Eragon by Christopher Paolini ****

Fantasy
497pages
Eragon by Christopher Paolini starts off with young farm boy Eragon hunting deer in the forest when he stumbles upon a strange sapphire stone. He does not know what the stone is or where it is from. One night Eragon is awakened by a strange noise, which he realizes is coming from the stone. It appears to be breaking and out pops a little dragon. In Alagaesia, where Eragon lives, dragons have long been a legend to humans. As the dragon grows, she learns to communicate with Eragon mentally, and he learns that he is her rider. He tries to keep this a secret, but soon the ruthless leader of Alagaesia, Galbatorix, learns of the dragon. He has tried to keep dragons a secret since the fall of the dragon riders hundreds of years ago and sends men to capture Eragon and the dragon, Saphira. They escape but in the incident Garrow, Eragon’s uncle and guardian, is killed and the Ra’zac, the evil creatures sent to capture Eragon, have fled. Now, Eragon is thrown into a quest for vengeance and understanding. His only helpers are Saphira and an old storyteller Brom who just might know a bit too much about Galbatorix and the "legends" of Alagaesia.
Rating
****
Rebecca B.
Period 7

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova ***

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a story of a girl whose name does not get revealed because she is the one telling the story. The story starts with her one night wandering through her father’s library only to come across an ancient book and faded letters addressed to “My Dear and Unfortunate Successor.” She’s tortured by not knowing the secrets of her father’s past. As she digs deeper into the letters’ meaning, she is led to an evil hidden deep in the corners of history. The letters in fact lead to a century-long search of the truth of Vlad the Impaler, the most feared ruler of not just his time. For years historians have risked their sanity and even their lives to find his secrets. Now, she has to decide to either find them or follow in her father’s footsteps into a world that destroyed him when he was a young man. Will the stories she discoveries in Ivy League Libraries come close to the secret that no one in history has found?

by Paige B.