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A review by toggle_fow
Murtagh by Christopher Paolini
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Rarely have I ever been so irritated.
This should have been an incredible book. Let's be real, Murtagh is a COMPELLING character. His impact on the original series is outsized compared to the time he actually spent on the page. Now, finally freed of his slavery, he and his dragon are roaming Alagaesia in search of the path forward.
There are so many awesome places you could take a story like this. Murtagh has A TON of delicious character growth to go through. Honestly, the plots just write themselves.
This book flirted briefly with some of those awesome places:
1) The first part, with the little tavern girl, was deeply enjoyable. Murtagh needs to be able to build connections! To care for others, and see that he can do so much more than just bring pain!
2) The werecat/city guard side quest was interesting.
3) It was interesting to be in Murtagh's head instead of Eragon's, and realize just how OP Eragon actually is. It gave Murtagh's adventures a much more scrappy, underdog feeling since he doesn't have access to all the magic power in the universe, just some.
4) Thorn finally overcoming his fear!!!! This got me!
5) The ending finally gave up the scene everyone reading this book was waiting for the entire time.
However, everything in the middle of the book was boring slush.
Murtagh runs across a magical artefact that is whispered to come from a mysterious, shadowy witch. For some reason that's not entirely clear, he decides that he MUST confront this witch and uncover her dastardly plot. Sure, the amulets are shady, but I really don't think he had seen enough to convince him that there's actually a serious threat before he had flown off into the uncharted wilderness.
Then, after finding the witch, Murtagh seems to sit around alternately arguing with her or brooding for a third of the book.
This should have been an incredible book. Let's be real, Murtagh is a COMPELLING character. His impact on the original series is outsized compared to the time he actually spent on the page. Now, finally freed of his slavery, he and his dragon are roaming Alagaesia in search of the path forward.
There are so many awesome places you could take a story like this. Murtagh has A TON of delicious character growth to go through. Honestly, the plots just write themselves.
This book flirted briefly with some of those awesome places:
1) The first part, with the little tavern girl, was deeply enjoyable. Murtagh needs to be able to build connections! To care for others, and see that he can do so much more than just bring pain!
2) The werecat/city guard side quest was interesting.
3) It was interesting to be in Murtagh's head instead of Eragon's, and realize just how OP Eragon actually is. It gave Murtagh's adventures a much more scrappy, underdog feeling since he doesn't have access to all the magic power in the universe, just some.
4) Thorn finally overcoming his fear!!!! This got me!
5) The ending finally gave up the scene everyone reading this book was waiting for the entire time.
However, everything in the middle of the book was boring slush.
Murtagh runs across a magical artefact that is whispered to come from a mysterious, shadowy witch. For some reason that's not entirely clear, he decides that he MUST confront this witch and uncover her dastardly plot. Sure, the amulets are shady, but I really don't think he had seen enough to convince him that there's actually a serious threat before he had flown off into the uncharted wilderness.
Then, after finding the witch, Murtagh seems to sit around alternately arguing with her or brooding for a third of the book.
Murtagh: Tell me where your power comes from, and what you want!
Witch: No. You must wait longer, for reasons I will not disclose, and then I'll tell you.
Murtagh: *angrily* Okay.
The above exchange happens like three times. Murtagh and Thorn mention to each other more than once that the witch is crazy powerful, that it seems she might have been a match even for Galbatorix. Then, when she finally DOES completely outmatch them, Murtagh seems surprised!
The witch's trap completely infuriates me. Like, yeah! Why don't we rehash old ground just one more time? It's not like we already went through this scenario for three whole books. I'm sure there's more this scenario has to offer us! Literally every conceivable plot under the sun was open to Paolini, and he had to choose to do the same thing again? Annoying. I'm annoyed.