#fansandtheic

[fansandtheic]

Holly's Story

"The first time I saw Eragon, it was Christmas with my great uncle. He’d gifted his entire hardcover collection of the series to my older brother. This was a big deal, they were the biggest books we’d ever seen and my great uncle wanted us to experience their story.

A few years later I’d been devo any book I could get my hands on, mainly fantasy though. I asked my brother for a good book to read, and he pulled out Eragon. At first I didn't want to read it, too thick, too boring (especially cause I was 10 at the time) He wore me down soon and I started the series.

3 years later, and we still have every book, though we’ve expanded the collection to 2 copies of Eldest, and ano 2 of Murtagh. Inheritance was the first book to have an ending worthy of making me cry, and I hope to one day pass on these books to my own kids."

~ Holly

[fansandtheic]

Nick's Story

Dear Christopher Paolini, 

I lived in a home with abuse. Lots of abuse. Hunger. Never being able to go to sleep without fear of being awoken and beaten in the middle of the night by a disturbed being known as my stepfather. 

It was a cruel existence for me, years under his crushing rule. Beaten within inches of losing my sanity. This man came up with all sorts of sick and twistedly cruel ways to cause excruciating pain to us. He was a true sadist. I can’t even begin to list all the awful things he did to me growing up. 

I wasn’t allowed to watch TV. No video games. He believed they were demonic. Essentially, anything that brought us open joy was forbidden. The horrible moments I endured took me to dark places. But somehow maybe by fate, one day in a library, I noticed Eragon on a bookshelf. I opened its pages... and thank God I did. 

I was immediately swallowed by a world of adventure, a world filled with people who sucked me away from my own reality and let me live through the eyes of someone else. I felt every emotion, joy, sadness, anger. I smiled uncontrollably while reading, and I rarely had reason to smile before. The amount of times I cried through those stories... I loved all of it. I needed it. 

To hide the abuse, my stepfather forced us to be "homeschooled," pulling us from public school because he felt the system invaded his privacy. So even through my junior high years, I was separated from peers. I had little in the way of friends. 

But I had Eragon, Saphira, Murtagh... and Arya. They became the people in my life. I romanticized Eragon and Arya, imagining her as the most beautiful and stunning creature ever dreamed up. I followed them through every experience, living through their eyes. But eventually, I ran dry. Their story hadn’t concluded yet, and you were still working on the fourth and final book. So... I reread the series again. And again. And again. Like a madman, I read the first three books 13 consecutive times. It was all I had. 

Then came my 17th birthday. My mother did her best with me and knew how much I loved those books. She decided the throw me a small surprise birthday with some family and my best friend Robert while my stepfather was at work.. At that time, Inheritance was already available, but every library I contacted was still without it. I called many libraries regularly throughout the county. Inheritance was not yet available at the library, and it grieved me so much. 

But on the day of my birthday, I opened some gifts from my best friend, Robert. He also knew my love for these books. To my absolute joy, I received my own copies of Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr! I now had my very own copies! I was beyond pleased. But my mother had one gift yet to give me. The room was silent. Somehow, I felt everyone knew this was the big one. I truly had no idea what to expect. It was a gift bag packed with stuffing paper inside. I removed it... and my eyes fell upon something that hit me in the stomach. 

My mind broke loose. I struggled to control the tears that screamed to be released. I lifted out a pristine, gorgeous, beautiful green hardback copy of Inheritance. The final book. It was in my hands. My reaction did not go unnoticed, the room responded with smiles and expressions hidden behind hands cupped over faces. This gift overwhelmed me. One beyond words. Oh, how I craved to read it. 

I turned the pages. I poured over them, getting little sleep at night as I wrapped myself in the warm blanket of their adventures once again with Eragon and Arya. But a pit began to form in my stomach as I approached the final pages. I knew this time... this time, when I turned the last page—when my eyes rested upon the words THE END, that it would be over. For good. And soon, the inevitable came. I was consuming the final pages, emotions climbing higher and higher unbound, unrestrained. I felt it. The revelation of the story’s conclusion rocked me in a way words can’t fully describe. 

The tears fell, unrestrained. No level of will or effort could stop them. I cried. Oh, how I cried. I screamed into my pillow. I cried until exhaustion finally drove me to sleep. When I awoke, all I could do was sit in silence coping, I re-read the last pages over and over again. I even remembered Eragon's dream predicting the book's ending in the first book. It... was... over. And my soul wasn’t ready for it. 

Now, 13 years later, I see Alagaësia coming to life again—new stories, new attention, and a new spark. I’ve been feeling emotionally drained lately, and I decided it was time to revisit my old friends in Alagaësia. And while this return has warmed my soul in ways I can’t fully explain, it has also stirred up deep, buried grief. 

The books remind me of the pain I was escaping from back then, and I've found myself emotionally compromised all over again—grappling with the boy I was, and the man I’ve become. 

But I want you to know this, Christopher: Your books did more than entertain me—they saved me. They gave me something beautiful to hold on to when I had nothing else. They gave me a reason to smile, to cry, to feel. They became a part of my identity. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you for giving me something to cling to when the world gave me nothing. 

Sincerely,

Nicholas A Decker

[fansandtheic]

Rebecca Alex's Story

"Eragon came out when our oldest daughter, Leia, was 8 yrs. old. She identified to Saphira to such an extent that I painted a large mural of Saphira on three walls of her bedroom. She would stare at it for hours and said that Saphira gave her strength. A few years ago, we sold that house and the mural was painted over. But before we left, our son-in-law, Keegan Lillo, took photos and spent many hours patching the three separate images of her on the three walls into one cohesive piece, then added an amazing background. Leia is now about to turn 30 years old and is still a dragon!"

~ Rebecca Alex

[fansandtheic]

Raven's Story

"I read Eragon when it first came out, and have loved it since. When I had to stay in the hospital in 2014, I reread the series. it had such an impact, particularly Eragon's struggle with his back injury. Now, I'm staying in the hospital with my dad after a nearly fatal motorcycle accident. I'm rereading the series yet again, and again I owe at least part of my sanity to it. Although I've reread the series in less tumultuous periods in my life, there's just something about how personally Eragon's struggles impact me when I feel like I have no more strength of my own. Roran's determination to make a life that's safer for his family never resonated with me before, but this is the first I'm reading the series as a wife, and hopefully someday soon, a mother. This series has such depth that I find new meaning in it every time I read it. Even more importantly, I find new inspiration. Angela is always my favorite character, though, that hasn't changed from my first venture in 6th grade to my current reread as a 30 year old."

~ Raven

[fansandtheic]

Eragon's Story

I met Christopher Paolini at the book tour stop in Tustin. He encouraged me to share my story.

My parents were having a hard time deciding on a name. I am the fourth child, and apparently it gets more difficult each time. One night my dad presented his brilliant idea to my mom. The argument went like this:

"If our son is born before the 9th, he will be born in the Chinese year of the dragon. Wouldn't it be cool if he was named Eragon and was born in the year of the dragon?"

After much consideration and overcoming the fear of grandmother's wrath, my mom agreed.

I am Eragon - dragon Rider.

[fansandtheic]

Rae's Story

"When I first read Eragon, I was 15 or 16. I remember browsing the fantasy section of a book store called Borders, which no longer exists. It didn't take long for my eyes to be caught by the beautiful blue scales of Saphira on the cover of this two-inch-think hardcover, and as soon as I read the inside of the front jacket, I was sold. At the time, I was really struggling. My parents had divorced when I was 8 or 9, and by age 11, I was harming myself on a daily basis. as kids often do, I blamed myslef somehow for my parents' "falling out of love," as they called it. I was quietly withdrawn and inwardly seething, angry at everything. From the moment Eragon and Saphira bonded, Alagaësia was a balm for my raw emotions, a distraction from my spiraling thoughts, and a place where I found friendship in an unconventional way. I empathized with Eragon's own pain over feeling fatherless, and with Arya's detached, broken relationship with her mother. My heart soared on the wings of a glittering blue dragon as sapphira rode the air currents. And I felt Eragon's hatred of the Ra'zac, who embodied all evil and misfortune which so easily sweeps through our lives when we least expect it. Reading Eragon was the spark in my soul which made me want to become a writer, even if only for my own benefit. I have yet to truely stoke that flame, but a hot coal continues to smolder for the time at which my own story will pour itself onto its own pages. Thank you, Christopher, and all the others who made this series available to a lonely, broken, and lost 16 year old girl, whose mind teetered precariously on the ledge of a life changing decision. Alagaësia gave me a reason to turn around and to step back. For that, the Inheritance Cycle will always have a place on my little library shelf, and in my heart."

~ Rae

[fansandtheic]

Hadlee's Story

"The Inheritance Cycle has been one of my favorite series since elementary school, I remember waiting for Brisingr and then Inheritance to come out and begging my grandma to buy it!

No else I knew had read them, so I never really talked about them with anyone. They were just my escape from reality, as my childhood was chaotic and my grandmother was raising my sister and I.

Fast forward to April 2016, 18 year old me is working at the local Chick fil a, my daughter was a year and a half old.

I made a friend (which was unheard of, making friends had always been difficult for me), and every day at work we’d hang out while we did our tasks.

On my last day working, my friend's brother, who was one of our team lead managers, comes up and tells her he’s heading home and he’ll see her at the house, and mentions reading about Angela in Eragon, and how he loves the character.

I was beside myself, someone else had read Eragon???

I looked over at him, and quietly said, “What about Tinkledeath?”

He got so excited! And we talked about the books for what felt like forever! He friended me on Facebook and I didn’t hear from him again for a while, until October, 6 months later.

We talked and hit things off, and I can proudly say that as of 2 weeks ago (2024), he and I just celebrated out 7th year of marriage!! We got married August 18, 2017, and it all started with Eragon!

We have seen re-read and re-read the series, shared them with our daughter (he adopted my daughter after we married), and anxiously awaited Murtagh’s release and still send each other random memes and updates from Paolini’s TikTok, and even had the amazing opportunity to meet Paolini in Tampa last year! I bought To Sleep in a Sea of Stars the day it released, and Fractal Noise.

So, thank you Christopher, for writing and creating such a wonderful world that allowed me to escape my troubled life as a child and help me fall in love with reading. And literally began my relationship with my husband and has led to the amazing life he and I share. <3"

~ Hadlee

[fansandtheic]

Daniel's Story

Eragon was the first book I was gifted from my grandmother when I was like 8 or 9. I would visit her every summer and we made sure that we read the newest release before I visited so we could talk about it. Fast forward to me now at 25, relistening and smiling thinking of those memories. Beyond this, Eragon's journey of self discovery and hardship truly resonates with me even more to this day, as I had to embark on a journey of my own after leaving an abusive relationship. I relate to his feelings of being a fish out of water but then slowly but surely finding his place in the world, though not the one he ever expected. In the end it almost feels like my grandma gifted me more than just a book, she gifted me a friend.