The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm
is a book that I honestly wasn’t going to read.
The Inheritance Cycle was a series that held some nostalgic
value, reading the first two books as a kid and revisiting the entire cycle in
2022 made me realize just how little of the series I liked, largely staying at
an average rating. Christopher Paolini
has written more and found fans in both fantasy and science fiction, returning to
the world after seven years away with essentially two short stories, a framing
story, and fractions of a novel presented as a short story from his sister
Angela Paolini. The afterword from Paolini
is interesting as the original idea became the third story “The Worm of
Kulkaras”, the first coming next, and the second being an opportunity given to
Angela just to fill out what could be reasonably published, and still the published
hardcover is almost pocket sized, is under 300 pages, and is formatted so there
are less words on the page. The frame
story is the point of view of Eragon as he is shown or told three separate stories
about other characters and cultures approximately a year after the events of Inheritance
finished the story.
Eragon’s perspective has clearly grown since Paolini
wrote Inheritance, certainly since writing Eragon. The boy has grown up into a confident, wise adult
existing in a challenge that he must overcome, one that he is honestly not
quite suited for. Eragon’s character archetype
fits the epic hero since so much of The Inheritance Cycle drew on the
monomyth and Star Wars’ interpretation specifically, so his fate at the
end of Inheritance while fitting the monomyth means Paolini has to
develop him for what comes next. Paolini
makes it clear that there is more for the character to do even if it’s quite clear
he will not be the protagonist. The
interlude sequences are, however, where The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm
really fall apart. The bookends that
open and close the book are great and clearly have a story to tell, but the
connecting tissue of the in between segments feel almost entirely like an afterthought,
just there because there needed to be something there. Between the stories there are also these
small time jumps that feel as if there are details completely absent that would
have been present had this been a full-length novel. It’s also kind of a problem, but kind of the
point with Angela Paolini’s “On the Nature of Stars”. It’s an interesting little short story, but
also one that’s clearly meant to be read on its own and within the context of
the character Angela, it’s dealing with truth, magic, and science after all,
but it’s also perhaps the weakest of the three short stories because it doesn’t
actually have much to say. It’s a short
story that thinks it’s being largely clever about saying nothing, though it’s
at least well written, even if it isn’t Paolini.
“A Fork in the Road” actually showed a lot of promise
as a short story as well, being actually written by Christopher Paolini. “A Fork in the Road” is largely interested in
showing some of the world after the tyranny of Galbatorix, something that
Paolini actually excels at. There is still
evil in the world, not a central authoritarian evil, but almost normal,
everyday nastiness of people from the simple bullying of a child to the adult
extortion of others. It’s a simple
story, one that has a twist as to who the central character is (it’s Murtagh
which is incredibly obvious in hindsight), but the simplicity is something that
Paolini almost needed to show that he could do interesting things with the
world. Because it is the opening story,
it’s the first thing that the reader has to immerse themselves back into this
world so the simplicity actually works.
It allows the closing story, “The Worm of Kulkaras” to work even better
as an exploration of Urgal culture and history.
The Urgals were clearly the stand-in for Tolkien’s orcs throughout The
Inheritance Cycle and it wasn’t until the final installment Inheritance
where they actually were given a fully deeper purpose. This short story expands that and honestly
allows Paolini to flex his more bardic side, as this is a story told through
the mouth of a bard. It’s a tale of
slaying an evil dragon that feasts on Urgals, the titular worm, though shifts nicely
into a tale about knowing when to retreat and accept ones own limits without
feeling as if you are giving up. Thematically
it is also relevant to Eragon’s own task of healing the dragons in the Eldunari
and the hatching of a new generation of dragons, the book ending with Eragon
being informed of the first dragon hatching.
Overall, The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm
shows that Christopher Paolini’s growth as an author is something that has
continued since 2011’s Inheritance.
The two stories he pens are genuinely great, although the struggle with
the interludes and the middle story being more baffling than anything hold this
one back. There is a fifth installment
in the series set after Inheritance released in 2023, something that I
am definitely now checking out because it’s clear that Paolini’s growth will
transfer to novel writing, but The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm is
still a bit rocky. It is at least a
quick and easy read with enough charm to push it slightly above mediocrity. 6/10.
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