November Newsletter

November 17, 2006

Kvetha Fricäya. Greetings Friends.
Today is my birthday. Thank you to all who sent me their well-wishes.

And today is also the first day the various Eragon video games are
available in stores. Vivendi sent me copies of them a few days ago,
and I've been having fun playing the Xbox 360 version.

I have to admit, having an Eragon game is pretty cool. Over the past
day-and-a-half, I ran straight through the game with one of my
friends, playing in co-op mode. We beat every level and found all the
hidden dragon eggs, which unlock extra content. One of the things that
impressed me is just how much work the folks at Vivendi and Stormfront
studios put into the game—from the orchestra they hired to record the
music to the in-depth interviews they included. I usually played as
Eragon, but I also spent time as Brom and Murtagh, both of whom have
their own unique strengths in battle.

The Xbox 360 game has two extra levels. One is set in the ruins of the
dwarf city Orthíad, and it contains a version of the star rose
sapphire, Isidar Mithrim, and the central chamber of Tronjheim. This
is one of the gamemakers' tributes to the book, and it gave me chills
when I saw it. The chamber isn't a mile high, but it's pretty tall
nevertheless. Who knows, perhaps the dwarves constructed a practice
version of Tronjheim in Orthíad, their old capital, before moving to
Farthen Dûr. . . .

I checked The Fortunes of Captain Blood, by Rafael Sabatini, out of
the library yesterday. Sabatini also wrote Scaramouche, which was
turned into two different movies of the same name. The first was
silent. The second, with sound and color, contains one of the greatest
swordfights in film history. It's right up there with the duel from
The Princess Bride.

Here's the opening line from Scaramouche: "He was born with the gift
of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad."

"Wind howled through the night, . . ."
The high winds that our area is famous for have come back full force.
We've had gusts of sixty-eight miles per hour, and the steady freight
train of wind has blown for the past two weeks. Trees, signs, and
tractor-trailers blown over, power lines down. Snow blankets the
mountains. Winter has arrived.

All the best. And may your swords stay sharp!

Christopher Paolini

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