the_jesus_fandom's reviews
354 reviews

I enjoyed this book a lot!

The protaginst talking too much was v relatable to me, although in the end she made it way more of a big deal than even I've done. Also, if a talkative person resolves to not talk and it works.... Yh no that's not exactly that easy bro. For the introverts: the amount of effort you have to put into socialising is the amount of effort I have to put into not talking.

I had no idea what fairy tale this was based on lol.

The title is very misleading, she's not a princess and only spies once.

Also, killing the guards in that one scene (you know in the forest) was not, in fact, necessary.

But overall an enjoyable, exciting read lol

Oh and I have family in the actual Marienberg so that's cool

Een leuk verhaal over eerlijkheid en vertrouwen (a fun story about honesty and trust)

I liked the story, but there is indeed a reason for this low rating.

1) Parvin gets

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the knowledge on how to murder anyone effectively, and this has no real consequences once she gets over the initial shock.

2) Dystopians are just not really my Thing I guess

3) I have a big problem with the fact that Solomon actually starts the riots at the end. I don't believe Christians are supposed to destroy structures like that. We're actually supposed to obey the government as much as possible without overriding our conscience. I don't believe instigating violence is a good thing to do.

Nice things:

1) I read this just when QR-codes became a thing so yup

2) Those cameras that record your emotions? Amazing not even kidding that's the best invention I've ever read about.

This review was originally posted here at homeschoolingteen.com

I have no problem with long books. 230,000 words? Sure thing, sign me up! Some stories take longer to tell than others. However, it seems that authors in the fantasy genre have forgotten that short books are okay too. More and more you see books that get extended into trilogies, or trilogies that get another three books because the author hasn’t done enough plotting. That last thing is exactly what happened to Eragon. Originally intended to have three, it now counts five books, each of which has at least 1000 pages. And that, dear reader, is why it took so long for me to write this review.

In the first book, Eragon became a Rider and killed the shade Durza. Now, he needs to train for his responsibilities. He travels to the elves, where he meets “the cripple who is whole”, Oromis, who proceeds to train him in using magic. While there, both Eragon’s shoulder wound from book 1 and his crush on Arya – also from book 1 – rise to uncomfortable heights. This all brews together for a while until the danger over at the Varden becomes too great and Eragon has to rush back to save the day in a large battle agaisnt Galbatorix’ forces. In the meantime, Roran, Eragon’s brother, has returned to the village of Carvahall. The Ra’zak are still hanging around, and in the end Carvahall is being threatened so badly that Roran decides to sneak out with all of the villagers and try to find shelter.

Paolini’s prose is rather flowery. I think it’s good that he wants to describe the surroundings, but he does it quite a bit too often for my taste. Once a certain line is crossed, description becomes distracting. Quite a few times, I found myself skimming over the description so we could get back to the more exciting parts. Another habit that got annoying was his use of similes. Paolini seems to describe everything by comparing it to something else – and sometimes it doesn’t even help the reader visualise it. How would I know what ice creeping over granite looks like? Paolini also uses quite a few long words that don’t serve any purpose. Yes, it’s a good idea to use your thesaurus, but you have to keep in mind that not everybody will know what “sussation” and “corpuscle” mean. Furthermore, Paolini sometimes describes things that are really not that interesting: ‘No hair grew upon his chest or legs, not even around his groin.’ ….Well then. There is a lot more silliness like this: during a stretching exercise, somebody touches his forehead to his toes, which is anatomically impossible; Arya almost keeps apace with a flying dragon while running; Arya wears leather clothes even though she’s a vegan; and there are creatures called Shhrg… Yeah, try pronouncing that. A lot of the little details Paolini tells us aren’t relevant and only made me more confused about how the world works.

On the moral side of things, Eldest has a very utilitarian worldview. This worldview basically says that anything that works is the right thing to do. That’s why Roran continually hurts others as long as it helps fulfil his noble goal.

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One good example is how he manages to get his entire village over some body of water: he needs barges, but can’t pay the full fee. He also can’t tell the owner, Clovis, that he’s going to transport people or the man will back out. So he decides to only pay the up-front price and steal the boat when they arrive at their destination to avoid paying the full price. When the boat’s owner sees that Roran is going to transport an entire village, and not animals, he understandably objects, explaining he could get into huge trouble. Roran, that excellent model of good conduct, tells Clovis he will use these barges no matter what – because, remember, his goal is good, so anything that gets him closer to it is automatically also good – and even threatens to kill him, although apparently he wasn’t actually going to do it, you guys. Throughout, the book tries to paint Clovis as the untrustworthy, treacherous one, even though it’s Roran who deceived him.

Another drawback of utilitarianism is that it judges people’s worth based on their usefulness. Once again, Roran displays his wonderful love for people by wishing that an old man had died during the journey so he wouldn’t have to deal with him during the boat ride. The man clearly has some problems up in his attick. I’ll leave it up to you decide whether that’s a good reason to wish he were dead.

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A more jarring example is Elva. This poor girl has been accidentally cursed by Eragon to be a shield for harm: she can feel others’ pain and needs to help them or she’ll suffer for it. When Nasuada meets her for the first time, Elva knows exactly what to say to comfort her, and Nasuada ‘loathed her for it’. When she starts to feel sympathy for the child, it’s apparantly ‘against her judgment’. How is any of this Elva’s fault? Why is she being judged for a stupid mistake Eragon made? Nasuada sees Elva as ‘a potent weapon if she were applied correctly’ and as ‘a blight on [her] honor’. I would like to point out that Elva is a literal baby who has had to grow up way too quickly in order to suffer in other people’s place. Once again, the book only sees her usefulness, not her humanity. Angela is even worse: she ‘relishes’ to study Elva. Not only that, but while discussing the girl’s future, she gets sidetracked by the word quagmire: ‘lovely word, quagmire’. Angela, can you not be quirky while talking about a cursed child’s future?

Besides all of the above, there are other ethical issues that I’m not going to spend much time on: revenge is once again glorified; people don’t believe in the meaning of life, and say that if there is one, it’s just to help people and do things; the worldview is very fatalistic: the book mentions various times that there is no justice in the world; and Oromis claims that using logic is way better than being wise, thus automatically trusting that logic will always bring you to the right answer. The Varden are refugee living in Surda, then threaten the Surdanese with thievery and other bad behaviour and steal an entire market from them. A man’s chickens get stolen by somebody else, the thief doesn’t have to pay the full price back and is actually promoted to a better job with full rations to avoid him stealing. Lastly, the Elves don’t practice marriage, instead just picking a mate for a certain time, which has been shown to be very unhealthy for people. That might be different for Elves, but to promote it in a teenagers’ series seems unwise.

The Elves probably deserve a paragraph of their own. In fantasy like this, Elves are usually considered very beautiful and serene. Paolini takes this up another notch by making them the perfect people: he idolizes them. This is problematic for several reasons:

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firstly, when Eragon is miraculously healed, he is also turned into an elf-like person without his consent. He later states he is indeed perfectly fine with it. After all, what does consent matter if what is happening to you is good?

This elf superiority also elevates the elves’ veganistic and atheistic beliefs above all other beliefs in the universe. There are two scenes that are clearly just a badly hidden podium for Paolini himself to explain exactly why there is no god. In fact, the elves know a lot more about science than you’d expect in a medieval world, and it’s suspiciously useful for their arguments against any deities. Happy indoctrination, kids! Lastly, the elves themselves also believe they are better than everyone else: they are more scientifically developed, better at magic and stronger physically. Why shouldn’t they have a large head? When Eragon tells Arya he’s worried for her safety, she reminds him that she isn’t ‘one of your helpless [human] females’. As a human female, I am officially insulted.

The magic system is very fascinating: it revolves around an ancient language, but that language isn’t the thing that drives the magic; instead, it harnesses it. I must say that, as much as I like the premise of the system, I am confused as to how it really works: one the one hand the language harnesses the language, but you can perform magic without it. It’s your intention that eventually decides the spell, but Eragon manages to turn a blessing into a curse by using the wrong inflection. You need to understand what you’re saying, but Eragon also heals someone with a spell in which he doesn’t understand any of the individual words and only know what the spell is supposed to do.

Both Eragon and Roran seem rather overpowered: they are great at swordfighting, planning, leading, and Eragon even turns into an elf, which makes him absolutely beautiful.

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In the beginning, Eragon still has his old wound, which gives him a flaw, but after he learns to “conquer the instincts of his flesh” and gets turned into an elf in a very weird ceremony that includes naked dancing girls, the wound has disappeared, leaving him with no flaws.

This once again fits in very well with the worldview that only those who are useful in the very specific way everyone else wants them to be should feel good about themselves. Not only that, but before the old leader of the Varden dies, he charges Eragon with responsibility over the whole Varden, after which everybody takes this 15-year old boy seriously enough to include him in their council meetings. Eragon and Saphira themselves fully go along with this, even mistrusting all of the Varden’s leaders for no good reason. They immediately assume they’re corrupt and out to get power. Strangely, Eragon first describes a man as wolf, then later says he strikes him as honourable. These leaders never really come up after this, so why make such a big deal of their conniving? It seems like just another way to show how much better Eragon is than everyone around him.

All of that being said, there is some good to be said for Eldest. The final battle still felt high-stakes, even with Eragon being so powerful. It still seemed plausible that he might get hurt, which is always necessary for an action scene to be interesting. There was a plot twist during that battle that I probably should have seen coming, but didn’t. I’ll chalk that up to my youth and naivete. I enjoyed a lot of the magic gimmicks and some of the learning sessions. But that’s also about it.

So yeah, Eldest is a depressing book. It tells me that I am only worth something if I am useful; it tells me there is no god and that there is no hope for the world; and if someone wrongs you all you can do is take revenge on them. I will not be finishing this series. Thankfully, there isn’t exactly a shortage on fantasy literature. On to the next try!

This review was originally posted on homeschoolingteen.com

It is a truth generally acknowledged that homeschoolers are protective and proud of their brethren. A homeschooler is succesful? That’s a big win for the entire community. I might not know them, but I’m darn proud of them. That’s why I was so thrilled when I found out that the book I was reading was written by – you guessed it – a fellow homeschooler. I was already in a very festive mood after that, but guess my delight when it turned out that this author was not just a homeschooler – he was a homeschooled teenager! It was at this moment I knew I had to share this book with the world.

After graduating from homeschool highschool at age 15, Christopher Paolini started work on his debut: Eragon. 5 years later, in 2003, it was succesfully published by his parents’ company. The fantasy book starring elves, dragons and other beasties soon became popular, clearing the way for various sequels. Eragon tells the story of a 15-year-old boy who discovers a mysterious blue stone in the middle of a forest. He finds out there is much more to his past and future than he ever imagined. Together with Brom, the local village storyteller, he sets out on a quest filled with swordfights, magic and dangerous foes.

Eragon has a lot of similarities to The Lord of the Rings: there are dwarves; dragons; magic; an old mysterious man who helps the protagonist; a famer boy; strange elven languages; Black Rider-like foes; and elves who came over the sea. However, the way the world and the magic work are very original. The setting isn’t just a slightly tweaked version of LOTR, it really is its own world with its own rules – rules that make the story very interesting. The violence is on the same level as LOTR, but the descriptions are darker and more vivid because of the way the book is written. There are descriptions of the aftermath of torture as well.

Eragon’s first motivation is revenge, which is obviously not a very Christian thing. This was a big hurdle to overcome for me to like Eragon. Revenge is just not a cool thing, and anybody who thinks so is confused. To non-Christians, his reason for wanting revenge may seem perfectly adequate, but we need to follow the example of Jesus, who forgave the soldiers as they were nailing him to the cross. Later, Eragon’s motivation changes, although the revenge arc stays: ‘No longer it was just vengeance […] that drove him. […] It was his duty to assist those without strength.’ I do feel as if the line between vengeance and justice is very thin in this book. You could say it’s that way in real life, and I’ll wager that’s true, but it’s as if the book tries to sell vengeance as justice. I would have appreciated a bit more distinction between the two.

The book has some animistic tendencies: the urge to worship nature. The sea is described as being emotion incarnate. A more jarring example occurs when Eragon and Brom arrive in a city where priests worship a nearby mountain in much the same way old priests in the Bible used to worship Baal. Eragon visits the temple erected for the mountain, where this happens: ‘Out of respect, Eragon knelt before the altar and bowed his head. He did not pray but paid homage to the cathedral itself.’ He does this because the cathedral is so old and has seen so much. That is nice and all, but the cathedral also emanates a feeling of sadness and cruelty. Just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s worth respect, especially if it’s being used by a bunch of priests sacrificing their body parts to a mountain.

Something else Christians might object to is the presence of a herbalist who can read the future. In the book, tea leaves, divining cards and crystal balls don’t work. Dragon knuckles do, however. I felt it wasn’t really a necessary step to have Eragon’s future read, as he already had dreams that were driving the plot and all the reading did was give in-book spoilers. Some other minor problems are the use of the word b-st-rds and Eragon drinking and getting a hangover. The main bad guy is possessed by an evil spirit. On the other hand, that might actually be a Christian warning: in the book, if you open yourself up to spirits, you’ll never get a good spirit because all the good spirits don’t possess people. That’s pretty much how it goes in real life too.

One large theme in the book is that of finding identity: Eragon has to leave his home behind and find out who he is. By first describing Eragon’s home very lovingly, Paolini succesfully evokes the painful emotions associated with leaving the place. Eragon’s homesickness and bitter-sweet memories really resonated with me. In the book’s universe, people have a “real name” in the ancient language, much like the Bible tells that God’s people have a real name in His language. In the book, knowing this name gives you full control over another person. Another way to control others is to break into their mind. Both of these are seen as severe violations of a person’s rights and should only be done when absolutely necessary. Another thing that is interesting is that although you can also “read” the minds and communicate telepathically with animals, there is a clear distinction between them and humans: humans have rational thought, animals only instincts.

Eragon is oppossed to harming defenseless people. At one point, his companion Murtagh beheads a vanquished foe who is admittedly evil. His explanation: ‘No stranger’s life is more important than my own. […] What empathy can I afford my enemies? […] You must be willing to protect yourself and what you cherish, no matter the cost.’ Eragon retorts that you can defend any action that way: ‘It’s still murder.’ Later, he is told: ‘Learn what you can about Murtagh from this. Then forgive him.’ I really appreciated these scenes: Murtagh does something bad because of the way he grew up. Where other books would have seen this as ample excuse, in here his action is still seen as wrong. Murtagh’s background is acknowledged, but it isn’t seen as something that overrides his moral compass. Sadly, the main baddy does get a tragic backstory, but since he’s actually possessed by an evil spirit, technically speaking it’s the evil spirit that’s really the bad guy and they don’t get a justification for his actions.

Eragon later sees people preparing pitch to pour over an advancing horde of Urgals, which are this book’s version of orcs. He shudders, thinking it ‘a terrible way to kill anyone, even an Urgal.’ During the battle, somebody is described as having a ‘face disfigured by a vicious snarl’. This is a good person in a worthy fight, yet this is how he is written. It shows how much importance the book gives to mercy and how much the author abhors killing. I do want to add that somewhere else in the story, Eragon threatens a soldier with what is basically torture if he doesn’t give him information. That’s hypocritical considering his morals, no matter how important the information was or how high his emotions were. But on the whole, the book very clearly speaks out against killing and hurting others.

Something I loved was how Eragon’s sexual feelings are dealt with. That sounds wrong, but hear me out. At one point, he has rescued an elf, Arya, and needs to heal her wounds. This scene is useless, it needs to be there. To heal her, he needs to take off her shirt. She is lying on her stomach, don’t worry. Most books would either act like he has no reaction whatsoever, or include some very inappropriate paragraphs. My father has always been very honest with me about how boys feel, so it annoys me when books ignore it. In Eragon, Eragon does have feelings but what shines out most of all is his modesty: he doesn’t want to be touching Arya and is embarrassed by how he feels. Later, whenever he notices how much he likes the way her body looks, it makes him uncomfortable. This gives me a lot of respect for him: Eragon does feel things, but he surpresses the wrong things and focuses more on people’s personalities.

Eragon gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand there are good morals concerning respect for others. However, there are also a lot of occult and animistic ideas involved. Some of the violence may be a bit too much for some readers, depending on what kind of books you normally read. On the whole, I would say this book is okay to read, but you should be careful about what exactly the book is trying to tell you through characters’ actions. There’s good things and there’s bad things and it’s important not to lose your way.

Nobody:
This book: RaThoUs

It honestly bored me, idk why. I just don't rlly feel Dickerson's books, I guess.

Also, we're just expected to believe random gossip just to make a man seem bad like do u kno how gossip works ma'am