Christopher Paolini Audio Interview Commentary

He obviously spent so much time creating good city names in his elvish language that he forgot to write a good book.

ZING

Some of the city names are strange, you’d think all the Empire city names would be more similar to each other, but Feinster, Gil’ead, Yazuac, Daret, Bullridge.. all have very few in common. Almost nothing.

He actually explains why the names sound so disparate in a note before the glossaries in each book. Unfortunately it doesn’t do him any favors, as it’s pompously written (shock) and not really all that meaningful (awe). It just pretends the reader is interested and tells us to go study his awesome fake cultures.

I liked the commentary. I said a lot of the same things listening through the first time. He barely answers any of his questions. He could have easily made this a fifteen minute interview and said two to three words per question insted of launching into a self righteous monologue on saying how he was right from the very beginning and all his readers should examine each stupid word because it clearly mentions the answer to this asis- well, I should stop here. Read book four. That should be CP’s motto. Read book next.

Oh, I like this! Nice commentary. Kudos on the download speed, too, 1.1 mbps. :P

Also the questions Shurtugal were asking…OBVIOUSLY if they asked about plot details on the next book, CP will not answer. They should have asked more important questions like that list impishidea had. Most of the questions went like this “I know you may not be able to answer this question BUT I shall ask you anyway to waste this interview”.

HAHA! You made the interview worth hearing. I tried listening through the actual interview and I suffered massive brain haemorrhages. And I feel very stupid. I clicked on the link you sent and could not download it. Then I realised that on the shurtugal website, I got the original interview by right clicking and choosing “save target as”…

Well done. This website is awesome, a boon for wannabe fantasy writers everywhere.

Man this is annoying. “I can’t answer that?” Some of those questions were so basic he could answer them (Will we see this again? Will this ever be answered? etc) without spoiling anything. In fact, it seems to me he could drum up a lot more interest in book 4 if he answered those questions just enough…

I like how he can’t remember the details of his own books. Now, granted, they are stupidly long, but…well, whatever.
In book one, he wrote that Galbatorix stole a dragonling, killing its Rider in the process. In this interview, he admits that he can’t remember, and says that Galbatorix stole an egg, not a dragon, and that Shruikan never had a previous Rider.
I know it’s not a big deal, but it irritates me.

I would argue it is a big deal—it is his book. Of course, it has been ten or so years since he wrote it, so maybe my expectations are unrealistic. Still, I would have prepared for an interview, and not be caught off guard like that. I guess it’s probably a good thing II didn’t get it’s interview opportunity, because that would have been too embarrassing.

Oh my God, I could not stop laughing. You funny, funny man, you. ;)

I think that this interview is good evidence that CP would be a great real estate agent. He’s good at deterring from the question and is vague enough that we have no idea what he’s talking about. Plus he’s great about bragging about stuff that no sane person would buy. :p Great job, loved the comments. I was thinking the same with everything you said.

Now that you mention it, real estate agents are also fond of over using adjectives. Words like “scenic”, “authentic”, “cozy”, and whatever else.

Heh, I didn’t even think of that. They also love an excessive use of filler…you know, to fill in the cracks? D: Bad joke, but I tried.