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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, and War
suicana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Physical abuse, and Slavery
queenpebbles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The books starts out okay, very much with a typical TTRPG introductory encounter, and we see some improvement with worldbuilding, but once Murtagh
The work would have been much stronger if the cult was actually believable. If Bachel had actually convinced Murtagh that he would have had a place among the draumer and given him reasons to belong instead of dragging things out with nonanswers, if the *reader* questioned which side was actually the "good" side, it would have been stronger.
The power balance is also all over the place and many things are introduced only to never be brought up again. Also, Murtagh reads nearly exactly like Eragon for no good reason.
I'm left feeling that this book was forgettable, and that I never want to read something by Paolini again.
Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
PTSD noncon drug use religious cultszoey_blk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Blood
Minor: Slavery
belady147's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What a fantastic book. I’m super excited to see where the story goes from here. I hope that we continue to get Murtagh’s POV in future books.
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Torture, Violence, and Blood
gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail
daniber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Torture, and Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
lizziaha's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Abandonment, and Classism
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Some spoilers for this book and the previous books to follow.
This book was published twelve years after Inheritance and more than twenty years after the initial publication of Eragon. In that time, Christopher Paolini has definitely grown as a writer. His descriptions are tighter and more vivid. Side characters are differentiated in ways that they weren't before. Murtagh's character arc is difficult and mostly well-executed. And unlike in the previous books, the ableism, in this case Murtagh and Thorn's internalized ableism around their PTSD, feels more like an intentional character choice and less like the author violently hating disabled people.
Elsewhere, Paolini has also learned how to write evil girlbosses. Yay?
And he seems to have developed a more nuanced understanding of cult members and survivors of trauma in the intervening years, though that understanding still feels incredible surface level.
While I know that there is an overarching thing that he's aiming for with further installments in this series, it felt to me like half of this book was just Paolini realizing that he'd broken his magic system in Inheritance and trying to find ways to deal with that. On the whole, I didn't mind this. Murtagh encounters challenges that can't be surmounted using the Name of Names. He realizes how limited his vocabulary in the Ancient Language really is. He finds creative solutions to his problems. I liked this.
What I did NOT like was the reveal that the new big bad had been the big bad the whole time and the reason why Galbatorix was the way he was. Maybe this is a personal taste thing, or maybe it's just down to the execution, but I was so excited when there was a new threat that was different from Galbatorix and so disappointed at the reveal that *gasp* it was Azlagur the whole time! It felt lazy to me.
The pacing was, as usual with Paolini's books, horrendous. I know that a lot of the side quest things (like the stuff with the werecat children) will be picked up again in a later book, but it was still very inelegantly done. Even if plots are ongoing, the main threads of a book should be resolved in that book. There was definitely a better way to weave things together.
And the one long chapter in Ilirea at the end to wrap everything up and attempt any sort of proper development of Murtagh and Nasuada's relationship? Silly. Ridiculous. Yes, better than the 200 pages of conclusion at the end of Inheritance, but come ON. Both characters deserved more than that.
Overall, this book is generally better than the previous installments on a craft level, and Murtagh is a more compelling character than Eragon, who also faces much harder personal challenges, but the pacing was so bad and the Nal Gorgoth section dragged SO MUCH and overall it needed some restructuring and reconsidering in places. Also, I didn't have any nostalgia making me like it more than I naturally would have (other than a general fondness for Murtagh and for Nasuada), and this made the rough parts even more difficult for me.
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
loveat1stwrite's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn, reflect upon the abuse they experienced as side characters in the original 4 books. This is reflected in Thorn's fear of confinement and panic attacks when in enclosed spaces in the current plot.