eldest (the inheritance cycle #2) by christopher paolini

✨✨✨✨☆

the short version:

eragon goes to elf school, roran becomes the real MVP, and dragons continue to be the best part of this series. a solid sequel with major worldbuilding upgrades, but also... did it need to be this long? questionable.

the vibes:

🏹 training montage that lasts forever
🐉 dragons being majestic and wise (as they should be)
⚔️ epic battles + sudden political drama
📜 eragon learning things the hard way (again)

the plot:

eragon, now a certified dragon rider (but still kind of a disaster), travels to the elf city of ellesméra to train with another old wise mentor. meanwhile, roran—eragon’s cousin who did not sign up for this—is out here leading a full-on rebellion and proving he might actually be the superior protagonist. there's also a war, a betrayal, and a big plot twist at the end that had 13-year-old me shook.

my thoughts:

okay, first of all—props to roran for single-handedly carrying half this book. eragon is off meditating and doing elvish yoga while roran is out here leading a revolution and wrecking lives. honestly, give this man a dragon.

as for eragon’s journey... look, i get that he needs training, but did we really need 300 pages of him struggling to learn magic, swordplay, and basic common sense? his development is great, but so slow. also, elves? kinda pretentious.

but let’s talk about that twist. (if you know, you know.) it still slaps.

oh, and saphira? still the best character. she deserves better than eragon’s questionable decision-making skills.

final verdict:

✨✨✨✨☆

read this if you:

• love in-depth worldbuilding and very detailed training arcs

• want a sequel that expands the world in a big way

• enjoy a side character (cough roran cough) completely stealing the show

skip this if you:

• don’t have patience for long fantasy books

• prefer more action, less training montage

• get annoyed when the main character takes forever to figure things out