I'm really really hoping it isn't that simple. I'll be really disappointed if it is. I so thought Roran had died already. I would have been so angry.

I'm enjoying it, but I think Paolini needed to do some research into how sieges work, as opposed to watching the battle scenes from LOTR a whole bunch of times. They take more than a few hours, normally. >.>

Also starting to remember my distaste for several characters. Especially Angela. "Quirky" characters like her almost never fail to annoy me.

The plot has been pretty good so far, if predictable in some cases. I often finding myself hoping for shifts in POV, only to then hope for them to shift back, which is definitely a good thing.

Glaedr.

Finally getting to see Doru Araeba (or however it's spelled), because I've wanted Eragon to go there since it was first mentioned.

Eragon doesn't seem to be this whiny, annoying brat he was over the course of Eldest.

Some of the one-liners are amazing. "I hate memory spells, they normally just end up getting members of families to kill each other because they can't remember who they are" (or something to that extent) made me laugh.

Nasuada's parts annoyed me at first, but I've grown to enjoy them over the past 200 pages or so.

Arya has been given more personality, even if only a little. It's good that she's not just a walking killing machine with boobs.

The over-indulgence of Paolini's description. I mean, my god, man! He describes EVERYTHING, and most of it is irrelevent. A large part of Roran's POV seems to be this, although, Eragon's is just as bad.

Unneccessary plot points. The Storm is a big one for me, as well as Elaine's baby (and the Slugs. My god, the slugs. What a terrible addition to literature). There's no need for it to be there, and if something doesn't have a requirement in the book, I don't think it should be there. It's not giving any development to the plotline, only bulking up the size of the book. Brisingr did this as well (the whole Dwarf-succession sub-plot).

King Orrin has become one of the single most unlikable characters in history. He went from being this really cool, semi-crazy King, to this sullen arse, and it sucks, because I hate seeing a good character decline (However, Jormundur has been given a larger role, which is nice to see as well, so it kinda balances out).

Like Nagash said, the sieges have been a bit bleh.

Eragon's leaving Alagasia felt really forced. Like, REALLY forced. The writer blocked himself into having to write Eragon to leave because of his fortune-telling in the first book, and I think that shows a bit. There was just no good arguments for it, the dragon's had thrived and lived in Alagasia before without causing too much trouble (heck, the time of the riders was known as a golden age even), he could of got the elves to help clear the old rider's island of it's radiation (seemed to be what it was) as they did to Uru'baen after Galbatorix blew himself up. The elves shouldn't of let all the Eldunari and dragons leave Alagasia that easily either...it just seemed too forced to me.

On the plus side, I liked how Galbatorix was defeated by making him feel the pain of all the wrong's he'd ever done to people. That was pretty cool. Shruikan was a big disappointment though, practically as big as a city and he gets owned by two little dragons and a magic spear. Not even any wide spread destruction before he died. I think it would of been better if Galbatorix had died and then Shruikan, free from his bonds, went on a rampage for a while. Oh well.

Loved the fact that Murtagh saved the day by changing his nature, and that he didn't die. Pretty good book. Little disappointed in parts, but happy with it overall.

I'm not so sure about that - I agree it was a little forced but it did kinda make sense. The radiation and stuff on Vroengard seemed to have been sunk in a lot more and it didn't seem as if it was possible to fix. Even the citadel in Ilrea was closed off - surely they'd have removed it if they could?

I think his leaving also seemed necessary in some ways. It just made sense to me that they want to avoid the problems that would occur because of it. Then again opinion is opinion

I agree with Psyam on both of his points - though I feel that the final showdown with Galbatorix was great, having it all occur in one room and the only widescale damage it caused was Galbatorix using Self-Destruct was a little disappointing, especially in regards to Shruikan.

The ending too, though suitably emotional and poignant, seemed really unneccesary to me. The bit where I first started to feel that Paolini was struggling to justify it was when Eragon was talking to Nasuada and jsut responded to each of her questionas with something akin to "how do you know i won't go evil myself though and jsut not realise it?" Uhm, we don't, Eragon, but try to be slightly optimistic, yeah?

Ultimately I just don't get why the Riders abandoned Alagaesia - Murtagh warned Eragon that there are worse thinhgs thsan the Ra'Zac on the loose, the Ra'zac themselves still hve eggs someplace waiting to rekindle the species free from Galbatorix' meddling, Shades can and will continue to appear, and Nasuada is trying to clamp down on magic users across the whole continent. Eragon can only give them an "IOU 1 Rider", unlike the Riders who themselves were spread across Alagaesia and could protect pretty much anywhere.