[Quiet Man Cometh]

I think it would be better serves to say the dragon riders are the equivalent of the jedi, rather than compare weapons.

Anyway, haven't read Eragon myself. I tried a few random pages of the book and found it either dreadfully tedious, (really, I do'nt care about how corridors the party apparently walks down or turns they apparently take while going through this fortress blindfolded) or boggy and some portion to me made no sense. None of the exerpts I've read make me inclined to read it either.

I agree with comments that I read on the site "Anti-Shirtergal" or whatever it's called, can't recall the second part fully, that compares Paolini's to fan fiction written by other fifteen year olds. I've read that too and they are about the same in terms of quality.

My sister has read the series so far and she can always be counted on for an opinoin very different than mine and she said that sheh enjoyed the series and when I asked about the writing she said that she felt they were as good as any other fantasy book out there, though nothing extraordinarily special.

Suzerain's right in that monetary success does not relate to literary value. Too many thing can affect the sales of a book other than quality of writing and I think that Eragon's fame is more a result of the hype and promotion around it than the sole merit of the writing. It's hard for a book to get noticed for it's writing unless the right people read it and that's more luck of the draw.

The magic system is borrowed from LeGuin, I noticed that from reading A Wizard of Earthsea after having watched the Eragon movie, and Paolini does list LeGuin as an inspiration of his along with Lucas and Tolkein. I would say though that he borrows a bit too much from his "inspirations," patterns of mythos aside. It's one thing to follow a general line of heroic growth, it's another for the details to be so similar.