The Rendition Experience

I am annoyed and impatient once more. I was going to patiently wait for Brisingr to come out in paperback and read it in a few months time. I had to travel back to my home country (Portugal) recently and encountered something called an Airport Edition. It is in paperback but has the same size as a hardback. Not being able to contain myself I thought to myself that it was close enough to the rest of the books already at home and bought it. When it comes to books, I do get the stupidity bug. I had to carry this 800-page book all around the airport and try to stuff it in my hand luggage. The worse thing is that being abroad (or travelling home even... it is just weird), I’m meant to do all sorts of things I would not normally do at home (U.K.) like going out and enjoying the beach and sunshine and surfing. Well, I started reading this book in the plane because I had finished the other one I wrote about earlier. I was happy when my mom arrived late at the airport because it meant I had more time to read. I even wished she had taken longer because I was half way through a chapter.
My surfing morning was botched because I was reading till 4.30 am and could not wake up before 11am the next day. Luckily there were no waves that morning...The following days I managed to survive on 4-5hours sleep. On the return journey, my fiancé was late too so I read the book till there were two chapters left and I got even more annoyed that the story was nowhere near finishing.
So (some of you might wonder), why was I annoyed? Because the book is part of a series of books called Inheritance. Brisingr is book number three and instead of finishing here, Mr Paolini decided three wasn’t enough so there will be a fourth book. And why is this reason for annoyance? It is very very annoying because he hasn’t written it yet and I want to read the rest of the story!

*Venting finished*... On to the book now!

I want to spot the immaturity in the style of such a young writer because it is not fair that one so young should have all the talent when others like me have none. I want to say that it is a puppy of a story amidst the big hounds of fantasy. Truth is, Inheritance is pretty much on the epic scale of story writing. The books have grown with the author and to me Christopher Paolini was Eragon when he wrote it. All the feelings are genuine and it is evident that he is living the story as he writes it.

Inheritance is about a land ruled by the immortal evil King Galbatorix. He is the last dragon rider as he killed all other dragon riders who opposed him. Eragon (a young farm boy) finds a dragon egg and it hatches for him. He becomes a threat to the king so he is pursued. He joins these rebels who oppose the king and fights alongside them. He also gets to learn how to be a true dragon rider. His ultimate goal is to defeat the King. This is my oversimplified synopsis.
Brisingr is the ancient word for fire in the book. The title becomes clear towards the end (I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming!). This book is more complex than the other two as it portrays the finesse of treading in the political world. The world of Algaesia is populated with humans of different tribes, dwarves (who tend to stick to their own business), elfs (who are cryptic, beautiful and cruel as they do not share the same concerns as the mortal races), Urgals and Kull (ram like biped creatures). In order to defeat King Galbatorix, there needs to be unity between all races and difficulty arises when there is trouble even within the races themselves.

In this book, Eragon faces some trials that do not require his physical strength to be resolved. He needs to be separated from Saphira (his dragon) for long periods of time which leaves him with a sense of loneliness and abandonment. The biggest test is the battle in his conscience as he suffers everyday from remembering all the souls he extinguished. It becomes a search for a philosophy through which he can live by that will prevent him from becoming power-crazed. Along with this inner search, he is also in a quest for a weapon (he lost his old sword - read the other books for more details :P) as no normal weapon can withstand his new elf like strength.

I really want to write more but what I want is to talk to someone who has read the book so that they don’t get angry with me for telling them everything that has happened. I’m tempted to re-read Eragon and Eldest. Maybe I will do just that and write about them.

V.