Eragon - Christopher Paolini - My Thoughts/Review

Deviating a bit from my quest to read the top 100 novels, I started reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini. (I borrowed the one with the movie cover one from the library.)
This allowed me a relapse into the fantasy genre which I have been reading almost exclusively since I was gifted a Raymond E Feist at Christmas one year. Blame the parents.

I do not tend to read dragon related fantasies however, I have always thought they were a bit too cliché. The only books I have close to this are the first Robin Hobb (Her Farseer and Liveship Traders are probably the best fantasy series I have read) books which portray dragons quite differently and in fact barely mentions them even though they for a pivotal aspect of the trilogys.

I decided to make an exception with Eragon. Afterall a book that has been turned into a movie must deserve a read. (I would like to point out I have not seen the movie Eragon yet.) One of the greatest fantasy epics - The Lord of the Rings has also had that unfortunate honour. I just don't believe you can bring books to life via movies. Imagination is very powerful and everybody's is different. But I will admit that sometimes there are a good turn of events to this. I read the Da Vinci code by Dan Brown because everybody was talking about the movie and that is an excellent book.

But I digress...
Eragon has all the makings of the classic dragon fantasy. Boy meets dragon/finds dragon's egg. Dragon becomes friend with boy and is magical (obviously). Boy goes on adventure with dragon Boy becomes a hero because of dragon etc. etc.

Paolini writes like somebody who has grown up reading good fantasy and good descriptive texts but not good writing. His writing is very fragmented and rushed in my opinion. He writes like he is reading a good novel: the storyline is captivating but you want to get to the end as quickly as possible to find out what happens. He gets there that quickly and the whole effect is ruined. There is a reason why authors don't just take you to the crux of the story. You need character development, world-building, story building. You need your readers to build a good rapport with your world and characters before they can do so with your story line. You don't want them to have any incling of what is going to happen. This is especially important in regards to fantasy as some readers will take time to relate to and enjoy your world which is why epic fantasy works - Tolkien, Martin, Eddings, Feist and even Rowling.

It was not all bad. I liked the way Paolini took time to describe the majority of his characters even minor ones. Sometimes it is good to have the author's portrayal of the character rather than just your own. His storyline was ok though not anything 'new' and captivating. I expect his writing will mature as he does. I have no plans in reading Eldest and Brisingr anytime soon.
I am, howver, thankful that he and the movie are bringing more youngsters to what I believe is the original fictif genre.

In summary a good first effort. I expect a better class of writing in his following books.

Next up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Pride and Prejudice.

Music - Donnie Klang - I fell in love, Ben - There's no use

A couple of good RnB/Slowjams.
First up we have Donnie Klang - I fell in love (prod B.Cox).
It's a new one with great beats and simple but captivating lyrics.



Next up is a nice acoustic sounding tune from Ben called There's no use (2008).
Love the guitar riffs and vocals.



Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do download them by finding the embedded source, please delete within 24 hours. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

Pictures -Cannon (La Preneuse, Mauritius), Lambs (DofE Hike)

Cannon - Taken by unknown at La Preneuse, Black River, Mauritius. 35mm.Circa 2004.
From Left to Right: Mim, Niksha, Jyot, Vidish, Prerr, Priya and Mi.

Two lambs - Taken by me on D of E Hike on an APS camera. Date Unknown.

1984 - George Orwell - My Thoughts/Review

I recently decided to broaden my literary scope and to stop exclusively reading Fantasy/Sci-Fi books.
So I turned to the various Top 100 Novels lists namely the BBC Big Read, The Modern Library, Best 100 Novels.com and the Telegraph's Top 100 books, etc.

I am basically going to try and read as many of the books listed.

I started off with 1984 by George Orwell which appears on at least two of the lists. (Image from http://qbs4u.co.uk/1984.jpg)

Orwell's 1984 is a classic in various terms. It is most likely a book which is widely used as part of literature classes but probably not as well known as Animal Farm by the same author.
I am not going to discuss or review this book in the classic way as I am sure this has been done exhaustively. Rather I am just going to express my personal thoughts of the book.

It is a very well written book. As most greats it goes off to a slow start which was surprising considering that it is not a big book. Orwell lays out a setting in the broadest terms allowing the reader to come to his/her own visualisation of the setting and formulate his imaginary world in their own way.
I found it rather hard to identify with the main character Winston Smith as he is far removed from my own background. But his hopes and beliefs are conveyed very well which quickly enabled me to better understand his character.

What struck me most was Orwell's ability to make his world completely believable from the start. I was actually scared that the reality of 1984 will actually happen in my or any lifetime. I am not a history or political student/adept therefore will not go into how this might have actually happened in the past.

I think Orwell's main storyline actually revolved around portraying Winston being able to find a niche/happiness/love in a Big Brother world. Orwell's style of writing does not allow you to make any educated guesses. I did try but could not get anywhere and I have been able too do this and be proven correct with many books. He keeps you guessing...and I did not get one guess "right"!
The book does not become captivating until about 3/4 of the way through. When Winston gains possession of "the book" and starts narrating from it in my opinion. This allows the reader to confirm or readjust his thoughts on Orwell's world in accordance to the author's views.

Tragedy is very unexpected and it strikes very quickly in the book. At no point did I guess the turn of events and O'Brien turning out to be a member of the thought police and had also been watching Winston for 7 years.
Things that I know would be very difficult and perhaps impossible with today's technology and manpower such as the constant surveillance (which I was sceptic about) was made believable. Winston's encounters in the cells with some comrades was also well placed and appropriate.
In the end it is only Winston's acceptance of big brother which brings him some relief.

Power for the sake of power. It is a frightening aspect and very realistic in 1984.
Slavery is Freedom - I only realised the meaning of this at the end when Winston finally manages to love Big Brother. He is a slave but is free in Big Brother's World. I think he realised that he had to be able to doublethink etc to regain some sense...of being.
War is Peace - War for the oppression of the people to keeep those in power always in power, real war, fake war, no war if the conditions remain always the same are we not at peace?
Ignorance is strength - When you don't know anything about reality how can you fear the unknown?

Overall a very good read and I can see why it is a literature classic.

Next up Eragon by Christopher Paolini, not sure what list I saw this on but it's somewhere and it is fantasy which allows me a relapse...

Random Picture - D of E Hike

This is a picture of Stuart looking down a pretty big expanse of rock we had to cross on one of our Duke of Edinburgh hikes. I think this one was a gold award hike. Can't remember the name of the place any more.
Picture taken by me on an APS camera.

Features which might sell the iphone to me

I have not been a big fan of the iphone (either 1g or 3g)
Too many restrictions and I simply could not text properly on it...
I have had a WM6 based XDA for a year, I now use a Blackberry Pearl and have used both iphones extensively but I still do not get their appeal...Gav went and bought one and now Arun wants one too
All that "free" data is good though and that arm proc and that capacitive touch screen but still don't like it.

So what would sell the iphone to me?:
Better multi touch features - I mean something akin to mouse gestures which would allow you to have an unlimited number of shortcuts - Just because I hate navigating through menus.
Secondly just make it easier for my stubby fingers to text will you?

Give me a proper file explorer, copy and paste, a video function an mms function, proper signal reception at my house andddd...
can you run Linux rather than OSX?