Welcome to Gaia! ::

smile I think I hate you! smile

A boy of uncertain origin grows up under the clutches of an evil Empire, raised by his uncle. His uncle is killed by agents of the Empire, and he sets out to avenge him, and joins an ancient order, of which there is only one remaining member, a wise, sage old man. The old man presents him with his father's sword, and the boy joins the rebels against the Empire, only to find out that the Emperor's right-hand man was his father.

Now, is that the plot of Star Wars or Inheritance? icon_confused.gif Also see: Eragon and Arya (remind you of any other human/elf duos?) Lake Isenstar (hmm, what's the name of that river near Isengard again?), the elven honorific Elda (quoth Lord Elrond: "The life of the Eldar is leaving you") a magical Ancient Language in which everything has a name which must be spoken in order to influence it (Ursula le Guin's Earthsea, anyone?) immortal, fair, beautiful elves (looks like the Quendi have cousins!) dwarves that are expert craftsmen (Gimli would fit right in, don't you think?) Dragonriders (oh, looks like Anne Mcaffrey is owed a tithe too!) singing to trees to shape them (the Ogier from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time aren't the only ones who can do it, then!) a werecat (I wonder if Mogget from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom knows his identity's been stolen?) an isolated mountain village where noble blood is still passed down from a king long ago (Edmond's Field from Wheel of Time) a mountain range called the Spine (again, Wheel of Time, and Forgotten Realms to boot)... the list goes on.

Eragon and Arya (remind you of any other human/elf duos?)
-Bafoon, if there are so many human/elf duos, then why the hell are you complaining about this one only??? You might as well be flaming Lord of the Rings, and every other human/elf duo out there as well! And yet, you decide to pick out only Eragon as your target.

a magical Ancient Language in which everything has a name which must be spoken in order to influence it (Ursula le Guin's Earthsea, anyone?)
-The Ancient Language is much different from Earthsea. The names of Earthsea are an object's true identity, thus one who knows it's true identity controls it's identity.
The ancient language however is more like a tool used to contorl magic, as described by Oromis. Magic is controlled by will alone, but with the Ancient language, one can word one's purpose concretely. So when one says "Blow up that door." But is picturing himself; instead of blowing up himself, he blows up the door.

Although I must admit, this one is a tad bit simialar. Although, there are many books with an ancient language and true names and such. Why you chose to pick on Eragon only, again eludes me.

dwarves that are expert craftsmen (Gimli would fit right in, don't you think?)
-Once again, dwarven stereotype.

singing to trees to shape them (the Ogier from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time aren't the only ones who can do it, then!)
-Bards, fairies, Magcians of Caprona, etc. Plenty of spellcasters from multiple pieces of literature use singing to do stuff, including growing trees. And once again, you pick on only Eragon.

Plenty of stories out there hold some simialarity of some kind to another sotry out there. It's impossible for stories to not seem familiar. It would be like looking for two people that didn't have atleast 1 thing in common.
But despite that, you pick on Eragon, and Eragon alone for every single simialarity it contains to other books.
Eragon doesn't suck. You just don't like Eragon dude. Get over it, and stop trying to justify your hate like Hitler.