'Scuse you Mister Sanderson sir

[Quickbronze]

Season two, episode twenty three

"For me, Eragon was terribly cliche. For the thirteen year old boys picking up that as their first fantasy novel, it was not cliche" 

I read Eragon when I was eight

Five years later, I'm reading Stormlight, the Iliad and Journey to the West

Not sure whether the Iliad or Journey to the West count because the Iliad was assigned to me and I haven't actually managed to get Journey to the West but whatever, technicalities

Edited February 13, 2018 by .50 Caliber Gentleman

[Yezrien]

The real crime is that he uses "cliche" as an adjective. It's a noun until you put a D on the end! Everyone knows that!

But I'm sure he didn't mean to denigrate the sophistication of thirteen-year-olds. He was just saying that Eragon is an effective gateway novel: appealing to uninitiated young readers (albeit tiresome for genre veterans). In that respect, I think you proved him right.

[Quickbronze]

1 hour ago, Belzedar said:

The real crime is that he uses "cliche" as an adjective. It's a noun until you put a D on the end! Everyone knows that!

But I'm sure he didn't mean to denigrate the sophistication of thirteen-year-olds. He was just saying that Eragon is an effective gateway novel: appealing to uninitiated young readers (albeit tiresome for genre veterans). In that respect, I think you proved him right.

True, I just started earlier then most people 

In his defense, most other boys my age aren't very intelligent in such matters 

Or most matters honestly

Edited February 13, 2018 by .50 Caliber Gentleman

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

I got into Eragon at about age 8 too after reading Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest, and it definitely was the series that got me hooked on the fantasy genre. I've read it a couple of times through, but I don't think I'll ever read it again because I know it probably won't hold up to the critical reading eye I have now and I don't want to ruin it for myself. Eragon does use a lot of tropes but that isn't a bad thing because it is a good introduction to new readers of fantasy, especially readers of my generation who don't necessarily want to start with a fantasy series written before 2000.

[MistbornAlpaca]

20 hours ago, .50 Caliber Gentleman said:

Season two, episode twenty three

"For me, Eragon was terribly cliche. For the thirteen year old boys picking up that as their first fantasy novel, it was not cliche" 

I read Eragon when I was eight

Five years later, I'm reading Stormlight, the Iliad and Journey to the West

Not sure whether the Iliad or Journey to the West count because the Iliad was assigned to me and I haven't actually managed to get Journey to the West but whatever, technicalities

I had already read LoTR at 8, and Eragon shortly followed, and by the time I was 13 I had read both WoK and WoR. However I think the percentage of the 13-year old population that achieves that is relatively small.

[Szmit]

Fact that a book is a clishe is only a problem if you've read a lot of books in it's genre

[Sallin Zeras]

Wow, I really don’t remember with what series I started, but I was about 10. I read WoK when I was 11, and that got me hooked on Fantasy. RN, I basically only read Brandon Sanderson, or some REALLY good books, like The Name of the Wind, I’m pretty selective in my book choices at the moment.

I’ve tried to read Eragon, but it’s simply unbearable.

[Kidpen]

I really didn't want to read Harry Potter, but we couldn't watch the movie til we read the books. So I read it cause I knew there was a giant snake and I wanted to see that giant snake. I loved it a lot. I think end of first grade beginning of second is how long it took me to read all seven. I read most Sanderson stuff at about 10-12.

[+Ark1002]

On 2/13/2018 at 11:50 AM, Quickbronze said:

I read Eragon when I was eight

Five years later, I'm reading Stormlight, the Iliad and Journey to the West

Almost exactly the same for me...

[Life&Death]

I’ve read Eragon and enjoyed it. It was a little simplistic but I (like most people on this forum) have been an epic fantasy veteran for a while and what counts as not simplistic to me is perfect for younger/less experienced fantasy readers. 

[+ElephantEarwax]

I still need to read the illiad, I tried when I was 9ish and just about died.

[EponasSong]

I read Eragon back when I was in junior high, a few years after it came out. I also read Eldest. But then lost interest in Brisingr. It served it' purpose as an introductory novel I guess but there is a reason why i lost interest in the whole series mid way through the third book.... a reason I no longer remember (probably got bored as happens to me with some books/series). It might be a good introductory book for a young reader who has never read fantasy before. Might is a strong word there......

[The Feruchemist]

I tried reading Eragon and put it down after a few chapters when I was 16. It’s just not my cup of tea I guess.

[+Ark1002]

On 2/13/2018 at 11:50 AM, Quickbronze said:

Season two, episode twenty three

"For me, Eragon was terribly cliche. For the thirteen year old boys picking up that as their first fantasy novel, it was not cliche" 

I read Eragon when I was eight

Five years later, I'm reading Stormlight, the Iliad and Journey to the West

Not sure whether the Iliad or Journey to the West count because the Iliad was assigned to me and I haven't actually managed to get Journey to the West but whatever, technicalities

Eragon was not cliche, in my opinion. I'm thirteen, and i've read a hell of a lot of fantasy.

[Gancho Libre]

On 4/22/2019 at 2:24 PM, Ark1002 said:

Eragon was not cliche, in my opinion. I'm thirteen, and i've read a hell of a lot of fantasy.

I agree. I measure fantasy books mainly based on their magic system. Eragon has an ok system, so it's an ok book. Not terrible, not my favorite. The magic, it's different. I've seen too much 'Harry Potter' style magic.

[Hoid/Wit]

I finished the series and haven't picked it up since. Just wasn't interested in it enough to read it more than once, I thought that the ending was really disappointing but I'm also a picky reader. I don't remember enough of it to say whether or not it was cliche though.

[CosmereQuestioner]

I read Eregon when I was 16 (the year it came out), and it seemed to use the exact same...everything...from other books.  From the magics to the plot, it all seemed recycled.  I didnt read the sequels, but I feel Sanderson hit the nail on the head with that statement.

[Frustration]

I read Lord of the Rings first and couldn't ignore the parallels. Paolini just made a watered down version of Tolkiens legendarium, added a few things and called it good.

[theTruthshaper]

In my opinion, Paolini really improved during the series. The first book was quite weak, however I actually liked the ending. Also, this was the first magic system I ever read that made even a smidgen of sense.

[Wind]

Honestly I thought Eragon was great for a two week span of time when I was ten, I then found WoK and from their I've just been reading a lot of Sanderson. Eragon  is an OK book series but I think that if you stick with reading for long enough  your taste will mature. Not many people I know my age still read a lot but all of them who read any thing by Sanderson do. The stormlight archives was the first series or any book for that matter that I ever reread, almost any book next to a Sanderson book looks unattractive. Eragon was defiantly just a starter series for me but to some people it could be the most advanced book they will ever read.

Also I'm thirteen and am insulted that someone would think I would still be reading Eragon.

[ShawnMC]

I've never read Eragon but wasn't the author about fifteen when he wrote it? I understand why veterans of the genre would grow bored of the same old stomping grounds of fantasy but I still enjoy going back to something familiar, even as I crave something more exotic and innovative. Even though it is typically used as an insult, I don't think that a story being cliched necessarily means that it's bad or not worth reading. After all, if Eragon is a young reader's first foray into the fantasy genre then it's something fresh and new from their perspective.

My introduction to fantasy outside of Greek and Norse mythology was the Dragonlance Chronicles and I still go back and re-read my favorite scenes. In fact, it was to me what The Lord of the Rings is to a lot of other people and personally (be prepared for incoming blasphemy), I prefer it over Tolkien's work which I've always thought read more like a history than a story. Granted, I'm glad for Tolkien's status within the fantasy genre because without him we might not have all of the wonderful stories that his work inspired. Then again, I don't consider myself to be a "critical reader" or even well-read and I'm relatively easy to please. I tend to forget the books I don't like and forever remember the ones that I do.

[Spren of Kindness]

I find Eragon to be pretty good.  It's not the best, but it was interesting, and still is.  I actually find it to be extremely relaxing because it feels so much like other fantasy books, which makes it really good for when I don't want to pick up any particular book.

I picked it up with a lot of skepticism, but I was surprised by it, especially since the author was around sixteen when he published the first one.

[Negative_Null]

Since this is now the Eragon thread, I enjoyed the first couple books when I read it in... sixth grade, I think. I lost track of most of the plot threads around the third book and didn't finish it. I recognized the tropes and cliches even then from things like Star Wars and Harry Potter. I think tropes and cliches are useful, it's just that there were *so* many. It very much felt like a reskinned Star Wars, which while still an admirable feat by Christopher Paolini, wasn't very enjoyable after a while. (Plus I think a character I liked got killed or something and I wasn't interested after that. I don't quite remember)

[Moonsilver]

It's not so much that Paolini used tropes as much as he reskinned Star Wars a New Hope and completely ripped off every element of it. Plus, he ripped off names of characters and places straight out of Lord of the Rings.

I can understand being influenced by other works, and I can acknowledge that Paolini was in fact quite young when he started writing the series, but that doesn't change the fact that he directly plagiarized major works of fantasy to create the Inheritance Cycle books.

I suppose they are useful as a gateway to get other people into reading fantasy, but it's a shame that his plagiarized books are the gateway.

[Tglassy]

My wife actually knows Christopher Paulini.  So that's cool.

I give Eragon a lot of leeway, because let's face it, he wasn't even 18 when the first book was published, which means he wasn't even 16 when he was first writing it.  I've written a large fantasy book clocking in at about 560 pages, and it is NOT an easy task.  And I never got it to a publishable state.  This kid did before graduating high school.  That's a huge accomplishment.

And of COURSE it's going to be cliched.  He's 15.  He wrote what he was interested in.  He was inspired by all these other writers and thought what he was doing was the coolest thing sinced sliced bread.  I remember being 15.  I was writing Megaman X fanfiction and didn't even know what fanfiction was at the time (2002, my family barely had internet).  This guy built a whole world.  Kudos to him.  

It got more mature as he got older, but he also started focusing on things that he was greatly interested in...that nobody else was.  He spent so long in Brisingr talking about forging and the process of forging that a lot of people just lost interest, but he thought it was interesting so he included it.  And to be honest, there's something to be said about just writing what you're interested in.  

I read the last one.   A lot of people skipped out on it because it took so long between it and the one before it.  He even felt the need to put a recap chapter that summed up the first three books, which was totally not necessary.  But again, a lot of slack.  This kid got a movie deal based on a book he wrote before graduating high school.  Have YOU gotten a movie deal based on anything you've written ever?  Has Brandon?  That's as big accompishment, regardless of the quality of the movie.  If he's a bad writer, I wish I was that bad.  

As to how I actually felt about the books, they were fine.  I liked the magic system, I loved the idea of bonding with dragons to gain power, and the story was good enough.  The end was...not the best.  Kind of a let down, actually.  It's the reason I've never gone back to it.  But I respect the guy for completing it.  

As for the rest of you, holy crap, you're reading Sanderson at 10?!!?!?!?!  I didn't discover Sanderson until I was in my 30's.  My daughter is 10, and while I've let her listen to some of the opening for Way of Kings (I have the audiobooks), she doesn't understand half of it, and there are stuff that happens that I would be hesitant to let her listen to.  Same with Mistborn.  Actually, probably more so for Mistborn.  I can see maybe reading it at 13, but 10?  Or 8???  Holy crap.  Sanderson is a lot cleaner than many authors out there, but there are still some mature themes in some of his books.