After Harry Potter Eragon was my next brush with a big series in the Fantasy genre when I was a teenager, and I’ve enjoyed it so much.

Even though you can see the influence by The Lord of the Rings I’m still in awe of the world building and the creativity of a fifteen (!) year old. To think that he wrote the majority of these books in his teenage years and early twenties is mind-boggling.

Not just the world-building, but also the writing style and the attention to the characters, those were all things I enjoyed very much about this book when I read it for the first time as a teenager, and I still feel the same after this re-read.

Eragon’s development in particular I enjoyed reading about because it was so authentic. He is a teenager himself and learns so much as he goes through this adventure. I really like stories that portray characters that make mistakes and learn and grow from them.

Also, the way the author writes the adventure and everything that goes with it (joy, fear, grief, fun, friendship, politics, etc.) is beautiful to read.

Ultimately, I won’t be able to give this anything less than 5 stars because the nostalgia is just too strong. Not even my being over the ‘chosen one’ trope can change that (as it’s still well written).