Book Review: Eragon's Guide to Algaesia by Christopher Paolini

Eragon's Guide to Algaesia
by Christopher Paolini
Inheritance Cycle

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-375-85823-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-85823-9
Publication Date: November, 2009
List Price: $24.99

Review: Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr are all tales of a far, unknown land called Alagaesia, the famed Dragon Riders, and the evil menace (every book has one!) named Galbatorix. Eragon’s (the main character) Guide to Alagaesia reveals secrets that aren’t in the three Inheritance books. It tells you about all the different races in this amazing land. Eragon’s Guide also talks about the landscape, Alagaesia’s natural history, and its history. Some of the amazing wildlife are Shrrgs, Fanghur, Feldunost, Werecats, and Urzhadn, or (larger than a house) cave bears. This fascinating book also includes information about dragons, the mystical Dragon Riders, humans, elves, dwarves, and Urgals (also Kull; their larger relatives). Lastly, this guide tells you about places that are sacred to other races, like Tronjheim, Ellesmera, Vroengard, and Ilirea.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I liked reading the Inheritance series, but I also had some unanswered questions about the books. This guide helped me understand the differences between races, and land location and other information about the landscape. Throughout the guide, there were little flaps of information, or they had something inside them or something to look at. There was star sapphire dust (glitter) from the dwarves’ Isidar Mithrim, dragon wing texture, dragon knucklebones (for fortune-telling), elven cloth, and even notes from Eragon at the beginning and the end! I thought this was interesting because I wondered why the star sapphire was red, and what dragon wing and elf cloth felt like. It also showed you what a dragon egg looked like, and what the gedwey ignasia looked like (the mark that a Rider gets when they first touch a dragon). I did not expect it to be a plain oval! One more interesting thing was you got to see what Eragon and Murtagh (Morzan’s) swords looked like, and you could compare them. Eragon’s sword is blue and named Brisingr (fire) and Murtagh (Eragon’s half-brother)’s sword is red and named Zar’roc (misery). In a nutshell, I really enjoyed this book and the background information it gave you. Christopher Paolini is a great author, and I can’t wait until the fourth Eragon book comes out!

Review written by Emily (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Eragon's Guide to Algaesia for this review.

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