Christopher Paolini

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-20

Christopher Paolini was born on November 17, 1983, in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Paradise Valley, Montana. He was home-schooled throughout his education, completing high school at age fifteen through accredited correspondence courses from the American School of Correspondence in Lansing, Illinois. An American and Italian author of fantasy and science fiction, Paolini wrote his debut novel, Eragon (2002), while still a teenager living in Montana; it launched The Inheritance Cycle, which continued with Eldest (2005), Brisingr (2008), and Inheritance (2011), later followed by the companion volume The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm (2018) and the sequel novel Murtagh (2023). The series, which follows a young farm boy who discovers a dragon egg and becomes a Dragon Rider, has sold more than 41 million copies worldwide. Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author at just nineteen, and on January 5, 2011, Guinness World Records recognized him as the youngest author of a bestselling book series. He has since branched into science fiction with To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (2020) and Fractal Noise (2023), the latter earning a spot on the American Library Association's 2024 Listen List for outstanding audiobook production.

Universe(s)

Books

• Eragon (2002) · The Inheritance Cycle Core Canon
• Eldest (2005) · The Inheritance Cycle Core Canon
• Brisingr (2008) · The Inheritance Cycle Core Canon
• Inheritance (2011) · The Inheritance Cycle Core Canon
• The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm: Tales from Alagaesia (2018) · The Inheritance Cycle Expanded Canon
• Murtagh (2023) · The Inheritance Cycle Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 5 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

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