Inheritance

= = ** High Heat by Carl Dueker ** = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =// Inheritance //= Christopher Paolini
 * My other book report/wiki, I did over a book was the final conclusion to a series; however this book stands alone with no others to support it. Carl Dueker wrote this book, High Heat, and it is a story with all sorts of emotions. **
 * The main character of the book is named Shane Hunter. Shane has everything going good for him; he’s got a big house, lots of money, great family, and top notch talent on the pitcher’s mound. His dad has always been at every game always supporting him and has also been his main coach, even if his dad wasn’t the official coach. Shane Hunter attends a school called Shorelake, and Shorelake is no ordinary high school. They are a well oiled, top-of-the line school. Also, they are kind of snobs there, always looking down on the local public school, Whitman High. Now you can get a little picture of what Shane is; popular, cocky, overconfident, and straight A student, just one of those guys that an, “Average Joe,” doesn’t think much of. So, no one would read a book about a guy’s perfect life and how amazing he is doing, no people want to read a book with a twist and that is exactly what Carl Dueker gives the reader. **
 * One day, at one of Shane’s baseball games the cops show up and take his dad out of the bleachers. Eventually you find out that his dad was using some illegal drug money he was making from selling cars to known drug dealers and not reporting that he made this money, so he was in trouble for money laundering and aiding with drug dealers. Unfortunately it does not end there. His father decided that his actions tainting his name and causing such pain to his family was too much for him to handle so he committed suicide. Now Shane’s world is completely upside down. **
 * Shane and his family are forced to create a brand new life. Their first step is transferring out of Shorelake and switching to Whitman High because the tuition was too high at Shorelake. Then they lost all of their fancy cars and had to find a new home, one that they could afford. Just before they are ready to leave the house a family comes that is interested in buying the house. It turns out they have a kid Shane’s age named Reese who is a very good baseball hitter, they play catch outside a little bit and naturally Shane does not think much of him. Reese’s family buys the house and Shane’s family was able to find a cheap duplex in the area. As you can imagine when Shane starts up school again his head is not quite in it, he even quits baseball for good. He begins failing all of his classes and just not caring at all. Then he does the worst thing he could do and strikes up a friend ship with a troublemaker, Lonnie. One night Lonnie asked Shane to sneak out and hang out with him. Shane initially said no, but then the thought become too tempting and snuck out to meet him. Here’s where things go bad, Lonnie asks him to steal some beer with him, and he says it will be really easy; Shane hesitates but then of course does. They continue to do this quite often, with much success until one night the cops catch them, and this turns out to be one of the best things to have happened to Shane recently. Shane gets into a little trouble, but in essence all he has to do is some community service along with being on probation for a year because it is his first time getting into trouble. After this incident, Shane is done hanging out with Lonnie. The man that assigns community service jobs discovers that Shane used to play baseball, so he is assigned 20 hours of cleaning the baseball diamond at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club in Ballard, close to Whitman, and he will be working under the watch of Cornelius Grandison, the man that runs the baseball diamond down there. **
 * The next Monday Shane reports to the diamond and discovers Grandison to be a very large black man. He is assigned certain jobs to clean up the diamond; filling in holes and raking the fields among others, after his twenty hours are up him and Grandison take a look at the field. Grandison is very happy with what Shane has done and congratulates him on his hard work, acknowledging that the field has not looked this good in a long time. But of course, they have a little argument at the end leaving Shane with a sour taste in his mouth. On his way back home he sees Lonnie one more time, and Lonnie asks him to hang out and he turns him down and never sees him again. **
 * Since Shane is on probation a social worker is allowed to check in on his progress whenever he feels the need. When he comes he suggests that Shane see a psychologist, however Shane does not want to do this and asks if he plays baseball whether or not that will get him out of seeing a psychologist. The social worker obliges as long as Shane raises his grades and gives 100% on the baseball diamond, which Shane says he will. **
 * Finally the baseball season arrives. Due to his length of time off Shane is a little poor when he first starts but he begins to get it back very quickly, and quickly rises to the top of the team. Shane has always been a closing pitcher, which means he sits around and waits all game until the last inning and then it is his job to get three outs and secure the win. However he does not want to pitch and only wants to play in the outfield, probably for some psychological reason associated with his dad. However Shane succumbs to his old ways of pitching and becomes a closer again. Shane quickly begins a friendship with the catcher named Benny. There is a little humor during the baseball season because Shane throws so fast that he is starting to bruise Benny’s hand, and he is trying all he can to save his hand, even throwing a sponge in his glove to soften the blow. This is Shane’s junior year. Shane has been pitching great and having a stellar season, and then they play Shorelake. The team is holding their own with Shorelake, and at the end of the game Shane comes in to pitch against his old buddies. He gets two of them out when Reese steps up to the plate to hit. All of the emotions prove to be too much for him and he beams Reese. This pitch scars Reese and Shane for quite some time. **
 * Shane has now decided he is done pitching, and Reese can no longer hit because he is too scared in the batter’s box. Although fate brings the two of them together and they play some light catch at a baseball diamond near their houses. Eventually things accumulate and Reese asks Shane to pitch to him, slow at first. Shane can barely get the pitch close to the zone he is so nervous. Finally he just lobs in real slow pitches and Reese starts out slow but then begins ripping the ball. With both of their confidences building, Shane begins throwing harder and harder every day and Reese is getting hitting back. But, Shane is always holding just a little bit back, he still hasn’t gotten his fastball up to full speed. Reese asks Shane to give him a real fastball, Shane gets his confidence, rears back, and releases a perfect fastball and Reese can’t touch it. So, when each of their respective seasons start up Shane is ready to pitch again, but Reese still cannot hit an inside fastball. **
 * This is Shane’s senior season and he needs a college scholarship because his family no longer has any money. Shane is pitching really great all season and coaches are looking at him left and right. Then the last game of the season comes. Just as it is expected they are playing Shorelake again. Shane is very nervous, not only because this is Shorelake, but it is his last game and he has Coach Darvus of the University of Portland looking at him. Shane comes out and pitches great. He closes out the game by proving his head is back in the game and he has no more haunting memories of his last season by closing out this season striking out Reese for the win. When Shane gets home, Coach Darvus meets him there and offers him a full ride scholarship to the University of Portland and Shane says yes. Shane Hunter has been able to overcome all of the hardships in his life and secure a scholarship to a very respectable college. **

Inheritance is the fourth book to finish out the Inheritance Cycle, a series that takes the reader through the life of Eragon. I suppose it would be a good idea to give you a slight background on this series. To start off, this series would be considered by many as a, "Nerdy," series. It would be considered this based on the fact it is all about dragons, magic, and mystical creatures, not to mention its own language invented by the author. So I will start off with a quick summary of //Eragon//, the first book. At the beginning of the book Eragon is hunting in the Spine, a supposedly enchanted and dangerous forest, and finds a blue stone. Eventually this blue stone hatches into the dragon Saphira. Eragon and Saphira then become a very close unit, far closer then any human and their dog, because they communicate simply by sharing their thoughts. They are basically two bodies and one very large, diverse, and complicated conscious. So the journey begins.... Eragon must start his training as a dragon rider so that he may someday be able to overthrow the evil King Galbatorix. He is evil because when he was younger he was a Dragon Rider, however his dragon died and he went crazy, stole a dragon egg, forced it to hatch for him, then Killed all of the other Dragon Riders andn their dragons except his servants known as the Forsworn. So back to Eragon, taught by Brom, the town storyteller, who is later discovered to be not only Eragon's father but also one of the last living dragon riders. Now you may be wondering why him and his dragon have not overthrown Galbatorix, and the reason being his dragon, also named Saphira, was killed many years ago by Morzan, Galbatorix's most skilled assistant. Brom later got his revenge and killed Morzan. In a very sad ending Brom is killed by evil creatures known as the Ra'zac, but on the brightside Eragon meets his first elf, Arya, and killes a shade in the process, a very difficult task. Lastly, there is a war going on in this series, it consists of the Varden vs. Galbatorix's Empire, Eragon joins the fight for the Varden. *Spoiler Alert* A werecat gives Eragon two riddles, one he will crack in the third book, the other he will crack at the very end.

The second book is titled //Eldest//. Not too much stuff of vital importance happens in this story except another dragon hatches. He is named Thorn and hatches for Murtagh, Morzan's son. Which is bad because Murtagh has been captured by Galbatorix against his will. Murtagh was a good man to start off with, only with a bad name, however Galbatorix forced him to do his evil bidding. Galbatorix literally forced him also because in this series the ancient language, or the language of magic, exists. So a person has two names, there birth name, David, and then their true name. A true name is what defines a person. So at birth your true name is not decided, however as you age you create your character and that becomes your true name. A person never wants another person to know their true name, unless they have absolute trust. However, Galbatorix has a knack for guessing true names, and when he knows a person's true name he can completely control them, until their character changes and they are a new person with a new true name, so you can see the trouble Murtagh and Thorn were in.

The thrid book, //Brisingr//, reveals quite a bit of information. The biggest event is that Eragon and Saphira fly to Du Weldenvarden, home of the elves to attempt to complete their training. There they find that one last dragon and rider do exist, unfortunately they are both far too injured to fight, and can only teach Eragon and Saphira what they know. So there is more fighting and so forth. At the conclusion of this book, the Dragon and his Rider die, but before the Dragon, Glaedr, dies he gives Eragon and Sophia his heart of hearts. I cannot indulge too much farther without ruining the book, so I will conclude here.

Finally we arrive at the final book in the series, the unforgettable conclusion. In this book the Varden begin to fight more, all races become part of the cause to end Galbatorix's reign and his life. The Varden now have humans, elves, urgals, werecats, and dwarves fighting on their side. It is inevitable that Eragon and Saphira fight Murtagh, Thorn, Galbatorix, and Shakira; his dragon. The Varden have already captured two of the three major cities left of the Empire, the last one is Uru'baen, the capital. I will skip ahead to the conclusion, because otherwise I would be writing for weeks. The Varden has just captured two major cities very close to the capital, the only city left to take. However, Galbatorix will not go down easy, the Varden have just been attacked at their own camp, and their leader Nasuada has been taken captive. Eragon and Saphira fight valiantly but she is still taken, and then the attack is over, they got what they came for. Eragon is tired, weak, and miserable. Now the story breaks into two different scenarios, Eragon's activities and the life of Nasuada held captive. First, Nasuada, here we learn that Murtagh does have a soft spot. He does all that he can to help Nasuada by using magic to dim the pain and providing words of encouragement. However, he cannot do too much for fear of Galbatorix finding out. That is basically all there is to the Nasuada portion, except in the book there are a few chapters on how Galbatorix is using magic to torture her. Now, back to Eragon. Eragon is figuring out all that he can do to get to Nasuada, without going to early and ruining all the Varden has accomplished. He remembers a story a werecat once told him, of where he can find help. Of course, like all good advice, it is in a riddle, so he must first crack the riddle. Finally he does and he and Saphira must fly a great distance. While they are gone, the elves create a fake, live, and moving, "image," of Saphira and Eragon flying to keep the Empire from attacking and give the people of the Varden a sense of security, this mission is top secret. Saphira, Eragon, and Glaedr's heart of hearts fly to this secret island and perform the task they need to, to unveil this secret hints and solve the werecat's riddle. They enter the secret tunnel and walk for quite a ways, until they arrive to a room where there is a large man-dragon man. He requires them to do another last security check you could say and then they have gained their trust. He shows them a supply of dragon eggs and heart of hearts. This is huge news, because for one the dragon population is not going to go extinct, and the heart of hearts will provide power to Eragon to fight and conquer Glabatorix. So they take a few heart of hearts and fly back as fast as they can to fight Galbatorix and save Nasuada, if she is alive. There is magic placed on this secret cave that they will not remember ever being there as soon as they have left, until Galbatorix is dead. So, the Varden attack the Empire's capitol, and through many cuts and bruises Galbatorix ends up dead.