Christopher Paolini, born in 1983, is an American author best known for the Inheritance Cycle, a young-adult epic fantasy series that began with Eragon. He was raised and home-schooled in Montana, and he began writing Eragon as a teenager after graduating from a home-study program at fifteen.
His parents' small publishing company first released Eragon, and Paolini toured tirelessly to promote it. The book was discovered and republished by a major house, becoming an international bestseller and the basis for a 2006 feature film. It made him one of the youngest authors of a bestselling series.
The Inheritance Cycle, following the farm boy Eragon and his dragon Saphira, grew to four volumes: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance, set in the richly imagined world of Alagaesia. Paolini later returned to that world with the collection The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm.
He has since expanded into science fiction with the novel To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and its companion works, continuing to write across the speculative genres for a large international readership.
