Rating: 
Summary: Beyond my expectations -- couldn't put it down
Review: I started this book with an attitude. I thought it might be okay, but no way would it even come close to measuring up to the Rings. It measures up and then some. I stayed up too late and finished this book in a couple of days. I want to reread this one -- something I almost never want to do. So looking forward to the next two in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable. Fair start to a promised epic tale.
Review: It was tough to rate this book. While I did enjoy it and it was an easy read, many of the supporting elements are all too common. Elves and dwarves, dragons and mystical swords, the list goes on. But the young author does weave a good story throughout. He brings us inside the characters just enough to understand some topics, but still be mystified and wondering about motivations.Some areas of the book are too short and not well laid out to build up suspense. The race across the desert and into the valley moved at far too fast a pace, leaving me wanting better descriptions of the scenery, the suspense, the anguish, etc. The tale wraps up fair enough and ties together some loose ends, before leaving us with a suspenseful ending. I look forward to the next chapter in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: The most unoriginal piece of crap I have ever read.
Review: Don't waste your time. As predictable and trite as most fantasy is nowadays, Eragon is the epitome of it. It has every fantasy cliche in existence and contains absolute NO original material whatsoever. It is a frankenstein of a book, with an arm from Tokien and a torso from Goodkind. All he did was tape it all together. If you've read ANY fantasy book before, you know exactly what will happen, just replace the names with other ones. Its the most unoriginal piece of crap I have ever seen. The only reason it was published was because his parents owned a publishing company and having a kid author is a great marketing angle. If anybody else had written that book, they would have been laughed into the street.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Start for a good writer
Review: This book is pretty good, but you can tell that he has taken a lot off of other fantasy writers like Tolkien, but it is still a pretty good book. Hopefully he can improve on the sequels and make the series a memorable one.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest book ever
Review: This is the best book ever because of the great imagination of Christopher Paolini. The description of the dragon was amazing. I also like the languages that Paolini made up. This is the best book ever.
Rating:
Summary: ERAGON IS A WINNER
Review: I'm 68 and I read 15 to 20 books a year.
Eragon is one of, if not the best novel i read in 2003.
It is hard to believe that it was written by a 15-17 year old.
Cris if you read this-- Great Job. Stay with your craft and hurry up with book number 2.
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy Writing
Review: Hello, my name is Todd Cheney and I am a published fantasy author. I would like to take this moment to defend Christopher, but at the same time, criticize. First of all, it is a great accomplishment to write a book of any sort for any reason whatsoever; having it published by a publisher such as Knopf is an even bigger accomplishment. Let's not even talk about having a bestseller. For this reason alone, I am happy that people like Christopher can have the kind of success he has had. Secondly, and more importantly, I believe that this book will not stand the test of time. As some of the people in the review list have commented already, the fantasy races (i.e. elves, dwarves and dragons) have all been used before. I believe that authors should break new ground in the fantasy genre, not use the same old elves/dwarves/goblins scheme. Just to point out some examples of fantasy-related games and/or books that use the same sorts of creatures: Anything by Tolkien
The dragon riding thing was done by Ann Mcaffrey
The game Dungeons and Dragons and its related books and computer games Those are just a few; I'm sure there are many others that I cannot remember off the top of my head. But can anyone tell me what a Mehari is? That's what I thought. Also, hasn't anyone noticed the similarity between Aragorn from Tolkien and Eragon? Hmm.... I can't hold that against him though, because many real world people have similar names, so I guess fantasy people have the right to have the same or a closely related name. As long as they are entirely separate characters, I don't see a problem with the names being close. But it's just the kind of thing that makes me scratch my head. Regarding the writing itself, I can't fault him for his Tom Swifties or for breaking the 'action' through extensive description because I understand how hard it is to carry a story and to keep a reader involved. Lastly, I would just like to say that writing a good book is one of the hardest challenges on Earth.
Rating:
Summary: Eragon is Amazing!!!! Can't Wait for Eldest!!!
Review: This is the best fantasy book I have ever read. I found it comparable but better than the Sword of Truth Novels. I think it just flowed better. I can't wait until Eldest comes out!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Refreshing Change of Pace
Review: I'll admit I started this book with a bit of trepidation. I recieved it as a gift from my father (a non-reader) and I learned that the book was written by a 15 year old. I expected a novel along the lines of the Harry potter series designed for young readers and not for the more serious readers like myself. I was completely drawn into this book from the first chapter. His use of language was well beyond his years, and the experience he portrayed was just breath taking. I eagerly await the 2nd addition to this trilogy!!
Rating:
Summary: I Can hardly believe Paolini was only 15
Review: When I first heard that the author of Eragon had begun the book when he was only fifteen years old, I was a trifle leery of the content. Would it be corny? Would it be juvenile? As it turned out, it was nothing of the kind.
Eragon tells the story of a young man named--you guessed it, Eragon. He lives in a remote valley in the country of Alagaesia, and he knows little about what goes on in the world outside his village and the mountains on which he hunts for food to feed his family. When, however, a blue stone is transported to him by magic and he keeps it, intending to sell it, his life is changed forever.
First, the blue stone turns out to be a dragon egg, and the dragon within it hatches. Eragon, concerned what the villagers might think of a dragon in their midst, hides it in the woods and feeds it. He cannot speak to it with his voice, but he can contact its mind with his own, and it turns out to be a very effective means of communication, since it works over fairly long distances.
Then every thing starts going wrong when two terrible creatures called the Ra'zac come into the town, asking about the blue stone and its whereabouts. Eventually these creatures kill Eragon's uncle, who had adopted Eragon when his parents had died some time before. Bent on revenge, Eragon and his dragon set out, along with a mysterious storyteller named Brom, to avenge his uncle's death.
On the way, however, Eragon learns some very interesting things about himself and the Empire under which he has lived.
Paolini's plot line does, admittedly, mooch many ideas from fantasy writers who have created works before him, but it was very interesting, and certainly a page-turner. I liked it a lot, and I can't wait until the next book in the trilogy comes out.
There are, however, some points about the book that I did not like. Paolini seems to insert descriptions of people and creatures at exactly the wrong moment to be artistically correct. For example, right at the beginning of the book, a creature called a Shade, which we have never heard about before, has been given orders to ambush a party of elves--and tacked onto the end of a paragraph is the fact that this Shade would have looked human except for his maroon hair and red eyes. And that's it. Paolini should have put this in a separate paragraph in a place that made sense, describing in some detail how this Shade appeared. He's a young writer, though, and this is his first book. Doubtless he will improve with time.
Also, Paolini introduces some questions in this book--which are very good questions to ask and should be faced--but there is one problem. As far as I could tell, they aren't really answered. For example, when Eragon sees a group of people in a town who have been killed by the forces of evil, he wonders to himself why it is worth living if life can so easily be taken away. Well, there's a very good answer to that question: God gave us our lives, and we live them and view them as a gift from Him. I'm not even sure what Paolini's view on this question is, because he simply didn't seem to touch on it afterward. Maybe I'm making a judgement too early and it will be discussed in the other two books, but I'm just saying that so far it hasn't really been touched on very much.
Over all, however, Paolini has made a very good show of himself, especially for a first novel written at such an early age. My advice to him: keep up the good work, and believe in Jesus Christ.
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