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A solid fantasy read, it is an interesting tale with a few twists. It will scratch your magic-n-dragons itch. On the plus side, the characters develop apace and the world grows richer. On the other hand, there were already a few cracks in Paolini's world building in volume one, and they become a little more visible in this one. For instance, the idea of magic drawing energy from the caster or other sources conflicts a bit with permanent or other powerful magic, something Paolini tries to explain, but leaves the reader with some head scratching. Also Paolini mixes sloops with square rigs and oars, showing he was more into research than actual sailing. Sloops were 17th century technology, and while it's fine for a fantasy author to mix up the timeline how he likes, there must be some consideration for introducing something otherwise 400 years in the future and how that would really impact things.
Perhaps more impactful, Paolini's writing becomes bulkier and more cumbersome. While I'm all in favor of a bit of foreshadowing, often climatic moments arrive anticlimactic owing to such a long and lumbering build up, where the outcome is painfully obvious before he finally puts the readers out of their misery with the actual thing. The book could have been crisper and shorter. Paolini starts employing a shifting point of view, though his breaks can be choppy and don't always leave the reader breathless to see what happens next. It really isn't a page-turner and the prose is not why one reads it.
A decent read, if you're looking for another fantasy series, you could do worse, but it's also not a drop-everything-else-and-read-this-right-now series.