Brisingr!
Last night Chris and I watched "Strange Brew", this movie from the 80's with Rick Moranis. I think "Strange" was a good word to include in the title, because it was kind of a weird movie. Still funny, though. After that I went into my room and read for a solid two hours. I was at the end of this book I've been reading since Christmas (I know, a REALLY long time). It's called Brisingr and it's the third book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. He wrote this first book in the series, Eragon, when he was only sixteen years old. I read that book when I was a sophomore in high school. The second book, Eldest, came out my senior year in high school. Both books are entertaining enough, but a little dry and dull at times. By that I mean that they have their moments of greatness, but these moments are separated by hundreds of pages of boring narrative. Then late in 2008, this Brisingr book comes out. I seriously contemplated not reading it. Mostly because it had been so long (almost three years) since I read the last book and I barely remembered what happened in the first two. Thank goodness there's a synopsis at the beginning of the book. I got a good refresher of the plot elements I missed out on. So, I just finished Brisingr last night. The reason it took me so long was because it's like seven hundred pages long and I read about one chapter a night. Eh, it was ok. A cliffhanger ending is never great. Plus, it contained a lot of the same boring narrative elements from the first two books. Here's a summary of the first half of the book:
Chapter 1: Eragon and his cousin, Roran, slay the beasts of Helgrind and rescue Roran's lover, Katrina.
Chapters 2-20: Eragon walks six hundred miles by himself and admires the scenery.
That's kind of an exaggeration, but it's not that far off. I guess I'm reading into it too much, but there wasn't very much I found relatable to my everyday life, either, but that's why it's a fantastical fanasy book. I have never owned a dragon, observed a council of dwarves choosing their new king, or pleaded with an elf to make me a new sword. I mean, even Harry Potter has some connections to the real world. So, in conclusion, it was a good book but a little long winded and irrelevant. The next book promises to be the last one, so I'm excited to see how it ends but I'll also be relieved when it's over.
That's all for now.
Chapter 1: Eragon and his cousin, Roran, slay the beasts of Helgrind and rescue Roran's lover, Katrina.
Chapters 2-20: Eragon walks six hundred miles by himself and admires the scenery.
That's kind of an exaggeration, but it's not that far off. I guess I'm reading into it too much, but there wasn't very much I found relatable to my everyday life, either, but that's why it's a fantastical fanasy book. I have never owned a dragon, observed a council of dwarves choosing their new king, or pleaded with an elf to make me a new sword. I mean, even Harry Potter has some connections to the real world. So, in conclusion, it was a good book but a little long winded and irrelevant. The next book promises to be the last one, so I'm excited to see how it ends but I'll also be relieved when it's over.
That's all for now.