The first book was Eragon The book stunned me, filled with great characters and terrific action was a great book. The book, though the shortest in the series so far, probably packs in the most plot. If you haven't read it, do so. The sequel, which continued the story, was Eldest. This is a great book too, but a bit of a disappointment. The story is much slower, with much of the book spent with Eragon training in the Elven forest under an old Dragon and Rider. The most interesting part of the book was Roran, Eragon's cousin, who was given a great sub-plot that was sweet. I like this book a lot, but it doesn't match up to the first one, and its main job is to set things in motion for the third and final book.

Or so we thought. Inheritance was meant to be a trilogy, but when the plot for book 3 was found to be too large, Paolini split it in two, meaning that the new book, Brisingr, is part 1 of the finale. Usually, a book doesn't work as well if it's split into segments; LOTR works much better as one book, not three. So how was Brisingr? It's outstanding. Absolutely outstanding.

 I'll get my only major complaint about the book out of the way first; the ending comes far too fast for my liking. Everything in Brisingr feels like it's building up to an epic climax, but it doesn't. Like Eragon and Eldest, the book does end with a battle, but it's nowhere near as exciting as the battles in the previous books, or even battles in the earlier chapters of the book. The most interesting part of the climax is the one Eragon isn't in. The ending just doesn't go with the rest of the book, It sort of just ends, and it left me wanting more.

      I didn't like Brisingr as much as the first book, Eragon, but that's because the first book had Brom, and Brisingr doesn't. Apart from that, they are roughly equal, and Brisingr far outshines the second entry. One of my biggest compliments for this novel is that, while Paolini has always been a great storyteller, his writing style has some kinks that needed to be ironed out. Eragon and especially Eldest are far too detailed full of details and words that sound more stylish than impressive.

But this is not the case with Brisingr, which is incredibly fluid and well-written.

      The book opens with Roran and Eragon storming Helgrind to save Katrina from the Ra'Zac. This is an absolutely epic way to open a book, and the battle contained in this section is one of the best in the series. By the time Eragon finally returns to the Varden, about 150 pages in, it feels like that section could have been a whole novel. But there's more. Lots more.

There are tons and tons of scenes fans have been waiting to read since discovering the first novel, and all of them are as satisfying as I imagined. The plot is always moving, save for some down time after Eragon returns from Helgrind. Eragon travels much of Alagaesia, and much of the book is devoted to epic battles, though I never got weary of them. Supporting characters are fleshed out and made more interesting, and we even get a few chapters told from Saphira's (Eragons' dragon)  point of view, which is really interesting.The last third or so of the novel, where Eragon returns to Oromis to complete his training, is the best part of the novel. There's a startling revelation, Oromis dies.I got hints of this in Eldest. A number of unexplained or strange events in the first book are fully explained here, and this extends to small details as well.

    Brisingr was a amazing book overall and deserves all the hype it was put through.