The Inheritance Cycle - Brisingr Review

Brisingr marks the third installment in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle (initially Inheritance Trilogy).  Paolini's fame began with his first book, Eragon, and continued with his second, Eldest.  Critics praised Paolini's writing potential and claimed he would one day rise to the upper echelons of fantasy writing.  Two books later and what do I see?  Click here to read the rest of this review.
Well…Christopher Paolini has improved in some areas while he seems to have worsened in others.  First the positives.  Paolini has added a refreshingly new layer of depth to his characters.  Many of the main characters seem to have become more than killing machines and begin to explore the morality of their actions and emotions, especially Eragon.  The plot remains interesting throughout the book thanks to the many bits of historical information Paolini includes.  Also, the many fight scenes in the book remain as good as ever with lots of detail and imagery.  I found myself sometimes cheering for Eragon when he was fighting against great odds.  Now the negatives and there are a lot of them.  The plot, while interesting, is very linear.  Most of Brisingr is just too predictable with too many clichés.  To compound the linearity of the plot, there are basically no transitions throughout the book and the result is a jarring ride.  It was sometimes extremely difficult to get back into the book after a new scenes begins after a completely separate scene.  There are several more minor problems that can be overlooked but my major gripe with this book is Christopher Paolini’s writing style.  Like I previously mentioned, he seems to be perfectly at home when writing about fights but when he starts to write dialogue, the results are quite bad.  One of two things usually happens.  Either the character goes on a rant about some moral issue or the character just says what he wants.  There seem to be no conversations with emotional value throughout the entire book.  Sure Eragon has a few conversations with Arya and the Urgal chief but the dialogue just lacks any wit or emotion.  Now don’t get me wrong, this may seem like I am bashing the book, I am not and I am a fan of the series; I am just saying that I haven’t seen the improvement I expected to see in Christopher Paolini since Eragon.  He really had a chance to distinguish himself with Brisingr but the final effort falls a little flat.

Score

Plot (5): 2.5 (Too predictable but furthers some of the major arcs and begins to close others)
Magic System (5): 3.5 (Continues the same system from the previous books and adds a few new details)
Writing (5): 2 (Has definitely devolved in some areas)
Ideas (5): 1.5 (Christopher Paolini is definitely attempting to add a few twists with new ideas)
Characterization (5): 4 (One of the areas that has seen a lot of improvement)
Overall (5): 3 (Once again a mediocre read that can see improvement in many areas)

Closing Comments: Christopher Paolini had the chance to do something great with Brisingr but failed to do so.  His book suffers from many of the flaws his previous books suffered from and his style of writing is tolerant at best and laughably bad at worst.  However, there is still potential for improvement.  Brisingr will likely not entice any newcomers to the series but fans will find it an excellent read despite some of the problems.  


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