What is the tone of Eragon?

The overall tone of Ender's Shadow is pragmatic and thoughtful, but also emotionally hopeful in the midst of tragedy. Bean is brilliant, and even as a very young child he is determined to survive. His quest for survival rules his life in some ways, and you can see that he held back a lot of who he is in battle school, which is why we didn't know him as well from the original Ender's Game series.