Murtagh The World of Eragon

Christopher Paolini — 2023

Master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini returns to the World of Eragon in this stunning epic fantasy set a year after the events of the Inheritance Cycle. Join Dragon Rider—and fan favorite—Murtagh and his dragon as they confront a perilous new enemy! “Christopher Paolini is a true rarity.” —The Washington Post The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society. Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems. In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time . . . or to joyfully return.

Reviews

mirta <3@marga

Nov 6, 2024

I really appreciated reading a book focused entirely on Murtagh’s experience. The premise was a bit too long, and the really important turn-paging part happens only in the lasts 200 pages (which is something that Paolini also did in the inheritance cycle). Nevertheless, it’s a really interesting point of view: there’s new information about his life both as Morzan’s son and as Galbatorix’s pupil (and prisoner, alongside Thorn). We also learn more about the reason why Galbatorix turned against the Dragon Riders, but that looks like something Paolini decided to add while writing this book, because the reason for Galbatorix’s madness Paolini gave in the cycle stood no ground, or at least it looked like it to me while reading it.

I read a comment somewhere that highlighted how Eragon is not someone predestined. He’s just a boy that happens to find a dragon’s egg, and that egg just opens for him. He has responsibilities, but he’s not predestined. He doesn’t have crazy abilities (although he is given some advantages during his first stay at Ellesmera). And Murtagh doesn’t neither. He’s the one that had to suffer (more than Eragon). He’s the one that had to go through the wrong path; and while reading the book you actually feel sorry for him. He’s right to feel jealous about Eragon: he’s everything he never was and never will be. Not because eragon’s predestined, but because he had different opportunities growing up.

Murtagh has to prove himself because he’s (rightfully) considered a traitor. He feels ashamed of himself and, in order to punish himself, he and thorn have a habit of saying their true names before going to sleep. Only when they stop doing that they become free, for clinging to the past does nothing good.

I still think that having Murtagh, Eragon and Arya interact would be awesome, but I also get why Paolini wanted Murtagh to have his own story.

Chrispy@artemissp

Jun 17, 2024

A great continuation to the Eragon Series

Andrew Ireland@aireland92

Feb 19, 2024

Could have used a good editor but it was fun to be back in this world again

C. J. Daley @cjdscurrentread

Jan 11, 2024

This is book five of The Inheritance Cycle, however it is not the book five that the author previously had in mind as one day coming out (aka hell yeah there’s still more). This also features the same story shown in The Fork, just from Murtagh’s perspective.

It’s only been a year since the end of the fourth book, and yet so much has happened and so many things are going on. Murtagh and Thorn are desperately searching for a path forward, in desperate need of figuring out who they are without the traumatic hand of Galbatorix overseeing them. Neither are sure if word has spread of their hand in bringing about the king’s end, so they travel on the very outskirts of society, camping out at night and constantly traveling. Murtagh keeps up his false identity we met in The Fork, but he just can’t help getting involved when things happen. This need, this desire to be good, this curiosity, is the impetus for everything that follows.

Paolini really pulled back the curtain with this one. Murtagh was the jaded, traumatized bad boy long before it was cool. And he doesn’t shy away from telling the reader just how horrible his time at Urû'baen was. From the memories of him as a child, living under the temperamental (at best) Morzan, to being bullied and overshadowed during court life, to his captivity and subsequent torture with Thorn. All while they were forced under oath. And don’t forget that Murtagh is only twenty at the end of the series! They really are just damaged boys. Beat down and trapped over and over again.

Sadly, for most of this new novel, that truth doesn’t change. Perhaps that’s just their lot in life (and Paolini does enjoy torturing us readers too). I will say again, kind of like my recently re-shared ‘review’ of Inheritance and the series in general, there was a part in this new one that involves a fish that had me shaking my head and wondering why I was reading about it. But again, the author reels it in and by the end you’re left not feeling like you’ve had enough. Each trial takes Murtagh and Thorn back through something that triggers a trauma, reliving the worst of their lives. And each time they must adapt, persevere, and fight back. They consistently claw their way out of the trouble they’ve walked into, and both end up way more dynamic for it.

Murtagh’s curiosity leads them down a path that involves a witch and her unruly cult. More than once they question if they should contact Nasuada, Eragon, or Arya so that they aren’t alone. Part anti-hero rashness, and part not knowing if they’ll be accepted by the others, they push on alone. This does not go well for them. There is even a part where Murtagh pushes a healing charm to Thorn’s nose that I could feel actual tears brewing. This witch makes a lot of heavy claims. Whether or not she’s telling the truth, or if those things come to pass, we may get to experience some things that make us say, “Galbatorix who?”

I really enjoyed that Paolini only has Murtagh use a handful of spells in the ancient language. He tends to get whatever he needs done, somehow, but it’s pointed out how he has quite large gaps in his education (unlike Eragon) and I felt like this was actually one of the author’s subtle ways of showing it. I feel like this book is half “Eragon ain’t the only dragon rider, I don’t need him,” and half “oh damn, we really should have called Eragon.” It’s hard to be the older brother.

I think it’s obvious that Paolini has clearly grown and learned a lot. The writing is powerful and each word is packed with meaning. Not only are his characters growing, but he has as well. His style still feels well within the world of Alagaësia, however I really wouldn’t tag this one as young adult at all. The themes are dark, the descriptions are brutal, and they have grown out of adolescence themselves. This was absolutely incredible, and I’m so excited that he’s stated he’s not running out of ideas anytime soon. Personally a 5/5*

Laura Webster@abookloverslife

Jan 6, 2024

I really enjoyed this book! I am interested to see how the story continues!!

Em@transluceo

Jan 4, 2024

I started this book wondering if I’d feel the same kind of magic I did when I first read the Inheritance cycle all those years ago… I’m happy to report that did! Loved travelling back to Alagaësia and reuniting with some of the characters.

Genevieve @laviedegin

Jan 3, 2024

"To be so blinkered in place could only lead to being similarly blinkered in mind."

3.75 ⭐'s

I am so disappointed. This was my most anticipated read of 2023 and I... I didn't love it. To be fair, the last time I read a book by Paolini it was roughly 11 years ago and I didn't bother to do a reread of the series in preparation for Murtagh, I skimmed through the plot synopses I found online to remind myself of the major events and it served me well enough. Although, I probably didn't even need to do that, because this book was not at all what I was expecting - the original plot line is mostly forgotten in this book. Murtagh and Thorn make references back to key characters and events but other than that it's in the past. Perhaps time has clouded my memory but this Murtagh was not the Murtagh I remember and I found myself so frustrated with this book. I started reading it mid December and hoped to finish it before the end of 2023 but it ended up being such a drag that I could hardly pull myself through the last 200 or so pages.

I was really looking forward to reading about Murtagh and Thorn and how they were coping in a post-Galbatorix world, where the majority of people think they are traitors, king killers, dragon slayers, betrayers. I was hoping to get a character study of them dealing with public animosity, a journey of healing and a deeper understanding and bond between dragon and rider but I felt like, instead, this book tried too hard to be exciting and adventurous. Unfortunately I think it fell a bit flat. I struggled to understand why Murtagh was fixated on these whispered rumours in the first place, I get that he was warned off chasing brimstone and evil forces, and inevitably the one thing you're warned off doing is the one thing you want to do - but I really struggled to place Murtagh's motivations throughout this book. It really just felt like he was doing a lot of things to distract himself from his own mind and it meant the book sort of meandered through plot points without any real oomph. I think this book read like a video game. Each chapter or two was another level up in difficulty until finally they reached the big boss at the end. There were also a number of side quests and one dimensional side characters to offer advice along the way, all it needed were things to be aptly glowing to signal where he was meant to turn next or which wall to smash to collect mana or coins.

Thankfully, we got a few glimpses into Thorn and Murtagh's healing along the way, I think the scenes where Murtagh is helping his dragon to overcome PTSD of small spaces was really interesting and Thorn overcoming that at the end to save his rider's life was really uplifting and a great message of overcoming your fears for the sake of someone you care about. Murtagh's flashbacks to his own trauma, the horrible things he had to do under the control of Galbatorix - the people he hurt and killed, the people who were hurt and killed trying to help him, and coming to terms with the abuse he was subjected to in Uru'baen was detailed in such a raw and touching way. It really did make me feel for both Murtagh and Thorn, and really made me wish we were getting more of that throughout the book.

Unfortunately, I found that the decisions Murtagh made in this book made it feel forced and immature. We spend a lot of pages with him telling the reader he would never swear fealty, using the ancient language or not, to another leader ever again but he spends the entire book running around doing errands for other people so in a way he's still very much under the control of other people's opinions and demands. He then rushes headlong into a very dangerous situation with the Draumur cult without really giving it a second thought, and while I do think that his character was always a bit arrogant, egotistical and prone to rashness (all character flaws that are understandable given how he was raised), I did feel like he repeated his same mistakes multiple times over and never really learned from them. There was barely any character growth in this book and it meant that every time he started to do something, I would find myself rolling my eyes and saying "here we go again", it got a bit ridiculous.

Overall, I think this is still a solid story, it's just not what I was wanting out of this book and I do think that many diehard Inheritance fans, who have been in love with Murtagh since they were preteens like I was, would either read this with rose tinted glasses on or be pretty let down by what we were given. Paolini has a tendency to ramble a lot and there were huge chunks of this book that I thought should've been cut out in editing as they really made the book drag, but I have to give it to him, the world is always so vividly described that I can picture it perfectly in my mind and find myself longing for it once I put the book down. I just wish Paolini would put that same effort into building his characters, because, sadly, I think they were lacking in this instalment. I will be interested to see where the next book goes, because the ending definitely set up for a sequel, but I do have a sinking feeling I might have outgrown this series and author.

This review contains a spoiler

Shai@wowshai

Dec 30, 2023

another slay from paolini. absolutely devastating book. I loved Murtagh, thorn, and the amount we were able to learn about their characters, their past, and how they are progressing. I look forward to the next one with a lot of anticipation!!!!

Jacque@jacque_who

Nov 28, 2023

As a Murtagh fan since day one of reading this series, this book fundamentally means so much to me. Growing up with Christopher Paolini and continuing to read his books and experience his journey as a writer is also so lovely to experience and I cannot wait to continue to be a part of this world.