Discovering Inheritance
Every Tuesday, iTunes has a few free downloads. It started with just two songs in the sections of “Single of the Week” and “Discovery Download”. Every now and then a “Street Official Mixtape” will come out as well.
Last week, a new type of download was added for an audio book “Rotton School“. Actually, it was a song done for the audio book and it was bad. This weeks audio book was “Eldest” from the Inheritance trilogy. This shocked me a little because I had just helped my mother in-law order the book through the Science Fiction Book Club. We tried earlier in the month, but it wasn’t available yet.
I started to give it a listen. It was chapter 1 - “A twin disaster”, about some dwarves comming out of a cave and being slaughtered by Urgals. The main character, Eragon, was desperately running to try and help them, but they fell before him. It was a pretty sad setting. The music and the emotion in the story tellers voice really made it very good.
Something that triggered some happiness was realizing that this book was offered by Audible. I have an account over there with two book credits. I searched for Eldest, but it wasn’t listed yet. I looked for the first book instead - “Eragon”. Sure enough, they had it for $28.97. Since I get two book credits a month in my subscription, I could cut that price in half. I went ahead and applied one of my credits and downloaded it to my iPod.
I listened to the audio on the way into work. It was a different person reading and there wasn’t any music. I didn’t care at all for the reader, but the story was amazing. Alagaesia was a new world opening up to my imagination of infinate possiblities. It had me thinking throughout the day what would happen next. I saved that for my commute back home.
The ride home I found that a blue stone with white veins that the character had found was actually a dragon egg. I listened as the dragon grew rapidly and started forming a telepathic bond with Eragon. I was so into the story that I had a driveway moment. It’s just that good. I see that the movie is listed in the IMDb as being filmed, but I can’t help but wonder if it might be a joke.
Normally, I would have just waited to buy the book or ask mom if I could borrow hers when was is done. Lately, it’s been hard to make time and read books. I only got through book 5 of Harry Potter because I was commuting on a one hour bus ride to and from work each way. Today I drive to work and The Half-Blood Prince is setting on a desk in my room. It is untouched and waiting for my eyes. The J. K. Rowling books aren’t listed on Audible. The closest thing that you can find is Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody.
I find that most audio books that I prefer usually deal in the realm of magic and fantasy. It’s like reading a few really good RPG campaigns rite after the other without having to roll for damage. I am the character in the story for those brief moments of listening pleasure.
My iPod also has this nice feature in that I can speed up or slow down the speed of the reader. I find that speeding up the book actually helps me comprehend what is going on easier. Another reason why I love my iPod is chapters. If the iPod ever loses memory of where I left off, I can just skip ahead to the next chapter placemark. Oh how I love that feature. I would hate having to scan through 15 hours of audio without it.
Tags: iTunes, Audio Books, Eldest, Rotton School, Inheritance Trilogy, Inheritance, Science Fiction Book Club, Book Club, Science Fiction, Sci-Fi, Urgals, Dwarves, Eragon, Audible, iPod, Alagaesia, Dragons, Dragon Egg, Driveway Moments, Harry Potter, The Half-Blood Prince, Half-Blood Prince, Potter, Harry, Barry Trotter, Unauthorized Parody, RPG, Magic, Fantasy, Chapters