Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, reviewed by Siddhant Sikand

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

Reviewed by
Name: Siddhant Sikand (12 years)
School: Kalka Public School,Delhi

My best novel is Brisingr. Some people love to dump criticism on Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, but I will champion this series to the ends of the earth. Paolini's world is certainly similar in tone to Middle Earth, but the mythology and background of Paolini's Alagaesia is rich, detailed, and incredibly immersive, all in a manner. The series began with Eragon in 2003, and I read it shortly after its release. The book stunned me; the incredibly vivid fantasy world, filled with great characters and terrific action, made for a very, very fun read. The book, though the shortest in the series so far, probably packs in the most plot. If you haven't read it, do so. It's nothing short of brilliant. The sequel, which continued the story effortlessly, was Eldest, publishedin 2005. This is a great book too, but a bit of a disappointment. The story is much slower, with much of the book spent with Eragon training in the Elven forest under an old Dragon and Rider. The most interesting part of the book was Roran, Eragon's cousin, who was given a great sub-plot that was epic in scope. I like this book a lot, but it doesn't match up to the first one, and its main job is to set things in motion for the third and final book. but when the plot for book 3 was found to be too large, Paolini split it in two, meaning that the new book, Brisingr, is part 1 of the finale.


Paolini obviously went to some work in crafting the first half of his plot for the last installment and making it into a wholly realized entity, a great story with a beginning, middle, and cliffhanger. I'll get my only major complaint about the book out of the way first; the ending comes far too swiftly and arbitrarily for my liking. Everything in the terrific final third feels like it's building up to an epic climax, but it doesn't. Like Eragon and Eldest, the book does end with a battle, but it's nowhere near as exciting as the battles in the previous installments, or even battles in the earlier chapters of the book. The most interesting part of the climax is the one Eragon doesn't participate in. The ending just doesn't gel with the rest of the book, and is the only part of the novel where one really gets the feeling of a "tome split in two." It sort of just ends, and it left me wanting more, in good and bad ways. Brisingr, which is incredibly fluid and well-written. Yes, there are still some unnecessary scenes, but there are no extraneous details within those or any other scenes. Even when I wasn't particularly riveted by what was going on in the novel, it was fun just to revel in Paolini's excellent writing. I'm extremely impressed by this.



At last I would like to say that,brisingr is the best book I have ever read before.