god it pains me to review this so low but 3.5/5 really isn't bad !! the most important part of this is that I had fun - but that isn't a particularly difficult thing for an alagaesia book to make me feel, because i'm so attached to it. so yeah - a pretty nice return for old fans, but not as good as the inheritance trilogy. 

firstly, this was perhaps a little too long. there were moments in the book where i felt the pace needed speeding up, such as

the arc when murtagh catches the fish, and towards the end when he's thralled

, although in both cases I understand why we're lingering in places. the pace picks up at about halfway through, and then slows back down, which is frustrating.

primarily this is a book about murtagh and thorn and how they confront their long-held traumas to grow into the rider-dragon pair they become. but there's still so much going on that sometimes it feels like that gets put into the back-burner in favour for extended action and tension scenes, often in parts where thorn cannot act, and sometimes even where he can't speak to murtagh. this is a pity, i feel - i know the book's called murtagh, but the point is that he's a rider and we haven't had much chance to meet or interact with thorn before !! so i'd love more time with him! murtagh is nice and all but i love dragons more than i could ever love a man. and his sense of humour is a little awkward to me. 

the plot itself, apart from being a bit long and winded, is fine. leaves us very much with questions, which paolini explains in the author's note that they will be answered in time! great, but it does feel a little frustrating to reach the point in the book with about 60 pages left and know squarely that you're not gonna get the answers you wanted. 

the characters are fun to be around, though! very much so. it was lovely to be back in alagaesia, with characters i enjoyed meeting the first time round. i fear a little of murtagh's appeal is dampened here, probably because i enjoy a mystery more than i enjoy knowing something for certain, which makes the sequences where he dreams about his past a little dull for me - but if murtagh is your blorbo from the inheritance trilogy, you'll probably enjoy this much more than i did. newer characters are also all-round enjoyable - i especially loved uvek and the werecats (to no one's surprise), the former of which really became my favourite in the last stretch. i hope he comes back. guy's way too cool.

so yeah. this might not be paolini's best work, but i'm still as much a fan of alagaesia as i was before i started reading this. i will most definitely be reading whatever comes next !!