I just finished reading Eragon, the book purportedly written by wunderkind Christopher Paolini, after he read a whole lot of Tolkien. The short review is this: Paolini, at age 15, was a wonderful storyteller, a plagiarist, and a terrible writer (only slightly better than me, and I'm not a writer.) If, like me, you see the book at Costco, and wanted a candy read, you should get it.

Click "read more" to get a bullet list of other observations, which might spoil it for you if you haven't read the book.

• Like most inexperienced writers, Paolini likes using big, fancy words for their own sake, when a simpler word would work better.
• That said, he sure has a large vocabulary. In fact, I'm skeptical that he actually read it (think Adragon De Mello, and the need for some parents to succeed "through" their children.
• He clearly copied words and names from Tolkien. It's so obvious, I wonder if it's homage, rather than theft, in his mind.
• Unanswered questions/unresolved or unused facts: Werecat advises him to look under the roots of a tree, but that's not used later in the book....what's the story behind Brom's wife?...what's the story behind his mother? Why was Arya selected? Why aren't Urgals = orcs? (He could tie this up, neatly, in other books, by elaborating...for example, by making Brom Eragon's illegitamate father, and Eragon Murtagh's half-brother, etc. But loose ends should be tied up in each volume, if they're this big.)
• Angela's magic scares the twins, and she can communicate with the werecat, yet she claims that she heals using herbs, not magic. Why?
• Why did nothing happen regarding Nasuada? Why introduce this character?
• Just because there will be additional books in the trilogy doesn't mean you can plant info and not resolve it.
• When Tolkien didn't cover all the bases, that's because he invented Middle Earth.