Inheritance - Christopher Paolini

[This is the fourth book in the Inheritance cycle. If you haven't started the series yet, you can check out the first book Eragon instead.]

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
Series: The Inheritance Cycle #4
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Source: Bought || Hardcover

The fate of Alagaësia rests in the hands of Eragon - Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider - and his dragon Saphira. Though there have been many triumphs in their months of training and battle, there have been equal losses. And yet, the one real confrontation is yet to come - a face to face meeting with Galbatorix himself.

There's a bittersweet feeling that accompanies picking up the last, final installment of a series. I was both excited and sad about reading Inheritance, even though it was one of my most anticipated books of 2011. After hearing wonderful things about the book from fellow fans of the series, I just knew it was time to dive in on one of my days off - and I devoured the novel from start to finish, just as I knew I was going to.

As I read the novel, it felt like coming home. This book was graced with the presence of many familiar and dear characters from the series. They were each given a particular task to accomplish, or problem to solve, or struggle to experience, and I was rooting for them the entire time. I love how I can still see their real personalities, and how they struggle with the burden of the load they're carrying as they attempt to defeat Galbatorix. And I really, really like that the author decided to focus mostly on the human characters, and not so much on the other races.

In terms of storytelling, Christopher Paolini is absolutely brilliant. There was enough action to keep things moving at a fast clip, but it was tempered by slower moments of deliberation and discussion. There were a few moments I definitely did not see coming, eliciting either squeals of delight or expressions of sorrow and disbelief from me. This is another one of those books where I simply felt a whole spectrum of emotions, and any book that manages to toy with me like that tends to be one that I greatly appreciate.

All in all, Inheritance is a fitting conclusion to a series that I absolutely loved from start to finish. Nearly every loose thread was wrapped up in this novel, though I can see where future stories might spring from, should the author decide to return to writing about this world. I smiled, I cheered, I cried, I raged, I swooned - and I fell in love with this book. Thank you Christopher Paolini for the gift of this amazing conclusion; I will treasure it always.