Epistle #1: Why Young Authors Dislike Inheritance
Inheritance Cycle » Epistle #1
Why So Many Young Authors Despise Inheritance
There are many popular books in the world. Not all of them are particularly deserving of their popularity. Others are. But few popular novels attract as much hatred as the Inheritance trilogy by young adult Christopher Paolini. On forums all over the internet debates over its quality are carrying on, and often they are quite vicious. The question here is – why? Why do non-fans of this series hate it so much, and why are they so vocal about their dislike? And why are so many of them other young authors not much different from Paolini himself? As fans have demanded time and time again, why don’t these critics simply move on and read something else?
The answer, I think, is quite simple. Other young writers object to Inheritance because they are young writers. In other words they are developing writers hoping to be published one day. This can and has led fans to accuse them of jealousy. This is a false argument which violates the famous Ebert’s Law, but is it true? For the most part, probably not.
In answering the question of why young writers hate the Inheritance series, it is important to note something which most non-writers probably aren’t aware of: publishing a book is not an easy thing to do. In fact it is extremely hard and, for some, impossible. If you were to ask an author with at least one book on the market about their publishing quest, they will almost invariably tell you it took them years of hard work. Not weeks. Not months. Years. And for some it can take a lifetime. The quest for publication usually works like this: an author writes a book. He thinks it is good enough to be published. He then begins writing proposal letters to publishers and, perhaps, seeks out the services of a literary agent. After sending those proposal letters, it’s all a matter of waiting. Then, often months after the initial sending of the letters, the replies come back. It is likely almost to the point of absolute certainty that they will all be rejections. Every professional writer has had rejection letters, and some have entire folders full of them. The legendary J.K.Rowling, for example, was supposedly rejected by nearly every publisher in the United Kingdom. And this is an author who has gone on to make millions and who, many agree, writes quality material.
Young, unpublished authors like the owners of this site are aware of that. They know that years of hard and unrewarding work await them in their quest to attain that distant, shining thing – publication. They long for it. They live for it. It is all they dare to dream of, and they would give anything to achieve it.
And then, quite suddenly, this young man called Christopher Paolini arrives on the scene. He’s published. Twice. He is a bestseller. He has been on TV. He is an international celebrity, and all because he published a book which he famously began writing at age fifteen and finished at nineteen. It all sounds so wonderful, does it not? A child prodigy, according to some. Look at what he has achieved! He’s living his dream and getting rich off it! He has a million fans! He is a genius!
But here’s something those young writers know which most of his fans do not: people who begin writing novels at fifteen are extremely common. There are thousands of them. Many of these young writers began writing before that age. Some of them are still at that age. In essence, the only difference between Mr Paolini and those young writers is that he is published. And he is not published because he wrote those letters and got those rejections. He is not published because he worked hard. He is not published because he is a genius. He is published because he has family connections. He is published because his parents own their own publishing company. He was picked up by Knopf because he did not have to go to school like those other young writers do. Instead he was free to travel the country – probably at great expense – publicising his book. Knopf took him on because they saw a great marketing opportunity in such a young client with his own novel. Most likely they wanted their own J.K.Rowling, and he would be sufficient to fill that role. So they published Eragon and began an aggressive marketing campaign, hailing their prize as a prodigy.
The problem is this: he is not a prodigy. He is, at best, a writer of average skill. If he had been forced to spend years reworking, revising and editing as writers normally do, he could have been very good. As far as young writers go he is perhaps a little above average. But as writers, period, go, he is mediocre. However, the public does not seem to be aware of this. They repeat what Knopf told them, leading some to think that he is still fifteen whereas he is in fact twenty-two and by no means a child any more. Young children and those inexperienced in the fantasy genre find his works accessible and admire him for his success, perhaps encouraged by of his rather naïve and innocent personal charm.
However, young writers like himself despise him. They loathe his books, they loathe the things he says, and most of all they loathe what he stands for. To them he is not a hero, or a genius, or a good writer. The fact of the matter is this: he did not go through those years of hard work. Instead of suffering all the anguish and self-doubt which a writer usually must, he had the world effectively handed to him on a silver platter. Does he have that folder of rejection letters? Does he have that terror that he will never realise his dream? No. Instead he has something which is normally reserved only for those of rare and special ability, something which should have gone to a truly original and distinguished writer. Not one who churns out simplistic, unoriginal airport novels aimed at a young or inexperienced audience.
So those young, unpublished writers are not impressed but enraged. By reaching this high point in the way he did, by becoming famous without hard work or significant ability, he has offended everything they hold dear. He has given the public the impression that publishing is easy, that near-plagiarism of other people’s ideas is acceptable behaviour, and that young authors do not know how to write. They are afraid that this phenomena is symptomatic of the corruption of literature and the transformation of writers from closeted, serious, hard-working people into vapid celebrities whose only gift is being charming on chat-shows.
And when they try and share this fear with others, they are all too frequently met with derision, with accusations of jealousy, intimations that they lack talent, and no form of respect for their opinions. Their refusal to accept Mr Paolini as one of their own means that his fans treat them with scorn, perhaps believing that it is they, and not he, who are phoney writers or pretenders. Not being writers themselves, they cannot know about the passion that drives these people. All they see are a group of individuals who hate what they love and won’t be silenced. They can’t understand their anger.
The writers are angry because they feel their efforts are being mocked. And they are afraid that, if they should ever realise their dream and become published, that status will have been degraded and so mean less than it did before.
Let me put it this way: if you had spent years painting an exquisite and precise picture of a magnificent old building and, having finally completed it after spending what feels like your entire life working at it, perfecting your craft and subordinating all else to getting that painting finished, and then the art gallery turned you down in favour of a piece of canvas which someone had spent an afternoon randomly splattering paint onto, how would you feel?
***It is worth noting that the views of The Epistler are not necessarily the same as those of Bookie or other administrators running this blog and that they are as eager to join in the discussion and debates concerning The Epistler’s criticism as you are.
Upcoming next week on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 » Epistle #2:
Why Eragon – And Eldest Even More So – Should Be Considered Examples Of Bad Writing
[AMAZONPRODUCT=0375826742]
[AMAZONPRODUCT=0440238498]
[AMAZONPRODUCT=0440240735]
- Deathly Hallows Trailer Airs on MTV Movie Awards
- Epistle #1: Why Young Authors Dislike Inheritance
- Deathly Hallows’ “Aggressive Marketing Campaign”
- Film Edition of Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Capture
- Exclusive Excerpt from Inheritance Cycle, Book 4
- Wolves of the Beyond Sequel Retitled Shadow Wolf
- Kathryn Lasky’s Exclusive Letter to Ga’Hoole Fans
- Legend of the Guardians Gathering Momentum
- Exclusive Stills from Legend of the Guardians
- Wolves of the Beyond, Book Two: The Gnaw Wolf
- Interview with Kathryn Lasky on Wolves and Owls
- Review of Wolves of the Beyond #1: Lone Wolf
- Russian Translation of Seekers #2: Great Bear Lake
- Russian Translation of Seekers #1: The Quest Begins
- Exclusive Chapter from Wolves of the Beyond
- About Your news source for bestselling teen fiction.
- Meta
-
Blogroll
Now that is a bit unfair. Family connections may have gotten him a publication, but that does not degrade the quality of his work. Just because he was published without much effort on his part is no reason to berate him. The truth is that the world is unfair. There will always be someone more fortunate than us. Paolini is fortunate enough to have connections to a publishing company. If we spend our whole lives resenting those more fortunate than us, we will have little time for much else.
He didn’t get it through family connections! He and his family published some rough copies of the book and went around locally selling them, then an author that had been published by Random House came across his book. He then went to his publisher and told them about the story.
The (so called) fact that Paolini achieved publication through family connection in no way makes his book less professional, in fact The books of the Inheritance Cycle are the best books I have ever read, and trust me, I have read many. I agree with Fan, the world is not fair, but still, Paolini wasn’t handed the world on a silver platter, no matter what his family connections are you can not deny his extrordanary skill in writing and his excellent imagination. If you are a demeaning author and you continue to belittle Cristopher Paolini’s work, I challenge you to write a story half as creative, inspiring, and captivating as his. Although I warn you, I do not think it can be done.
I agree with Fan. He explained it perfectly. I love reading the Inheritance Cycle over and over again and think it’s a great book!
I agree with Fan. Critics are people who know the path, but don’t have the strength to folllow it. Of course, criticism will always exist, but it should be toward an author’s work, not his past or himself. Whatever the Epistle says, it seems like envy to me.
That is the most useless generalisation in the world. Do you actually feel envy and jealousy every single time you complain about some episode of whatever that you didn’t like or the clunky design of a computer program or a game’s gameplay? No? Then you have no place throwing that accusation at any critic of literature, either.
i didnt think of it taht way, but still, this epístle seems like envy.and people who dont think CPs books are good shouldnt read them anyway, because a person who takes his time to criticise anothers work, its ridiculous.
And what about what you’re doing? If writing criticism is a ridiculous waste of time, then what does that make responding to that criticism?
A provocative question, really. I consider neither of those things ridiculous. Few things are more important to human society than communication – and that’s what this is.
yeah, youre probably right. its a waste of time, huh?
I agree with Fan and Fan2, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get what you are trying to say. I might have gotten mad too, but don’t blind yourselves into thinking he is just a mediocre writer, because he isn’t. His books are amazing like a fan said, so just because he had an easier time getting it published doesn’t mean his work is sloppy or bad.
As far as I’m concerned, Paolini got lucky, and published a genre book series that sounds like it was written by a 17-year-old boy. I’m not really a fan, but either way it’s not particularly bad or good writing for the genre. I still don’t think it’s okay for young writers to attack him because he got lucky, since that is jealousy, but certainly I can see people complaining if he’s being called a prodigy. Which as you pointed out, is not remotely true. :P
Oh and Booooookie, we need to talk! I have exciting news.
Blizz
I would like to state that, as a “young writer”, I do not dislike Christopher Paolini or his series because he has been published and others haven’t. From the opinions that I have seen so far, it has been my conclusion that those readers and writers with a larger vocabulary think that Christopher Paolini’s writing style is excellent, because they understand more of the vocabulary that he uses and want to look up any words that they do not know (I am not trying to say that people with a lesser vocabulary are worse or better writers or are less intelligent for it). I would also like to say that what I see happening here is someone voicing the opinion that being published easily when others have not had that luck makes the quality of the writing subordinate. In my opinion, Christopher Paolini is a marvelously skilled writer, certainly at least as good as the astounding J.K. Rowling.
I agree that the view in the epistle is possibly true for at least some young writers, but I do not exactly share that view. I understand it, but I don’t find much reason to pursuing it. I am a writer myself, and a pre-teen. Personally, I enjoy the Inheritance cycle, although it isn’t quite as good as some other books that I have read (such as the Lord of the Rings). I disapprove of the copying, but that aside, the plot is fairly good and the books are well-written. Also, it is often harder NOT to copy things than it is TO copy. When you think about how many books there are in a library and then think about how many libraries there are in your region with about that many books, you realize that there are so many ideas it is difficult NOT to copy any of them. Also, many people can claim innocence, as they may have accidentally copied an idea but never heard of it.
I believe, as some of the others, that the person writing the criticism is just jeolous of the fact that this young man is so successful. Whether he got published by family connections or pure luck the work still has to stand on it’s own merit. People did not buy the book because the publisher “conned” them into it. They bought the book because he is a great story teller and they told there friends. That’s how all good books sell!
To some his writing may be mediocre, but it speaks to people… a lot of people. He has done something right, and to try and tear apart (you say criticize, but I could feel it getting personal) his name and his books gets a little tiresome and sad. With all professions, it is hard to make it to the top. We, as a people, understand. If a writer wants it, a singer wants it, a politician wants it, then they have to get out there and get it. It will just tire them out to sit and bash on others instead of making it happen for themselves like this young man did. So what if he had good connections? Who wouldn’t kill for them? He saw an opportunity and he took it. That was a smart move. Can you blame him? Put yourself in his place.
This just isn’t true. The amount of time you spend trying to publish a book does NOT in any way make the book better. You may spend a life time publishing a book, writing and rewriting and it could be bad. Other writers are just jealous of the success and are trying to slam him for this factor. People, just because you don’t get success doesn’t mean you try and ruin other’s. You should respect Mr. Paolini for his sheer perserverence through all the harsh comments that critics and people throw at him.
and about that his “so called” Mediocre talent. Number 1, don’t believe for a second that the everyone who slams him are any better than him. That is just plain stupid. Number 2, If I publish a book I propably wouldn’t get much attention, so even if you publish one,it doesn’t mean your a success. Number 3, what he MAY lack in writing he makes up with a storyline and multiple books. You can’t get any better then that. And last, If people agreed with any of those ignorant comments, people wouldn’t still like the book. Other authors like his book, and millions of people love it.
I suggest in the future you keep your comments to yourself and LET HIM BE. If you don’t like his writing, you DONT have to read them.
listen, the publishing process has got to be hard for any one, but Chris had an easy way out. Im not trying to put him down, but its very true that he was given the easy way. I personally like his works a lot, but especially in the first book, his writing style was a bit childish. The “Epistler” guy does seem to be ranting a little bit, but critics are supposed to do that. Constructive criticism is just that, constructive. It helps you increase your writing ability.
I consider myself a writer and i doubt anything of mine will be published and it angers me that he gets published and i don’t. It also angers me when i get what one could call a better test grade and someone flaunts the fact that they were expecting better when the did WAY better than I did. The fact is, people are different and our differences keep us striving to do greater things.
Chris’ books are some of my favorites just because i like the story line, but once again, he does have a childish writing style and there areas he needs to improve.
Finally, i just want to say in the nicest way possible, try to think about a competing writers perspective and how amatuer Paolini’s writing style is. We all need to improve.
Just in relation to your third point: his storyline is shamelessly lifted from so many already published sources. He has actually basically admitted to plagiarising: faustyna
“And to make it easy on myself I decided to write the sort of story that I enjoyed reading myself, instead of trying to do something completly and utterly new. I figured that writing a book was hard enough without reinventing the wheel.”
I really think that’s enough said.
Many people don’t like Christopher Paolini’s work. They are not written with the same type of finesse as some other authors out there. But he has a pretty good story and he gets it across to his audience in a way they can feel and appreciate the world he has created. So his work cannot be called mediocre. He has achieved what many writers haven’t.
Regarding his publishing. He had family connections. So what? He seized any opportunity he got. You can’t blame him for that. And just because he got it published like that doesn’t mean his work is substantial. You can work on something for months or years but not much will change. The basic idea stays the same and it is this idea, this storyline, which won him his fans.
If you have a personal view of Paolini’s work, fine. But don’t discredit him. There are millions of people out there who like Inheritance. And I am sure there are quite a few young authors who don’t spite him in the way it has been described.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Sorry, about the CAPS, but I’m just so **** amused by the comments to this post, that I feet compelled to post a comment of my own. Normally I never consider writing any reply to a post that I find online because it simply has no meaning, but I just couldn’t pass it up this time.
Firstly, I want to talk about The Epistler (completely ignore Paolini for the moment). Can I just say that this guy? girl? has done a great job writing this article. The information is incredibly well thought-out and organized. The tonal changes are quite good at displaying the opinion of the author, and the choice of diction makes the article quite compelling.
Now, why am I talking about the quality of this article? Simple: In the article, The Epistler mentions that fans of Paolini will say that anyone who calls The Inheritance Cycle sub-par must be jealous of the author. Even with that statement plainly written above, there are numerous comments to this post that state that The Epistler is jealous of Paolini’s skill.
Thus I can only come to two conclusions: 1. The Epistler has no idea what he is talking about, and these comments from fans are superior sources of information, or 2. The Epistler was right, and these comments are from fans blinded by their fanaticism.
Now, because The Epistler has obviously put in more effort than the simple commentators on the site, I am inclined to support the latter conclusion over the former. That being said, I’d like to shift the conversation back to Paolini.
As someone has stated prior to this, Paolini is famous because of his compelling story – not for his finesse in writing. The level of writing that Paolini employs in his Inheritance Cycle is that of a high school student, and considering that he is old enough to be a college graduate, I find that fact quite unfortunate. On the plus side, his story has been able to captivate millions of readers due to its accessibility, so does his skill really matter? (rhetorical question… don’t try to answer it…)
There are those who claim that Paolini is a prodigy and famous only because of his skill. To them I must say, that I am sorry for your ignorance and gullibility. He only got published so easily because his family owned a publishing company. That exposure alone propelled his book into the spotlight where it could be picked up by a larger publisher and/or marketed the **** out of. In fact, that is how this series become so popular. As stated by The Epistler above, the book was marketed as a genius production of an astonishingly young prodigy (all skewed truths of course… but it worked).
Finally, even though Paolini has been able to gain such fame, his fame will most likely be limited to this single series which has clinched a large number of fans who will buy the final book just so they know what happens at the end. Will he be able to match this accomplishment again? Probably not, unless he changes his writing to include more plant-and-payoff, more planning, and more thought, not to mention a more fluid vocabulary.
I am a fan of Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle for its story. I crave to know what will happen next, but he is no great writer.
Okay, Apparently this discussion has been raging for a long time!
I agree with Amused here in what he has to say about both Paolini and the Epistler.
Bottom Line:
Paolini equals good stroyteller (not good writer) – is there really a difference? yes, a slight difference that most of us don’t care to realize…
therefore, why do you care so much??? stop whining
I share many of the feelings and thoughts that “Quite Amused” has written in response to the article above. I myself am a young writer (high school sophmore) and yes, it would be a great moment in my life if I was suddenly published like Christopher Paolini, no matter if it was due to skill or connections. I believe Paolini should be recognized for his abilities to create a story so captivating and exciting as his “Inheritance Cycle”, but it should also be recognized that much of his writing (plot, character development, even dialouge) is not his own.
It is true that every great writer has taken ideas from earlier pieces. J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” has many obvious influences, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” has many as well. Even William Shakespeare has included ideas in his plays in a manner which many people today would describe as plagiarism. Borrowing ideas is what writers do. In my writing experience so far, I can identify many elements in the story I am trying to develop to have roots in other people’s writing. Looking at the history of “borrowed ideas” I am convinced that it is almost impossible to write an interesting and captivating story without outside influences.
I am not trying to defend Christopher Paolini, nor am I trying to defend plagiarism in any way, shape or form. I believe that like all wrilters Paolini should be forgiven for including his influences into the story; however, I believe he has made little or no effort in including these influences in such a way that is any different from the original (or not) pieces, or remotely his own. I would not go so far to place these examples under the name of plagiarism, but I do believe that Paolini has incoperated his influences in a foolish and immature manner.
There are many examples of good, and even excellent writing in the world, many of which are unfortunatly never published. I would certiantly not call Paolini’s writing of any good quality, and I will quote “Quite Amused” when I say that Paolini’s writing is of a High School student quality. But it should be expected of a series of little planning (in comparison to most other published writers), smaller vocabulary, and general carelessness to be the byproduct of an inexperienced author. Yes, it isn’t fair that such an unpolished writer is published and famous when there are thousands of others like him. Yes, perhaps the world really was handed to him on a silver platter. Yes, many young writers (myself included) have a right to be annoyed, perhaps even angry at the unfairness of the situation. But do we really have a right to target Paolini in such a vicious way? Should we swim in our anger at the situation by targeting our hatred at him?
I myself am not angry or hateful towards Paolini. He had his share of luck, and he took his chance. I refuse to be angry at someone because of that. What bothers me the most is the position his publishers placed him in when they declared him to be a “genius”, and a “child prodigy”. It greatly saddens me to hear these terms to be misued in a way that describes a writer of mediocre talent. Christopher Paolini has much room to grow as a writer, if he has not already done so. I am sure he looks back at his earlier writings and thinks they could be much better. I hope that his future writings, the fourth book included, will do a better job reflecting the “quality writing” that he has been prematurely recognized of. We can learn from Paolini that writers (even the famous ones) do not start out writing the works of genius, and we can recognize that all writers grow, as I hope Paolini will.
Honestly, I don’t really care how Paolini got his books published (if it’s true his family has their own publisher then he’s very lucky, I’m happy for him). I personally think that his books are awesome cause I enjoy reading them. And that’s all that matters. They are really good books because so many people in the whole world loves reading them, no matter how old he is,how he got his books published,or how his writing skill in the books. A good book is the one many people (almost countless) enjoy reading.
The guy who wrote the article foresaw that his critics would seem like jealousy. Thus, said even before any comments where made that he is not jealous. Its something anyone with common sense would do. Gulliabe are people who read this article and dont see that. If the person who wrote this article isnt jealous, why is he anoymous? And the category of”great writers” are undermined by each persons feelings. I really wish luck to who wrote this article. His books must really suck.
Just an observation: its says at the bottom of the article that the author withdrew his theories, because he seemed overly childish anh immature. Even he recognized his jealousy, though pride would never make him admit it.
I’m one of the young writers who often criticizes Paolini’s work, and the Epistler summed up my thoughts exactly. He is a mediocre writer whose story is a composite of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Wizard of Earthsea, and Dragon Riders of Pern.
Am I jealous?
No. As a matter of fact, my book was recently acquired by Scholastic Press, and is set for national release sometime in the next two years. The advance I receive will most likely pay for all four years of college. I am not in the least bit jealous of Paolini, because I did the work, I experienced the anguish, and my determination paid off.
I’m being published by Scholastic, the largest distributor of children’s books in the world. Why would I be jealous of Paolini? The reason I strongly dislike him is not because of envy, but because he gives us (young writers) a bad name, with his derivative plot, one-dimensional characters, ego, and absolutely ridiculous purple prose.
I’m sure he withdrew them because most of us, as we age, get better at writing. Things I wrote last year that I thought were good at the time I now cringe to read. We all improve – just because (s)he decided to withdraw their article does not mean (s)he was jealous in the slightest.
Please undestnd that im not generalizing anyone. m just saying that this persons arguments are about the author, not about his work. Its my opinion that it seems like jealousy. sorry if im offending anyone.
Now this sounds really biased. Just because he got his book published at 15 does not mean his work is mediocre at best. Would you downgrade J.K. Rowling’s work if she had written Harry Potter at 15? Yes, Paolini is not perfect. But still, there is no reason to downgrade a good author. This post like its trying to hate Paolini as much as any young author out there. I happen to be a young author and I love Paolini’s work.
I have just read all 3 of these books. I read all the time, and I am not bound to a certain genre. I love all books. This is one of the most imaginative, compelling, captivating series that I have read. I, for one, cannot wait until the fourth book is released. This young man is a genius, and should be acknowledged as such. He has a unique gift for the written word.
Original? Imaginative?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Go watch Star Wars, then read Lord of the Rings, Wizard of Earthsea, and Dragon Riders of Pern. Afterwards, try to name one original plot device in Paolini’s work. You won’t be able to. It’s derivative to the core, one of the most overly-unoriginal works I’ve ever read.
He has no unique gift for the written word. I wrote like that when I was fifteen, plus half my storylines weren’t obviously lifted. The difference between us is that I kept working and improved – he just published the first thing he could churn out.
This article can be summed up in one word. ENVY.
He is not the best writer but his story is compelling.
Also, like someone mentioned previously…it is hard NOT to copy. I mean you could be thinking “Oh great this is an idea no one else thought of before” meanwhile there is a book already out there that has a similar idea.
No win situation.
“And to make it easy on myself I decided to write the sort of story that I enjoyed reading myself, instead of trying to do something completly and utterly new. I figured that writing a book was hard enough without reinventing the wheel.”
Direct quote. Even he knows he’s copying…
It’s possible to come up with the same thing as someone else by coincidence.
This is not what happened here.
We know that Paolini is an avid reader of fantasy books. All the works he seems to have “borrowed” ideas from are those he admitted to reading as a child and using as “influence”.
There is no coincidence here.
I agree, just because Paolini started writing a book very young, AND got it published, doesn’t necessarily mean that his work is mediocre. It means that he writes in a way that many people can understand and relate to, his work is not limited to a single age group, or a group with a larger vocabulary than most. The writer of the epistle above is obviously very bias towards Paolini and his work. I’m going to take a shot into the air and say that you’re a young writer yourself, or the parent of a young writer. I understand that it must be very hard to get published these days even for very experienced writers, but that gives you no excuse to slam a person that got lucky. What if another young writer got published and their work turned out to be good, would you slam them just because they got lucky and you didn’t?. From what I can guess from above, there are alot of young writers above that like Paolini’s work, you can’t generalize thousands of young writers into one group, its like saying all cats and dogs hate each other… They don’t.
The writer of this article makes it sound like all young writers loath Christopher Paolini and his books, but that is not true. I myself am a young writer that is hoping to one day get my book published, and I adore Paolini! Brisingr is my all-time favorite book, with the works of Tolkien and Rowling falling far short. In fact, Christopher Paolini was the person that inspired me to start writing. And how dare you try to impose on people that Paolini has no writing talent and that he was only published because he had family connections. If I owned a publishing company and my son wrote a book that was not good enough to be published by another company, I doubt I would publish it either! How would it benefit my company if we published a book that was as bad as you are making the Inheritance Cycle out to be? Writing is not about making up a bunch of (excuse my french) just so that you can be famous, writing is about having an idea, turning it into a story, and then writing it out because that’s what you enjoy doing! That is what Paolini did and his story was interesting enough to attract fans. You are a jealous, sorry, disgrace of a writer.
I disagree. While Paolini has a compelling storyline, his writing is filled with purple prose. Rowling uses far fewer words in descriptions than Paolini does. I say this as a fan of both series. I have read all seven Harry Potter books at least five times each, and I have read Eragon and Eldest twice. I’ve also read Brisingr seven times. While reading I noticed that Rowling manages to describe just enough so that we can form our own picture, making Harry Potter’s world our own. Paolini on the other hand insists on describing every little detail for you. While both series are amazing, I think that Rowling is the better writer. I can’t speak for Tolkien because I haven’t read his books critically yet. However from what I’ve seen Tolkien’s writing style fits his storyline much better than Paolin’s does. I think if Paolini works on his writing, he will become a great writer. At this stage though, Rowling and Tolkien surpass Paolini in terms of quality writing.
I personally enjoy the Inheretence Trilogy. Eragon been my favourite but I enjoy them all. I am also a young writer, but I don’t want to be published. I write for myself.
To all the people who commented: This is a blog, which means that it is designed for personal feelings to be released. If you don’t agree with the author of this blog’s personal feelings, fine. It’s all personal taste. If you disagreed with them, stop reading. I personally enjoyed the blog.
Does anyone know if a release date for Book 4 has come out?
No, the release date hasn’t been released yet, but Christopher Paolini recently sent out a fresh newsletter telling us he’s working hard on finishing the manuscript!
It sounds like you are one of those ‘young writers’ who despise Christopher Paolini so much.
All I hear is crying from a jealous douche bag with a severe victim mentality. Build a bridge and get over it.
I am torn between anger and laughter at this article. For one, it is presented at first as if it is an explanation of why a particular group feels negatively about the Inheritance Cycle. However, not far in I found that this objective was abandoned in favor of “Wah Wah Wah Paolini got lucky so he’s not a REAL author like I am.” The article, in fact, is a personal attack on Paolini’s morals, his skill, anything that potentially tears him down, and even the maturity and knowledge of his readers. Disgusting.
Maybe Paolini is lucky to have a better situation than most authors. But to assume that he doesn’t work hard on his own original ideas… to outright accuse him of plagiarism… that reeks so much of juvenile envy that it makes me sick.
I am a young author myself. and in actuality, there are a lot of us who don’t care much about being published. Some of us understand our abilities and improve them unconditionally without
Complaining at the difficulty of publication, or slamming other authors whose work is honestly good enough that it should be accessible to readers.
-Readers, who in fact, may know the genre very well and feel that Paolini’s work is exemplary or at least commendable.
If the “Epistler” has nothing better to do than write stupid blogs about authors they don’t like, they should get used to not being published. Because no one pays to read garbage like that. The majority would much rather read and reread Inheritance books.
You people are a bunch of retards. Who cares if he got his book published in any way. People like his book. To say that his writting is childish or not is an ipinion. Just like saying that Epistler is jealous or not. It’s all opinion any way so there is no point arguing about it. The only thing I want to know is where Epistler is finding these angry young authors. I haven’t heard anything. Did it accur to anyone he could be just making a bunch of this up with no factual evidence.
Epistler is being too unfair-I am a young writer waiting to hear if my book is good enough, and I love Paolini’s work, it was an inperation to me. Epistler needs to think about how some writers really like his work, and personally, I don’t think that his writing is childish
I must say, I really like the picture.
I’m a young writer ( french, so sorry for my bad english), and Christopher Paolini’s books inspired me to write. His books are not the best in the world, but they are not mediocre. They are pretty good. Good story, easy to read but good vocabulary, interresting caracters, etc. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
I’m a Twilight “hater”. I read the first book. I don’t liked it and I stop read it. But I don’t take hours to tell everybody that the books sucks and it’s not even original. I read others things.
Oh, one more thing.
Twiligh is like Blood And Chocolate ( it was published before Twiligh), but with sexism and Vampire, if someone wanted to proove me that Twilight IS original.
I am a young writer, and I despise Paolini. But it is because he is published and I am not? No, not really. It is because he is being hailed as a prodigy and a genius for frankly, terrible work.
His books are not original. They are blatant copies of the original Star Wars trilogy, with elements from other fantasy stories thrown in, and all tossed into a generic fantasy landscape with little to nothing original about it. The writing is overly purple and badly paced. The characters are flat and underdeveloped, and seem to speak and act only as the plot demands it.
God, I remember when the Epistles were first written. I miss them.
This is so absolutely true. A totally crap author got lucky, and has absolutely no reason to be as famous as he is, with his plagiarized crap book.
To an above commenter: so apparently being anon on the internet=JELUS RAGE!
Yeah, ok, the Epistler generalized Eragon haters a lot, but you cannot just read the article, disagree with it and claim that he was just teh jelus of Paolini. Seriously, just because a person has ‘haters’ does not mean that the haters are jealous of the person in any way shape or form.
Example: How many people are jealous of Nixon? Anyone, anyone? Bueller?
And I’m sure some of you hate certain series. Does that mean you are all jealous of that author or director, etc?
The Epistler felt they were immature because while they were well thought out and written articles, he felt that there were better things to do than rant about a mediocre fantasy writer and that he has outgrown the past time. There are in fact better writers to critique out there.
Paolini is not the worst author out there, but he is in no way deserving of any of the fame he has gleaned. Remember when Eldest was officially named the worst book of 2005 by TIME magazine? Yeah, that shows how much natural talent this kid has along with the poor editing staff of Random House.
If he wants to get better, then he will learn to take criticism and take classes on story structure, character development, etc. Not every story that is written deserves to be published and to be frank, Eragon needed to stay on Paolini’s harddrive until he knew what he was doing. It’s not like the guy is a hopeless writer, but he has not grown at all over the years as a writer despite writing 3 books.
Holy smokes! The Epistler is back!
…if you really are him, that is.
It seems that we all have different opinions about the Inheritance Cycle. All of us can continue to argue until we’re blue in the face, but what good would that do? We should just ADMIT that we all have different thoughts about Christopher’s books. Shouldn’t we just respect each other for our varied points of view?
If you don’t like the books, and you think he’s a bad writer, then DON’T READ THEM. Plenty of people, including me, think that Paolini’s an exemplery writer. I even got my dad to read the books. He likes them, and he doesn’t think they are immature or stupid. Plus, if you want to publish your own stuff, don’t spend time writing about how jealous you are of Christopher Paolini, and get to work!
I agree with all the above Paolini defenders.I am a young writer too and my first book was published 2 months ago.I have been reading many many books since I learned how to read,books of any kind but mostly medieval fantasy.So,although it may sound exaggerated,I like Paolini’s work far more than Rowling’s or Tolkien’s,all of which books I have read about 6-8 times each and find extraordinary each in it’s own way.You could say this is matter of taste,but then think,what’s that makes a book popular to READERS?Remember the word,READERS not CRITICS.Well,it’s the overall story,how much it stimulates your imagination and it makes you sympathize with the characters.NOT the vocabulary,NOT the work the author has put into,NOT his fight for publication.Purple prose you say?Who cares?I can understand the anguish of all authors for their ”spiritual child” to be recognized,mine included,but all these things don’t mean a **** for a reader.I personally don’t give a damn even if Paolini killed a whole village in order for his books to be published.I just like them for what they are:a collection of popular story concepts synthesized brilliantly together.They are a copy-paste of Star Wars you say?I like them more than the original concept then.Why?A lot of people like medieval settings more than others.Paolini did us a favor and created a series in this kind of setting and in this way his work IS original.Using already popular concepts illustrated in some other form doesn’t degrade the quality of the work not even a bit,it may be called cheap or whatever but most readers wouldn’t even care as long as they like the book.Actually on the contrary,these elements get used constantly because no matter how may times you encounter them,you always get to love their role in the story.Cliches are universally adored,get used to it:P.To use a personal example,my whole book,which I have to admit that got bad criticism and initial rejection by publishing companies but then became popular(well not extremely but I can say I am satisfied with it) was based in a lot of ”angels VS demons” series’ storylines,but neither the publishers nor anyone I know ever told me anything about a lack of originality.Why?It doesn’t matter as long as it’s pleasant to read.Finally,I feel complied to say to these ”enraged young writers” to stop thinking as if they were intellectual geniuses with a grade of ”SUPER” vocabulary and ideas and start thinking what they THEMSELVES would like to read….oh wait.THAT’S what Paolini did.Sorry for the enormous size of this post:P
I love reading, im sixteen years old and live in a community where it is not valued highly and infact most people prefer to fight over football (Manchester United Kingdom you guessed it :) ) I have a very large bookcase whith all my favourite books on it and a draw under my bed with books that i like but wont fit into the cramped spaces of my library.Books on that precious shelf are all master pieces in my mind some given to me by my Dad some bought by myself and some ‘borrowed’ from the school library and i forgot to hand them back (ill get round to it oneday) Some are over 20 years old such as my Lord of the Rings trilogy and some are getting on that age such as my Drenai Chronicles and My Belgariad and mallorean sets, I have Eddings , Feist, Gemmel, Modesitt and many other authors names stamped in fine print on over 200 books in my house and ive read them all. In the past two years ive began on Paolini and his Inheritance Cycle and i rate them as extremly valuable editions to my extensie and aging library, i dont care that Paolini has managed to run when others have had to crawl to their final prize of publishment of course i sympathize with the people with difficulties but if they truly think the prize is worth it then they wont let a few arses who look at a title and say yes or no stand in their way. But thats beside the point, Paolini’s ‘easy’ start doesnt automatically make his book bad, i think its great and its a narrow minded, bigoted idiot who would not actually take a good look at it before saying its crap. I can understand the dislike by young writers towards the Prodidgy statement but anythingbefore that is pure jealousy and that isnt very nice is it :)
Kk sorry for the rant but i cant shorten that down anymore and ive already cut out to many nasty words email me if you want to hear the rest :) and sorry for any typos etc im still getting used to a smaller laptop keyboard :S
Okay, Apparently this discussion has been raging for a long time!
I agree with Quite Amused here in what he has to say about both Paolini and the Epistler.
Bottom Line:
Paolini equals good stroyteller (not good writer) – is there really a difference? yes, a slight difference that most of us don’t care to realize…
therefore, why do you care so much??? stop whining
It does not matter to the readers if other authors do not feel appreciated for their hard work. The bottom line is that people like reading books. Readers want to be entertained. They want to be carried away to a fantasy land. They want to submerse themselves into a book and feel like they are along side the characters. Who cares about the politics of the “author world”? Authors write books so that they will be read and enjoyed, and if they don’t, then why write at all? My students love Eragon, I love Eragon, millions of others LOVE ERAGON. It does not matter if it was written in a day or 20 years so long as it is enjoyed by the reader. If other “authors” are not getting the praise they deserve, their books must not be as enjoyable – step it up.
Okay…. I am a young writer and I do not agree with a good deal of that…. yeah he got lucky BUT just being published does not guarantee you will be a huge success nor does publicizing because yeah people get curious and read them but if he wasn’t good he wouldn’t have the fans he does — and yeah he probably could be a better writer — everyone can improve but that doesn’t mean he’s not good and give people the right to belittle his work….. I love Eragon — and the entire series so far — Its not always the structure of a sentence or grammar…. its the plot….. its the plot that draws people in and the plot that keeps everyone interested…
These books are well thought out and thats what makes them good and no not every author gets the recognition they deserve…… just like not every singer gets the recognition they deserve or every artist….. yeah you have to be good to compete and thats a big part of it but determination and a little bit of luck make it too and Christopher Paolini got very lucky but it could have been anyone