What would you bring with you to spend twenty years on a desert island? That question came up at Dragonsteel Nexus 2025, and Christopher offered some surprise answers. Peanut gallery comments from the indomitable Ryan Cahill!
A transcript follows below for those who enjoy a read about desert island must haves:
Christopher Paolini:
Uh, I’ve been sitting here this whole time, like going through literally hundreds of options in my head. If I take the question literally, like it’s going be twenty years on a desert island—I kinda want bang for your—
Ryan Cahill:
Where are we getting electricity?
Christopher:
Don’t—shhhh, shhhhh!
<laughter>
Ryan:
Just teach me how to saddle the Pegasus here and we can get back.
Audience member:
Solar power!
Christopher:
Solar power! That’s right, that’s right. Um—
Ryan:
I would leave.
Christopher:
Nah, it’s a little fusion reactor. Um—so, so trying to think about bang for your buck in a certain way—now this, this is not because the length actually—but as far as films go, uh, I think I’d go with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
<audience hoots>
Christopher continued:
Just because it’s—yeah, it’s an epic. I would watch that film anytime. I was thinking of Alien. I was thinking of Terminator. I was thinking of The Lord of the Rings. But I think The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I could sit down and watch that any time. Uhh, plus the music is epic. You know, I can, I can imagine working on my desert island while listening to the music playing in the background, you know, the movie playing in the background. That would work pretty well. Uh, as far as books, now this one I’m actually going to get bang for your buck, this is going to be a weird choice, uh, perhaps, but the King James Bible.
<audience whoots>
Christopher:
Well, it’s the foundation of a lot of Western literature, there’s a lot of pages, so, you know—
Ryan:
You love pages. <laughs>
Christopher:
There’s re-read value. There’s a lot of variety. So I think that’s a good choice there. And, and, you know, thin pages so it doesn’t weigh too much. Easy to carry around. Um, I’m saying that because I carried around the hardcover first edition of The Way of Kings on book tour around the world for four months in my bag.
Ryan:
Yeah, but did you have to go the gym even once?
Christopher:
Nope, not once, not once.
<audience laughs>
Christopher continued:
Came back with bulging arms. Uh, and then as far as a television show, uh, I want to say the original of The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan because I love that show. But it’s too short for twenty years on a desert island. It’s only like thirteen episodes. So I’m actually going to say an old Babylon 5 show, so twenty-six episode seasons, you know, love that show.
Ryan:
You just made me realize that if I added in seasons seven and eight for Game of Thrones, I wouldn’t last twenty years.
<laughter>
And that’s it for the transcript! As always follow Christopher on social media (X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, Blue Sky, Youtube, Tiktok) for the latest and check back on his Events page for upcoming appearances.
