Dear Christopher Paolini,
I loved Brisingr, the third book in your series. It is superior to your first two books in the sense that it shows your growing maturity as an author. Although it does leave the readers wishing for more closure, I'm sure the fourth book will fill in those holes. I was just hoping I could share my favorite passages/quotes from your book with you.
The first passage is this:
"Because, I have thought of something you have not Vermûnd. You wish us to leave you and your clan alone? Then I propose to the clanmeet that we do as Vermûnd wishes. If Vermûnd had acted opon his own and not as a grimstborith(clan leader), he would be banished for his offenses upon pain of death. Therefore, let us treat the clan as we would treat the person; let us banish Az Sweldn rak Anhûin from our hearts and minds..." - Orik (p. 500)
This passage was great in demonstrating how quickly Orik formulates a plan to counter an opponent's move. In the passage Orik turns Vermûnd's words against him, and Vermûnd who was smug in his promises of war in the case of retaliation, started to go pale with nervousness. The significance is great, as the "Az Sweldn rak Anhûin" were a problem unsolved from the second book. In a few sentences used as punishment for an assasination attempt Orik has solved that problem.
The second quote was:
"Does it matter Shadeslayer? A god is a god, regardless where he comes from." - Wounded Man (P.352).
A god is a god, regardless where he comes from. I don't know if you intended the line to interpreted this way, but this makes me think of all the wars in the world. Many of them have to do with the differences in cultures between the warring nations. If these countries respected each others respective god(s), what would be the need for these wars? A good example of this scenario would be the Crusades (First to Ninth), starting in 1095 ending in 1272. These all occurred because the Christians could not stand Muslims in their "Holy Land" of Jerusalem. Now if this thought of a god being a god no matter who believes in him, maybe these wars would not even be necessary. They could have simply come to an agreement of some sort, as the land has the same sort of significance for both religions.
The final passage is:
"...called the Eldunarí, which means the 'heart of hearts'...Also a dragon can disgorge their Eldunarí while they are still alive. By this means, a dragon's body and conscious can exist separately and yet still be linked." - Glaedr (P. 628)
This passage was great, as this "Eldunarí" is like a soul. The fact that the dragons can pass their conscious into this "heart of hearts" and live after their physical body has decayed. This was a well written and well veiled reference to the belief that people have souls that live on long after they have died. Otherwise it would be extremely difficult to lose a loved one, if you believed that there was nothing for them after this life. This concept is also cool when you look at it through the perspective of the book. A dragon releases its Eldunarí, and this results in it being alive after death. It does not perform any organic activities, but is able to interact with others and share its vast knowledge.
Those three passages/quotes are ones that I definitely enjoyed, and stood out amongst the others in your novel. Brisingr was an excellent book, and I am looking forward greatly to the final book in your series.
Sincerely,
Rudro Chakrabarti
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