Inheritance by Christopher Paolini's ★★★☆☆

Paolini's Ambitious Effort

Fiction – YA - Epic Fantasy

Age level 12 and up  Grade level 7 and up

860 pages

Publication Date: November 8, 2011

The Inheritance Cycle #4

Inheritance the fourth book in the cycle brings to an end a very ambitious series.  We once again join Eragon, Shapphira and the other’s that make up Alagaësia to find out if Galbatorix will be defeated and at what cost to our heroes.  I will leave it to others to recount the book and instead focus just on my opinions and thoughts.

I found this book a nice read and for the most part a good conclusion.  Paolini allowed his characters to reach their potential while keeping the pace and excitement at a high level through much of the story - though I must admit I did find myself starting to get fatigued with the story around the 500page mark which is not something I noticed occurring with his other three books.  The varying viewpoints

interweave a complex series of events into mostly digestible pieces while making them more personable.  Paolini largely achieved the delicate balance between the action with reaction, however, on occasion I had to reread passages to understand all of the actions taking place. 

Other reviews have complained about the rather long ending and I would have to agree with them.  A much shorter ending – about a third the actual size - would have been more to my liking and definitely attainable.  There have also been many complaints of not enough resolution about smaller things like Angela or the Belt of Beloth the Wise.  To them I would say, people a little mystery in life is good.  Something I would have really liked was a better ending for Eragon and Arya.  Perhaps the actual introduction of some real romantic element between them, besides the acknowledgement of Eragon’s desire would have made it more satisfactory.  I also, like others had a difficult time with Arya becoming Queen, especially coupled with her becoming a dragon rider.   Her agreement to take the position seemed off to me, no matter how dedicated she was supposed to be to her people.  I kind of felt like Paolini did that to put a final nail in the coffin of her and Eragon’s possibility of finding happiness together.

Something I liked was the writing in this book.  While I have enjoyed Christopher Paolini’s writing throughout the series, the level of comfort and maturity attained in the last book was very gratifying.  He was able to craft an interesting complex story while incorporating style and beauty into his writing.  No easy task. 

From a personal view point one thing I would have changed is to have the book broken down into two separate ones – ending the first one right after Nasuada’s abduction-, but then again that is just my personal opinion and not a complaint about the story itself.  Something I did enjoy about all of the books were the appendixes which included a pronunciation guide.  I wish more fantasy and Sci-Fi books had these!

Over all I am impressed with Christopher Paolini’s progress as a writer despite my critiques and look forward with high expectations to his next project.  I am giving the book three stars out of five, instead of four I would have otherwise, due to the fatigue factor and the long unnecessary ending.