Book: The Fork, The Witch and The Worm
Edited by: Christopher Paolini, Angela Paolini
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 288;
Price: Rs 599
Christopher Paolini, the successful author of the Inheritance series with famous books like Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger and Inheritance, tries to get you back in the world of Alagaësia with his latest collection of short stories. To say it’s a collection is an over statement as it has only three short stories in it, although each one has more stories.
It takes you to the lives of Murtagh, Angela the herbalist and Elva. The first story places Murtagh in a small town after the fall of Gallboridx. It shows him as a disguised traveller teaching a young girl the importance of having courage in the face of adversity. It depicts how he helps her and shows her that running away isn’t an option, and that she must face the fears she has right now, and that there are more dangers outside than what she is facing.
The second story is about the trials and hardships being faced by Angela and Eva. The cause of their sufferings is Eragon’s misspelt blessing on Eva. The third story is the story of Urgals. They tell about a warrior who endured a personal loss and pain to have the courage to fight a dragon. The way she trains herself, the reason and the outcome of her training whether she will be able to defeat him or not.
Christopher Paolini, once touted as the rival of J K Rowling, with his earlier stories somewhat similar to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings almost did an R R Martin. After the release of Eldest, it seemed that he was out of content or ideas to finish his trilogy, which turned out into a series of four books. Angela, Christopher Paolini’s sister has also written one story in this collection as Angela the Herbalist.
After having a failed attempt to make his books into a successful book-based franchise, the first movie Eragon bombed. He is trying to entice you to read the complete Inheritance series to know the reason of the existence of these characters. Unless you have already read his all the other books in the series, this book will not make any sense to you. For those who have read the previous books, this one will be an utter disappointment. The book lacks depth and substance, which means there’s no story. Honestly, this is not a sequel to the Inheritance series, but a look-alike of The Cursed Child after Harry Potter series. It could be a prequel to the fifth book he seems to write.