#138 in Middle grade
Eragon
- 576
- Pages
- about 11 h
- Reading time
- Film 2006
- On screen
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Our view
“Eragon” is, for some readers, the book that opened the door to fantasy, and it still works best that way: dragons, elves, magic and a long journey, told with real enthusiasm. Paolini began it at fifteen, and some who reread it as adults notice a teenager writing for readers his own age. Read young, or with some nostalgia, its nearly six hundred pages pass easily; adults new to it may notice the rough edges more.
Worth knowing Christopher Paolini began it at fifteen, and his family self-published it in 2001, promoting it at schools and libraries with Paolini in costume; after the novelist Carl Hiaasen’s stepson came across a copy, Knopf republished it in 2003. Planned as a trilogy, the cycle grew to four books, ending with Inheritance (2011). The 2006 film was poorly received, and a Disney+ series was announced in 2022.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Eragon is the first book in The Inheritance Cycle by American fantasy writer Christopher Paolini. Paolini, born in 1983, began writing the novel after graduating from home school at the age of fifteen. After writing the first draft for a year, Paolini spent a second year rewriting and fleshing out the story and characters. His parents saw the final manuscript and in 2001 decided to self-publish Eragon; Paolini spent a year traveling around the United States promoting the novel. The book was discovered by novelist Carl Hiaasen, who brought it to the attention of Alfred A. Knopf. The re-published version was released on August 26, 2003.
Reading order · The Inheritance Cycle
Full order & progress →- EragonThis book
7.57.5 / 10 - Eldest
7.77.7 / 10 - Brisingr
8.08.0 / 10 - Inheritance
7.97.9 / 10 - Murtagh
7.97.9 / 10
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmEragonIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.5 across 3,162 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 96% of the weight and the score stays at 7.5 — the Middle grade average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 229 | 7% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 27 | 1% |
| Hardcover | 7.5 | 2.9K | 92% |
Frequently asked
What age is Eragon for?
Eragon sits on the Middle grade shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 8–12. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 576 pages — longer than 56% of the ranked books in Middle grade.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Middle grade — with scores between 7.7 and 8.6, closest to this book.
