Guest Post: Golden Eagle of The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

 Today I am delighted to have The Golden Eagle, of The Eagle's Perspective, over to talk about her love of the Inheritance Cycle books.

I hope ya'll will give her a warm welcome to the blog.

There are few series I would wait for (and impatiently!) over three years to finish, but the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is one of them. It’s one of the better YA Fantasy series out there, with an excellent cast of characters, a detailed setting, and a strong plot.

What drew me into the series was, I have to say, not really the promise of grand adventures or majesty or an excellent story: it was more the cover. (I know, judging a book by its cover—but I really had nothing else to go on at that point.) I love dragons, and any book that mentions them has got my attention.

Luckily, Eragon proved to be a worthwhile read. The first thing that struck me and drew me in was the main character, Eragon, and the supporting characters; Brom in particular, along with the apparent antagonists, the Ra’zac.

The second thing that attracted me to the series was the setting. Alagaësia, while it does have overtones of other worlds such as Middle Earth, is unique in its own way, with a range of cultures, people, and its own history.

The third? Plot. Throughout the Inheritance Cycle, the plot is strong—stronger than I would have expected, based on the beginning, which clearly pulled from other stories. But Paolini takes his series (particularly Brisingr) in new directions, and his writing too improves as time goes on.

All of those, of course, led me toward alternately feeling like throwing the book across the room (metaphorically) with frustration and happiness that the adventure wasn’t quite yet over—there was still more to come. There are so many questions unanswered at the end of Brisingr: the antagonist is still at large, a full-fledged war is about to begin, Eragon has discovered the secret behind his enemy’s power, and there’s the detail of his unrequited love, of course.
Those matters will, hopefully, be resolved in Inheritance. I’m looking forward to it.

What drew you into the Inheritance Cycle, if you’ve read it? If you didn’t like it, why not? And if you haven’t read it, have you ever come across other series where the plot, character, and/or setting started out similar to something else but changed over time?

The Golden Eagle