[Kotetsu]

Ah, I was just trying ti make that clear for Scylla as it was not MEANT in any mean way and I didn't think it sounded rude or anything.

I enjoy Tolkien's writing quite a lot, personally, way more than Paolini's. But the target audience is so different anyway, Eragon in Tolkien's style would just be even more ridiculous. (Really, LotR is not a book that many 14-16 year olds enjoy reading, as far as I know)

Then I get what you mean, though.
I thought you were talking about the style, not the setting.
And to be honest, it is ALMOST impossible to write a fantasy novel that involves elves, dwarves, humans (and dragons) that does not adapt some of Tolkien's ideas. I have never read one in my life and I never thought it was a bad thing.
I don't know who was the first author to write about dwarves, elves, etc. in a way like Tolkien did, as I am not very familiar with older books. But elves and dwarves that are not like "Tolkien's" would feel pretty wrong to me.

I would love to read a fantasy novel that feels NOTHING like Tolkien's books do... one day. I have just never found one.

[Daring Scylla]

hok then that was just my incorrect interpretation. sorry about that.

I never even saw the movie but I heard awful things about it, even from people who like the books

Suzerain, I know what you meant - that's what I've been trying to say. Not even the style so much as all archetypal fantasy tropes and inspirations have been shoved into the book. I personally enjoyed tolkienn's books, but you're right that's not the question at hand.

I feel like his books are just too shallow-the bottom line is they have no substance for me. It's not that i only like tolkien's special brand of fantasy -i don't want to read the same things over and over again.

I also read some of the books paolini plagiarized from, and that just really killed it for me.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Scylla, if you wouldn't mind, do you think you could maybe do a little comparison between the elements in his story and the stories he "borrowed" them from? Doesn't have to be anything elaborate, but I, for one, would be interested to see the correlations. I know some of them, but I remember from looking into it a while ago that I haven't read quite a few of his "inspirational" texts.

If it's too much trouble, though, don't worry about it.

[Daring Scylla]

i'd be glad to, though I'm no where near as competent or eloquent as this person, who brings up most of the ones I think of. I've summarized them here, though, in case you don't want to go read it. (the link is one Kotetsu very kindly provided way back in the beginnings of the thread, and it's interesting to note that the author of this blog noticed a lot of the same plagiarisms I did) namely...
The Earthsea novels, which I've read, probably gave Paolini the idea for his systematic Magic in the Inheritance - the whole bit about not being able to lie, about true names virsus everyday names, and the names of objects (like 'brsingr' for fire) let you control the object. The 'true name' idea was also used by Raymond Feist and Jonathan Stroud for sentient beings, but the idea makes sense and is easily adapted or modified to fit the story in question, so it's not surprising that it shows up a lot.
Also, i've read the Ruby Knight by David Eddings, which I enjoyed. I've reread The Elenium series so much I probably know the books by heart. Imagine my surprise when I saw the bridge scene in Eragon, lifted straight from the Ruby Knight. In both scenes, a seedy stranger charges a toll to get across, during which one of the characters secretly cuts the man's purse and steals his money. The characters then cross the bridge and at the end hear a "howl of anguish" [these exact words are in both books] come from the other side. There are other passages and sentences similar to David Eddings's writing throughout the series, usually descriptions (that I've noticed).
Another series, the Belgariad, by David Eddings again, likely gave Paolini the idea for his dragon mark on his hand. (I have not read the Malloreon which comes after the Belgariad)
Then there's the blatant names which were either identical or incredibly similar to landmarks/other names in Tolkienn's books. The ones I noticed (marked in the blog) were Fornost, Aragorn, Elessar and Imiladris, though the blog notes more. Some, like Valinor, he didn't even bother to change. However i have read another book - i forget the name though if I remember I will tell you - used or 'edited' some LotR names too, including Gandalf and Mordor.
If you take a look at some of Raymond Feist's books - it's interesting to see other people have noted this too - the blood ritual the elves perform in Brisingr is almost verbetim from one of his books
I have not read the Anne McCaffery series, but it's been said that the telepathic link btween dragon and rider was originally her idea, though Bruce Colville also used it in one of his books too, so there you go.
There's the obvious star wars link, in regards to the "Eragon morzan's yer Da" and the "Luke I'm yer Da" not to mention the plotline, which continues from Eragon into Eldest. I think that as Eldest and Brisingr continue they get more original, but more boring. I barely remember Brisingr, i'll have to go through it again and see what he may have taken in there.
EDIT: let's also not forget that Paolini tried to create his own Elvish (and Dwarvish) language, both of which I'm not about to bother translating. However, that was one true 'inspiration' rather than direct plagiarism.
Also, apparently the Wheel of Time series have a lot of 'inspiration' for Paolini, but i've never read them so i wouldn't know. I need to, though. but that's unrelated
I'm not at my best declaiming crap in english, but I hope that quick(lol) summary helped a bit
in the end, I'm still not sure what Paolini wanted when he published this book series. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea to publish plagiarised material. I'm interested to see how the next book plays out though.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Well, huh. That's, um, wow. And I did read through that blog post, that was... enlightening.

I remember when I was 11 years old, I wrote a fantasy story. It came out sort of like that, with some very heavily "borrowed" elements, including names. But, hey, I was 11. Then I wrote another book when I was 17... still garbage, but I dare say it was more original than that. Didn't see that becoming an international best-seller, though... I like to think I've gotten to somewhere around "decent" nowadays, though I haven't actually finished a novel since that one.

Anyway, that list of names is kind of funny. For a lot of them, it almost looks like he thought "who even reads the appendices to LotR anyway? No one will notice if I steal some names from there." :p

About the mark on the hand, though, I think I'd more or less excuse that. Sure, it isn't terribly original, but from what was described there, it doesn't seem like a flagrant of a plagiarism as the others.

[Daring Scylla]

it kind of blows your mind, doesn't it? What offends me most is that no one BIG has said anything about it or called him out on it.
yeah the biggest problem is they READ like they were written by a fantasy-obsessed fifteen year old who assumed NO ONE would notice if he picked and chose from other works.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I don't think the talented fantasy authors out there think about Mr. Paolini very much. :p

Oh, I meant to mention before, the borrowing-names-from-Tolkien thing isn't exactly exclusive to poor Christopher here. I know R. A. Savlatore did it a fair bit in his Crimson Phantom novels, and even George R. R. freaking Martin has started doing it in his later book, which is *really* annoying.

On the other hand, Scott Bakker blatantly stole the Mines of Moria sequence for one of his latest books, but he made it so, so, so much more awesome than the original that it makes Tolkien's version feel like a rip-off when I read it. :p Though, unlike Paolini, he admits he did that, and calls it an "homage". A lot of people still get on his case about it, though.

[Daring Scylla]

People get on cases about anything.
i don't many authors think very much of Paolini, or even think about him much as you said.
George R.R. Martin has started doing it? how late!?
I've heard about the Crimson Phantom novels, I know ripping names from Tolkien is done more than a few times.
the reason I'm surprised is that because I know tolkien was very jealous of his works and I'm thinking anyone carrying his franchise on would be too. But maybe they're not.
perhaps he's just ignored...

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I only really noticed GRRM doing it in A Dance With Dragons, his most recent book. Which is why it stood out so much. I was noticing names of people, places, even phrases lifted from Tolkien. I kind of get the impression he thinks he's showing how much he loves fantasy by including "easter eggs" like that... but it just looks crude and talentless to me.

[Daring Scylla]

I don't know. writers are supposed to re-invent the wheel I guess, but there's a difference between laying references to display your love or please your fans, and just being tacky.
in science fiction it works, and other situations i can't explain well, but in fantasy I think it would be a little harder to do

[Alpha]

Eh, it is a different story with a some similar ideas. It works for a decent series if you don't read deep into it.