The Inheritance Cycle are books for all ages! I am rereading them. They are masterpieces of the fantasy. To my fellow readers, you have to read them in order no matter how many times you have read them before. Have Fun reading them; I know I did and will continue to do.

Dear Amazon - you need to get your facts straight. You're asking me to review books I never received and I've already rated the seller as awful. Perhaps you did not see my review of the seller which indicated I never received the books. I had to go to my credit card company and obtain a refund. This is the first time in a long time I attempted to purchase something through Amazon and I was very disappointed. I ended up buying the books from Barnes and Noble. As you can see this review has nothing to do with the books or their content since at this point I haven't read them yet. I do wonder however why you would send me a request for review of a product I did not receive.

I'm on the third book now and cannot put it down. This is a trilogy that anyone who has enjoyed Lord of the Rings, or other authors such as Jordon, Brooks or Donaldson, will love. Strongly recommended!

The Inheritance 3-Book Hardcover Boxed Set is a wonderful story. The newest book, Brisingr, picks up right where Paolini left off in Book 2 Eldest. Book 3 takes off right from the beginning and is filled with action, adventure, love, hate, and magic. The Kingdom of Alagaesia is in an all out civil war and only Eragon can save them.

It's a wonderful trilogy of great and small battles with enemies both in- and outside ones self. A story filled with hope, fear, magic, perseverance, talent, strength and weakness.
These are books which condemn you to so spend every free moment on the coach or in bed untill you've read them all.

I originally bought it for my husband but he wouldn't put it down so I started to read the whole series myself out of curiousity.

I ordered the 3 volume boxed set on a whim.Not being familiar with the author or the story.Although I'm somewhat older than the intended audience
I am very impressed with Paolini's writting style and abilities.
The three volumes are fast moving,touching,and exciting.I have just added
Paolini to my list of authors that I will help make rich by having to buy
their latest works in hard cover because I will not be able to wait for the paper back edition to be released.

Great Product, good price, shipping and all that... But the Trlogy became at least one book longer, which is good but have to wait another 2 years for the next installment arghhhh.

Books where well received, but a bit damaged, better packaging would be better.

The product itself looks great, having it in a box is a plus.

My 12 old daughter wanted 2 of the books in the series.
When I saw that all 3 came in a beautifully designed box set (hard cover), I was thrilled. The price was great for all 3..much less than if I had purchased them separately.
My daughter was thrilled as well since she only expected 2 of them for her birthday!

My manager got me addicted to this series and I absolutely love it. I did not like the Eragon movie but I absolutely love the book. The story is easy to follow and there are a lot of unexpected events. Book 2 has a bad cliffhanger so be ready to read Brisingr right after it.

I personally like the Inheritance series of books. They aren't quite as sophisticated as The Lord of the Rings, or The Wheel of Time, or Dune. They lie somewhere between the Harry Potters of the World, and The Lord of the Rings.

Are some of the names inspired by other series? Sure. The point isn't to find fault with work on the basis of what was written in other works, but to see whether it can stand by itself, and tell its own story.

I think Brisingr was a brilliant addition to the series (I would agree that Eldest was a little off); and FWIW, the last 5 chapters by themselves would make the book worth it.

Having read Inheritance, I can hardly wait for the last book in the series (Empire) but that's still a couple of years away.

With regards to this hard cover set, the only reason I can imagine you wouldn't want it, is if you're waiting for the final four-box set, which will surely be released with the last book; or already own hardcovers of Eragon and Eldest.

This series is OUTSTANDING!!! I cannot say enough good things about all three books. They come in a nice cover to display all three. Each story is as exciting as the next. A great buy!

The Inheritance cycle is the best fantasy story I've ever read. It is filled with action and unexpected twists that make it absolutely enjoyable. I strongly recommend it to all fantasy aficionados.

This is an excellent way to purchase the three hardcover books in the ongoing Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini.

My only quibble is the boxed set has no additional features to entice a reader who has previously purchased the books separately. Though it seemingly eliminates one market of readers/collectors, the avenue is open for those wishing to purchase three hardcover books at a nice price.

Unlike what the previous commentor wrote, this epic stands alone. While I have not read the third book yet, Brisingr, this has been the best experience of a saga in my lifetime.

The original Star Wars trilogy came out before my time, and the original episodes that came out were crap compared to the B-style of the true originals.

While The Hobbit was easy to read, the rest of the Tolkien trilogy was far too nerdy or geeky to get into. There were too many words, in my opinion, that convoluted the story line.

The main thing the previous commentor forgot to mention, or perhaps didn't know, was that this is a set of books aimed to children. The age group is more of the latter Harry Potter series, where the readers are supposed to have grown up a bit and the plot begins to take a serious turn.

These books were intriguing, and the author pays such great attention to detail that you can't help but get lost in reading. The best part of the stories so far is that the author doesn't leave you completely hanging at the end of each book, for those of us who had to read the books as they have been released. Unlike the Matrix: Reloaded, each story has a sub-plot with its own story, climax, and resolution. Each book is part of the entire story, but the sub-plots make it feel like you haven't wasted a part of your life, a la the Matrix 2 where the movie ended at the middle of a climax; I had to rewatch this movie before watching the third Matrix movie in order to remember what was going on. However, looking back I can remember what the first movie was about because it was a contained story and not just a third of an epic story. (And now The Pirates of the Caribbean movies have had the same fate.)

To summarize, these are good books.

Mix together equal parts "Star Wars" and J.R.R. Tolkien, then add a generous helping of Anne McCaffrey's dragon-riders and a few random shreds of Garth Nix.

Obviously originality is not Christopher Paolini's strong suit. But that's only one of the problems with "Eragon," "Eldest" and "Brisingr," the first three books of Paolini's Inheritance series -- while there's some promise in Paolini's first book, the second and third are lifeless slogs of painfully pompous plotlessness that occasionally rev up into a battle.

The titular character is lucky enough to stumble across a strange blue stone while hunting. After failing to sell it, Eragon finds that it's actually a dragon egg, and the baby blue dragon inside selects him -- yes, him -- to hatch for and remain with forever. All the Dragon Riders were killed off by Evil King Galbatorix long ago, but for the weird old recluse Brom, who becomes Eragon's mentor. And Luke, I am your father... wait, wrong story.

When Galbatorix's men destroy Eragon's home and family, Brom and Eragon flee to find the mysterious rebels known as the Varden, and rescue the beautiful elf Arya who is haunting Eragon's dreams. But while Eragon and his dragon Saphira learn many things -- and make new allies -- the journey to the Varden brings them a terrible (and totally predictable) loss, and leads them to Eragon's first battle.

"Eldest" picks up immediately afterwards, with Eragon badly wounded and the leader of the Varden murdered. But despite the rebels' turmoil, Eragon is told that he has to accompany Arya back to her home city of the elves, to be taught by a crippled elf named Oromis. Unbeknownst to Eragon, his hometown of Carvahall is being ruined by a band of Galbatorix's soldiers, and his newly-engaged cousin Roran may be their only hope. And our hero's truncated training leads to strange new changes in his body and mind, as he prepares for a devastating new battle against Galbatorix -- and a horrifying new discovery. Yes, you can probably see it coming.

And "Brisingr" picks up right after that, with Roran and Eragon going on a mission to rescue Roran's fiancee from the Ra'zac, while Nasuada is forced to undergo a bloody challenge to retain leadership of the Varden. And even after another fight with Murtagh, Eragon has to deal with a forthcoming wedding, Roran's assignments on dangerous missions, and the upcoming nomination of a new dwarf king. And when Eragon finally returns to Ellesmera, he learns new facts about his own past, and is given a possible key to his future...

Lofty elves, kings-in-waiting, humble farm boys who become revered leaders for no particular reason, nasty goblinesque creatures, cryptic mystical women, special swords, evil tyrants who are evil because they just are, wise mentors, and telepathic dragons in a variety of colors. Christopher Paolini never met a fantasy cliche that he didn't like -- and the "Inheritance" trilogy simply oozes with them.

At first, Paolini paints these typical sword-and-sorcery stories with rather stilted but promising prose -- "Eragon" has some raw potential, and you can detect Paolini's enthusiasm as he explores his invented fantasy land. Unfortunately with "Eldest" -- Paolini's prose becomes bloated, sluggish and painfully smug, with dialogue that becomes more painfully wretched with each chapter ("I walk between the candle and the dark").

It also signals the end of a fast-moving plot -- for two books straight, Paolini treads water in a sea of lace-making, anti-religious preaching, engagement woes, sword woes, and political woes. He whips up a battle every now and then -- either at the book's end or when things get too dull, and spends most of the rest of the time pondering on whether it's okay to kill people. The nadir of all this is Eragon's training, the bulk of which consists of doing yoga and watching ants -- even the hilariously homoerotic moments with Oromis and Roran can't make all this entertaining.

But the biggest problem is Eragon himself -- despite being portrayed as a noble, brave, compassionate soul with a brilliant destiny, he's none of that. He's given a little belated angst over killing people (though this doesn't stop him from coldly killing a young soldier begging for his life), when he isn't being uniformly worshiped by the Varden, Elves, Dwarves and villagers.

The supporting characters are not much better -- Brom and Oromis are intriguing but deeply underdeveloped as characters. And while Eragon spends three books drooling after the elf Arya, she's a snotty ice princess whose looks are all she's got. Everyone else is either a 2-D bad guy who hates Eragon, or a 2-D good guy who just loves him.

Christopher Paolini's not-terribly original fantasy series starts off with the flawed but readable "Eragon," before sliding downhill into the painful "Eldest" and the tediously plotless "Brisingr."

Mix together equal parts "Star Wars" and J.R.R. Tolkien, then add a generous helping of Anne McCaffrey's dragon-riders and a few random shreds of Garth Nix.

Obviously originality is not Christopher Paolini's strong suit. But that's only one of the problems with "Eragon," "Eldest" and the latest "Brisingr," the first three books of Paolini's overblown Inheritance series -- while there's some promise in Paolini's first book, the second and third are lifeless slogs of painfully pompous, slow-moving plotlessness that occasionally revs up into a battle. And the greatest weakness is his cardboard cutout of a self-insert hero, the More-Awesome-Than-Thou Eragon.

The titular character is lucky enough to stumble across a strange blue stone while hunting. After failing to sell it, Eragon finds that it's actually a dragon egg, and the baby blue dragon inside selects him -- yes, him -- to hatch for and remain with forever. All the Dragon Riders were killed off by Evil King Galbatorix long ago, but for the weird old recluse Brom, who becomes Eragon's mentor. And Luke, I am your father... wait, wrong story.

When Galbatorix's men destroy Eragon's home and family, Brom and Eragon flee to find the mysterious rebels known as the Varden, and rescue the beautiful elf Arya who is haunting Eragon's dreams. But while Eragon and his dragon Saphira learn many things -- and make new allies -- the journey to the Varden brings them a terrible (and totally predictable) loss, and leads them to Eragon's first battle.

"Eldest" picks up immediately afterwards, with Eragon badly wounded and the leader of the Varden murdered. But despite the rebels' turmoil, Eragon is told that he has to accompany Arya back to her home city of the elves, to be taught by an ancient, crippled elf named Oromis. Unbeknownst to Eragon, his hometown of Carvahall is being ruined by a band of Galbatorix's soldiers, and his newly-engaged cousin Roran may be their only hope. And our hero's truncated training leads to strange new changes in his body and mind, as he prepares for a devastating new battle against Galbatorix -- and a horrifying new discovery. Yes, you can probably see it coming.

And "Brisingr" picks up right after that, with Roran and Eragon going on a mission to rescue Roran's fiancee from the Ra'zac, while Nasuada is forced to undergo a bloody challenge to retain leadership of the Varden. And even after another fight with Murtagh, Eragon has to deal with a forthcoming wedding, Roran's assignments on dangerous missions, and the upcoming nomination of a new dwarf king. And when Eragon finally returns to Ellesmera, he learns new facts about his own past, and is given a possible key to his future...

Lofty elves, kings-in-waiting, humble farm boys who become revered leaders for no particular reason, nasty goblinesque creatures, cryptic mystical women, special swords, evil tyrants who are evil because they just are, wise mentors, and telepathic dragons in a variety of sparkly colors. Christopher Paolini never met a fantasy cliche that he didn't like. And as a result, all three books are dripping with Tolkien and Lucas-style trappings, right down to the hero's suspiciously Tolkienian name and a series of very predictable plot twists.

Paolini paints these typical sword-and-sorcery stories with rather stilted but promising prose, at least at first. "Eragon" has some raw rookie potential, and you can detect Paolini's enthusiasm as he explores his invented fantasy land, much the way many other teenagers have done after reading high fantasy. Unfortunately with "Eldest" -- Paolini's prose becomes bloated, sluggish and painfully smug, with dialogue that becomes more painfully wretched with each chapter ("I walk between the candle and the dark").

And sadly the plot goes nowhere after that either -- "Eldest" is a a glacially-slow trip through engagement woes and the Varden's lace-making, with the main focus being Eragon's painfully boring training with the elves. Wow, exciting. You can tell the ending battle -- with yet another Star-Warsian twist -- was slapped on just to provide a little excitement. And "Brisingr" takes the plotless meandering one step further by having no central plot at all -- just a string of sideplots from the previous two books, which are slapped one after the other with little to connect them.

Sadly Paolini clearly has no idea what makes an epic fantasy deep or enjoyable -- he loads down the flimsy plots with pretentious moralism, endless political bickering, and occasional preaching about how religion is dumb and eating meat is evil. The nadir of all this is Eragon's training, the bulk of which consists of doing yoga and watching ants -- even the hilariously homoerotic moments with Oromis can't make all this entertaining.

The biggest problem with Paolini's writing is that Eragon is portrayed as a noble, brave, compassionate soul with a brilliant destiny ahead of him. Well, despite Paolini giving him some belated angst about killing enemies, Eragon is not noble, brave or compassionate -- especially since one scene has him coldly killing a young boy begging for his life. And the blatant Eragon-worship escalates with each successive book -- by "Brisingr," he has badly wounded soldiers gushing about how they fought for HIM.

The supporting characters are not much better -- Brom is too brief a character to make much of an impact, and while Oromis has a certain fascination, we hear too little of his intriguing past. And while Eragon spends three books drooling after the elf Arya, she's a snotty ice princess whose looks are all she's got. Everyone else is either a 2-D bad guy who hates Eragon, or a 2-D good guy who just loves him.

Christopher Paolini's not-terribly original fantasy series starts off with the flawed but readable "Eragon," before sliding downhill into the painful "Eldest" and the tediously plotless "Brisingr."