Worth The Wait
A Review of "Murtagh" by Christopher Paolini
STAR RATING: ☆☆☆☆
Spoiler-free review.
After finishing Inheritance at thirteen, I wondered, “Wouldn’t it be really cool if there was a Murtagh spin-off just titled ‘Murtagh’?” A decade later, Christopher Paolini brought us all back to Alagaesia with Murtagh. I think I may be the real prophet here, and not Bachel.
Murtagh was an adventure that expanded the world we thought we knew. Galbatorix wasn’t the worst ‘big bad guy’ in the land, and he certainly wasn’t the last. But do the new villains, locations, and plots live up to the Inheritance Cycle?
Yes, for the most part.
Christopher Paolini is excellent at writing deep, realistic characters and relationships. Murtagh was my favorite originally because most of what happened to him was off-screen; his torture and time under Galbatorix, his developing feelings for Nasuada, raising and training with Thorn, etc. He was dark and brooding, and the many mysteries surrounding him intrigued me. Murtagh brings us a well-deserved glimpse into his life and shows us how complex he is. After the events of Inheritance, he’s drowning in the weight of everything he’s done. He doesn’t want to be the person everyone says he is, and yet he keeps finding himself in situations where he’s forced to be the villain, and that internal struggle is very compelling. He is a flawed person with a deep sense of curiosity and little self-preservation, which becomes very frustrating as the story goes on. He read like a real person with real struggles. I just wish he could set his curiosity aside and know when to finally leave a bad situation.
The bond between Murtagh and Thorn admittedly made me very emotional. We didn’t get to see much of their relationship in the original series (at least not nearly as much as Eragon and Saphira) but Murtagh doesn’t spare any of the gruesome details surrounding their upbringing and early days. Thorn is more than a mighty dragon--he’s lonely, scared, and tired. I found myself rooting for him at every turn and smiling when he smiled (or the dragon version of smiling). Thorn is just as complex and guilt-ridden as Murtagh, and few pieces of media have made me want to watch two souls grow and move forward together as this one. Suddenly, I’m thirteen years old again wishing I had a dragon to love and understand me the way Thorn and Saphira do.
As for the plot, Murtagh reads very “to do this, we have to do this, but to do that we have to do this.” While I don’t believe that’s a bad thing, it made me start to feel impatient. Likewise, Murtagh and Thorn aren’t stupid, but I found myself questioning their decisions halfway through the book. Without giving too much away, the villain of this story is an ancient witch named Bachel (whose name I was mispronouncing the entire time). She isn’t as smooth-talking as Galbatorix but is just as formidable. Murtagh finds himself outsmarted and outplayed by her repeatedly. Her plans hint at another more powerful villain that may make an appearance in the future, though I’m sorry to say Paoloni has said there will no Murtagh 2. Instead, he plans to continue the story of Alagaesia through several other spin-offs and stories. I believe the even bigger and badder villain I mentioned will have a big part to play in those works, which makes Murtagh more than just a character spin-off. Overall, I think the plot was a bit predictable but not uninteresting.
The new characters introduced in Murtagh are a hit or a miss. There’s one character from Murtagh’s past at the center of a big twist, but I can’t even remember his name. On the other hand, a character introduced in the last hundred pages or so quickly became a favorite of mine and I hope we’ll see him again soon. Readers are finally given a glimpse into the inner court and what the nobles think about the change in power, which was a very interesting tidbit we never got to see through Eragon’s eyes. We also get to venture to the farthest corners of the world and see what’s been happening behind closed doors through the entire span of the Inheritance Cycle…
Overall, I think Murtagh is a well-written and compelling spin-off. It justifies its own existence and keeps readers engaged without relying too much on nostalgia or fan service. The villains are scary, the new lore is interesting, and the promises it makes to readers help reignite decades-old passions. I can forgive a little predictability and poor decision-making. Four stars.
I’m excited to see where Paoloni takes us
