The Big Picture

Christopher Paolini, the author of the beloved Inheritance Cycle series, has returned to the world of Alagaësia with a new novel centered around the fan-favorite character Murtagh. The novel, aptly titled Murtagh, picks up right after the events of the final book in the series and delves into Murtagh’s life during his self-imposed exile. Paolini brings a more mature voice to Murtagh’s story, exploring his complex past, his relationship with his dragon Thorn, and perhaps others that he holds dear.

A little over twenty years ago, a bright-eyed and twenty-year-old Christopher Paolini published his debut novel Eragon—the first book in what would become the beloved and critically acclaimed fantasy series The Inheritance Cycle. The series, which he began penning at the age of fifteen, would eventually earn him the Guinness Book of World Records title of the youngest author of a bestselling book series ever. Eragon would go on to be adapted as an ill-fated, but still enjoyable, feature film, and it is set to follow in the footsteps of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians with a big-budget Disney+ series, that Paolini is co-writing.

The Inheritance Cycle came to a close with Inheritance back in 2011, and while Paolini has revisited Alagaësia and his tales of dragon riders and magic with his short story anthology novel The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm, it came as a complete surprise when he announced Murtagh in March of this year. Murtagh was always a fan-favorite character among readers, who fell for his brooding charm and tragic backstory. As Eragon’s half-brother, he was something of a narrative foil to the main character’s heroics—especially as Murtagh toiled away under the thumb of King Galbatorix, who forced Murtagh and his dragon Thorn to commit heinous actions. With nearly two decades of life experience to pull from, Paolini brings a much more mature voice to Murtagh’s story. The massive novel tears at the heartstrings time and time again as Paolini explores Murtagh’s life after the final chapters of The Inheritance Cycle. The stakes are just as high as any of the experiences Eragon went through in his journey, but Murtagh only has Thorn to lean on—which allows the novel to really deep-dive into the psyches of both the dragon and his rider.

During New York Comic-Con, Collider spoke with Paolini about his return to Alagaësia, his choice to pick up right where Inheritance left off with Murtagh’s self-imposed exile, how the story came together, and—of course—what fans of Murtagh’s could-be romance with Queen Nasuada can expect from the new novel hitting shelves on November 7, 2023.

The Inheritance Cycle Title Publication Year Eragon 2003 Eldest 2005 Brisingr 2008 Inheritance 2011 Spin-Offs Tales from Alagaësia: The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm 2018

COLLIDER: I’m sure someone has said this to you over the years, but do you know that you are something of a hero to homeschoolers, myself included?

CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI: I understand that because when I was growing up and was being homeschooled, my parents were always looking for examples of homeschooled kids who had “done good,” so they could point to them and say, “See? See? You can do it. It’s possible.” I think it was also that they were reassuring themselves that if they homeschooled their kids, the kids would do okay in life. But I’m delighted to hear that homeschoolers have enjoyed hearing about my story and how it’s worked out.

Something I really appreciated with Murtagh is that it picks up right after The Inheritance Cycle.

PAOLINI: You read it?

Yes, I have. I’ve read the whole thing.

PAOLINI: Wow, you’re literally the second person outside of my family or editor that I’ve talked to who’s actually read.

It’s so good.

PAOLINI: Third person, but the first person read it in French, so I don’t know if that counts.

Oh wow, I think it does count. It picks up right after The Inheritance Cycle ends, so even though it’s been many years since it ended, what was it like for you getting back into that headspace and going back to that world?

PAOLINI: The world itself was very familiar. I had no difficulty diving right back into it. The biggest difference is that this isn’t from Eragon’s point of view, so writing from Murtagh’s point of view introduces some differences to the experience. Which was nice for me and I think it will hopefully be nice for readers, as well. But it’s an interesting mixture of intense nostalgia, intense familiarity, and yet a sense of newness, as well. Like if you’ve ever returned home after a long trip, college or wherever, and everything is super familiar, but maybe seems just a little different.

Definitely. How much of it was brand new ideas that came to you now, and how much did you pull from old notes, unused ideas, and pulling it all together?

PAOLINI: Well, it evolved. I’ve always had ideas for more full-size books set in the world of Eragon, and a book about Murtagh was one of those. I had a couple of general ideas that I wanted to play with, such as Murtagh and Thorn grappling with their past, grappling with other threats and developments in the world. But the specifics of that only really came about starting in, I want to say, 2018, and even a little bit earlier when I originally got the idea of the short story, The Fork in The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm, which was from Murtagh’s point of view– Well, it was about Murtagh, not his point of view. But that served as the inciting incident and the key for the actual events of this book, and then everything in it drew from old notes, and then, also, I had new stuff as well.

The third act of Murtagh is incredibly heart-wrenching.

PAOLINI: It’s intense, isn’t it?

It’s intense! What was it like cranking up the anxieties of it, the horrors of it? It feels more mature this time around.

PAOLINI: Well, good. Murtagh is a more mature character, and he’s always had a harder road to walk than Eragon. So, going easy on him was never an option, but it was hard to write. It’s hard to put my mind in difficult situations for days on end, weeks on end, months on end when writing and editing. It takes a toll on you emotionally. At least, that’s my experience because I empathize with the characters and the world. But at the same time, it’s so interesting dramatically that I can’t avoid it. But yeah, that was actually why I wrote the book was that last chunk of the book. That’s what everything leading up to was building and hopefully supporting so that when that hits, you’re there going, “Oh my god.”

Eragon Release Date December 15, 2006 Director Stefen Fangmeier Cast Ed Speleers, Sienna Guillory, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich Rating PG Runtime 104 minutes Writers Peter Buchman, Christopher Paolini
One thing that I loved when I was younger and reading these books was Murtagh and Nasuada. I love their dynamic in the original books, and there’s a little bit of him thinking about what could have been. How much of that was you wanting to make sure that the fans of that dynamic got something out of this, as well, in this return?

PAOLINI: Well, I don’t want to spoil anything, but no, that was absolutely part of it because there were quite a few storylines that were unresolved on purpose in Inheritance, and moving forward, some of those have to be addressed. And Murtagh’s feelings about Nasuada and her feelings about him and their very complicated interactions obviously had to be addressed in a book about Murtagh.

Do you think there is more to explore in this world? The ending of this gave me a feeling like maybe…

PAOLINI: Oh, of course. This is setting up some future stories.

Excellent.

PAOLINI: As well as telling this particular story.

I definitely did not want to walk away from this book and not have more of this world on the horizon.

PAOLINI: Oh, I know. I actually said to my mom when she read it, I was like, “Yeah, so the readers are going to be, like, banging my door down saying, ‘When’s the next one? When’s the next one? When is the next one?’”

[Laughs, knocking on the table] “I’m here. Where is it?” I was talking to another author yesterday, and they were talking about how books evolve, and you get to your final draft, and then you’re like, “Oh my god, there’s another scene I want to add.” Were there any moments like that in the process where you were like, “Oh, I actually need to go back and add that scene,” because you wanted to make sure something got there, but you didn’t reach that realization until you got to a later part?

PAOLINI: So there’s an old saying that sometimes you don’t know what a book is about until you finish writing it or release the first draft, and that was definitely the case here. I had a couple of themes, one specific theme, in mind throughout the first draft, and then when my editor read it, she said, “You know, it seems like a large part of the book is actually about Y, not X.” At first, I went, “No, no, no, no. The theme is X,” and then I swallowed my ego and stepped back, and I thought, “You’re right. I put in a lot of stuff about Y, and I need to bring that to fruition.” So, there were definitely some things that needed tweaking and adjusting just to bring what I was trying to accomplish into sharper focus for the readers. An example of this is, again, without spoiling things… No, actually, I can’t talk about it without spoiling.

Well, I can play off that. You talked about how act three was something that came to you early on in the process, and you wanted to reach that point. How do you work with your writing process? Do you start with that scene that comes to you first and then work backward? How do you play around with that?

PAOLINI: Every book is different, but I refuse to write a book unless I have the beginning and the end clearly in mind. And in this case, I already had the beginning because it was retelling the short story, “The Fork,” from Murtagh’s point of view now. That was the inciting incident in some ways. Technically, the inciting incident actually occurred at the end of Inheritance, but for this book, this is the beginning. Then, I knew where I wanted to end, like, last scene, last chapter. I had that right from the very beginning because I knew that would be emotional and affecting and all of that.

Then, it was a question of what type of story I was trying to tell and how that would relate to Murtagh’s personal issues. So, my original conception was like an Edgar Rice Burroughs-style adventure into the unknown, and then the more I did on it, I was like, “Well, there’s more to it than just simple adventure. A lot more. So, how do I serve that?” So, I work up a pretty detailed outline before I write the first draft, write the first draft, and then I sit back and say, “Okay, how well did I do in accomplishing what I was trying to accomplish and what do I need to change or focus on?”

Eragon Main Genre Fantasy Genres Action, Adventure, Fantasy Creator Christopher Paolini Production Company 20th Television
One thing that is really hard for me to believe is that we’re at the 20-year anniversary of Eragon, and it makes me feel old. It’s just bewildering. What have you learned over the years? It’s been 20 years, and it’s still something that people love so much. What has it been like for you?

PAOLINI: How long do you have? It’s been my whole life. I could talk for hours on this topic. I am incredibly grateful and feel incredibly lucky that people are still reading books, still care about the books, and I think Murtagh is going to be a home run with them, as well. Fingers crossed. So all of that’s amazing and not something I ever counted on when Eragon was released. For a book to be read even a couple of years after it’s released is sometimes unusual.

As far as what I’ve learned, the list is enormous. A lot to do with public relations, publicity, traveling, talking to the public, and interacting with my fans. A lot to do, of course, with just the technical aspects of writing and life in general. One of the biggest things was going from treating writing as a hobby to a profession and just learning to be professional about it and my approach with it. I often think about storytelling as doing a magic trick. Magicians will do something in a nonintuitive way in order to fool the audience, and they will put in an insane amount of practice to do it in a nonintuitive way so that it appears seamless and your brain is [tricked].

I think of storytelling in the same way, that there’s a lot of work behind the scenes that you have to be willing to put in, in order to successfully tell the story and make the magic work for the audience. And it’s really easy, at least for me, to get overconfident and think, “I don’t need to put that work in. I know what I’m doing.” And that’s how I ended up spending seven, eight years on To Sleep in the Sea of Stars, my sci-fi book, because I didn’t put that work in on a couple of points, and I ended up having to do it after the fact. Trying to revise and fix a book after it’s already written is much more difficult than sort of getting it close to the bull’s eye the first time around.

For my last question, I have to ask you, has there been any movement on the Disney+ series? I know with the strikes, and I’m in SAG, so, I know the strikes have kind of held everything back.

PAOLINI: Absolutely. We were getting really close to seeing some real progress right when the strike happened. Obviously, that put everything on hold. Now, my agents and everyone are talking about gearing back up. So, we’ll see. Disney’s kind of an interesting place these days, but I’m very hopeful that we’ll get a good team in place who can care about the story and will do justice to the world and the characters.

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