What about The Inheritance Cycle?

Voltando a postar depois de algumas semanas conturbadas por conta do fechamento de duas disciplinas do doutorado. Com uma sequência intensa de entregas de trabalhos, relatórios e provas, acabei não conseguindo reservar muito tempo para escrever algo aqui. Mas fechei as duas disciplinas (ao que tudo indica com bons conceitos) e enfim conseguirei postar algo novamente. 

Um fato sobre minha rotina diária que interessa à postagem de hoje: para chegar até cidade universitária, onde tenho a maioria das minhas aulas, praticamente preciso atravessar a cidade. Isso significa que eu passo uma parte considerável do meu dia no interior de um metrô/trêm. Quando possível, tento aproveitar esse tempo para ler. E nas idas e vindas das últimas semanas, enfim terminei de ler uma série de livros que eu vim lendo há pelo menos 2 anos: O Ciclo da Herança (os livros do Eragon), e é sobre essa série que decidi escrever hoje.

Affonso Solano: The Charcoal Swordsman

To talk about The Inheritance Cycle, firstly, I would like to talk about another series of books written by a Brazillian, Afonso Solano, called: O Espadachim de Carvão (free translation: The Charcoal Swordsman).  

Affonso Solano

Affonso Solano is an illustrator, comic books artist, podcaster, games collum writer and more recently book writer. In fact, The Charcoal Swordsman (TCS) is his first book, published in 2013. Solano is a very known web celebrity in the field of' "nerd/geek culture". His books are clearly influenced by this.

Well, in the TCS Solano created an entire fantasy world, including its own genesis chapter (similar to the first chapter of The Silmarillion). It is easy to realize that this universe is very inspired by other classic fantasy publications, but the combination of all elements already seen in other sources creates a kind of original material. In Kurgala, you will know various races (some very intriguing), places and characters.

The most important thing I wanna say is that by looking at all this universe Solano created, you might think he tried to write a grand story, to be side by side with other classics. But no, that is the interesting thing here. Apparently, Solano tried not to be so ambitious in his first attempt in the literary market, once he would probably fail because of his inexperience writing books. That said, TCS has a simple story, but a very well constructed one, with good rhythm, nice characters and interesting situations. Until now, there are two books in this series with light and good stories. Maybe, with Solano's maturing, we can see his stories getting more complex and gorgeous in following books.

The Charcoal Swordsman

Christopher Paolini: The Inheritance Cycle

And what about The Inheritance Cycle (TIC)? Well, it is completely the opposite of  TCS. I don't know very well the history of Christopher Paolini (the author of TIC). All I know is that he started writing the first book of TIC very young (15 years old). This fact seems to be determinating to the outcome of the series.

Well, I won't brief the story of the book. You can read it here, so let's stick right to the point.

Christopher Paolini

The TIC universe is very based in other fantasy classics, mainly Tolkien's material . Differently than Affonso Solano, here we almost can not see originality. The elements are virtually the same as already seen in other franchises. Elves are a superior wise race, a bit arrogant, and then reclusive. Dwarfs are rough, practical and strength people. Humans are weak, less wise, but capable of accomplishing great things together. Well, basically The Lord of The rings stuff. Dragons are a little bit interesting, but nothing really original. To be fair, the magic thing related to an ancient language that has the pure meaning/descriptions of the words is interesting and well applied in the story.

So, this is the biggest problem of this series. Paolini tried to build a grand world based on the nerd culture that he growth with, but he could not achieve to create something of his own. So, everything that follows seems to be the duplication of other stories. 

The second problem is the Paolini's ambition regarding the story. Do you know when you like a book or a movie very much and start to think how spectacular would be if you could add some elements to the story? You get so excited that start creating a whole story that is intriguing, complex and wonderful. But when you tell your friends about your ideas nobody seems to share the same exciting. Well, that is what happens with TIC.

Paulini, probably, started his story just as a teenager fascinated about Tolkien or George Lucas franchises and thought he could create something in the same patamar. I can not see his ambitious purely as something bad, but Paulini apparently was not prepared for such a big task at that time. Thats why the modest story of Solano offers more fun hours than Paulini's. 

All four books of The Inheritance Cycle

The last point: the forth book of the Paulini's series in hard to read. The characters and situations are not that bad, but the text tries so hard to make the story grandiose creating numerous situations to develop the characters that it totally breaks the rhythm and become boring and difficult to read. It is almost like the Tolkiens way of describing everything, but with far less meaning. 

Conclusion

So, if you are a newbie fantasy reader you may enjoy Paulini's world. If you have some baggage, brace yourself because it probably will be a long and not so rewarding journey.  In the last case, if you just want to enjoy some good hours reading fantasy, I recommend Solano's series, but don't expect to read the book of your life. If none of this interests you and you want a more complex, original and well-constructed story, the old fashion fantasy for mature readers, I  suggest The Witcher series.. but that's a story for another post!

Post Scriptum

Dessa vez optei por escrever sobre algo que li. Todas as vezes que eu ler/assistir/jogar/escutar algo tentarei escrever algo aqui. Postando ao som de Fairy Tale do Shaman e pensando que essa semana vai ser empolgante pois terei tempo para trabalhar no meu protótipo de célula a combustível!