‘Inheritance’ is the thrilling, gripping conclusion to the Inheritance Cycle. Paolini has crafted a beautiful narrative that keeps you reading until the very end. Entirely readable, very enjoyable and an almost satisfying ending! Hit the jump for more…
Once again, Paolini has started to play around with the narration. At points in the novel, I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the next part where Roran spoke. In the first half of the book, he’s definitely doing a lot more exciting things than dear old Eragon. Eragon’s role does get more significant though, as indeed it must.
Initially I felt some frustration with Eragon. Him and his damn lighting up sword! Also, he still doesn’t seem to have caught on about thinking ahead. With the great golden dragon teaching him, he’s getting there, but why didn’t he just do all his learning earlier!? There are so few things he knows, and some he forgets too!
Angela and Elvi continue to be enigmas, and it’s very interesting to see Paolini gradually exposing their characters. He’s managed to fit in a lot of plot twists, and as soon as your heart has died from one trick or another, he restarts it with another shock.
The book is very readable, and I got through the first half in around 2 days of evening only reading. Annoyingly enough, I don’t let myself take it to uni with me as otherwise I find that I’ll read instead of doing work! It frustrated me all day that I couldn’t read it.
The ending is great. Even after the final battle, I felt compelled to keep reading past my bedtime. It was a relatively satisfying ending, although there are still mysteries left over. In the Afterword, Paolini says he will return to the world of Eragon for sure. I won’t be holding my breath, but I’d personally love to see first hand the showdown of Brom and Morzan, or perhaps the original time of the elves.
While I’ve tagged this for teenagers, I think this is a series that would appeal to all age groups, provided that you can get past the slightly immature writing style of the first book. This novel is a great conclusion to the series. It may lack in depth for adult readers, and skirt on the edges of too much blood-shed for children in other books, but it’s a great series overall.
