Eldest Audiobook By Christopher Paolini cover art

Eldest

The Inheritance Cycle, Book 2

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Eldest

By: Christopher Paolini
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
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About this listen

Nominated, Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award, 2007

Nominated, Disney Adventures Book Award, 2005

Nominated, Iowa High School Book Award

Nominated, New York State Three Apples Award

Nominated, Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award

Winner, Quill Award, 2006

Nominated, Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award, 2007

Don’t miss the eagerly anticipated epic new fantasy from Christopher Paolini—Murtagh, coming 11.7.23!

New magic and new threats take flight in Book Two of the Inheritance Cycle, perfect for fans of Lord of the Rings! This New York Times bestselling series has sold over 40 million copies and is an international fantasy sensation.

"Christopher Paolini is a true rarity."—The Washington Post

Darkness falls… despair abounds… evil reigns… Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix. Now Eragon must travel to Ellésmera, land of the elves, for further training in the skills of the Dragon Rider: magic and swordsmanship. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and nothing is what it seems. Before long, Eragon doesn’t know whom he can trust.

Will the king’s dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life. . . .

©2005 Christopher Paolini (P)2005 Listening Library, a division of Random House, Inc.
Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Young Adult King Feel-Good Royalty

Featured Article: The top 100 series of all time


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What listeners say about Eldest

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great overall series

This is by far one of the best books of its length and subject. I personally am not a huge fan of the narrator, but after a while I just focused on the story itself. The pure amount of detail is amazing and the plot is one to remember. If you like Harry Potter/lord of the rings/hobbit be sure and check out this series

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Entertaining

This book is very entertaining and inventive. Everything in this imaginary world fits together neatly and there are multilayered plots that are cleverly woven together by the author. It really approaches “Lord of the Rings” in places, although it is impossible for anyone to be as original as Tolkein again. I think. I was not crazy about the voice of the dragon as it sounded like a gravely male dragon instead of a female dragon, but I got used to it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to those who like fantasy novels.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

This is a more than worthy sequel to the excellent Eragon. It builds more on the world of the elves and has some great turns of the plot. If you've read Eragon and liked it then this is simply more and better of the same quality writing and has the usual excellent narration as well.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Elves were SO BORING. Loved side story and ending!

The "training" with the elves nearly ruined the book! It would have been a complete disaster if not for the side story told throughout and a very up tempo ending. I have not been so bored by any character(s) in my life. Instead of the elves being fun and majestic they are a bunch of boring, snooty, vegetarian, tree hugging, faithless, yoga masters! Elves are generally supposed to be connected to nature, wise, fair etc, but the elves in this book are so unbelievably dull. I almost stopped listening because it was so slow.

Luckily the side story from the valley kept me intrigued. So, I continued on. In the end I'm glad I did because the ending was excellent!
I look forward to completing the series with my fingers crossed that we don't have to revisit the home of the elves.

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    5 out of 5 stars

MOST EXCELLENT!

I can't wait for book three and I pray it is read by the same guy. Everything about this book and Eragon was perfect. THANK YOU!

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A gripping tale nonetheless

In quick succession I listened to the 4 books in the Inheritance Cycle, which should tell you something about the quality of both the story and the narration. Both are excellent!!

The story is gripping, lots is happening and our curiosity to find out what happens next is always tickled. Getting further into the series I did find myself skipping over more parts as Paolini somehow gets into the habit of describing more than is necessary instead of moving the story along.

As for the critics who have alluded to the fact that - to put it mildly - Paolini has been inspired by either or both “The Lord of The Rings” and “The Wheel of Time”, they are right.

At times it almost seems he's plagiarising liberally both of those series. With elves, dwarves, humans, magic, talking trees, and much, much more I often had the feeling I was revisiting either LoTR, WoT or both.

Still, I remember having similar feelings while reading WoT - I often found myself thinking R.R. Jordan looked a bit too closely at what Tolkien had done with LoTR. It nonetheless didn't diminish my pleasure in reading WoT.

So ... If you've got a love of reading adventure and fantasy as well as listening to a great voice, don't let the accusations of plagiarism stop you from enjoying a great story line!

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Enter a New World!

Any additional comments?

I love this series! I never finished it when I went to college, but I am grateful for the opportunity to listen, now, and with my busy life.
I do sometimes think Doyle is a little unnecessarily enthusiastic, perhaps in the wrong places, especially when giving a nice, big Hrrrrothgar! But, he keeps your attention, so I can't fault him, too much. So far, he is one of my favorite voice actors. At first, I didn't think I'd like Saphira's very dragon-like voice because she is a girl dragon. But, I got used to it.
Reading it again, as I am older, has me appreciating the subtleties a bit more, such as how Eragon and Roran are met with similar issues, but approach them differently.
Frankly, if you are looking at this audiobook, then you've probably already read Eragon, so I don't have to convince you to read it. So, enjoy!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great book!

This was a great listen, kept my attention for hours. Highly recommend this book for fantasy lovers.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, decent narrator.

The story is fantastic, it's gripping and exciting. I have the same problems with the narrator as I had with him in Eragon. I disagree with some of the voices he has chosen, such as that of Murtag being Irish, but have accepted them. The narrator can get pretty cringy though whenever there's heated scenes with screaming or sound effects, especially when he makes Eragon scream nooooo.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Wonderful even with issues

I will simply put on here that this series is one of my favorites, this is my third time listening to it now since my job entails driving.

However, in this book there are small issues with audio where the speaker seems to suddenly stop, the story time continues, and from the book it starts up again a couple of sentances later. one such portion is when Eragon is checking in on Arya after the blood oath celebration via scrying. King Orrin asks for the supply manifest and he gets it, starts to talk about the issues then the audio cuts. It continues again after three seconds. I do believe there were other places the story has done the same thing and the later books do it as well. just wanted to bring it to attention.

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