I thought Eragon was a fun read to pass the time as I had nothing else to read at the moment when they came out; but they are in no means original or well written really. Honestly it takes him so long to write each book in the series though that I've completely forgotten everything that happened in the series thus far. I guess that shows that I feel the stories are pretty forgettable too. In any case, I think Paolini is getting better at writing his books as time goes on. Each book seems to have a pretty inconsistent writing style and way of telling the story I feel, but I think he's developed an all right writing style by the third book. All in all, I think it's impressive that he was actually able to write a full length novel at the age he was, get the book published by his parents (if I remember right), and still find quite a bit of popularity even if it wasn't necessarily original.