The week from Sunday, November 6 through Friday, November 11 included two of the most anticipated video game releases of all time: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Modern Warfare 3 — an addition to the series of the most prevalent first-person shooter games of all time — was released November 8. The Elder Scrolls V, or Skyrim, is a medieval role-playing game where adventurers must destroy a Nordic god that has taken the form of a dragon. Skyrim was released November 11.
I had my own long awaited release during that week, however. Inheritance is the last book of the Inheritance cycle, written by Christopher Paolini. Knopf Books put it on bookshelves November 8. While most gamers had been waiting for sequels to their favorite video games for no more than four or five years, I had been waiting for the release of this book for seven.
Inheritance tells of the struggle to defeat a tyrant, Galbatorix, in order to rejuvenate an era of piece and stability. Eragon has been put through a thorough crash course in the ways of the Dragon Riders and must use the strength of his elven friends to help defeat Galbatorix and his dragon, Shruikan, once and for all.
Inheritance did not disappoint. The resolution included one hundred pages of tying off all lose ends from the entire series, and Paolini forgot nothing. With a satisfying ending, I am glad Paolini chose to end the series the way he did.
Fortunately for readers, the first chapter was a summary of the first three books, going through the main points of the series that readers may have forgotten over the years while waiting for Inheritance’s release.
I picked up the first book of the Inheritance Cycle, Eragon, when I was just a third grader. Eragon is a 15-year-old farmboy who discovers a “strange blue stone” while hunting, takes it home and attempts to sell it to no avail. The “stone” later hatches into a young dragon, Saphira, which makes Eragon the only hope in the fight against a tyrant that has reigned over Eragon’s homeland for an era.
The subsequent novels in the series, Eldest and Brisingr, follow Eragon’s training to become a competent dragon rider, swordsman, and magician. He travels and meets the other races of his continent, often in not-so-friendly circumstances. These races include dwarfs, elves and the horned, belligerent Urgals. The traits of the dwarfs and the elves reflect those of their counterparts in Lord of the Rings.
Saying good bye to a series that played a huge roll of my childhood is bittersweet. While I have waited years for Inheritance, the story of Eragon was one I hoped would last further into my life, but I suppose it was time to say good bye.
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