Should Have Been Shorter

 Murtagh by Christopher Paolini 

It has been over a decade since I read the first four books in this series (I'm not counting the novella of fairy tales since that didn't advance the narrative). I loved this series when I first read and I'm not sure if time or nostalgia has warped my opinion, or if my tastes have changed that much, but this book was not giving what I wanted it to give. It was overly wordy in a lot of areas (not Victor Hugo levels, but there were big unnecessary chunks) and I found myself bored with it. Murtagh is an anti-hero, but you want to like him and this book focused solely on him but instead of being on the edge of my seat, desperate to find out what was going to happen, I kept flipping to the end of the book to see how many more pages I had left. Murtagh, again, finds himself tied to the whims of someone more powerful than himself. And again, he has become their killing machine. He ends up in this position because he is 1) an outcast and 2) trying to find answers to what is going on in the realm. He does finally break free from the enchantment with the help an Urgal and a member of the cult who has become disenchanted because she realizes the leader is perverting their religion. This book was 660 pages when it could have been half of that. And it does set things up for another book, which despite my frustration with this book, I will absolutely go out and buy when it comes out. Also, I got this in hardcover and its literally as long as my forearm and I can barely hold it with one hand, so it was frustrating to read. And, since then they have released a special edition with sprayed edges and I feel like I had to go through all of that torture and I didn't even get the pretty version out of it.