WE DID IT BAYBEEEEEEE

The ordeal of reading this felt a lot like going for a run when you really don't want to: constant thoughts of stopping, and an exercise of willpower just to keep your feet hitting the ground at a good pace. I was tired. I wanted a drink of water and to go home. Every moment seemed like an hour. My library loan ran out twice on this, it took me so long to finish.

Anyway, now that I am finally done, in all ways other than physically I am standing atop a victor's podium right now.

It wasn't the WORST. What makes this series fun in general is still present here. But it's just so much and so long. I always talk about the Queen's Thief series as a masterpiece in minimalist writing, and now I think I've found the perfect counterpoint to that. Paolini is definitely a MAXIMALIST. We get to read about Eragon's day beginning and his day ending, every day. We get to read about his training, his eating, his worrying, his dreaming, his having meaningful moments with every single significant character before and after every single significant moment, etc.

There's a lot to talk about - Nasuada's capture, Galbatorix's defeat, Murtagh, the ending, the catastrophically harebrained "sneak into Dras Leona" mission - but I just have nothing to say. I'm WEARY. Galbatorix met his final end, and all I could think was, There's still 15% of the book left.

The only thing I really do have to say is about Nasuada's magician registration program. Respectfully, why the hell does she think that's a good idea? And why did Eragon think allowing her to do it was okay? I also don't understand how Eragon's plan to raise a new group of Riders is going to work, but I don't really care either because I'm too busy rejoicing that the book is over.

I'm supposed to go on to Murtagh now, but I think might have to wait a bit to gain a second wind.