I just finished the book Eldest by the young writer Christopher Paolini.  This is the second book in his Inheritance Trilogy–the first being Eragon. At face value, I found the book to be very entertaining and easy to read–a page turner if you will. It’s not what I would consider especially ground breaking or drastically different from other books I have read within the fantasy genre, but it’s definitely got some interesting characters and intriguing plot twists. (I actually am not sure if it is a book that is supposed to be at my reading level as an adult anyway? The library and bookstores probably shelve it in the Young Adult section, so my criticism below might seem a bit too harsh considering those factors…)

Anyway, before I give you my big pet peeve about the books, I just want to preface it by saying that a.) I am looking forward to reading the last book in the series when it is published, and b.) I really have no room to criticize since, as a teenager, I didn’t publish a best-selling novel while simultaneously enduring the trials and tribulations of puberty. I still haven’t even written one yet! Well, unless you count…Titan’s Tale.  With that said, here’s what I think about these books…

SPOILER WARNING: THE INFORMATION BELOW WILL LIKELY SPOIL THE BOOKS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THEM! DO NOT READ THIS POST ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE PLANS TO READ THESE BOOKS AND DO NOT WISH TO HAVE ITS SECRETS REVEALED. CONSIDER YOURSELF DULY WARNED…

As I was voraciously reading through this second book something dawned on me. All of a sudden I felt as if I had read this same story before…only where? I’m not saying that Eldest was plagiarized or anything like that. All I’m saying is that there were elements of the story that seemed a bit familiar to me. Certain events and characters in the second book clicked in ways that reminded me of other events and characters in a different mythology. As I pinpointed similarities more similarities jumped to mind…and then even more. Oh sure, some of them I had to stretch a little bit to make them all fit into the overall scheme and many, many elements will never fit into the other story I speak of, but for the most part the main archetypes felt a bit like mirror images.

To be honest I felt a bit ripped off after this "eureka" moment hit me. It felt like I’d been hoodwinked into believing this was a new story when in fact it was a remodelled re-tell of an older one (but aren’t they all?)  I honestly don’t know why I didn’t pick up on the similarities until half-way through book two. In order to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I will give you some clues and you tell me if you have ever run across this story before. (Hint: some stories are read and others are experienced through other media like movies or TV.) Here’s the story in bullets:

   
• A teenaged orphan boy who has been raised by his uncle in a rural farming area makes a discovery which changes his life, leads to the death of his uncle, causes him to flee his home, and puts him in opposition to the reigning power structure, i.e. the Empire/Emperor.

   

• In fleeing his home the boy must rely upon the assistance of a hermitic old storyteller who seems to know a lot more about the state of the Empire and the boy’s past than he should given the circumstance. In fact, as the story unfolds the old storyteller is revealed to be much more than that what he at first appears. The old man has been resisting the Empire covertly and has been in hiding for many years because he is one of only a few remaining Riders who were not destroyed by the Emperor.

   

• At one time, before the Empire existed, these Riders were keepers of the peace in the realm until one of their own (now the Emperor) betrayed them and had them all executed by a very strong Rider who had turned evil.

   

• In the midst of training the young orphan in the ways of the Riders, the old storyteller is killed leaving a deep impression on the boy.

   

• While trying to join the secret rebel force currently resisting the Empire, this young boy–the new Rider–heroically saves one of the main rebel leaders who also happens to be a Princess.

   

• The new Rider is well received by the rebel force and helps them to avert a potentially-cataclysmic assault at the end of the first act (book).

   

• In the second act, the Rider realizes (through mystical means) that he needs further training to become a true Rider and to defeat the Emperor and must travel to a distant land to receive it.  Meanwhile, the resistance force’s chance of survival against the Empire hangs in the balance.

   

• The Rider learns much from his guru who also happens to be a Rider of old who has been waiting in seclusion to train him.

   

• The battle between the Empire and the rebels heightens as the Rider is in the midst of receiving his training.  The young Rider decides to forgo the completion of his training in order to save his rebel friends from impending doom at the hands of the superior forces of the Empire.  He promises his guru he will return to complete his training if he is able.

   

• During the battle with the Empire, the young Rider is mortified to discover that his father was in fact the evil Rider who killed all the other Riders and who helped put the Emperor on the throne. He also discovers that the Emperor wants to use him to solidify his power in the realm.

Is any of this starting to ring a bell?  Perhaps in a galaxy far, far away?  I’m serious.  This storyline came straight from Eragon/Eldest and yet it reeks of Star Wars, doesn’t it? I left out a lot of details obviously in my summary; Paolini adds a dragon to the mix and some of the correlating characters are male instead of female (for example, the young Rider Eragon discovers he also has a brother instead of Luke discovering that he has a twin sister) but so much of it is almost identical.

There are other similarities, too.  At the end of Eldest Eragon vows to help save his cousin’s fiancee from the Ra’zac (debatably marginal characters at this point) much like Luke Skywalker resolves to save his friend Han Solo from Jabba the Hut (definite marginal character) at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Then there was the almost identical way in which these two stories started out: the Elvish Princess transmission (i.e. the dragon egg) set things in motion for Eragon much like Princess Leia’s cry for help inserted into the R2 unit changed Luke Skywalker’s destiny. The two Princesses both get captured and tortured by the Empire don’t they?

I could go on, but do I really need to?  As much as I liked reading these two books, now I feel like I didn’t need to…I already own them on DVD (just with a different title and a John Williams soundtrack.)   The last book in the Inheritance Trilogy can’t possibly end in the same way that Return of the Jedi ended, but I’m fearful that I will be able to piece together how it will end based on the fact that I already know the characters intimately from my many viewings of the Lucas’ masterpiece.

Don’t mean to bum you out if you want to read these books, but "I’ve got a bad feeling about this…"