“Through the slits of his brightly polished helm, his blue eyes bored into Eragon, pinning him into place, like an arrow through a rabbit. He lifted his free hand and held it out toward Eragon. ‘My son, come with me. Together, we can destroy the Varden, kill Galbatorix, and conquer all of Alagaesia. But give me your heart, and we shall be invincible.’”
- Brisingr, p. 487

There are a lot of made up words in Brisingr, so I’m considering the correlation with the graph. There’s even an attempt at an appendix in the back, complete with pronunciation guide. But here’s the deal:

Let’s say that you got past the Eragon/Aragorn, Arya/Arwen, Old Brom (Dragon Rider in exile)/Old Ben (Jedi Master in exile), Empire burning down the farm boy’s aunt and uncle and farm/Empire burning down the farm boy’s aunt and uncle and farm, Paolini still doesn’t stop.

Is there any epic where an armored villain is not someone’s dad? And the middle of an aerial combat is not the best place to have a Dr. Phil “if you believe in yourself, you can re-invent yourself and rise above your circumstances” conversation. The whole middle of the book is “whose gods are real, the nomads’ or the dwarves’, or are the elves right and there are no gods?” philosophy rants. It sounded very anachronistic when he’s talking about “all of the gods are good and we all point to something”.

The end was cool because characters died, and when Eragon has a sword named Fire, every time he says its name it ignites on accident.

The part that made me laugh but was not a deal-breaker? The power of the evil king (which, wasn’t it an empire?) comes from a dragon’s heart of hearts: a tiny crystal colored the same as their scales and egg. How does a dragon give you their heart? By vomiting it at your feet. Yeah, a page dedicated to a regurgitating ceremony.

And there are some awkward moments where Eragon and his dragon, Sapphira, have some intimate interactions. Is she like a mom or are they even closer? I don’t know. Kinda weird.

Mix all this in with self-mutilation and heroes that drain the life energy out of people/unsuspecting creatures “for the greater good”, and it took some effort to finish the book.