#Paolini

[tromboneralert]

Me pulling out all the evidence that Jörmundur is the traitor

[ihearttseliot]

One of the issues that I had with the Inheritance Cycle (and it's something that strikes a cord every. Time. I read it) is that Paolini can be pretty vague. I completely understand that he's giving the reader the benefit to be able to work things out themselves (and let's be honest, nothing is more frustrating as a reader than to be treated like a dunce), but when I say vague, I mean story lines.

For example, Angela. All we know is that she's mysterious. Sure great, that's the whole point of getting away with not fleshing out her character.

But you're telling me you can't reveal something that could ALSO add to the storyline?

Maybe it's because I personally am just so invested in the series, that I feel like Paolini could write a thousand books set in Alagaësia, and I wouldn't mind reading every single one. I would have loved to read more about Ajihad. The werecats. Jörmundur. How The Twins became where and who they are...

I guess this is why fanfic exists.

[allymack145]

man I was hoping with the announcement of Murtagh and the 20th anniversary of Eragon, there'd be new content

where did all the Inheritance fans go 🥲🥲

[fashionbooksmilano]

Specchi Ustori

Demetrio Paparoni, Michelangelo Castello

Tema Celeste Edizioni, Zangara Stampa, Siracusa 1989, 136 pagine, 28x33cm,

euro 35,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Catalogo della mostra a cura di Demetrio Paparoni e Michelangelo Castello al Museo Regionale di Palazzo Bellomo a Siracusa con Robert Barry, Domenico Bianchi, Mel Bockner, Peter Halley, Per Kirkeby, Jiri Kolar, Jannis Kounellis, Jonathan Lasker, Sol LeWitt, Mimmo Paladino, A.R. Penck, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Remo Salvadori, Keith Sonnier, Gary Stephan, Emilio Vedova, Lawrence Weiner, Bill Woofrow.

Primarily a catalog of paintings, this book does include poetry. Many of the works are untitled. Artists and authors whose works are included herein include: Robert Barry, Domenico Bianchi, Mel Bockner, Peter Halley, Per Kirkeby, Jiri Kolar, Jannis Kounellis, Jonathan Lasker, Sol Lewitt, Mimmo Paladino, Giulio Paolini, A. R. Penck, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ezra Pound, Remo Salvadori, Keith Sonnier, Gary Stephan, Emilio Vedova, Lawrence Weiner and Bill Woodrow.

17/03/24

[beanbowlbaggins]

I think the ship mind Gregorovich is the most interesting character.

"This is your ship mind speaking. Please make sssure all your belongings are sssafely stored in the overhead compartmentsss. Lash yourself to the massst, me hearties: decoupling commencing, RCS thrusting. We're off to parts unknown to tweak the nose of fate."

~

"I was in fractures before. I am in fractures now. But the pieces still form the same broken picture."

[jessebyron]

Thoughts on Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

Thoughts on Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

First read of the year! I will mostly keep this spoiler free, but do read on with caution if you are wanting to approach this story tabula rasa.

As you read my criticisms below please keep this in your mind: I never once put the book down for very long. I came in to this story already deeply invested in the characters, and I enjoyed seeing them again after all of these years. I had to force myself to wait until the new year rang in so I could have it as my first read of 2024.

Honestly, I never thought I'd visit Alagaësia again. With Inheritance wrapping up Eragon's main story back in 2011, I had more or less left the land and its peoples behind. Even after finding out about The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm (a few years after the fact), I just never quite got around to it. I had loved the series growing up. Without Eragon casually sitting on an endcap in the Covington, Louisiana Walmart, there is no telling how much longer it would have taken me to enjoy reading. Without JJP's gorgeous portrait of Sapphira, I don't know if I would have fallen in love with stories and imaginative worlds in quite the same way. Looking back on my life, a life that has almost exclusively revolved around stories and the various arts to make them, my mom agreeing to buy the book during our grocery trip (with the promise that I would read my AR book for school first) was one of the most critical moments in my life, echoing 20~ years into the future.

All of that to say, I approached this book with a little bit of history and baggage. In the summer of 2016, in a group job interview at Books-a-Million in Mobile, Alabama my pleasant memories were a little spoiled by the assistant manager pointing out the deep similarities in characters and story beats between The Inheritance Cycle and Star Wars. This feeling was then sharpened some with mixed (but ultimately favorable reaction to Paolini's foray in sci-fi, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (2020, Tor/Macmillan Publishers).

I didn't know how I wanted to jump back in this world. Did I want to go back to the beginning? Maybe just gloss over a few key chapters or perhaps just revisiting Brisingr and Inheritance as a refresher? Following the advice of several Redditors (I know, I know, but what's a guy to do?) I decided to read the short story collection first. It reacquainted me with both the world and Paolini's writing style. A literary aperitif, if you will, as opposed to trying to digest the first four books again which would have worn me out, and, I think, ruined the experience of Murtagh for me.

Because: it wasn't all that great. It was good, make no mistake, but held up to the shining splendor of second grade nostalgia (something I could not avoid no matter how hard I tried), there were a few lackluster facets. It wasn't at all terrible, or bad in any way, but parts felt a little like an unpolished gem. Repetitive and long. I don't mind slow burns or even slower variations of a single theme, but this book could have been shorter by a few thousand words. The "will we or won't we stay" debate and the succeeding chapters of our heroes' torture and brain washing went on for quite a few hours of reading. And none of it could be skimmed through because there were occasional details of import to the plot or emotional arc. It's probably the more egregious violation of "show, don't tell" that Paolini has committed so far (at least in my distanced memory).

An that's part of the tragedy of returning to a favorite childhood world. In Murtagh, we have this great set up to explore a tale of personal trauma and the butterfly effects of the first four books' main character. We get to walk in the shoes (fly in the claws? wings?) of someone who had the worst ending. Hated or misunderstood or both by virtually everyone in the Empire and its enemies, Murtagh's poverty is a chance to see the original story in an outsider-looking-in context. We get see the shadows cast by the light of a heroic victor, the dark places under rocks and fallen logs that are uncomfortable to look at, while slowly building into what will be a fantasy tale with an eldritch horror bent. The climax of the tale gives us a beautiful inversion of the hero's tale with an almost literal descent into hell. It's enough fun that the reader can ignore the the derivative strain that runs through much of Paolini's work.

But. We are not quite pricked as sharply as we could be. What could be the full effect of the story is just out of reach beyond a glass wall of just a few too many descriptions and details.

As I said at the start, I still had a lot of fun. I wasn't looking for a life changing literary experience and was able to enjoy it as such. Will happily be buying the sequels other one off tales whenever they come out.

[whisperinglines]

Ti ho mai detto quanto sono contento che non siamo nemici? disse Eragon. No, ma è molto carino da parte tua.

- C. Paolini, Brisingr

[a2zsportsnews]

Paolini Defeats Rybakina On Debut A The WTA Finals

Paolini defeats Rybakina 7-6, 6-4 on debut in Riyadh at the WTA Finals The beginning of the end commenced in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia as the world’s elite eight gathered for the season-ending championships. Ten months ago, Elena Rybakina was firing on all cylinders, winning in Brisbane (d. Sabalenka) and Abu Dhabi (d. Kasatkina) and at the WTA 1000 in Dubai, lost via walkover to eventual champion,…

[primepaginequotidiani]

PRIMA PAGINA Tirreno di Oggi domenica, 18 agosto 2024

[s-memorando]

Parigi 2024: nono giorno

Scoppiettante per molti versi la giornata di ieri a Parigi, soddisfazioni e delusioni si sono alternate, ma io voglio essere positiva e quindi guardo alle cose belle che sono successe.La coppia Sara Errani e Jasmine Paolini ha vinto l’oro nel tennis, dimostrando che anche a 37 anni – le primavere di Sara – si può essere competitive se si raggiunge l’affiatamento con la compagna di doppio. Jasmine…

[cipher-of-the-round-table]

Boycott the Book

Be LOUD.

To reiterate: Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon and other such books, blocked me on Twitter for calling him out about his AI-generated cover.

Tor has admitted he approved this cover and they have been consulting him every step of the way. He is complicit.

It’s honestly so fucking frustrating that this is going to go forward. That the cover to Fractal Noise is gonna be published with AI art that has ripped off other artists. And neither the author nor the publisher give one flying fuck about it.

I don’t think a lot of people really understand what this means. Book cover art is already nearly universally shitty. You go look at fantasy art covers, and they’re all photomanipulations, generally a single girl on the cover doing magic or looking into the distance. There’s no variety. But at least people get paid for them.

With AI art, artists don’t get paid. You know who does? The people who made the dataset. The people who sold the “cover.” Even though it took less than 20 minutes to make.

If this isn’t infuriating you, I don’t know what the hell else to say. Machine learning is coming for everyone’s jobs, and corporate wallets don’t care if it’s safe or not. Certain areas are already experimenting with AI Amazon deliveries, and it’s been hinted that long-haul trucking is next.

This is unacceptable. PLEASE. I’m not going to guilt you into sharing this, but it is CRITICAL that we take a stand now and STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING. If you follow me, I am asking you as a friend to share this, and to find it in your heart to put pressure on people who publish AI art without paying artists.

Tor could change the cover. They’re not, because they’re using Fractal Noise as a test run to see if they can get away with it. Don’t let them. I don’t care how much you like Paolini’s work (although I think Eragon was a boring slog, so I had no qualms about calling him out), you HAVE to do your best to make this stop.

[ihearttseliot]

There are times where I have to remember that Eragon, as much as he has progressed throughout the books, is still a TEENAGER. Manhood meant differently in those days, but it's the equivalent of going from 17 to 18 today, and OF COURSE he's gonna have those moments where his maturity is limited.

The mood swings, the obsession with Arya (even though she has been *extremely* and unnecessarily polite to his nonstop harrassment), the sometimes childish tantrums can be almost (key word: ALMOST) forgiven only because he continues to grow within the confines of his mental maturity.

[starfoxfanatic]

Pic of Samui from Naruto and Trianna from Eragon which I paid FKim to draw https://twitter.com/FKim90/status/1747754061711986763/photo/1

[utterrandomnesswithlulu]

Currently Reading: Eragon, Part Two

Welcome back to part two of our Currently Reading series. We are checking out Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, and it’s April’s Book of the Month. However, I have a sinking suspicion that this will extend into May, but I have no problems with that.

Note from the author: This will have multiple parts, as I am doing this in segments as I read. I’m hoping to do one for every book in the Inheritance series.

If you haven’t read the first part of Currently Reading, please go check that out before continuing. Otherwise, spoilers ahead.

HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS

Previously, we left off with Eragon (our main protagonist) and Garrow (Eragon’s Uncle) speaking with the trader Merlock, who not only informed them that the stone Eragon found in The Spine was hollow, but the likelihood of it being created by magic was high. We also heard the story of King Galbatorix starting his life as a fresh out-of-training Dragon Rider to him, stealing the throne and ruling the Broddring Empire for years from the village’s storyteller, Brom. A story that can get Brom killed.

Eragon returns home that evening and decides to test the stone. He bangs on it with a hammer and produces a sound hollow yet pure, like a bell ringing. As he does this, he realizes that nothing he does damages the stone’s surface. It remains pristine, not even a chip. Nothing dents its sapphire surface, however, the stone seemingly emits a squeak. Brushing the sound off (he thought it was a mouse), he wonders if he was meant to have the stone because of its mysterious and almost magical background. Thinking heavily about this, he decides to go to bed.

The squeaking is back, but this time louder, definitely not a mouse. Groping blindly in the dark, he realizes that the stone is the source of the sound. He attempts to go back to sleep but is awoken a short while later because now the stone to physically moving, rocking back and forth on his shelf. Tired of the misfortune and headaches the stone has brought to him, he gets up with the intention of burying the nuisance of a stone, but before he could do anything, the stone rolls off the shelf and cracks open against the floor. As pieces of stone fall away, Eragon realizes what he’s looking at, that the stone was not in fact a stone, but an egg and now he was staring at something seemingly impossible. A baby dragon.

Not only is this newborn dragon the length of Eragon’s forearm (approximately 20 to 30.5 cm or 7 to 12 in), but it is also the exact same color that the stone was. The dragon starts exploring its surroundings a bit, bumping into furniture and the like. Eragon decides to touch the dragon and receives a shock that stuns him and travels up his arm. Something interesting happens too, not just from the shock he got from touching the dragon, but it felt like something also brushed against his mind. When he recovers from this, a silver shiny oval is now in the palm of his hand. When he touched the dragon for a second time, he doesn’t get shocked and feeds the hungry dragon. After eating, the dragon curls up on Eragon and he has thoughts about becoming a Dragon Rider, but he knows the risk. He could become powerful and even famous, however, he knew that the Empire would track him down to the ends of Alagaësia and even torture and kill his family. He also decides that he’s going to keep the dragon and has to find a way to tell Garrow about it.

The next morning, Eragon wakes early and takes the dragon to the edge of the forest with the intention of re-homing the dragon. Can’t exactly keep a dragon a secret from the people you’re living with now, can you? After making sure the dragon’s secured, fed, and understands that it has to stay put in its new makeshift tent (using a mental connection that he now has…like what?), he returns home to the farm. When he’s able to return to the dragon that evening, he finds that it has stayed in place, and has even managed to hunt for itself (too bad for some birds). Eragon gives the dragon a tour of its new home in the forest, talking the entire time. Like earlier when Eragon told the dragon to remain in the forest, he’s pretty positive that somehow the dragon can understand him. He’s worried about leaving the dragon by itself overnight, only to have that worry mean little when he comes back to see the dragon fine and happy to see him.

In the first week, the dragon nearly doubles in size, and Eragon has to build a new shelter for it. It doesn’t take long for it to even outgrow that. Eragon allows the dragon to roam, knowing that the small wildlife around the tent wouldn’t be enough to sustain it. However, he’s careful to warn the dragon about people who may venture into the forest with the same mental connection as earlier. As the dragon grows and ages, that connection becomes stronger and stronger. Eragon starts to worry that as the dragon becomes larger that the signs of it dwelling in the forest become more and more evident (large claw prints and dung piles being left everywhere, kinda hard to hide). He’s also worried about its growth rate, more specifically when dragons hit certain milestones (like breathing fire) as well as how he’s going to tell Garrow and Roran about the dragon. Eragon ends up in the village and speaks with Brom about dragons and their Riders.

DRAGON TALES

A bit of background on Brom. He moved to Carvahall nearly fifteen years ago and became the local storyteller.

Eragon arrives at Brom’s pretty much unannounced, and unfazed, Brom invites Eragon in. After sitting down, Eragon asks about the significance of the Dragon Riders and their dragons. Brom calls the dragons the “true inhabitants” of Alagaësia, and they were there long before the arrival of the elves. Now Eragon wants to know more about the elves (he’s very curious about the world Brom tells him). Brom is obviously annoyed at Eragon’s constant interruptions, but answers nonetheless, telling Eragon that the elves arrived in Alagaësia in silver boats from their home, Alalëa. Brom tells Eragon that the elves are a powerful race, both magically and physically, and one of the elves that arrived hunted a dragon for sport. Enraged, the dragons began hunting the elves, and a war broke out between the elves and dragons until one day an elf named Eragon found a dragon egg. Our Eragon is named after the founder and the first Dragon Rider. He believed that raising a dragon would foster a friendship and end the war between them. When the dragon became older, his name was Bid’Daum, Eragon and Bid’Daum were able to forge a treaty and effectively end the war. The creation of the Dragon Riders was a way to maintain a peaceful relationship between the two species. However, they were moved to Vroengard and there they grew to be the powerful force that the stories tell about.

Now Eragon is not out of questions. Far from it, in fact. Brom answers various questions about dragons,. Size: they can get pretty massive. Growth: they mature and breathe fire at six months. Age expectancy: they are immortal as long as their Rider doesn’t die, and according to Brom they cannot listen to thoughts (hmm?). After the barrage of questions, Brom starts becoming suspicious. So Eragon skirts around the questions Brom starts asking, such as where did he hear this information (Eragon said he heard it from a trader, but he doesn’t remember his name, convenient). Eragon asks about the Riders next. Apparently, they can live long lives, have muscular bodies and minds, and can develop pointy ears (but not as pointy as a true-born elf, especially if they’re human Riders). Eragon asks about names for dragons, and Brom notes some famous ones, including Saphira. Eragon thanks Brom for his time and leaves in a hurry.

As Eragon is heading home with his cousin, Roran, he finds out that Roran received a job offer from a miller. Eragon is upset to hear that Roran intends to take the job because he wishes to have a stable life before proposing to Katrina, Sloan’s daughter. And obviously, he needs money to do that. While this makes sense to Eragon, he is still not happy about it and thinks that Garrow won’t take it well too.

Eragon confides in the dragon and finds that it’s a good listener. At this time, he decides that the dragon needs a name (can’t keep calling it “the dragon” forever). He lists off the names that Brom gave him, but none of them seems to suit the dragon. Until Eragon realizes that the dragon is a she, and settles on Saphira.

GROWING PAINS

That evening, Roran lets Garrow know his plans on taking the job with the miller. They expect the worse, but Garrow turns that expectation on its head. He lets them know that he’s expected to leave in two weeks. Eragon feels bummed and left out in all of this. He continues to confide in Saphira, and she’s much bigger now, so large in fact, that Eragon can now sit comfortably in a hollow space on her back. In turn, Eragon teaches her new phrases and words, and Saphira teaches him how a dragon typically thinks and behaves. Their relationship continues to grow the more time they spend together.

Eragon finally decides to tell Roran about Saphira the day he’s leaving for his new job. When he reaches his room, though, Roran is packing a stone that was gifted to him by Eragon. However, something stops Roran from packing it up and he puts it back. Eragon now is incredibly unhappy about the change happening in his life and decides against telling Roran about Saphira.

Roran is setting off to the village the next morning. Garrow gives Roran a parting gift, money that he��s been saving for Roran for a day such as this. He also gives Roran and Eragon parting words, basically surmising here: be respectful, honest, but independent as they grow into adults. Words you can live by.

Eragon leaves with Roran to the village, and they meet Dempston, the owner of the mill at Horst’s smithery. Horst pulls Eragon aside to tell him about hooded strangers in Carvahall asking about Eragon’s blue stone. Horst promises Eragon that no one has said anything, but he’s worried that Sloan (you know, the jerk of a butcher that doesn’t like Eragon at all) will say something to the ominous strangers. Horst offers some advice, ditch the stone, but a bit too late since the stone burst into several pieces, becoming a beautiful blue dragon. Of course, Eragon doesn’t tell Horst this but instead says his goodbyes to Roran and heads home. Or so he wants people to think. Eragon ends up doubling back and sneaks over to Sloan’s butcher shop only to see him talking to those strangers he was warned about already. The strangers seem to thank Sloan and head back outside. Eragon attempts to get a better look at these people, only for them to spot him. Frozen by fear, he finds himself powerless as they approach him. Brom saves the day, and the strangers “hiss” at the interruption from Brom and walk away. Brom asks Eragon why he looks sick and Eragon shrugs the question away, but Brom continues to stonewall Eragon. Drilling him about the nonexistent trader that knew so much about the Dragon Riders and dragons, but once again, Eragon avoids the questions. Attempting to make his getaway, Eragon drops his gloves, Brom picks them up for him, but as he hands them to Eragon, Brom grabs his wrist to reveal the silver mark on his palm. Jerking away from Brom, Eragon hurries away while Brom just whistles merrily.

As Eragon hurries home, he mentally connects with Saphira to let her know what’s going on. Unfortunately, she doesn’t take it well at all and I mean not at all. She freaks out massively, and in an attempt to calm her, Eragon climbs onto her back, which seemed like a decent idea at the time. However, Saphira literally launches herself into the air with Eragon clinging to her back. She gains some major altitude and gets so high, in fact, that frost starts accumulating on Eragon. Eragon’s desperate at this point, doing anything to get Saphira’s attention, but she’s hearing none of it. Saphira has effectively shut Eragon out of her mind completely. Instead, Eragon is resigned to holding on for dear life and attempting to not throw up.

Saphira doesn’t stop until nightfall and lands in a small clearing somewhere in the mountains. Eragon’s in rough shape from the unexpected flight. He’s frozen, his muscles are cramped, but that wasn’t the worse of it. The skin from the inside of his thighs had been stripped because of Saphira’s scales. And flying was supposed to be fun. Unfortunately, Saphira is still freaking out because of the “murderers” she calls them and absolutely refuses to take him back. This worries Eragon because Garrow is still at home, and he worries that the strangers might get to Garrow before they can. He has no choice but to go to sleep because Saphira is still adamant about remaining where they are. Saphira, distressed about the events, curls up with Eragon, and allowing the warmth from her to warm Eragon up, she even sweetly covers him with her wing, creating a small blue tent for him.

ERAGON, PART 3

We are now at the tail end of chapter 10 of Eragon. I know, why are we leaving off at a cliffhanger? But that’s seven chapters further than where I left off previously. There’s a lot going on right now.

The dragon now has a name, Saphira, and she grows at an exponential rate. Here are the most unnerving questions that I have as a reader: Who are these strangers asking questions about the stone, and how much do they really know? And from the hiss, are they human, or something else entirely? Brom also knows so much more than he’s letting on, and his nonchalant attitude toward the silver marking on Eragon’s palm seems troubling. And is Garrow safe, especially because Saphira took off so unexpectedly and Eragon literally had no time to warn him.

So, that’s where we are leaving it, for now, there will be a part three. Hopefully, you guys enjoy this part. What do you think so far about Eragon? Obviously, if you’ve read further than chapter ten, please no spoilers.

[annoyingbird22]

dragon riders are the horse girls of fantasy

[miamaimania]

Unmasked 💻: 'il computer' reveals the face behind the screen ➤