I was extremely dissapointed... all I can say about all the praise it got is that they must have been bought by the publisher (it happens). I'm glad young writers are getting their work published. I'm not glad the quality is so incredibly low. The book needed a few more drafts before it was even handed to the editor.
Why I didn't like it--
--100% predictable
--Completely unexplained setting with virtually no background; basically Tolkien fan fiction
--1-dimension characters
--Jerky prose, odd similies in it
--Excess on the melodrama
The biggest reason being #2, really. It's even more brutal a Tolkien ripoff than Dragonlance is; and while Dragonlance is largely a tongue-in-cheek fantasy setting, Eragon actually takes itself quite seriously, despite the entire world being 80% Tolkien, 15% Norse mythology and 5% Paolini's invention.
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"Humans are useless they can only give you questions."