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mamabucher
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| Posted: Aug 07 2007 at 9:44pm | IP Logged
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I am wondering if anyone out there has read, or has any opinions of the book "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini? I am almost automatically distrustful of current novels and prefer to stick with the classics. Is this another in the genre of Harry Potter, or maybe Lord of the Rings? I am intrigued because the author was home-schooled, and I thought that might be inspiring to my kids. I have too many books I'm am trying to read at the moment, and was hoping I could garner some opinions from seasoned, Catholic moms.
Thanks!
Pam, Wife and Mom of Five
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Aggie gal
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 12:14am | IP Logged
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My son had just finished reading Eragon, when I came across this not so long ago on the Catholic Answers Forums:
"My oldest son and I finished reading Eragon,by Christopher Paolini, and loved it. We couldn't wait to run out and by the sequel, Eldest.Well, when I reached page 440 of Eldest the warning bells went off. Eragon, the main character, is taught that "when the flesh is destroyed, so is the soul" and that there is no eternal life.
Later in the book, pages 541 - 544, Christopher Paolini pulls out a multitude of atheist arguments to explain to Eragon how the superior race of elves do not worship anything because there is no god. Four pages of discussion, back and forth, with Eragon, the 16 year old human boy, playing the part of the confused theist, and Oromis, the incredibly ancient and wise elf, part of the superior race, patiently explaining the atheists arguments."
So basically, we've tossed aside the Eragon now, especially since I have come across other similar comments about Paolini's second book.
Hope this helps.
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Amy
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LLMom
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 6:48am | IP Logged
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Also, the 2nd book has some immoral adult situations. Not in real detail but its there.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
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margot helene
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I read both of these before letting my older children read them. We have had great discussions about not only the religious beliefs of the characters, but why the author created his world the way he did, a world where the dwarves have a strong religious tradition and the elves pooh-pooh it. We compare it a lot with other things they have read and talk about the role of religion in literature. In the first book Eragon kneels in the "cathedral" that is dedicated to evil. Why does he do that? How does the author think it serves the story to have the character do that? Look at it in context, what can you make of it?
The whole concept of the story is like Star Wars and Paolini, since he is so young and has no life experience from which to draw, draws from all the fantasy stuff he has read/seen. So a lot is not original, nor of superior literary quality. But it's not bad either. That he was homeschooled does appeal to my children. (My oldest has a dozen composition books full of his "novels.")
I've been surprised to hear of 8 year olds reading the book, (I told my kids 7th grade and up), but each parent knows what their children can handle. I do think it's a book/series that takes discussion.
margot
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Willa
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margot helene wrote:
The whole concept of the story is like Star Wars and Paolini, since he is so young and has no life experience from which to draw, draws from all the fantasy stuff he has read/seen. So a lot is not original, nor of superior literary quality. But it's not bad either. That he was homeschooled does appeal to my children.
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That's the impression I got too. I started reading the first one and couldn't get into it. My oldest son (19 then) read a bit further but I think he got to the cathedral scene you mentioned and put it aside. My other kids have shown very little interest in reading the books, though they have a vague interest in the author because he was homeschooled.
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Willa
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BrendaPeter
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LLMom wrote:
| Also, the 2nd book has some immoral adult situations. Not in real detail but its there. |
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Hi Lisa,
Could you be more specific on the immoral situations?
Thx!
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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Jen L.
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Hi,
I'm looking for guidance on the 3rd Eragon book that just came out. My 13yo son read the 2nd book before I read this about "immoral adult situations" and he doesn't know what there was in it. Now he wants to read the new one. Anyone?
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Jen
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catholicmomma
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Last year, my 9-11th grade "Socratic Discussion" students decided the philosophy behind it is all Star-Wars. I allowed a discussion of it at the end of our fantasy unit, after we read and discussed Narnia, The Princess and the Goblin, Lord of the Rings, The High King, and The Book of the Dun Cow. I thought that allowing them to read it, comparing it specifically to Tolkien and answering hard questions, would help them see through it. And it did, to an extent.
In my opinion, Paolini has lots of potential to be a good writer (and the fact that he was homeschooled is a major draw for our kids). But he's young, immature and hasn't decided what he really believes yet - in other words, I don't think he's made any type of Christianity his "own" faith yet.
So I keep hoping that by reading/discussing it together, my students (I have 50 altogether, and many of the high schooolers had already read it when I got them) would come to the conclusion it's not worth the time. I've made it very clear I think it's twaddle. And most of the "listeners" to our discussions lost interest after they heard about it. Alas, a few are still obsessed (maybe 6 of them).
All I can say is that it's better than most of the junk currently on the market (and it is VERY hard to keep good readers in good books at this age), but I wouldn't recommend the series.
Lisa B in
OH
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cheesehead mom
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I am bumping this old thread in the hopes that someone can help me find a review of the second and third books in this series. I thought I remember MacBeth or someone going into more detail about the subsequent books. Thanks for any help.
Laura
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imcatholic
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I just didn't think they were that well written. It was like he copied LotR and Narnia style series and summarized. My oldest DS (17) has read them.
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cheesehead mom
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| Posted: July 16 2010 at 7:53pm | IP Logged
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I agree that they were not well written but since it is summer I was letting him read some fluff...I know there were some red flags though too on religious issues and some sensuality I thought. Perhaps I will need to preread. Thanks for the response, boards are quiet on some threads this summer.
Laura
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Topic: Eragon, anyone?
