SOURCE CITATION
Christopher Paolini." Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 71. Thomson Gale, 2006.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
Photograph © 2005 Perry Hagopian and provided by Random House.
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Fantasy is not only the subject matter of the books of Christopher Paolini; it also describes his instant rise to success. A fifteen-year-old, home-schooled boy living in a Montana valley, Paolini had time on his hands after completing his high school degree via correspondence school. Instead of lounging about, he took up pen and notebook and composed a 500-page fantasy novel that his family self-published and which was later released by Alfred A. Knopf publishers. Knopf's 2003 first printing of the novel, Eragon, was 125,000 copies, and the book climbed to the top of the bestseller charts where it stayed for months, selling over 2.5 million copies. The book was also sold for production as a major feature film. Paolini's second novel in his fantasy trilogy, Eldest, was published in 2005, with a 1.3-million-copy first printing. As Paolini told Lev Grossman in Time magazine: "If I wrote a book where all this happened to one character, ... no one would believe it."
Montana Isolation
Paolini was born in 1983. His parents, Kenneth and Talita, had met as members of a "survivalist group with a doomsday philosophy," according to New York Times contributor Dinitia Smith. The couple married and left the group in 1987, settling in Montana in 1991. From the start, the Paolinis decided that their family should always come first. The parents earned a basic income and home-schooled both Christopher and his younger sister, Angela. Paolini's mother was a trained Montessori teacher and inspired in her children a love of learning. Paolini, as a youth, read over three thousand books, and when, for example, he became interested in pirates, he created his own pirate map, soaking it in tea and burning the edges to make it look real. Television was avoided, but the family watched nightly movies together from their own library of four thousand films. The parents also began a small publishing house in Montana, Paolini International, publishing works that were critical of cults such as the one to which they had formerly belonged.
In 1999, Paolini began playing with the idea of a story about a boy and a dragon, influenced by some of his favorite books, such as Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, Frank Herbert's Dune, Anne McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern" series, and Eric Rucker Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros. Other writers to influence him include J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, and Jane Yolen. Less contemporary influences include the epic Beowulf, Le Morte d'Arthur, and Norse and Icelandic sagas. The "Ring" cycle of operas by Richard Wagner also was an important source of inspiration, as well as the music of Gustav Mahler, Ludwig von Beethoven, and Carl Orff. Before setting off on the adventure of writing a novel, he also read some basic books on the craft of fiction and viewpoint, but it was mainly his own wide reading exposure that served as an instinctual basis in developing his story. "I wanted to write a pure, dyed-in-the-wool hero story," Paolini noted on his Web site, Alagaesia.
Paolini created a world, Alagaesia, where his action could take place. The natural landscape of this land was a mirror image to Paolini's own Paradise Valley, Montana, where he lives. The Beor Mountains of the book, for example, are merely an exaggerated form of the real-life Beartooth Mountains which Paolini could see from his home. He even created several languages for the book. As Paolini noted in an interview for Teenreads.com, he has "always been fascinated with the sources of most modern fantasy that lie in Teutonic, Scandinavian, and Old Norse history. ... Because of this, I used Old Norse as the basis of my Elven language in Eragon as well as many names. All the Dwarf and Urgal words, however, are my own invention." A glossary is included at the end of the book.
The fantasy opens to a map of Alagaesia, where the teen Eragon managed to make a simple living with his uncle and cousin on their farm. The heart of the story begins with the fifteen year old discovering a blue gemstone covered with white veins that is, in fact, an egg. When a beautiful blue dragon emerges from it, Eragon names her Saphira. For over a hundred years, an evil king has been attempting to destroy the Dragon Riders, and in bonding with the mythical beast, Eragon becomes such a rider, and is pursued by King Galbatorix, who kills Eragon's family and charges his dark servants with capturing Eragon and Saphira. They become travelers, along with the old storyteller Brom, and Eragon matures over the year during which the story transpires. He gains an understanding of love, loss, and the evil that is present in his world as he is pulled into the struggle between the king and the resistance forces of the Varden. Together, the boy, dragon, and wise old man draw on a combination of magic and traditional methods to protect and defend themselves from humanoid warriors. Like his fictional hero, Paolini was fifteen at the beginning of the tale, and sixteen by the time the first volume concluded.
A Family Business
Paolini put his story through two drafts before showing it to his parents. They were so impressed with the work that they knew it had to be published. The Paolinis worked with their son to further edit his manuscript, readying it for publication. Suddenly, what had started as hobby writing became very serious business. Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, Yvonne Zipp noted: "As if writing around 500 pages about a 15-year-old who discovers a dragon's egg wasn't enough, Paolini designed the cover art, drew the illustrated map of his kingdom, marketed the book, and acted as chief salesman." The family published the book in 2002 through their Paolini International imprint, selling it to local bookshops. They contacted hundreds of bookshops and schools around the country, and Paolini and his father took to the road to promote the book at schools, with Christopher dressed in medieval costume. "I wore knee-high black lace-up leather boots, black pantaloons, a big black pirate belt, a billowy red swordsman shirt and a black beret to top it off," he explained to Carol Memmott in USA Today. Paolini told Smith: "We went to places that never had an author, ... places hungry for this." Over the next year they made over one hundred presentations and sold about ten thousand copies of the novel.
The Paolinis' big break came when Florida-based novelist Carl Hiaasen, his wife, and stepson visited Montana on a fly-fishing vacation. Hiaasen's stepson found a copy of Eragon at a local bookshop, became engrossed in the tale, and Hiaasen himself became intrigued enough with the self-published book to recommend it to his publishing house, Knopf, in New York. That publisher negotiated for a second edition of the book, cutting twenty thousand words from the original and adding new cover art. The book, when re-published, quickly outstripped even J.K.Rowling's best-selling "Harry Potter" books. Meanwhile, Paolini put away his medieval costume and got busy writing the next two installments of his "Inheritance Trilogy."
Reviewers not only marveled at the precocity of Paolini, many also championed the book from a literary standpoint. "Whatever his age," Denise Dutton stated in the Green Man Review, "Paolini has come up with a well crafted, evenly paced, interesting read." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called it a "solid, sweeping epic fantasy." Most reviewers also noted Paolini's obvious borrowings of basic fantasy elements. The author "takes a little Tolkien, a little McCaffery, a coming-of-age quest, and combines them with some wicked good storytelling in this first book," noted Michele Winship in a Kliatt review. Similarly, Booklist contributor Sally Estes felt this "lush tale is full of recognizable fantasy elements and conventions. But the telling remains constantly fresh and fluid." In a similar vein, a reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that Paolini "takes the near-archetypes of fantasy fiction and makes them fresh and enjoyable, chiefly through a crisp narrative and a likable hero." "Fantasy writing," James Neal Webb stated in a review for BookPage.com, "is a tricky business; some authors slap on a thin coat of backdrop for their characters to parade against, and others lay on detail after excruciating detail. Paolini strikes a happy medium, showing wisdom beyond his years. He gives his world and his characters depth and reality." Denise Hamilton, writing in the Los Angeles Times, thought Eragon was "ambitious, exciting and flawed, the work of an obviously talented but unseasoned author." Similar criticism and praise came from Liz Rosenberg, writing in the New York Times Book Review. Rosenberg complained of Paolini's "awkward and gangly" prose, and of a plot that "stumbles and jerks along." However, she went on to note, "for all its flaws, [Eragon] is an authentic work of great talent." In particular, Rosenberg praised the "gripping" story, and also the "the sweep of the story and the conviction of its storyteller." Paolini told Memmott: "Eragon really is just my daydreams, stuff I wanted to be doing like running around fighting monsters and rescuing beautiful elves. And what I hoped, and what I still hope, is that within those familiar elements I'm able to provide a unique twist."
Saga Unfolds Further
In 2005 Paolini published the second volume in his "Inheritance Trilogy." At nearly seven hundred pages, Eldest is a heftier volume than the first, but Paolini's publisher, Knopf, announced a first printing of one million copies. The novel takes up the story immediately after the first big battle, with which the first volume ends. Eragon and his dragon travel to the sacred forest of the elves to be trained in the craft of a Dragon Rider and in the arts of magic. Roran, Eragon's cousin, meanwhile, leads his fellow villagers against the soldiers of Galbatorix. For Hamilton, it is Roran's story that is "most compelling and tightly written." "The Elven creatures are magical, and the nasty enemies are even nastier," Terri Schlichenmeyer wrote in the Pahrump Valley Times. "There are some plot twists in Eldest that are going to make fans gasp with surprise. Savvy readers are going to find a few in-jokes that will make them laugh." But again, as with his first title, Paolini was criticized for derivative writing. Jennifer Reese, writing in Entertainment Weekly, was largely unimpressed with what she termed a "mind-numbingly silly" and "endless, overheated" sequel. She also complained of "long, self-indulgent asides," on topics such as the construction of bows. Horn Book reviewer Anika L. Burkam also noted the slowing effect of such asides, but found that "the author's enthusiasm for his creation is infectious nonetheless."
Other reviewers found more to like in Paolini's second series installment. A critic for Kirkus Reviews called the book "dense" and "derivative," but also "exciting." For Booklist contributor Sally Estes, the "expected fantasy elements are all in place, and the characters and their relationships continue to develop nicely." Higher praise came from still other reviewers. Katie Haegele in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that, "at 700 pages, the novel is a feat of well-paced storytelling, utterly untouched by pop culture's short attention span, and Paolini unfolds his tale with the patience of a monk." Writing in Kliatt, Winship commented that Paolini's "lush writing and close attention to detail make this epic flow effortlessly." "While a 704-page book might appear daunting for readers," Sally M. Tibbetts admitted in Teenreads.com, Eldest roars along from beginning to end. The author's writing has matured and he has developed great skill at layering his themes as they build to an exciting climax." For Washington Post critic Elizabeth Ward, there was obvious strength under sometimes clumsy writing: "Despite his story's roughness, there are signs that Paolini is the real deal, something more than just a product of clever promotion." According to Mike Ashworth in Electric City, "I think most readers will find Eldest to be as good as any of the Harry Potter books. The styles are clearly different, but the quality of each is superb." "With Eldest, the author proves he's able to sustain a lengthy story," Denise Dutton noted in the Green Man Review. "It's an enjoyable follow-up to what has gone before, and leaves the reader wanting to know what will happen next. Sure, that sounds like an easy enough thing to accomplish, but there are plenty of flat-out boring series out there that don't have the pull this one has." Similarly, Hamilton concluded: "A natural storyteller, Paolini has embarked on something grand with his 'Inheritance' books."
Writing in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Cecelia Goodnow noted that Paolini "has an avuncular, precociously adult manner of speaking--like a tweedy professor with elbow patches. The effect is startling but ultimately charming, because Paolini is so genuine, with a matter-of-fact self-confidence that's rare for his age. For that, he thanks mom and dad, who homeschooled him and his younger sister, Angela. 'I certainly give credit to my parents,' Paolini said, 'because they taught us never to be afraid--to stand up and speak our mind, to talk to people as equals even if they are quite a bit older. My sister and I have never been in public schools. We never had the experience of being put down, of being told not to stand out. We were who we were.'"
Paolini is now at work on the concluding volume of his "Inheritance Trilogy." "I don't think I'd have written anything like I did if I didn't live [with my family in Montana,] if I'd been engaged in a lot of other, scripted activities--soccer and football and whatever the case might be," Paolini told Grossman. Paolini told Jay MacDonald in a BookPage.com interview: "I never imagined being a writer. I always imagined myself off fighting monsters with a sword or something. But I can't complain about the results. At least I'm young enough that the odds are I'll be able to finish [the trilogy] before I die." What plans after his trilogy is complete? "I might go to college," Paolini told Smith. "Or I might take a vacation and have a nervous breakdown."
UPDATES
December 15, 2006: The movie Eragon, adapted from Paolini's novel of the same name, was released by 20th Century Fox. Source: Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com, December 15, 2006.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born November 17, 1983, in CA; son of Kenneth (a publisher) and Talita (a Montessori teacher; maiden name, Hodgkinson) Paolini. Addresses: Home: Paradise Valley, MO.; Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writer's House, 21 W. 26th St., New York, NY 10010. E-mail: slipskar@writershouse.com.
AWARDS
Top Ten Fantasy Books for Youths listee, Booklist, 2004, for Eragon.
CAREER
Writer.
