"Brisingr"
by Christopher Paolini
reviewed by Josh Meares
The Story
The newest installment in Christopher Paolini's "Inheritance Cycle" is looking a bit wan in light of the sales figures posted by the "Twilight" series. But "Brisingr" still set a Random House record by selling 550,000 copies of the book in the first day.
"Brisingr" takes up the story of Eragon after the battle of the Burning Plains. In that battle, Eragon and Saphira, his dragon, narrowly escaped with their lives. They have little hope of defeating Galbatorix, whose strength seems limitless.
There is plenty for Eragon and Saphira to do as Eragon struggles to keep his promises. Eragon's cousin Roran needs help to rescue his fiancée from the Ra'zac. The Varden are in desperate need of his talents and strength -- as are the elves and the dwarves. Can Eragon choose the right path or will he end up destroying them all?
The Verdict
Paolini is becoming a seasoned author as he completes his third tome. And tome is the right word for this book. It is 750+ pages as a hardback! His writing continues to get better, but Paolini has lost his youthful directness. He seems to get lost at times. He follows rabbit trails for hundreds of pages in which little happens to advance the plot.
My main annoyance is a small one. Paolini loves to throw foreign languages, like Old Tongue or Dwarvish, into his character's speeches. That's great. It gives the reader a better taste of the world. But most of the time, Paolini doesn't include a translation. The reader has to flip to a the glossary included at the back of the book. There is nothing particularly fun about squishing your finger in the middle of a five pound book so that you can look up a word in the glossary.
"Brisingr" is a fun read, for the most part, but not necessarily a good book.
Worldview
As in the first two books of the "Inheritance Cycle," Eragon is dealing with several moral/philosophical dilemmas in "Brisingr." One of them is, "Is killing any living thing good?" That is a question that few people ask. We have to kill animals in order to eat, don't we? Unless we become vegetarians, of course.
Throughout his training as a dragon rider, Eragon becomes more and more in tune with the life around him until he can sense the life and feelings, the thoughts and intentions of even the smallest creatures.
As one with that level of empathy, he finds himself unable to kill and eat animals any more. However, when he is alone and tired, he kills a few rodents for himself. While he is sickened at the thought of their death, their bodies taste good, and Eragon decides that, under certain circumstances, it is okay to kill living animals in order to eat them.
We know that all things are created by God, but what does the Bible say about eating meat? Does God feel the pain of the animals that we kill and eat?
We know from the Psalms that God does care for all animals.
"For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine." (Psalm 50:10-11)
But even so, after the Flood, God gives Noah permission to eat animals.
"Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. " (Genesis 9:3)
Then, in the New Testament, God actually commands Peter to kill and eat animals.
"Peter became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.' "
" 'Surely not, Lord!' Peter replied. 'I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.' "
"The voice spoke to him a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' " (Acts 10:10-15)
And doesn't Jesus feed the crowd fish? So, it seems that Christians shouldn't say that eating meat is morally wrong. But we must remember that in the Garden of Eden, nature and mankind interacted in such a way that death did not exist. Men were vegetarian.
Since Noah, humans have eaten the flesh of animals in order to survive, but no nation in history has ever killed and eaten as many animals as Americans do right now. The typical American eats too much and eats the wrong kinds of food. And you can see the results in the size of our waistlines.
Our cultural obsession with food is sinful. Anything that distracts us from God, that makes us less able to serve Him, or that makes us worse representatives of Christ, is sinful. What do you think Jesus would say about our culture's attitude towards and consumption of food? Could there be something to Paolini's call for moderation?
Let's end with a paraphrase of Paul's charge to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15.
"Our desire is not that others might be stuffed while you are starving, but that everyone might have just enough. At the present time, your "too much" should be given to their 'not enough.' Then there will be just enough for everyone. As it is written, 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.' "
Can we demonstrate the love of Christ even in the way that we eat?
Questions
- Do you think that your eating habits demonstrate the love of Christ for his creation?
- Do you think you eat too much or too little?
- Do you have friends who struggle with eating too much or with starving themselves?
- Have you ever seen an animal slaughtered?
- Do you think your eating habits would change if you had to kill your own food?
