Eragon
Knopf edition cover by John Jude Palencar, featuring the blue dragon Saphira
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| Author | Christopher Paolini |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | John Jude Palencar |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Inheritance Cycle |
| Genre |
Young adult Fantasy novel Dystopia |
| Publisher | Paolini LLC (first edition), Alfred A. Knopf |
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Publication date
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2002 (first edition), August 26, 2003 (Knopf) |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) and audio-CD |
| Pages | 509 (Knopf) 544 (Paolini LLC) |
| ISBN | (First Knopf edition) (Paolini LLC) |
| OCLC | 52251450 |
| [Fic] 21 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.P19535 Er 2003 |
| Followed by | Eldest |
| Copies sold: 24.55 million | |
Eragon is the first novel in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. After writing the first draft for a year, Paolini spent a second year rewriting and fleshing out the story and characters. His parents saw the final manuscript and decided to self-publish Eragon, which Paolini spent a year traveling around the United States promoting. By chance, the book was discovered by Carl Hiaasen, who got it re-published by Alfred A. Knopf. The re-published version was released on August 26, 2003.
The book tells the story of a farm boy named Eragon, who finds a mysterious stone in the mountains. Not knowing the stone's origin or worth, he attempts to use it as payment to a butcher. A dragon he later names Saphira hatches from the stone, which was really an egg. When the evil King Galbatorix finds out about Eragon and his dragon, he sends his servants, the Ra'zac, to capture them. Eragon and Saphira are forced to flee from their hometown, with a storyteller called Brom, and decide to search for the Varden, a group of rebels who want the downfall of Galbatorix.
Critics of Eragon often point out its similarities to other works such as Earthsea, Dragonlance, and Star Wars. Reviewers have also called the book a notable achievement for such a young author as Paolini.
Eragon was the third-best-selling children's hardback book of 2003, and the second-best-selling paperback of 2005. It placed on the New York Times Children's Books Best Seller list for 121 weeks and was adapted as a feature film of the same name that was released on December 15, 2006.
Christopher Paolini started reading fantasy books when he was 10 years old. At the age of 14, as a hobby, he started writing the first novel in a series of four books, but he could not get beyond a few pages because he had "no idea" where he was going. He began reading everything he could about the "art of writing", and then plotted the whole Inheritance Cycle book series. After a month of planning out the series, he started writing the draft of Eragon by hand. It was finished a year later, and Paolini began writing the "real" version of the book. After another year of editing, Paolini's parents saw the final manuscript. They immediately saw its potential and decided to publish the book through their small, home-based publishing company, Paolini International. Paolini created the cover art for this edition of Eragon, which featured Saphira's eye on the cover. He also drew the maps inside the book.
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Wikipedia