Christopher Paolini was born on November 17, 1983 in Southern California and was raised in the Paradise Valley, Montana area. Home schooled for the duration of his education, Paolini graduated from high school at the age of 15 through a set of accredited correspondence courses from the American School of Correspondence in Lansing, Illinois. Following graduation, he started work on what would become the novel Eragon, the first of a series set in the mythical land of Alagaësia.

Eragon was published in 2002 by Paolini International LLC, Paolini's parents' company. To promote the book, Paolini toured over 135 schools and libraries, discussing reading and writing, all the while dressed in a medieval costume of red shirt, billowy black pants, lace-up boots, and a jaunty black cap. He created the cover art for the first edition of Eragon, which featured Saphira's eye and also drew the maps on the inside covers of his books.

In Summer 2002, the stepson of author Carl Hiaasen found Eragon in a bookstore, loved it and brought it to the attention of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf subsequently made an offer to publish Eragon and the rest of the Inheritance cycle. The second edition of Eragon was published by Knopf in August 2003. At the age of nineteen, Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author. Eragon has since been adapted into a film of the same name.

Eldest, the sequel to Eragon, was released August 23, 2005. The third book in the cycle, Brisingr, was released on September 20, 2008 and, although the Inheritance Cycle was planned as a trilogy, the details for Brisingr had to be expanded to include a fourth book which has yet to be titled. Paolini said that during writing, the length of the third book grew and it was split into two parts to be published separately, as two different books. Because of this, many plot elements originally intended for the third book were moved to the fourth book.

No official release date or title has yet been given for the fourth book.

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