Novelish

Fantasy series in general seem to have a habit of mysteriously expanding, I’ve noticed, and this time it’s Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance trilogy - uh, I mean, cycle. It’s going to be four books now.

I’ve always been extremely critical of Eragon and Eldest, and this latest development makes me even less excited about the future books in the series. In a video on Alagaesia.com, Paolini talks about searching for a good ending place to leave the third book and deciding on the death of a major character. (It wasn’t clear whether this character was destined to die at that point regardless, or if it was only conceived to make a good finale.) But even so, I’m not convinced a story originally planned as one volume could work as well as two.

The third book is scheduled to release on September 23rd, 2008.

Here’s a frame of the video I mentioned (full version available here):

• The first interesting thing about this is, well, it’s where he writes. I can’t help finding a writer’s workspace interesting - even a writer whose books I don’t like.
• The second interesting thing is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Behind his right shoulder. Seeing that increases my respect for him just a little bit. I don’t immediately recognize any of the other spines, but leave a comment if you happen to, ’cause I’d be interested.