Publication History
Homeschooled by his parents, Christopher Paolini graduated from high school at the age of fifteen, but felt he was not yet mature enough for college, so he wrote Eragon in his spare time. After writing the first draft for a year, he spent a second year rewriting it and fleshing out the story and characters, and then presented it to his parents. They had it self-published by the family publishing company, Paolini International, and Paolini then traveled to various schools advertising his novel. In 2002, author Carl Hiaasen discovered the book while his stepson was reading it, and brought it to the attention of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. It was republished by Knopf in 2003.
Eldest was released in hardcover in August 2005, and in paperback in March 2007. A limited edition, featuring extras such as a brief history of Alagaësia, a double-sided poster featuring Brom's ring and Glaedr, and a sneak peek of Brisingr was released in September 2006. The deluxe edition of Eldest has an excerpt from the third chapter of Brisingr.
Brisingr—a word that means "fire" in Alagaësia's ancient language, taken from Old Norse—was published on September 20, 2008. Paolini's announcement of the book's publishing date included the revelation that the Inheritance Trilogy would now contain four books instead of three, thus resulting in the renaming of the series to the Inheritance Cycle.
Inheritance was announced by Random House on March 23, 2011 with the cover artwork. It was released on November 8, 2011 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
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