Spotlight Story
Emerald Library™ was deeply honored to welcome Christopher Paolini, internationally bestselling author of Eragon and The Inheritance Cycle, for an extraordinary conversation with our Big Readers Book Club.
Our young readers, ages 11 to 15 joined from across the world, including Spain, the United States, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, England, Mexico, Italy, and more. Many shared that Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle were the books that first made them fall in love with reading and writing, shaping how they think about courage, responsibility, and the power of choice.
Christopher Paolini began writing Eragon at just fifteen years old, growing up alongside his characters as the series unfolded. During our conversation, he reflected on how writing while maturing himself allowed the story and characters Eragon, Saphira, Roran, Murtagh, and others, to evolve naturally, mirroring the challenges of growing into responsibility and understanding the wider world.
Readers were fascinated by his creative process, especially his approach to world-building. Paolini shared that every story must begin with something that makes us care, in his case, the image of a young boy finding a dragon egg. From there, he built Alagaësia outward, grounding magic in consistent rules and treating even fantastical elements with seriousness and logic. He emphasized that limitations, whether in magic, physics, or character, are what make stories compelling.
Writing is as close to magic as I know — put the right words in the right order, and you can change the world.
- Christopher Paolini
Throughout the conversation, Paolini spoke thoughtfully about character development, naming, invented languages, and inspiration. He explained that characters are shaped by the challenges they must overcome, and that understanding what a character fears, desires, or struggles with allows a writer to place them anywhere in a story and still remain true to who they are.
One of the most powerful moments came as he addressed young writers directly. Paolini reminded readers that self-doubt is a normal part of the creative process, that ideas alone are not what make stories succeed, and that persistence, returning to revise, learn, and improve, is what truly matters. Writing, he shared, is as close to magic as he knows: placing words in the right order can move hearts, shift perspectives, and change the world.
As the event concluded, Paolini expressed gratitude for readers around the globe who have grown up with his books and continue to discover them today. For Emerald Library™ and our Big Readers, this author spotlight was not only a masterclass in storytelling, but a powerful affirmation of why stories matter, and how they connect us across cultures, languages, and generations.