"Eragon. Eldest"
08/07/2018
SPOILERS*
Author: Christopher Paolini
Language of the book: Russian
First published in: 2005
Note: I read this book in 2017 and wrote a review in Goodreads; however, I decided to share it here too with some amendments to it.
It has already been 3 years since I finished to read the first book of tetralogy and finally, I got time to turn to the second book of this adventure. I read this book in two months, I would finish it in a week since I love the plot, but daily routine was stopping me, but anyway I managed to finish it. Like the first book I was captivated by the story from the very beginning.
The book began as a continuation of the bitter events at Farthen Dur, where Eragon was wounded in the back by Durza, Ajihad as a valiant knight and leader fell in battle, and a friend of Eragon Murtagh, alas, also died.
However, life does not end thus in a while after recovering from the recent events Eragon and his magnificent dragon went to the noble elves to continue training in the art of magic and more. Eragon and Saphira were training under the guidance of one of the wisest elves -Oromis. Their first few training of Eragon and Oromis pushed me away, because it seemed to me that Oromis rather abruptly and rudely taught Eragon. But later Oromis opened up for me from a different angle and I understood that he says very true things which can be relate to our real world life. When Eragon was not lectured by Oromis, he was immersed in the culture of the elves so much that he adopted some customs from them. At the end of this educational journey Saphira and Eragon became wiser.
I was very worried about the love thread of the novel between Eragon and Arya, but, alas, because of their age difference and future events, Arya strongly postponed this topic, although Eragon's heart was torn apart.
Throughout the book, the chapters about Eragon were followed with chapters focusing on the lives of people in Carvahall and Roran (Eragon's brother), who experienced their own drama which wasn't less tragic than the events at the Farthen Dur. Ordinary people had to confront the old same Ra'zac and Urgals, where they lost their loved ones, and Roran his beloved Katrina. Despite the grievances between each other people led by Roran made the toughest decision to leave their homeland Carvahall and get to Surda to enlist support.
In the end, everyone gathered together to join the battle against the Empire at Burning Plains. A fascinating story, fully immersed me in the world of Alagaesia, and feeling not just being a reader but as a hero of this journey never left me. I can't wait to start reading the 3rd book.