Accusing Paolini of "stealing" dragonriding from Mcaffrey made me dump all the limited credibility this post had for me. I love both series and have the capacity to comprehend very few ideas spontaneously appear in a vacuum without external influence.
There were also a large number of dragonriding stories written in between Dragonquest and Eragon. Did they steal from Anne, too? Is the omnipresence of elves and dwarves in modern fantasy all theft from Tolkien?
Did Anne steal dragons from $GeneralEuropeanMythology?
Did she steal the idea of colonizing other planets from early scifi writers?
Did she steal the idea of aliens causing a galactic war early scifi writers?
Dumb take, bad opinion. All writing is derivative. The tone of Pern and the tone of Inheritance are substantively different.
There were also a large number of dragonriding stories written in between Dragonquest and Eragon. Did they steal from Anne, too? Is the omnipresence of elves and dwarves in modern fantasy all theft from Tolkien?
Did Anne steal dragons from $GeneralEuropeanMythology? Did she steal the idea of colonizing other planets from early scifi writers? Did she steal the idea of aliens causing a galactic war early scifi writers?
Dumb take, bad opinion. All writing is derivative. The tone of Pern and the tone of Inheritance are substantively different.