Our good friends over at Suvudu have released their Q&A with Christopher Paolini, conducted this summer at Comic-Con International. The interview took place in the same sitting as our three-part Q&A with Christopher and our as-of-yet unreleased podcast interview between Christopher and Mike Macauley. A short story written in Murtagh’s point of view? The complete revelation of Eragon’s “dungeon predicament”? More Book 4 details? You can visit Suvudu to listen to the complete audio interview (no written transcript available) and join us after the break for a summary of key knowledge gleamed from the Q&A.
Christopher gave a great Q&A to Suvudu. We’ve highlighted some of his key answers and thoughts below. Be sure to listen to the full audio from the Q&A with Suvudu!
Book 4
- Book 4 is going “pretty well”; it’s tough, hard for a number of reasons “which I don’t want to summarize at the moment”. It is “good”, and Christopher is “certainly doing [his] best to provide a satisfactory and rousing end to the story”
- Book 4 will have the most battles of any of the books put together, “and considering the amount of battles I had in Brisingr, that’s no small thing!” Christopher believes that Book 4 has more battles than the other three books combined, even before completion.
- When Christopher left home for Comic-Con, he “left Eragon strung up by his wrists, strung up in a dungeon with his shirt off and blood coming out of him. And no, he’s not in Galbatorix’s dungeons and it is not the end of the book. I actually need to get home and resolve that situation pretty quickly… it’s bothering me!”
- Announcing the date and title of Book 4 is up to Random House. Both will be released at their discretion.
- Christopher is shooting to get the book out as soon as possible and is nearing the end.
- The answer Tenga is searching for in Brisingr is too spoiler-y to discuss and will be addressed in Book 4.
General Questions
- King Evandar was likely killed by Galbatorix or a member of the Forsworn. Likely a very dramatic death.
- Growing up in a family of readers had a huge influence on Christopher’s enjoyment of literature. This influence got Christopher into enjoying stories and writing.
- Christopher loves the iconic look of the painting of Glaedr on the cover of Brisingr (not to disparage the Thorn and Saphira paintings).
- Christopher would love to see Palencar paint Galbatorix’s dragon Shruikan, as Palencar is famous for painting really evil and scary things.
- Will Murtagh be able to change his real name? “I wont say whether he will or he won’t, but any person within Alagaesia can theoretically change their true name if who they are — their basic nature — changes. And that holds true both for Eragon and Saphira and Arya, and all the main characters.”
- If needed, Eragon (or any magic user) could temporarily change the color of their magic.
- Once Christopher finishes the series, he would love to go back and write a short story or novella that covers Murtagh’s time in Uru’baen under Galbatorix’s tutelage, as he’s coming into power and as Thorn hatches. “It is not something I’m going to tackle right away.”
- Christopher has been leery of writing in Galbatorix and Murtagh’s points-of-view out of fear that doing so would cause the villains to lose their sense of suspense and surprise.
- Exactly where the humans came from before landing on Alagaesia will not be revealed because it is “outside the scope” of Christopher’s current story. He will say that they had various lands beyond the sea where they lived. They ran in to some “bad times”, which is why they migrated to Alagaesia.
- The soldier in Brisingr who saw Murtagh as more of a son is of no real importance to the story, other than to point that Murtagh had more power than he ought to. This was a preemptive nod to his collection of Eldunari before it was revealed later in the books.
We’d love to hear what you think about Christopher’s revelations in the comments below!
