Poorly planned book series.

[Robin Hood]

Also ill planned seeing as how he originally wanted to write a trilogy(copycatish) but has now had to change to four books as three wasn't enough to get the whole story in. Poorly planned book series.

I'll not say anything much, except that books (or series) aren't necessarily planned. A person has an idea, which at the time seems very good. As time passes and the story fleshes out, and new ideas occur, old ideas may seem ill planned. To paraphrase: Art is not an exact science.

And if I may say so, I think you made that last comment because of a slightly biased opinion of the author. Not that I entirely disagree with your thoughts. But we are leaving the realm that this thread started in, and have journeyed up, over and beyond the Off Topic Mountains.

Dan

[Voran_the_Scholar]

And if I may say so, I think you made that last comment because of a slightly biased opinion of the author.
Dan

No opinion is ever unbiased. That's why it's an opinion.

God bless.

Tom

[Robin Hood]

And if I may say so, I think you made that last comment because of a slightly biased opinion of the author.
Dan

No opinion is ever unbiased. That's why it's an opinion.

God bless.

Tom

Um.......yes.........logic, very hard to grasp............I...think you are right. Right? I'm confused! My head hurts now.

Dan

[Voran_the_Scholar]

And if I may say so, I think you made that last comment because of a slightly biased opinion of the author.
Dan

No opinion is ever unbiased. That's why it's an opinion.

God bless.

Tom

Um.......yes.........logic, very hard to grasp............I...think you are right. Right? I'm confused! My head hurts now.

Dan

I may not be 100% correct in that statement, but in my "biased" opinion, no opinion is ever unbiased.

God bless.

Tom

EDIT: by the way if you look biased up on dictionary.com, you will find a hilarious alternate spelling...those Brits...

[Robin Hood]

I may not be 100% correct in that statement, but in my "biased" opinion, no opinion is ever unbiased.

God bless.

Tom

That....makes.....so.....much......sense....right?! Yes. No. Maybe, oooo my head.

Dan

[Luís]

I don't think that LEGO copied Eragon at all. Can't you remember hearing about dragons and monsters when you were a kid? LEGO is primarily for kids (even if its AFOLs who use them best.

BTW: When did you return Robin? Good to see you back. An opinion is as unbiased as the coverage of a matter discussed in such opinion. Only when no one talked about a matter can your opinion be unbiased, for there has been no opinion at all. I think this traduces what Voran said. I know it's difficult for us old people to get them .

[Mog]

I don't think it's that LEGO was inspired by Eragon. I think it's that LEGO created a fairly generic "fantasy" environment and Eragon is set in a generic fantasy environment. So obviously, there will be some similarities.

Beyond the great accomplishment that is completing any novel, writing a book at 19 isn't terribly impressive. Writing a good book at 19 is. Eragon is not a good book.

I know plenty of young authors (I am one!) - they were just smart enough to realize that just because they love their story doesn't mean it is publishable. Paolini had the advantage of having parents who were willing to publish it for him, and let's face it - they would have published anything he wrote. And yes, Eragon was eventually picked up by a major publisher, but major publishers publish awful books all the time. Knopf probably saw the 19-year-old "wunderkid" as a marketing gimmick, and that's obviously worked out well for them.

By the way, he was well into his twenties when he wrote Eldest, which was worse.

[TheMaster]

If you read any fantasy novel no doubt that the book has something taken from Toilken's books or Toilken's books inspired the author in some way.

[Prince Imdol]

Tolkien and Lewis are the fathers of modern day medieval fantasy. Tolkien was inspired by Lewis, and Lewis was probably inspired by Christianity or something similar to that. It's hard to write a fantasy medieval story without having it be similar in some way to Tolkien.

Eragon's storyline has some holes in it. I believe its an ok book, but could have been better thought out.


P.I

[Formendacil]

Tolkien and Lewis are the fathers of modern day medieval fantasy. Tolkien was inspired by Lewis, and Lewis was probably inspired by Christianity or something similar to that.

I'd really advise, Prince Imdol, against making blanket statements about subjects other people are incredibly nerdy about, since it only tends to rile us up. Tolkien was writing fantasy before he ever met Lewis (1916, he was writing the Book of Lost Tales, it wasn't until the 20s that they met). Lewis definitely took inspiration from his Christian faith, but he was enamoured of the Norse mythologies and the fantasy stories of George Macdonald before he converted, so Christianity was a late-comer to his inspirational sources.

It's hard to write a fantasy medieval story without having it be similar in some way to Tolkien.

Quite frankly, I'm getting tired of everyone pointing out the obvious here... that Tolkien was a major landmark in the history of fantasy fiction, and therefore, obviously, everything must be connected to him in some way.

This irks me because authors have borrowed concepts and ideas from each other as long there have been writers that knew each other. It's fine to say that everything goes back to Tolkien, except then you're ignoring all of Tolkien's sources. Why not just say everything goes back to Homer? It does, you know...