Inheritance (Inheritance Cycle, Book 4) (original 2011; edition 2011)

Well, I did enjoy it. I was totally sceptical after Brisinger (crap!), but this was more like the first two. I would give it three and a half stars if it was an option. It started to drag a bit, but picked right back up again. If you liked one and two, even if you hated three like I did, I expect you will like this one as well.

The end is a bit weird. You get to where you expect it to end and then have a few pages of they went here and they went there and he got the girl and yadda yadda...but you realize there are 70-odd pages left. Huh? Yeah. I think he's setting it up for a second series to spin out of it.

I was a bit disappointed that he did the whole boat sailing away into the great unknown thing, as it was so "Tolkien" at the end of LotR. You would think that he would have gotten the hint from all of the negative blow back after Eragon that if you pilfer, at least find a way to make it your own. This was almost identical, but with lots of food. There again, I'm not sure Paolini listens to anything unless you're talking in his own made up elvish language... ( )

Elves, dwarfs dragons, spells, magic, and fighting; this book has it all. i could have done with out all the gory description of the battles but this is what will make it interesting to the boys. This book goes on and on and in the end you can see how the author has set up events that can lead to another book. ( )

I was very disappointed. I'd so looked forward to reading the story, though I have to admit it wasn't for the main character Eragon but rather his brother Roran that interested me by the time this book rolled around. Roran seemed to be a much stronger character in so many ways. Unfortunately he doesn't save this book for me. I had a very hard time finishing. ( )

This is one that I only read so I could finish the series. It was certainly better than #2 and #3, but overall felt like a hotchpotch of clichés more than a fitting end to the series. ( )

I really wish I could have given this book 3.5 stars.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book just as I enjoyed the previous 3 in the series. Unfortunately when it comes to using way more words than necessary, this is the worst book of them all. I found myself skimming through many parts of the book and not really missing out on anything. I think the book could have been a third it's size and still have told the story effectively and had the same impact. So I found myself annoyed at how long it took to read this book, mostly because the other three had the same problem to a lesser degree, so by the time I got around to reading this 4th book, I really just wanted it to be OVER already, despite how much I love the story.

That said, regarding the story itself, there were a few minor things that were never answered, and that's annoying, but overall the major things were answered and the series has a good ending which I really appreciated.

In regards to the writing skill, it seemed improved over previous books, but considering that by the time he wrote this book he was well into his adulthood and had three other books under his belt, it really should have been a lot better than it was. ( )