Let’s take a minute before I get into this book to
discuss Star Wars: A New Hope and the work of Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell was an American writer whose
literary work and analysis is most well remembered for focusing on the nature
of stories and story structure. The
Hero with a Thousand Faces is where he first referred to the hero’s journey
and the monomyth (a term taken from James Joyce). These concepts essentially posit that every
story has the same structure and characterization from the point of a
protagonist. A summation of the journey
is a call to adventure which is then rejected, before the hero suffers a loss
to push them onto an adventure (crossing a threshold which will transform the hero),
a mentor figure guiding them through initial challenges before often being excised
from the story, more challenges for the hero before a descent into the abyss
for the low point and death of the hero, a rebirth for the hero leading to a
final transformation and the eventual return to the previous or new status
quo. While this is fairly vague, it
should be as it is describing archetypes in a story and not literally every story
to the letter. There are variations,
omissions from the format and additives depending on genre and what an author
is attempting to accomplish, but essentially stories follow some sort of hero’s
journey style structure. I bring up Star
Wars: A New Hope because in writing the seminal science fiction film,
George Lucas adheres to the hero’s journey to the letter in a science fiction coating. Luke Skywalker is the hero, Princess Leia’s
message for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s help is the call to adventure, Luke’s
responsibilities on the farm stop him from initially going off to find Ben
Kenobi, the death of his aunt and uncle are the crossing of the threshold,
there are challenges in getting to where Leia is being held while Luke begins
to learn about the Force, the death of Kenobi at the hands of Darth Vader is
the death of the hero, and the final challenge to overcome is blowing up the Death
Star, ending the film with the ceremony declaring Luke a savior of the galaxy.
I spent so much time on this preamble as discussing Eragon
is a difficult task. Published
independently in 2002, it is the first book in The Inheritance Cycle
written by Christopher Paolini who was only 15 years old when he begun
writing. I bring up this age because
while the series sold incredibly well, well enough to be picked up by a
traditional publisher for release in 2003 with the three sequels coming in
2005, 2008, and 2011 respectively, it is a book that in recent years has
garnered a lot of criticism for being wholly unoriginal. While this criticism is harsh, it is not an
inaccurate criticism, as the plot structure and characters of Eragon
follow George Lucas’ interpretation of the hero’s journey, as seen in Star
Wars: A New Hope, almost down to the letter, including where the initial Star
Wars trilogy would go in subsequent films though instead of science
fiction, this takes the form of epic fantasy specifically inspired by J.R.R.
Tolkien in terms of setting, Ursula K. LeGuinn in terms of magic system, and
Anne McCaffrey in terms of how the dragons work. Yet, I don’t wish this review to be seen as
bashing Paolini, since when he wrote this book he was a teenager doing what any
teenage writer would do, take the interesting elements of the stories he
clearly loved and smash them together to form his own narrative. I do wish to dispel the idea that Paolini was
just using the hero’s journey, as if this were the case there would not be
analogues to every major Star Wars character, Eragon is Luke, Brom is
Obi-Wan, Murtagh is Han Solo, Arya is Leia, Durza is Vader, Galbatorix is the
Emperor, and the only real new character is Saphira, Eragon’s dragon, who
really doesn’t have a Star Wars analogue. Saphira as a character is a lot of fun, she
has this smug sense of importance and continually grows, though some of her
teasing feels like Paolini wanting to have a reason to reveal information to
someone whenever the plot requires it.
It’s when Paolini isn’t sticking to the Star Wars
script or writing a Tolkein homage that Eragon is allowed to shine, some
of the towns Eragon and Brom visit as well as the opening chapters do manage to
be engaging and give kernels of interesting ideas and characters, as well as an
exploration of the magic system where Paolini is allowed to get the interesting
bits across. The writing and prose are at
best average, you occasionally get a good one liner or even a scene, but this
is clearly a book that has been edited to make a 15-year old’s prose presentable. This makes it perfectly readable, though the
simple style is enhanced if you are a younger reader, as this is a book
explicitly marketed towards children (I’m only reading this since Paolini is
releasing two books next year and has announced it is being adapted into a
streaming series for Disney+). Paolini
throughout has this great sense of childlike wonder with a protagonist that
will be easy for children to imprint themselves on, though one that does at least
have some struggle. Eragon as a
character is at least partially falling into the Mary Sue trope, but like any
character labelled with that particular trope it isn’t always accurate. The length of the book also makes this a
great example of a gateway to epic fantasy, this first book clocks in at just over
500 pages but rarely do you feel that length.
The worldbuilding also shines through Paolini’s imagination coming
across in a map and several varied cities, using the work of Tolkein as
building blocks. The final sequence of
the book while clearly inspired by sequences in The Fellowship of the Ring
in particular are interesting and deal with a resistance movement who has their
own motivations and potential for backstabbing our heroes. It does fall down by ending with essentially
the tease that the plot of Eldest will at least in part be following The
Empire Strikes Back for Eragon as a character.
Eragon as a book is not
really a good book, but it is not one that I can bring myself to thrash. Any adaptation will have to contend with the
fact that it was written by someone who was very young, though luckily by the
time it was published traditionally Paolini was 20, nearly 30 by the time the
series was finished. After this book
Paolini has the chance to make some experience work to improve his craft. Is it a book I’d recommend people read if
they’ve already read a lot of fantasy?
Most definitely not, it is a book that does tropes and sticks to them
without understanding what makes tropes work, but it is a decent enough gateway
fantasy and it is a series with potential.
It’s a series I will be covering (prior to this I had only read Eragon
itself once) and while I am perhaps a bit hesitant to give it a score since
it was written initially by a child, I can only give it a score of 5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment