Christopher Paolini was only fifteen when he first wrote the whole thing, never thinking of publishing. He spent another year revising it and then handed it over to his parents to read. It was they who decided it was good enough to go after publication.
Can you imagine, sixteen years old, and your parents think you've produced something worthy of publications, or at least trying. Add to that, someone else reading it and agreeing AND promoting it to THEIR publisher, who ALSO agrees. WOW!!!! If only I had that kind of encouragement way back when - heck even like 1% of that kind of encouragement.
The sad thing about that whole story - Christopher Paolini has not published anything else at all. Or if he has, it's under some pen name and not at all connected with this series or this author page on Amazon. It's in all the different formats and in several different languages, some of which the letters aren't even recognizable, meaning it's in like Japanese or some such - I can't tell. All that effort put into this one series, and yet there is nothing new. It's a great story, but really, it's kinda sad that there's only the one.
And to add insult to injury - the movie.
Do I need to say anything about that? It's as if Stephan Fangmeier raped the first book and stole the title. Because of what he did to the storyline, there was no way the rest of the books could have ever been filmed. Don't get me wrong; the movie Eragon was a fine movie, but only if you never ever read the book(s).
But really, I'm getting totally away for the reason for writing this post. My husband is not a reader; he had trouble comprehending sentences - my youngest son is the same way. But he does enjoy audio books so I have a few. I got a kick out of him yelling at the book, telling the main, Eragon, what he should or shouldn't do. Twice I reminded him that the writer was a fifteen-year-old kid who never went to public school, telling a story about a sixteen year old kid who grew up in an isolated village in the mountains. The funniest part was the ending. As foretold in book one, Eragon would sail away and never return to his home country. And there were tidbits of foreshadowing here and there along the way. But at the very end, he does leave.
My husband riled at that for hours. Eragon might be seventeen years at that point, and throughout the entire series, he was hard in love with an elf princess who, though she liked him, she saw him as a child - NOTHING in common. She did her best to divert him too, but he just couldn't help himself. And then he sail off, knowing he'll never see her again. My husband's issue? The poor kid never got laid. He's going off to raise a bunch of dragon hatchlings with a few elf guys for company and help, and the poor kid is still a virgin. Plus, since he's heading off across the ocean, there isn't even any guarantee that he'll reach his destination. So - virgin + whale turds. He even made me go search today just to make sure there wasn't another book out there somewhere. I wish I could send Christopher a message.
Thought you might enjoy this as much as I did. Oh, and give the book a listen. You won't regret it.
Gerard Doyle is a fantastic narrator. My husband wants him to do my books. Now if I could find a way to contact him.
Hmmmmm...
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