Christopher Paolini

Christopher Paolini (born November 17, 1983) is the author of the Inheritance trilogy.

Paolini was born in Southern California, though he was raised and still lives in the Paradise Valley area of Montana. Home schooled for his entire life, he graduated high school at the age of 15 through an accredited correspondence course.

Following graduation, he started work on what would become the novel Eragon and its sequel, all set in Alagaësia. At the age of nineteen, he became a New York Times bestselling author.

In 2002, Eragon was published privately by his parents. To promote the book, Paolini toured over 135 schools and libraries, discussing reading and writing, all the while dressed in "a dorky medieval costume of red shirt, billowy black pants, lace-up boots, and a jaunty black cap."

During one of his promotional tours, he gave a speech at the school of the stepson of Carl Hiaasen; Hiaasen enjoyed the book so much, he told his publisher, Knopf about it. An offer was made by Knopf for Eragon and the rest of the Inheritance trilogy. After another round of editing, the second edition of Eragon was published in August 2003.

Some critics of his work have noted a derivative tone of the series.

With regard to his prose, Paolini has said, "In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf".

A movie adaption of Eragon is scheduled for release on December 15th 2006.

He has recently wrote "Eldest", the sequel to Eragon. There is no news of the relese date for the third book yet.

References

http://www.alagaesia.com/christopherpaolini.htm
http://www.powells.com/authors/hiassen.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037582670X/002-9278409-1982408?n=283155
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/books/bestseller/0528bestchildren.html
See reviews: VOYA, "Eragon"; Kirkus, "Eldest"; School Library Journal, "Eldest"

External links

Official website, which includes autobiographical comments from Paolini
Eragon summary, from Random House
Video clip from the Amazon.com website
Philip Pullman, Tamora Pierce, and Christopher Paolini Talk Fantasy Fiction, from Powell's books

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References

External links