I could rant all day about Eragon, mainly because of the immense love I feel for all the characters. I think Paolini did a fabulous job displaying the characters and making me feel apart of them. As for rip-off? Ha. I think Eragon holds a beautiful originality about it, even if the concept of "Dragon riders" is a bit used. Heck, I liked the book so much the first time I read it, I thought it was the only book mentioning that. Naive, I know. I was only in 7th grade...

As for everything else, may I remind you the beautiful descriptive ability Christopher Paolini has? He made me want to jump and sing with the elves! XD And, before I had stayed far away from the movie, mainly cause I was never able to get the chance to watch it. Needless to say, it played on T.V last weekend and I wanted to hit something. That movie was terrible! Everything was completely wrong so I strongly suggest that if you have only seen Eragon's video counterpart, to go to the library and get the book NOW.

Seriously. That is the one of the worst representations of literature via movie screen... Well.. Almost. The Twilight movie was wayyyy worse.

Eragon... Biggest let down in the entire world...
All of the books start out super slow, gaining speed, and thus your intrest only towards the end of the last chapter... And when he's got you on the edge of your seat... He stops...
So I give up...
I don't really care that its a LoTR knock off... I mean really, there's no such thing as an original plot at this point... I just don't like how the story just drags on and on for ever...

I read the first one with a lot of interest, but it took me about three times to get through Eldest, simply because the first few chapters were really boring to me.
Once it got more centered on his brother, I started really liking it.
I haven't read the third one, but I haven't had the want to, just mostly the need to.
I feel obligated to for some reason. I guess because I want to finish the series and I hate to just leave a series like that.

Almost as soon as I started reading the book I what thinking what the hey. It is a total ripoff of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders characters. It was obvious that the kid had read the Pern books and modeled his hero and dragons on the Dragonriders.

LoTR's is a book about walking and fighting and just because it came first in a genre doesn't make it what things are riped off from everything within the last 10 years is a rip off of something else weither it was taken from myth or some other person's idea.
Eragon didn't have as much walking but it did have quite a bit of flighing.

I have read Eragon, Eldest, and a little bit of Brisingr and I don't think that it's a rip-off of LoTR but I haven't read the books only watched the movies and I don't think they have anything in common really. But I would definitely not call Eragon the "Greatest Thing Ever" very far from it actually. It's still pretty good though it just has a few things that C.P. could work on like using less description (a lot less)

Incoming wall of text
 

I personally like Eragon, and I don't think it's a Lotr ripoff. I haven't read all the books in the Inheritance series, (once a trilogy) but I have read all the books in the Lotr trilogy. Plus, The Hobbit. And I've started on The Silmarillion.
I got up to the first part of Brisingr, and then got I really busy, so I haven't been able to get back to it.
Eragon is pretty decent, I think. I found it enjoyable enough enough for me to want to buy all the books in series, which is not something I consider doing a lot. I don't think that it is the greatest thing ever, but I think it's a good start for Paolini.
Lotr is completely different from Eragon in a lot of ways.
The magic is different. Tolkien didn't seem to feel the need to explain the magic in his books.
Religion is slightly more prominent in Eragon. It comes up twice that I can remember in Eragon, and never that I can remember in the Lotr trilogy, though it does come up in the Silmarillion.
Paolini occasionally uses normal names instead of making them up. As far as I've noticed, Tolkien never did this,
The protagonist in Eragon has to go through a lot of training to defeat the villian. Frodo and Sam get no such training; others in the fellowship do the fighting most of the time. To be fair, they didn't really need to be trained for their roles
The languages 'taste' fairly different. You'd have to compare certain sounds in either languages to notice this though. Tolkien's is also complete. There is also singing in the Lotr books. The song lyrics are written in the text, sometimes in Elvish
Eragon is easier to read. This is just... true. If you've read any of the Lotr books you know what I mean. Easier does not mean better though.
The Lotr movies are better. This is a no brainer. What I saw of the Eragon movie was.... not good. They made changes I didn't care for.

Well that's it for my wall of text. Hope it wasn't too um... wall of texty. :)

As far as I can tell, Eragon is no rip-off of any book whatsoever; whether its LotR or any other book one can think of. There are similarities, but what book doesnt have similarities to another. Each author inspires the next. I know this to be true, since JRR Tolken's The Hobbit inspired me to be a writer and thus far, i only have a synopsis to write for my first novel. Magic, different races, weapons and just the writing style can be similar, but they can never be the same, unless an author takes the time to plagiarize someone else's work and i'm pretty sure that pubishers will not publish something that is plagiarized.

personally, if i were Paolini, i would feel honored to be considered similar to Tolken. I know that i ahve been told by those who ahve read my novel, that its similar to LotR and Final Fantasy. but that doesn't mean they're the same. Of course, whether the book itself is the considered a rip-off is totally up to the reader. Even if is not so.

As for the Eragon movie, i liked it, but i would have preferred that they didn't change as much as they have. i heard that they wanted to make the second book into a movie, but i cannot see how that is possible unless they completely redue the first movie. that's the only way i could see the second movie happening. and if they do re-make the first movie, i hope that they would get Peter Jackson, director of LotR to re-make the first movie.

If Eragon is a rip-off of anything, it's Star Wars. Everything is wayyyyy too similar to be a coincidence.

Inheritance cycle
 

i was surprised to not be able to find a thread for this or maybe there is one but any who. I just finished book three Brisingr and it was awesome! i have to admit that i thought it was the last of the series because it was suppose to be a trilogy but alas it isn't. Anyways enough about me lets discuss the series. WHat do you guys think will happen in book 4? Who is your favorite character/race? Favorite book? Favorite dragon? etc

oh forgot to mention what books um its. ERAGON, ELDEST, BRISINGR by Christopher Paolini.

I've gone ahead and merged your thread with our original Eragon/Inheritance discussion. :yes:

Eragon is more of a knock off of the pern series, the dragon riders are pretty much cookie cutter knock offs of the pern

Eragon Book Four Theories
 

This thread is to discuss the theories for the upcoming fourth book in the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini. Everything is up for discussion from 'who is the green rider' to 'how will Eragon kill Galbatorix' to 'where did werecats come from?' I'll be trying to keep this thread going until the fourth book is released.

And now to get the ball rolling...

Arya is oh so obviously the green rider. I can't think of anyone else who would be properly suited to it.

Well now that I seem to be part of this thread I may as well state my opinion to the question originally posed. Eragon is deffinetly the greatest thing ever! The writing style is amazing and everything has its own culture and background that is thuroughly explored. There just aren't enough good writers now adays who put the same thought into their work.

total absolute ripoff of LOTR AND Star Wars! ANd so many others....not only that but he completly ruins the story making the endings obvious... I HATE that little kid, only got his book out in the open cause his parents own an editorial.

The books get better as you go along. It's a neat premise and a complex world.

I found Eragon to be really similar to LOTR. I even compared the maps. It's like Paolini traced Middle Earth, erased some of the terrain and changed the names...

Other then that, I like the books. I'm upset that the movie didn't turn out too well and that they probably won't make any more - but then again this seems like one of those books that could make a great movie if it hadn't come out the same time twilight did.

My favorite character was murtagh. (if I spelled his name wrong, I'm sorry.) Does anyone know when the 4th book is supposed to be coming out?

I hope Murtagh will get a bigger role.

LOTR + Star Wars + More Star Wars - Cool = Eragon
Read 'em when I was 14
That's the only excuse I have.