He was a fantasy wunderkind: a homeschooled teen whose epic struggle for success was as gripping as the dragon tale he conceived at age 15.
Christopher Paolini is 21 now, and he's had his Letterman gig and his Time magazine interviews and the thrill of seeing his fantasy novel, Eragon, ride the best-seller lists for 100 weeks, in one version or another. There's even a Hollywood film in the works.
But the level-headed Montanan didn't fully grasp Eragon's pop-culture impact until a few days ago, when he was crossing light sabers with online opponents in a Jedi knight game.
"One of the players was named Eragon," Paolini said. "Much to my horror, he was actually pretty good and I found a message flashed across the screen -- 'You have been killed by Eragon.' That was when I realized how big this has gotten."
Expect the phenomenon to get even bigger with the release of Eldest, the second volume of Paolini's Inheritance trilogy. The sequel follows the adventures of 16-year-old Eragon as he comes to terms with his destiny as a Dragon Rider who must battle evil forces in the Empire, aided by his winged dragon Saphira.
Random House, which sprang for a first printing of 1.3 million copies, is betting Eldest will rouse teen fantasy buffs from the adrenaline hangover that set in after last month's Scholastic release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
And though J.K. Rowling's wizard series is a shared cultural experience like no other -- a 10-plus on the frenzy meter -- Eldest still ranks as a highly anticipated release, especially for teens who are seriously into fantasy.
"I can't wait for the second book to come out!" said Eragon fan Anna Halleen, 14, as she counted the days till she could pick up her preordered copy of Eldest.
She is a Harry Potter devotee as well. Like a parent torn between two distinctively different offspring, she's hard-pressed to choose between the two fantasies.
"I love them both so much!" she said wistfully.
For a bright young man from small-town America, it's the stuff of dreams. But Paolini sounds remarkably unruffled by his success.
He has an avuncular, precociously adult manner of speaking -- like a tweedy professor with elbow patches. The effect is startling but ultimately charming, because Paolini is so genuine, with a matter-of-fact self-confidence that's rare for his age. For that, he thanks mom and dad, who homeschooled him and his younger sister, Angela.
"I certainly give credit to my parents," Paolini said, "because they taught us never to be afraid -- to stand up and speak our mind, to talk to people as equals even if they are quite a bit older.
"My sister and I have never been in public schools. We never had the experience of being put down, of being told not to stand out. We were who we were."
Paolini still lives with his family in Paradise Valley, Montana, where he writes and, in his spare time, listens to The Teaching Company's college courses on tape. He just finished The Life of Brahms; now he's studying 5,000 years of Chinese history.
Paolini was 15 and newly graduated from his distance-learning high school when he launched into his ambitious Inheritance trilogy, partly because he had some time on his hands.
"I wanted to write a story that used all the elements of fantasy that I enjoyed as a reader," he said. "When I was younger, I daydreamed about having sword fights and adventures and rescuing beautiful elf maidens, like Eragon does.
RSS