Just finished Eragon by Christopher Paolini, and have started reading the next one, Eldest in his Inheritance trilogy. While knowing that he wrote the book at 15 and published by 19 turns my soul a verdant shade, I must give the author kudos for a great, engrossing fantasy.

The series is being targeted at the “young adult” category of 10-15, but in my opinion it has as much wide appeal to fantasy enthusiasts as Harry Potter does beyond its intended young adult audience. While many of the reviews have critiqued him for falling back heavily on high fantasy’s archetypes as created by Tolkien and others, I say that’s its strongest suit. He unabashedly creates true high fantasy. While many authors are loathe to be compared to Tolkien, Paolini doesn’t bother trying to make it feel like his world is intentionally different. Tolkien is a classic for a reason: he began the genre of high fantasy (classic fantasy of a medieval world almost always with magic, dragons, elves and dwarves) and it sets the tone for an epic, intriguing escape from everyday life. By sticking with standards such as elves and dwarves, you become comfortably ensconced in Eragon from the get go. And while he certainly owes a great debt to Le Guin and Tolkien, he creates a world and characters that are definitively his own.

If you enjoy tales of magic and fantasy creatures like elves and dragons, I highly recommend Eragon. There’s just nothing quite like cuddling up on a couch or sitting up at night in bed and digging into a fun adventure stocked with interesting characters you identify with.