Eragon Winner of the Jugendbuchpreis der Jury der jungen Leser (Literaturhaus Wien) 2005 and the Preis der Moerser Jugendbuch-Jury 2004/2005

After Harry Potter Eragon was my next brush with a big series in the Fantasy genre when I was a teenager, and I’ve enjoyed it so much. Even though you can see the influence by The Lord of the Rings I’m still in awe of the world building and the creativity of a fifteen (!) year old. To think that he wrote the majority of these books in his teenage years and early twenties is mind-boggling. Not just the world-building, but also the writing style and the attention to the characters, those were all things I enjoyed very much about this book when I read it for the first time as a teenager, and I still feel the same after this re-read. Eragon’s development in particular I enjoyed reading about because it was so authentic. He is a teenager himself and learns so much as he goes through this adventure. I really like stories that portray characters that make mistakes and learn and grow from them. Also, the way the author writes the adventure and everything that goes with it (joy, fear, grief, fun, friendship, politics, etc.) is beautiful to read. Ultimately, I won’t be able to give this anything less than 5 stars because the nostalgia is just too strong. Not even my being over the 'chosen one' trope can change that (as it’s still well written).

Fantasyfans werden begeistert sein von Eragon und seinem Drachen Saphira. Die Geschichte ist in sich mehr als schlüssig und Paolini schafft es, dass Kleinigkeiten, die man überliest, später eine große Bedeutung bekommen, auch über den ersten Band hinaus. Die beschriebenen Charaktere sind so dargestellt, dass man sie förmlich vor Augen sieht, während man sie auf ihrer abenteuerlichen Reise begleitet. Ein ausgesprochen gutes Buch und an Fantasyfans unbedingt zu empfehlen.

Selten kann ein Autor einen so sehr fesseln und einen mit dem starken Drängen, nach mehr, zurücklassen.