Blog Entry - Eragon

This novel is about a boy finding a dragon egg and his adventures to gain power to fight the king (there is only one king in the whole world of the novel), who is the strongest man in the country, or the world. Although the novel’s genre is fantasy, I was not impressed by it because it conspicuously showed the author’s lack of knowledge about fantasy. In other fantasy novels, which I had read before, the authors thought and planned up their own settings of their fantasy world. Such planning allowed the author to be able to write more freely about fantasy and the reader to be able to tolerate the unusual events in the book. Therefore, I learned that to be able to write, whether it be a short story or a hundred page essay, one must have enough knowledge that he can explain the subject of the writing to another person.
As a fantasy novel, Eragon mentioned monsters and magic. The author apparently was not well informed about such subjects that he made up monsters of his own. Creation of new creatures was a crude action because even with descriptions, readers will not be able to imagine its features. In fact, I was surprised to find the same creatures, which performed pursuit in forests to be so large that they can throw people on horseback off. Also, the author seemed not to have a clear idea about magic or abilities of dragons because when it came to explanations, there were many mentions of how magic was so ancient that no one of present knows of magic and how abilities of dragons are so infinite that no one, even the dragons themselves, knows thoroughly about dragons. Such reasons are only a method of avoiding the need to explain fantasy elements, which the author lacks knowledge in. I was highly unimpressed by the author’s work, no matter how fresh the idea was. The various parts and information in the story conspicuously showed the lack of knowledge the author had; thus, I could not feel any thrill that critics had mentioned. I also became to realize the importance of knowledge about what I am writing about. Lack of knowledge always seemed to bring a pause to the storyline, which took out the fun in reading the novel. Now, I am able to understand why some books of difficult subjects can become bestsellers; bestsellers related to complicated subjects can become bestsellers because the author knows a lot about the subject and is able to explain his points to the advantage of the reader, so that the reader may understand easily.