So before we get to the quibbles that, really, only adults will care about, let's answer the most important question -- will your Eragon-loving kids like it? It's considerably longer and more dense than its predecessor, but yes, it's exciting, dark, suspenseful, and imaginative. Eldest is a considerable step forward in Paolini's development as a writer. Eragon and Roran are compelling characters, and the relationship between Eragon and Saphira can be touching at times.

It may take some of the younger fans quite a bit of plowing through to finish it, but Paolini's writing is, like his main character, growing much more fluid and sure here, with almost none of the embarrassing clunkers that marred the first book. His dialogue, though still the stilted, formal speech beloved by authors of high fantasy, is less hackneyed and clichéd. This is the work of a growing young writer who is learning as he goes and gradually but surely getting a firmer grip on his considerable talent, like an inexperienced charioteer with a frisky team.

Some of the quibbles are inherited from the first book. The author has said in interviews that one of the reasons he started writing this was to explore the realms of the fantasy genre he loves, and it shows. In this second book he is mainlining "The Empire Strikes Back," with dashes of other classics of the genre, including "The Two Towers" and even "Dune." At least Oromis doesn't speak in the fractured syntax of Yoda.

Many of the other problems seem to indicate the lack of the firm editorial hand so essential to a young writer. Has J. K. Rowling made editors afraid to say no to successful authors of lengthy fantasies for children? Yes, she proved that children will happily read 800 page novels. That doesn't mean they have to. "Eldest" could have been several hundred pages shorter without harming the plot at all just by cutting some of the lengthy descriptions of nothing important to the story that Paolini loves to write and that give him a chance to show off his vocabulary. Cutting out some of the sophomore-dorm-level philosophical discourses, the repetitive Eragon-lusting-after-Arya scenes, and some of Eragon's training which, interrupted by Roran chapters, lasts for nearly 400 pages would have helped too.

But none of this will affect the book's success. Fans have been waiting for this, and they will buy it in droves, read it, most will even finish it, and enjoy it.