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Eragon is the story of a young boy and his discovery into a world of dragons, magic, and betrayal. Written when the author was sixteen years old, Eragon is a good introduction into fantasy books if you are new to the genre.

Basically, if Star Wars and LotR had a baby, Eragon would it be the most predictable offspring. I don't remember noticing this when I originally read the series some 12 years ago but there it is.

This is certainly a book meant for a younger audience. The exposition can be very clunky at times. The story does borrow from other popular series. (Star wars, Lord of the Rings, etc) Not to mention the relationship between Saphira And Eragon really doesn't click until near the end. Now in small doses these things are not all terrible, but it does add up pretty quick. It is easy to see why a more veteran fantasy reader could find this book annoying.

Aside from a little bit clumsy writing at times, the biggest complaint was probably Saphira, which seems weird since she is a pretty central point to the book. This may have had something to do with the audiobook making her sound angry all the time, but frankly, she kind of seemed like a bitch. Apart from being a dragon, which are simply awesome by default, there wasn't really much to create a connection to her. A big part of the emotional pull of the book is supposed to be the relationship between her and Eragon but when she is constantly telling  him everything he is doing wrong and just generally complaining, she was actually pretty annoying.  This made it almost impossible to get a sense of the bond between them.

The magic system is interesting. You use the energy inside you to do whatever you want. They use a ancient language to use the magic and the word that is said in that language is what the energy becomes. This is a very cool way that gives us a reason as to why the magic needs a weird word.

Overall, the writing is good, though not really great. Probably the best thing about this series is it is a good introduction course almost in the world of high and epic fantasy for the demographic that it targets. It isn't really childish, just a fairly straightforward plot that I think has the potential to engage young readers that want to explore the high fantasy genre.