Top Ten Childhood Faves

This sounds like a very good one, but I kind of thinking that I wasn't a huge reader as a child, so I only read a handful of books. It all kicked out in about 2005/2006. So I'm going to say pre-12 years is child. From around 12-14 it's tween or pre-teen, I think.

1. Russell Troy, Monster Boy This is the book I remember as my favourite for many, many years. I can only vaguely remember the story, but I do still own it. I guess this influenced my interest in fantasy!
2. My Tiny Treasury Now this is really old. It's full of little stories and poems and is something I can't get rid of because I've had it as long as I remember.
3. Harry Potter This was, as I have said many times, the beginning of reading for me. I owe JK so much, in so many ways. I'm hoping she doesn't ask me to pay back for this debt I am convinced I owe her.
4. Encyclopaedia of Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Creatures I think every boy has a dinosaur phase at some point in their childhood, some even go on to do it for a career! For me, it was just an interest, a hobby. But, as always, I wanted to know everything about dinosaurs that I could, and I read this Encyclopaedia thrice through, and read sections every few months.
5. Anything by Roahl Dahl Mostly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I loved the rhymes!) but I think I read quite a bit of his stuff. Not as much as I'd like, but a lot indeed.
6. Eragon This was the borderline child-reading for me. It was a much more grown-up book, so I didn't completely understand it, but it was something I remember reading in '05 or so. Now, I don't think I'd really recommend it to a child!
7. Role-Playing Books These are those books were you play a character and role dice to have your own written adventure. Apparently my dad used to like these too, so I had some very old ones a few new ones too. They're not really proper books, but I'm running out of things I read now!
8. Because of how my school worked (as with many English schools and perhaps many international schools) there were always 'set reading books' that people could read and if you read enough, you advanced a reading level. When this first started, I'd consume a book a night so I did rather well in this aspect. The day I made it past levels onto 'library' was an important day for me. It meant I could read anything I wanted.
9. The Dictionary....

Okay, I'm out of ideas. I did warn you that I wasn't the most...reader-some child, but I think I found it difficult to sit still for a long period of time and concentrated on a book. When I did read books they were (a) short, (b) funny, (c) something I was really interested in or (d) something that I could help but love and that I can't pigeon hole as anything really. I was also a much more avid re-reader since I had books that I knew I liked and read on repeat annually.

Anyway, happy reading, hopefully with better success than my childhood self!

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

5

Inheritance is the final book in the Inheritance Cycle (formerly a trilogy) and similar to the rest of the books in the series: it doesn’t have the deepest, most riveting story, but it’s an enjoyable Epic Fantasy.

The story again follows Eragon and, as in Eldest and Brisingr, the Point-Of-View jumps between other characters for the ‘insight’. If you’ve read the other books, and a bit more Epic Fantasy/High Fantasy on the side, you’ll probably predict where everything is going. Paolini seems to really like the idea of foreshadowing, destiny and all that so the hints are all there. It doesn’t take away from the story, in my opinion, but I wouldn’t expect any moments of intense surprise.

The characters are great, but sometimes seem to change dramatically for the sake of the story (I’m thinking of Arya here). And Eragon is a bit…angst-y. I do tend to like Eragon, but sometimes I think he’s too worried what everyone thinks and what he’s expected to do. As everyone says to him, he should just stop worrying and try to get on with defeating Galbatorix. I like Arya and Nasuada more (though they both seem to revamp their personalities at the end for no apparent reason), but my favourite character has to be Angela. The one person I know in real life who reads these agrees, and I ask anyone who has read this to tell me who their favourite character is. I’m looking for some Angela love her.

I like her because she’s so quirky, yet powerful. Better yet, we know absolutely nothing about her, except that she’s older than she looks and incredibly intelligent. I actually have, after this book, a suspicion of who she may have been. Regardless of who she is, every scene that has Angela in just lights up for me because she’s the only one who can make me life or make me terribly confused. She’s wonderful, and I’d read these books again just for her.

There’s not much I can say without ruining the story, but I think the book is satisfying. I give it 5 because I really like the series for its straight-forward, sorcery and shield Epic Fantasy story, and I think this last book sticks to that. The ending itself had me a little disgruntled, but I can see why he did it. Other bits, too, felt rushed; but again I got the gist of what he was trying to write and say.

So it’s a story with a few (predictable) twists, with lots of magic, swords and dragons. I enjoyed the series, and I’d advise most people to at least give it a go, but I, for one, think that it’s a good thing the series ended. Had it continued, I may have not.

NB I also adore the covers of these books. I can literally spend hours staring out those Dragons on the front.