Eragon

Eragon is a teenaged boy about to enter a world of magic, dragons and wonder. While hunting in the forbidding woods of The Spine, he misses the deer he has been hunting but instead witnesses the strangest event. A bright blue, round object pops into existence before his eyes and changes his life forever.

Disappointed that he will bring no food for his family home from his days long hunt, he dares to drop by a crotchety butcher's shop to see if just maybe the butcher will find his new rock interesting enough to be traded for a winter's worth of meat. Unfortunately for Eragon, the butcher hates the Spine and is afraid of anything found within it's boarders, so he rudely dismisses him. A kind blacksmith happens by at the moment when he is being evicted and buys the meat for Eragon on the promise that he work at the forges to make up for the cost in the coming spring.

Eragon returns home with his rock and begins his adventures.

This book is part of what was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but because of the depth of the story, turned into a series of 4 instead. Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance make up what is now known as the Inheritance series, by Christopher Paolini. Paolini began writing Eragon at 15 years old and became a NYT bestseller before he was 20.

The story has flaws, there are a lot of parallels with Tolkien's work (where aren't these evident in most modern fantasy?), but overall is a fantastic journey that I hope anyone with a love for new worlds will be willing to take. Paolini painstakingly creates an entire new world, filled with new creatures and beings for this series and it would be a shame if people didn't give the whole series a fighting chance.

One warning to those who are squeamish, or perhaps just too young, these stories become quite graphically violent. It isn't gratuitous to me, instead adds dimension to the story. On the other hand, it can be hard to read so much graphic violence at times, so perhaps parents of younger readers may want to skim through some of it, especially in the latter books, to ensure that the subject matter isn't going to be a problem. (I do not say this lightly or in a condescending tone, my son is 11 years old, but has always been ultra sensitive to violence and especially violence towards characters he has grown to care about, if you are of a similar nature, some of the content, which can be skimmed instead of thoroughly read, may be a bit hard to handle without being affected it.)