A Long-Awaited Sequel
A Look at Christopher Paolini's Book, Murtagh
When I was about ten or eleven, a close friend kept bringing up this book series he was reading. He was talking about dragon riders, dragon eggs, an evil tyrant, and this main character whose name was obviously a spin-off of a Tolkien character. I was intrigued.
I borrowed a copy of Christopher Paolini’s book, Eragon, from the library and remember distinctly my dad reviewing the first chapter or so. We talked about magic, etc., he asked me to read the prologue, and he asked me what I thought. Of course, I said I wanted to read it. I didn’t see any difference between the magic in this book and the magic in The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. So, after receiving the OK from Dad, I settled in for the adventure.
Throughout middle school, high school, and college, I followed the series closely, reading each book as it was released, and then rereading the series of four books a few times throughout my late teens and early twenties. While I can’t say the books are of the highest literary quality, they are what I’ve heard called a “beach read.”1 My understanding of the term is that a beach read is a book you know isn’t great in terms of quality, but you enjoy the story anyway, whether it’s for nostalgia or some other reason. I enjoy these books for the nostalgia. I’ve read and reread them at different seasons of my life.
So, last summer, when I came across an announcement that a later book in the series was being released in the autumn, I was curious. I had tried to read an unrelated book the author had released in the intervening years and couldn’t finish it. It wasn’t interesting to me and, frankly, it was raunchy. Therefore, I refrained from getting my hopes up about this sequel. In fact, I forgot about the release of it until about three weeks ago, after which I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Murtagh
We pick up the Inheritance Cycle with Murtagh and Thorn. Although this is a sequel in terms of when the events take place in relation to the first four books, this book could stand alone. The reader could understand everything they needed to and follow the story without having read the other books, which was nice for me since it has been several years since I read the original books.
I won’t go into detail here since I don’t want to spoil a newer book for anyone; I’ll keep my comments more general. I thought the story’s progression and the adventures in the book were great. Paolini states in the author’s note of the edition I listened to that he wanted to explore these two characters more, and he did well at this, allowing you to get to know them better and how their backgrounds affected who they became.
Paolini also did well exploring aspects of the world he’d created that he hadn’t touched on in the original series. I could tell that he’d been thinking back through Alagaesia, its rules and history, and found areas he hadn’t delved into yet. Particularly, areas in the world’s history and magic that could have major impacts on the future of the story. For that reason, it was an interesting sequel, helping the reader to realize that Alagaesia has more mysteries than they might’ve originally thought and drawing them into whatever sequels Paolini decides to write.
As for the story itself, I enjoyed it, although I’m not sure I would have if I weren’t already attached to the world and characters. There was mystery, but there were certain sections that felt repetitive or unrealistic. For example, a character can only be at their very last reserves of strength so many times before a reader starts to think, “Okay, if they were truly this exhausted for this long, they wouldn’t be able to do anything else, much less what they just accomplished.” Some stretches were a little slow, as well. I pushed through easily because, again, I was invested in the story already. I’m not sure a new reader would be willing to do so. Then again, this is the fifth book in a series, so one could argue that it’s meant for people already invested in the story.
Takeaways and Conclusion
A few chapters into this book, I realized that, with this being a book by an unbelieving and living author, it was completely possible that he would wokify2 it. This caused no small anxiety on my part. Thankfully, my worry was for naught. Although there were hints at the author having a new age worldview, the story generally kept with the style and story of the original series. Overall, it’s an enjoyable story, with serious and humorous themes pleasantly mixed. If you haven’t read the Inheritance Cycle and you enjoy the fantasy genre, you might give it a shot. It’s not the height of literature, even modern literature, but it’s a fun story with interesting characters and an interesting world.
So, all in all, I’d recommend Murtagh to another fan of the series. Although I think someone could read and understand the story without having read the rest of the books, I’m not sure they would find it that interesting. As I said above, I think it requires the reader to be already somewhat invested in the world.
An Unrelated, Brief Announcement
When I wrote that I’d be starting up this new schedule, I mentioned that I’d give it a go and see what happened. Well, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the more frequent writing and the feedback I’ve been getting. However, the time commitment is too great for the season I’m in. The engagement for the Reading Journal has been overwhelmingly greater than the engagement with Notes From the Fray. Therefore, I’ll be continuing the current schedule and style for the Reading Journal but making Notes From the Fray unscheduled. By unscheduled, I mean that I will write and post as I can, which may be frequent or may not.
I hate to go back and forth and change things so often in a short time, but I hope that this will help me strike a balance between what my hopes are for this publication and what I realistically can do while keeping my priorities straight. Thank you all for understanding.
In Him and For His Glory
Mostly, I’ve picked up this term from Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins in their discussions on this podcast.
To make woke; to introduce elements of Critical Race Theory, modern “Gender Theory,” or otherwise ruin a perfectly good story by forcing it to preach a leftist political idealogy.