I actually got a little further than you before I gave up. I know from working at the bookstore that this book is beloved by many and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Even as a kid I would've recognized it for the junk that it is. It pulls out every cliche and rips off various sources (as you note). The brazen aping of McCaffrey is especially embarrassing (the bond between riders and dragons is described in almost identical terms). The writing is pretty bad too, I think (no one ever just "says" something, they always "cry" it or "exclaim" it or whatever). After you left off, Brom gets killed (sacrificing himself to save Eragon). While dying, instead of just telling Eragon he was a dragon rider, he wastes precious time by commanding Eragon to bring some water over and wash his hand. Eragon does so and finds that -- gasp -- Brom has been wearing makeup to conceal the white mark on his hand that shows he was a dragon rider.

Eventually Eragon meets up with ArwenArya, the elf, and falls in love with her unearthly beauty. At that point things got so tedious that I gave up.

Much was made of the fact that this kid was 18 years old when the book was published and had worked on it through his teenage years. Well, it shows. It's a painfully adolescent book.

Here's a great quote from Paolini: "In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf."