Post by Ninmast on Mar 17, 2007 19:59:00 GMT -5
Meh ... The guy's really not that great ... He does good environment descriptions, but they have an intense feel of being ripped from one of the more classical works his are clearly based off of, such as Dragonriders of Pern and Lord of the Rings. Because of that, he loses points for lack of originality and failure to cite those as inspiration and giving some sort of credit. Granted, it's not plaigarism, but if he's going to take such deep inspiration, he could at least give some credit, instead of acting like he came up with it all on his own.
Where he loses the most points with me, however, is that his main character, Eragon, is a complete Gary Stu. Everything gets handed to him on a silver platter. He has absolutely never had to work for anything. Everything just comes so miraculously easy to him, and anything that doesn't is quickly fixed with some random display of magic that, prior to its spectacular appearance, had been said over and over again to not be possible by even the greatest magic-users. Here's a rundown for all of you that must have missed it when you were too busy ogling over his greatness.
Eragon just happens to have a natural gift for hunting and never gets lost, even in areas so dangerous and unmapped and untraversable that the greatest hunters in his village refuse to go into.
Eragon masters swordsmanship in a rough month of training only an hour or so every night, and is able to best a dragonrider that has been swordfighting for centuries.
Eragon masters magic as if it were childsplay, and from just mimicking, blows up an orc with a single fire arrow. Eat that, Link!
The more he fights, the less combat he sees. Everybody else does the fighting, everybody else saves his life, and he gets all the credit.
Travelling's a cinch since he, on his own, comes up with a spell on a dime to bring water up no matter how little water there would be.
He gets a scar on his back, and all he can think about through to the end of the first book is oh, how horrible he looks! How terrible! How can he ever live with himself now that his beautiful physique has been marred in such a horrible, unthinkable way?
Through almost all of the second book, he is irreversably crippled, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Even the greatest mage among the elves cannot treat it.
Then, suddenly, two naked elf chicks do a pole dance and not only is he healed, but he's completely transformed and ten times more powerful than he ever was before!
Don't get me wrong, I respect Paolini as one author respects another, and I do follow his books, enjoying some parts, like his beautiful description of the crystal ceiling in the dwarven city, and moaning in agony at others, like the aforementioned bare-breasted dance of healing, but mostly just to follow his career. I want to see what the standard is for new authors coming into the professional writing community. However, if he was to come here to this forum and enter Eragon or a character like him as an RP character, I would knock it down faster than he could blink for being an irrational Gary Stu with no good explanation for his godmodding abilities.
Where he loses the most points with me, however, is that his main character, Eragon, is a complete Gary Stu. Everything gets handed to him on a silver platter. He has absolutely never had to work for anything. Everything just comes so miraculously easy to him, and anything that doesn't is quickly fixed with some random display of magic that, prior to its spectacular appearance, had been said over and over again to not be possible by even the greatest magic-users. Here's a rundown for all of you that must have missed it when you were too busy ogling over his greatness.
Eragon just happens to have a natural gift for hunting and never gets lost, even in areas so dangerous and unmapped and untraversable that the greatest hunters in his village refuse to go into.
Eragon masters swordsmanship in a rough month of training only an hour or so every night, and is able to best a dragonrider that has been swordfighting for centuries.
Eragon masters magic as if it were childsplay, and from just mimicking, blows up an orc with a single fire arrow. Eat that, Link!
The more he fights, the less combat he sees. Everybody else does the fighting, everybody else saves his life, and he gets all the credit.
Travelling's a cinch since he, on his own, comes up with a spell on a dime to bring water up no matter how little water there would be.
He gets a scar on his back, and all he can think about through to the end of the first book is oh, how horrible he looks! How terrible! How can he ever live with himself now that his beautiful physique has been marred in such a horrible, unthinkable way?
Through almost all of the second book, he is irreversably crippled, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Even the greatest mage among the elves cannot treat it.
Then, suddenly, two naked elf chicks do a pole dance and not only is he healed, but he's completely transformed and ten times more powerful than he ever was before!
Don't get me wrong, I respect Paolini as one author respects another, and I do follow his books, enjoying some parts, like his beautiful description of the crystal ceiling in the dwarven city, and moaning in agony at others, like the aforementioned bare-breasted dance of healing, but mostly just to follow his career. I want to see what the standard is for new authors coming into the professional writing community. However, if he was to come here to this forum and enter Eragon or a character like him as an RP character, I would knock it down faster than he could blink for being an irrational Gary Stu with no good explanation for his godmodding abilities.