The Inheritance Cycle remains one of my favourite series so when this new one was published, I was thrilled. I’ll admit, after whopper after whopper I wasn’t expecting this to be as small as it was. However, it was still a delight with beautiful descriptions.
Bits
of Eragon’s perspectives are scattered between, and bookend, the three sections
of this book. It starts with Eragon hating administration. This reflects the
opinion of every office worker or young person in a new job. To have such a
mundane thing happen in a fantasy world was funny. Then Sapphira pushes Eragon
with her snout, a detail that I love. Just like a dog, only smarter, less
fluffy and more forceful.
‘The
Fork’ is hilarious. ‘The Witch’ is thought-provoking. ‘The Worm’ is a masterpiece.
Really glad to have read it!
The
Fork
With
the help of the Eldunari, Eragon sees Essie. She’s an innkeeper’s daughter and
talks with a traveller called Tornac, his voice ‘overly careful, as if he were
sculpting the air with his tongue’. If that isn’t a fantastic description then
I don’t know what is.
He comforts Essie over her scar. It
doesn’t do much good in changing her opinion but what he says is touching.
Something, I feel, that could be spoken in real life with positive
consequences.
Tornac is at the inn to meet Sarros.
He mentions stones that were burnt without fire and smell like rotten eggs. The
ra’zac smell like rotten eggs so maybe these are ra’zac eggs? He also mentions
that sleepers and dreamers try to twist your thoughts: mad Eldunari?
Aggression between Tornac and Sarros’
gang erupts. Tornac uses the Word, which utterly controls magic, but it does
magic. Sarros says it’s because he’s wearing a charm made by someone called
Bachel. (Bachel is a name to look out for in the future.) So failing magic,
Tornac enchants a fork and uses this to fight Sarros and his crew! That gave me
a chuckle.
During this fight, Essie’s mum holds a
chair ‘like a weapon or a shield’. Brilliant. In the end, Essie receives the
fork and names it ‘Mr. Stabby’. The other books took great care with naming
things because names hold power over their objects: to have a name be so silly
made me lose my composure.
Once
Tornac’s left Essie and the inn, it’s confirmed that Tornac is Murtagh. There
were several clues.
The alias Tornac, for one (it’s the
name of his horse which he named after his teacher-come-father-figure). Also,
why would the Eldunari show anything other than danger (which this scene
wasn’t) or someone close to Eragon?
Like is often the case with elves and
dragon riders in the series, Tornac the human is described as cat-like. He
knows the Word and, as far as we know, the only men who know it are Murtagh and
Eragon. With the dragon rider and
cat-like business, it can only be either Murtagh or Eragon and we know it’s not
Eragon because Eragon’s the one watching this.
The last clue isn’t a definitive or
conclusive clue. But it made me wonder and re-evaluate the information I had so
far. He says he got his scar from playing around with a friend who he calls
‘the big oaf’. Any human could have done that for sure but his the sense of his
love and bond with his ‘big oaf’ was intense. What else is big and has an
intense bond with a person other than a dragon?
Eragon appreciates the Eldunari
showing him Murtagh. It also gets him and the reader curious about what exactly
Murtagh is up to: he left Eragon wanting to spend him time alone but here he is
among people. Did he feel compelled or curious to act when he sensed danger, or
was this investigation the real reason why he left?
The
Witch
Angela
comes to visit Eragon. Since the moment I met her, Angela has been my favourite
character. To see her again is great; for her to be a big part of this tiny
book is the greatest.
We learn that Nuada’s mages are giving
innocent, harmless spellcasters a hard time. Eragon makes fun of Angela being
harmless and innocent because even Sapphira is a bug to Angela. So it makes me
wonder what Nuada’s mages could possibly be doing that would give her a hard
time. Annoying? Yes. Hard? I hardly think so.
Solembum, Angela’s werecat friend,
warns Eragon of ‘shadows that walk’. Is this a reference directly to shades? Or
are people’s shadows being used against them? Eragon learns how Angela and Solumbum
met but the reader doesn’t! That’s simply infuriating.
Then we read Angela’s memoirs. Each
rune is written in a different colour, a detail that fits Angela’s character
perfectly. Angela tells the reader to untangle ‘contrary strands of history,
memory, facts, and lies’ and then tells them not to dig for truth. Already off
to a confusing and misleading start.
It starts by saying how she was taught
by the Keeper of the Tower, whose library shifted: the inner and outer doors
were often not aligned. Angela stays in the library too long and the doors
shifted, meaning she ‘was in the same place yet vastly elsewhere.’ Does this
perhaps suggest a parallel universe? The author likes sci-fi so this could be
the case. Or would a different time period fit better? That would explain her
apparent agelessness.
Angela makes Elva her apprentice. Yes,
Elva has a lot of potential but Angela’s more concerned with what Elva would
become without guidance. If Angela is worried about something, you know it’s
serious. Elva even manages to get pass Angela’s wards. It’s always refreshing
to see a character isn’t as all-knowing and all-powerful as they make out to
be.
Elva says ‘”all the possible ways to
get me out”’ have been attempted. Angela’s reply? ‘”But not the impossible
ways.’” That made me giggle. Then she opens a door (that wasn’t even there)
onto a beach. Every time I see Angela she just gets more and more fascinating.
Angela took Elva to the dream well in
Mani’s Cave. This is a kick in the teeth for Eragon, considering he tried to
find Mani’s Cave in the Inheritance Cycle. Also I think he may have asked
Angela if she knew?
Eragon confronts Angela who says even
if it’s all lies, ‘”there are often lessons worth learning in stories’”. You couldn’t be more right, Angela. Then in a
nice touch, Elva turns three mad Eldunari sane. Never mind the best elf
sorcerers have been trying to do this for months.
The
Worm
This
section was the most intense and gripping of the lot. As it was being told by a
bard, it was a field of descriptions, similes and metaphors. If I listed all
the ones that stood out to me, I’d be quoting every other phrase.
The urgels tells Eragon the Tale of Vermund
the Grim. He’s a dragon who, with a ‘throat packed full of fire’, terrorises
Clan Skgaro. Many die, including Ilgra’s father. Raiders, a shaman and Ilgra
all fail at killing Vermund.
The passage of Ilgra looking into
Vermund’s eye is truly amazing. The intense detail of such a simple action…
phenomenal.
Having failed, Ilgra decides to learn
magid because it failed the shaman like strength and bravery failed the clan.
This makes no sense: I’m going to use you because you failed. That’s like
hiring a cook because they burn everything they cook! So I don’t understand
Ilgra’s thought process (people in real life had contradictory and illogical
thought processes so it’s good to see this shown in literature). Ilgra makes it
work for her, though.
For the most part, I was too
distracted with reading to stop and write down notes. It had a satisfying end
and I enjoyed the insight into urgel culture. The first book in the Inheritance
Cycle makes urgels out to be the monsters and this representation increasingly
gets better with each book. It’s not fixed but it’s getting better. As long as
the progress doesn’t stop, it’ll be fine in the end.
Other
Someone
says that happiness is ephemeral whereas contentment is a ‘far more worthwhile
goal’. I’ve been of this opinion my entire life but I’ve never seen anyone
agree. (For the most part, it’s something people have never even considered.)
Nuada sends shipments to Eragon
monthly. This means that the Academy is accessible, defeating the point of
Eragon leaving Alagasia. If he stayed in Alagasia, he would have known the
risks and could prepare for them. Here, somewhere new, no one really knows
what’s going on.
I’m just hoping all the volumes will
be around the same size. The author usually writes whoppers and there’s a risk
his other volumes could become whoppers, too. Not that having more to read
would be a disappointment but consistency is always appreciated.
Eragon makes mention that he doesn’t
want a war like they had with Galbatorix. Is this setting up the plot of future
books, perhaps? Or maybe this sets up for another series alongside the volumes?
It’s called ‘Volume I: Eragon’. Does
that mean each volume will get a different character, or different characters
will get multiple volumes? Whatever the case, I hope to read them soon!
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