104:70 Eldest by Christopher Paolini

The 2nd book in the Inheritance Cycle. This one sees Eragon through more training and the first encounter with the Empire and a new Rider. It also reunites Eragon and his cousin, Roran, after all of Roran's and the villagers' adventures following the invasion of their town by the Ra'zac.

Again, I find the writer's style to be slow and plodding. Overly descriptive to the detriment of moving the story along. It's a rich world, wonderfully old with tons of history. The races all have so much to offer but at the same time, it feels like a lot of the background information we get would be better served in a compendium for those who want the information since it seems to serve little purpose in moving the story along. Funnily enough, the majority of the characters are not that deep and show little development after their introduction. There are a few exceptions to this but not many. Mr. Paolini is obviously very talented at world building but I'd like to see him fill out some of the other areas.

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