So last night I finished the seventh book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I started the first one the week before Christmas. GFWTR has both them a while ago and my book list was empty so I grab those. Seven books in a bit over two months is pretty good for me. I know there are people that probably read substantially more than that in the same time period but for me that was a pretty ravenous rate.

I won't go into any long winded review given that I am well behind the popular rush for this author but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the series. My only serious complaint was the story ended too abruptly with too many loose ends that I would have like seen tied down. Many characters that I both liked and disliked were left without closure. Just a chapter or two more after the final climax and before the final chapter set 19 years later could have really finished the series cleanly. A sign of a good series to me is when I am finished reading them and step away from the story I am left with a longing and sense of loss for some of the characters. The Potter series did manage to leave me with that loss for several of the characters.

So I am now looking for some good suggesting for new authors to try out. Last time I asked for a suggestion here on my journal I got a very good suggesting from madeofmeat with "The Risen Empire" and it's sequel "The Killing of Worlds" by Scott WesterFeld. This story is up there near the top of my Sci-Fi favorites. Anyway I would love to hear your suggestions for some good Sci-Fi or Fantasy authors. I'll probably take a week or two off from reading to do some website stuff or similar but I need so start a new queue of books.

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002



1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

via bdunbar ultimately from here
bold book are one I have read. 14/50 Looks like I have some reading to do.

Tolkien to release a new middle earth novel from beyond the grave.

Click here for more -> {as a chill runs down Homis' spine}

via oberongeiger

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/yearofdragons

Looks like a good year to be a D&D fan, especially if you like Dragons.

So I finished this book last night. I purchased it because I actually saw the new release of the hardback version of the second book in the series title Eldest at a local book store and had read the liner notes of the second novel and was greatly intrigued buy the story. I personally love dragons, especial dragon lore where they are intelligent personalities and not simple evil fantasy critters.

Over all it is as described a fantasy book for a juvenile audience. When I purchase the book I did not realize that it was for a juvenile audience although in reading the book it is quickly evident but not overly so. It was not until I was about 1/3 of the way through the book did I learned that the author was only 15 years old when he wrote it.

From the website for the series:

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands. . . .

That sets the stage for you. I am bad at reviewing a book properly so the follow will simply be some random thoughts and impression of it. I will try my best not to ruin the story but simply give you and overall impression of the book.

Overall the book is well written and true for its audience (which fit my language skills just fine :) ). I thoroughly enjoyed story but I am very biased towards the idea of human dragon relationships. But his setting seemed to mesh nicely and support the idea of Dragon riders and them having a special position in the verse.

As I read the book I could not help but constantly see the heavy influences of Tolkien on Christopher. It was often subtle and other time very naked and open. One of the more obvious incidences he describes a particular group of dwarven warriors and talks about there unique fine mesh mail that they wore on there legs. I could not help but think of the following passage from the Hobbit.

Dain had come. He had hurried on through the night, and so had come upon them sooner than they had expected. Each one of his folk was clad in a hauberk of steel mail that hung to his knees, and his legs were covered with hose of a fine and flexible metal mesh, the secret of whose making was possessed by Dain's people.

-JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit, Chapter 17: The Clouds Burst

That particular connection nearly clubbed me over the head when I read it, but I am very familiar with Tolkien’s writing having read the books (The hobbit and the trilogy) 4+ times and listen to the unabridged audio book 6+ times in the last decade. So no doubt I am drawing additional connection that may or may not be there. Still in the end I very much feel as though Christopher took many larger elements of Tolkien’s world and put them back together they way he wanted to create his own story. The Elves are still extremely powerful, magical, and a remote race, again both terrible and beautiful intertwined. The dwarves are still head strong, proud, lovers of stone and the works of their own hands and the world under the mountains. The human are humans, a wretched lot trying to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.

There certain are new and unique pieces to his work. Instead of Orcs and Trolls there are Urgals and Kull. The play similar rolls but are unique in there own ways. There are other bad guys, Shades and interesting twist on Sorcerers and the Ra'zac another physically powerful bad dude. The magic wielded in Paolini world is a much more substantial and arcane than the more subtle innate magic Tolkien uses. The story itself seems unique (maybe not see link to Wikipedia at the end of my writing) and I perceive no influence of Tolkien on the story arc but merely on the building blocks that create that arc. There make be other influences present but I was not apparently familiar with them well enough and so did not see them. I would be interested to see if there were influences from the Dragon Lance story setting.

The plot, although very predictable for the first half it has some nice twist and unexpected bends in the second half most notably in the way the plot reaches its climax and resolution. It does end rather abruptly after the resolution but not completely unsatisfying. It does leave you wanting to start the next book but it would have been cleaner to linger a while in the first book and tie up a couple loose ends.

All in all it was a very enjoyable read. Given its intended audience it reads easy and is laid out in an easy to follow manner. If you enjoyed Tolkien’s style of writing then this would probably be pleasing to read if not quite as satisfying at Tolkien was. He try’s to give the impression of a depth of history but unlike Tolkien I do not believe Paolini has created his own Silmarillion to support his man story arc and so that feeling of depth and history is not as strong as Tolkien’s writing

If you however found Tolkien childish and unsophisticated as I have heard some comment than this will truly feel like a see thru toddler’s book.

So if you like dragons as characters and are looking for a good munchable story then take a look at Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Not the best book I have ever read but certainly not the worse, that’s still held by Melvile’s Moby Dick.

Note:
After writing this I found interesting criticism of the book similar to my own over at Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eragon

Scroll past the plot spoiler to the bottom section titled: Critical Reaction and Rebuttal.