Simon D. Blog 2

          I have finished reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini. I finished reading from the halfway mark to the end and I enjoyed the book very much. In the second half, Eragon, the main character, finishes his first part of his training in Du Weldenervan, the great elven forest, under Orimis and Glaedr. Oromis is another rider and his dragon is Glaedr. They were one of the pairs that were on the Rider's Council before Galbatorix, the evil king, became mad and destroyed the Riders. The two escaped to Du Weldenervan so they could teach the next rider, who happens to be Eragon. In the second half of the book, it talks about Eragon finishing his training, but the bulk of the story focuses on the Varden, who are the freedom fighters against Galbatorix, and Eragon's cousin, Roran.
          During the second half, Roran finds that his farm where he grew up at is destroyed and as he finds out, Galbatorix's soilders come to take Roran prisoner. He convinces the town to leave Carvahall after some fighting with the soilders. They escpae to the Varden and Roran is reunited with Eragon after he comes back to help the Varden. When Roran and Eragon meet, they are in the middle of the battle of the Burning Plains, where there are thousands of Galbatorix's soilders against the Varden, During the fight, Eragon is faced off against another Dragon and Rider, which shocks him, and even more so when he finds out that the Rider was an old friend, Murtagh. Eragon finds out that they are brothers, and again Eragon is shocked because he never knew his parents, least of a all knew he had a brother.
          I think the book is good because paolini writes the book very well and is very appealing to teenagers that are into fantasy books, like me. He keeps the story moving and focuses on the important parts, and he juggles different characters, mainly Roran and Eragon, without losing you in the story.
          I think that Paolini wanted to share his passion for fantasy adventures, because judging by his writing, he was into fantasy himself when he was younger.
          I think the theme is that overcoming challanges and expierencing changes can be hard, but you learn from them. Eragon is constantly faced with problem after problem, but he gets through each one alive, and more grown. Every time he overcomes an obstacle, Eragon learns something new that he later puts to his advantage, wether it's a fighting technique, or just overall common sense, he puts it to use.
          Eragon is by far the best character. He is a very smart, confident, and well-written character. he changes from being as farm boy to a Dragon Rider, which in itself is a great change, but along with being a Rider, he learns things that he never knew and becomes a more literate, knowledgeable, and courteous character. A cool quotation that I like is when Eragon's dragon, Saphira says: "With every great change comes turmoil." I like this quote because it syas the truth. Whenever there is a great change in your life, you will expierence turmoil, and if you get through it, you will be a better person.
Since I have read this book before, I do not have any questions.