Omerr Walker

This book built a beautiful world and background but sadly forgot to build the characters within it. I was willing to give this book 3 - 3.5 stars until I got to the last 10%. I don't know what he was thinking but as it went on I kept screaming "Stop... Stop it. End the book now! Stop ruining it!!!". The characters just start making ridiculous choices, going alone with ridiculous plans and at the end the "gift giving" was basically just pulling magic out of a hat and had no reason to be done. It left a bitter taste after investing so much time in reading this. This book overstayed its welcome to its own detriment. The premise while not original was interesting enough and Paolini has a writing style that I love and frankly that's what kept me reading. The characters are bland and the main character has 0 personality. Somehow she ends up being great at everything and everyone bows down to her will, including the military. She starts of as a xenobiologist and while she does get help the things she ends up doing are totally unbelievable. She starts as a scientist but ends as a military commander/engineer/dictator/combat specialist/God (I realize how confusing that is but that's how it goes). Characters initially show resistance to doing what she wants them to do but eventually they all go along with her plans which either work perfectly or go poorly but without any fault placed on her. Some of the side characters are interesting but somehow in a 900 page book we get almost no backstory on them. It's not like we didn't have the time to explore their stories, everyone just decides to be secretive of their history for no reason at all. So while I liked the characters I felt no attachment to them at all. It hurts me to give this such a bad review but it just wasn't worth it.