Freckles & Doubt

What they said; it became famous because the author was young. Like Kaavya Vishwanathan getting a publishing deal for How Ophta Mahla (sp?), primarily because they wanted to publicize it as a young writer's first novel. I do agree that novels should be judged on general merit, without extenuating circumstances (like age). Though were Philip Roth to write a novel that wasn't worthy of being published, I'd still want to read it. So let me amend my last statement: Novels should be judged on general merit, unless the author has built enough merit from previous outings. Thus, Billy Corgan's book of poetry deserved to get published, even though it was trash, because he had currency from his musical projects.

But speaking of Eragon specifically: Did you ever notice how poorly plotted the book was? I remember one chapter where they woke up, chatted for about 20 minutes of book time, and got ready to go to sleep for the night. Nothing else happened in between. It's like the writer had no conception of time. Needless to say, that was the last chapter I read in the book.