Eldest, by Christopher Paolini

(Eldest is the Second book in the series of Eragon) Now, on with the story then! 

     This story starts out with the main character, Eragon, walking around looking at the wreckage of the beginning battle against the Varden (the rebels) and the Empire (the empire). He is saddened by all the death that has occurred. But, the Varden has triumphed this first battle. But that doesn't come with happiness.The leader of the Varden Ajihad, (AH-zhi-hod) the best spell casters in the Varden, the Twins, and Eragon's best mortal friend, Murtagh, go to fight that last of the Urgals, (large animal like things that fought for the Empire) in the dwarf tunnels. As they are arriving back at the center of the Varden, 5 Urgals come up kill Ajihad, and capture the Twins and Murtagh. Arya, an elven friend of Eragon, goes to save them, but only finds bloodied clothes.

     Eragon, and the rest of the Varden are now even more saddened, but after all the business has been taken care of, (the new leader assigned) Eragon has been told he, by the Crippled one, that he  must go to the Elven city of Ellesmera in the Forrest of Du Weldenvarden to train there so he may become a better dragon rider. But, because of his scar that he received from the evil shade Durzer, he has large amounts of times when it hurts his whole body, and he is afraid that is will hurt him to travel so far and to train. 

     Though he is afraid he goes to do what he must so he can save the land that he comes from. But because he left his hometown, and left his cousin without any explanation, evil animal things have threatened Eragons cousin Roran, and has even eaten one of the village members. So to keep the village safe, and to get back his fiance from the animals, he has to go to the Varden to get help. On his way he has to go to the extremes to get there, even steal one of the Empire's battle ships, and travel through the biggest whirlpool in the ocean.

     While in Du Weldenvarden, Eragon's teacher is the last Dragon Rider, besides him, in all of Alagaesia.(the place he lives) He can't do many excesses because of his injury, but at a celebration, a magical dragon tattoo comes to life off of two twin elves and grants Eragon a gift that heals his back and gives him the characteristics of an elf. he finishes some more training, but leaves to help the Varden in another large battle against the Empire. And there, Roran comes up a river by the battle and helps the Varden by killing the Twins that betrayed the Varden and was destroying their defenses.  But while Roran was helping the major part of the Varden, Eragon had a bigger problem. SPOILER ALERT!!!!! The dragon rider Eragon was fighting he thought was dead, and didn't even knew was really related to him, it was his brother he never knew about. But, you have to read the book to find out who that is!

    Altogether, I loved this book! The ending made me angry, but I liked the defiance of the Hero's Journey. I love the ideas that Christopher Paolini uses in his books that I have read so far. I really enjoyed this sequel to Eragon! A+


Adventure, Suspense, a wanted romance