Publication Tracking: Inheritance (Eragon Cycle) Christopher Paolini

Dalia Coronel ELIB 510

Publication Tracking: Inheritance

(Eragon Cy cle) Christopher Paolini Tracked by Dalia Coronel ELIB 510 Fall 2011


Book Review: Inheritance It began with Eragon…

―

It ends with Inheritance.‖ Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider. Eragon continues his journey against the evil Galbatorix, in Chrstopher Paolini‘s fourth installment of the Inheritance Cycle. Although Eragon, the main character, has lost many close friends and family members from the very beginning of the series, he has his most beloved and strongest companion, Saphira (dragon), by his side. With Saphira‘s help, Eragon hopes to finally end Galbatorix‘s reign and stop the evil destruction that has taken place all over Alagaesia, Du Weldenvarden, Beor Mountains and other settings. Saphira and Eragon travel to Uru‘baen, to fight against the Varden and Galbatorix. Along their way, Saphira hears about a way to defeat their enemy, and therefore, flies to Doru Areaba to discover what is hidden in the ―vault of souls.‖ With her ability to read and feel Eragon‘s mind and feelings, and help from the Urgals and other significant and loyal characters, Eragon and Saphira encounter Galbatorix and fight to the end. Arya, Roran, Katrina, Sloan, Orik, Nasuada, and many other well-known characters appear in this memorial fantasy work, not only to help Eragon end the suffering of the war that has escalated for far too long, but to teach him the true meaning of friendship, family, and love. Bringing Galbatorix to his demise restores stability and happiness to the characters in the story, only to begin thinking about their new lives and adventures. The battle depictions, strong plot line, and dragon, elves, and dwarves‘ world descriptions, makes the novel an epic voyage that will take you flying and holding on to a dragon‘s tail along the ride.

–D. Coronel

From the "The Inheritance Cycle" series, volume 4 By Christopher Paolini (Author) Age Range: 12 - 15 Pub Date: Nov. 8th, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-375-85611-2 Page count: 800pp Price: $27.99 Publisher: Knopf


Publication Tracking Timeline: Date October 2010

Source #1: Newsletter 1. Alagaesia News Win a Trip to visit the author in Montana. Christopher Paolini discusses to his fans in his newsletter, that in order to be a candidate to win the contest is by sending a video to Random House explaining why his novels are a must read! http://www.alagaesia.com/newsletter/EragonNewsletter_2010October.html

Date March 23, 2011

Date July 14, 2011

Source #2: News Release 2. The Inheritance Almanac: The Official Companion Guide to the Inheritance Cycle http://shurtugal.com/book-4/book-4-news-release/

Source #3: Video 3. Author Video: RandomBooks Video Title: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini Trailer YouTube.com displays the new release of Inheritance. The video quotes the famous catch phrase, ―It began with Eragon…It ends with Inheritance.‖ (307, 943 views). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrfGaUSDS-I

Date November 7, 2011

Source #4: Newspaper Article 4. The Washington Post: Entertainment The Washington Post: Entertainment article writer, Yvonne Zipp, writes about Christopher Paolini‘s new novel, Inheritance. Zipp discusses Paolini‘s younger days and how he began writing Eragon at the age of 15. Zipp also mentions character development and touches basis on scenes from the new and final novel. http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/christopher-paolini-offersanswers-about-eragon-and-friends-in-inheritance/2011/11/03/gIQA8hgSyM_story.html


Date March 23, 2011

Source #5: Advertisement 5. Random House Children‘s Books http://www.alagaesia.com/pdf/Inheritance_Announcement_PR_FINAL.pdf

Date

Source #6: Bookstore Display

November 8, 2011

6. Barnes & Noble Bookstore: I visited the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan Beach. I was surprise to find out that Christopher Paolini‘s novel was not displayed throughout the store. There was a small section towards the cashiers (exit) and the new books were 10% off. The Inheritance novels were displayed in the ―Teens and Young Adults‖ section.


Source #7: Blog 7.

The Wall Street Journal: Speakeasy

Final Fantasy: Christopher Paolini on Finishing His ‗Inheritance‘ Saga The author discusses his thoughts and feelings about what the readers expected to see in the fourth installment of the Inheritance series. He reminisces about when he first began to write his novel in 1998. Paolini mentions how he felt a sense of chills once he finished his novel. http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/11/08/christopher-paolini-on-saying-goodbye-toeragon-and-inheritance/



Source #8: Educational Map 8.

Map allows students/fans to click on several locations and read the brief descriptions that correspond to the places. This is a great online interactive activity that can be used to teach students about setting.

http://www.alagaesia.com/alagaesia.htm


Source #9: Book Review 9.

Book List Online

Adventurers, take up ye swords! Several of the battle scenes in this massive conclusion to Paolini‘s Inheritance Cycle—and, wow, are there a lot of them—are so invigorating that even with all the fountaining of blood and clashing of steel, readers young and old will be begging to enlist. Let‘s start with the good because, largely, this novel is a rousing success: Paolini fulfills nearly every promise set forward in Eragon (2003), with the young Rider fulfilling his destiny; Roran becoming a warrior of legend; Murtagh facing up to his lineage; and Galbatorix finally taking center stage for the final act, where his evil plans begin to make a disturbing amount of sense. Paolini is especially apt at depiciting the queasy nature of unnatural alliances, and each of the 78 chapters contains a meaty or enjoyable nugget, even if it‘s one of Paolini‘s trademark tangents (the step-by-step construction of a dwarf‘s ―thardsvergundnzmal,‖ for instance). Still, the novel isn‘t perfect: many characters are so burdened by Tolkeinesque posturing that they are more fascinatingly mythic than truly fleshed out, and the long-winded proceedings follow a fairly predictable, The Return of the King–like arc. But this is every bit as challenging and ornate as its predecessors, and very few of the millions of fans will be disappointed. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: How does a 2.5-million-copy first printing sound? An 18-city tour, TV advertising, and dedicated apps ensure that this global publishing event will be just that: an event. — Daniel Kraus http://www.booklistonline.com/Inheritance-Christopher-Paolini/pid=5194715



Source #10: Magazine 10. Christopher Paolini chats about new book By: Brad Riddell, From Boy‘s Life Magazine http://boyslife.org/home/5065/christopher-paolin-chats-about-new-book/


Source #11: Article 11. USA Today: Book Buzz Inheritance' by Christopher Paolini debuts at No. 1 By: Deirdre Donahue USA Article celebrates Paolini‘s success as a young 28 year old author and his franchise novel. http://books.usatoday.com/bookbuzz/post/2011-11-17/inheritance-by-christopherpaolini-debuts-at-no-1/567118/1


Source #12: Interview 12. Interview with Christopher Paolini, Author, ‗Inheritance‘ By Matt Staggs; from SUVUDU http://suvudu.com/2011/11/interview-with-christopher-paolini-author-inheritance.html


Source #13: Online Article 13. San Diego Reader Stories : Inheritance, by Christopher Paolini

By Sonia Elliot

Elliot writes about an independent scholar, Kevin Reeves who is an avid reader and gives his opinions about the book. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/nov/22/reading-inheritance-christopher-paolini/



Source #14: Book Tour 14. Christopher Paolini‘s Inheritance Tour Begins Today! SAN FRANCISCO Wednesday, November 30th at 7:00 p.m. Book Passage 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard Corte Madera, CA 94925 http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/christopher-paolinis-inheritance-tour-begins-today

Date December 3, 2011

Source #15: Book Signing 15. Christopher Paolini Talk & Book Signing at Phoenix Public Library, December 3, 2011 Book Signing via YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPCpLUGyZk

Publication Tracking Reflection:

Christopher Paolini‘s Inheritance novel was release on November 8, 2011. The last novel of the series was highly anticipated by the loyal fans of the fantasy genre. Many young adults awaited this novel for a long time. Paolini began the inheritance cycle with Eragon. This novel catapulted Paolini to the top and in 2006, the movie was released. Given the fact that Paolini wrote his first novel at the age of 15, he established fans between the ages of 12-15. The reason why I selected this novel is because; Paolini‘s creativity, writing style, and memorable epic journeys have captured and changed my opposing views about the fantasy genre. Another reason for the selection is because


aside from the Twilight and Harry Potter books, my students love to read this series. This novel helps promote literacy, and most of my students were enchanted by the new settings, language, characters and could not restrain themselves from reading, until they were finished with the novel. During my tracking of the publication, I noticed plethora of things that stood out to me. For starters, it had been a while since I last read Brisingr (third novel, and my favorite one), so I felt as if I had to do more research on the author and new novel. The first novel (Eragon) was made into a movie and gave recognition to Paolini as a young author and gained publicity amongst younger audiences. Eragon became a huge success at the time of its release date, August 2003 and was followed by Eldest (2005) and Brisingr (2008). Despite the amount of publicity that was established with the fans, motion picture, and number of books sold, I was still very surprise to see that the amount of publicity for the last book was low. Due to the low publicity of this novel, it was hard for me to gather much information. For example, on November 8, 2011 (release date), I rushed to the nearest Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan Beach, after work, only to find that the display of books was hidden and located towards the right side of the store. I imagined that the book would be sold out and that the bookstore would consist of an Inheritance section with book, poster, and advertisement displays. This was not the case. More publication could have been done in bookstores and libraries to use this novel to promote literacy in young adults and in the classrooms. Furthermore, another thing that I noticed was that there were a lot more articles and YouTube videos for me to track down, as opposed to the television interviews that invite famous people to make appearances. Some of Paolini‘s YouTube videos consist of him signing autographs and reading to young children. In addition, some articles such as USA Today, Book List Online and the Wall Street Journal gave good information about promoting the book and gave reasons as to why people should engage themselves in this series. Moreover, I felt as if most of the other online articles that I tracked resembled the same information without adding anything new to it. This hurts


the publication because it does not give the audience anything new to read about and they become bored with the same information. In addition, during my publication tracking, I was interested in finding ways to teach this novel to high school students. Given the fact that the book is recent, not much teaching material has been produced. To my surprise, Scholastic.com has yet to add the book to the website and create a book test for readers. As a teacher, I had to create a book test for some of my students because they were finished reading the book and wanted to receive Reading Counts points for it. One good educational source that I found was the website www.Alagaesia.com because it provides readers with a map that teaches them about plot, time and setting and it allows students to learn more about character development. For example, students can play games and assume the roles of some characters and embark on a quest. Moreover, since the first novel in taught in seventh grade at BSSCA, I believe that having more teaching materials like lesson plans, activities of comparing within the fantasy genre novels such as (Lord of the Rings) would enable educators to give rise to this genre and engage students more. Although some of my students like reading about fantasy novels, some dislike the thought of enchanted worlds made up of dragons and dragon slayers. More publication can be done in promoting Inheritance in education. Since most people are visual learners, perhaps another movie could recapture the audience‘s attention. Consequently, in order to improve the publication cycle for Paolini‘s last novel, more publicity could be given to author‘s appearances and book signings in the quest to promote literacy and engage readers to discover a new world of creativity. Given the fact that fantasy novels have always had a low population level when compared to other genres such as action, comedy and romance, something needs to be done in order to reestablish the interest level in the audience. Paolini succeeds in alluding to the other great fantasy writers, such as Tolkien, but more internet videos, articles, author appearances, book displays, and educational resources need to be made in order to increase the level of publicity for this novel.