To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Finally finished this one. I originally started it when it came out, but I decided to stop for a while when I got to part 5 so that I could read some spooky seasonal stuff. Although, this is sci-fi fantasy that could honestly also be tagged as horror because some of the stuff, like the nightmares and Soft Blade consumption can get really dark and graphic. 

I love his writing style and I've been a fan for years but I found myself really unsure of how to rate this one. There are things that are explosively good about this novel, and there are things that aren't. I think one of the major issues is length. When it comes to a first novel (and seeing he's calling it the Fractalverse I'm assuming more is incoming?) it's sometimes hard for me to feel that connection immediately and want it to keep going on. Like in the Inheritance Cycle, by book 4, you genuinely care enough to know what happens to every single person and why. But those got longer and longer over time... and although I think he does a great job of highlighting the darker side of space travel that I feel like some others skip over (IE. All of the FTL stuff over and over—not that I necessarily liked them...) it doesn't always necessarily land well. However, the things I liked I really liked and even loved. Personally I decided to go with 4/5*. 

I'm very curious how Paolini and his sister are going to handle adapting it, because it'll be very hard to get a symbiotic relationship to read as something other than Venom. Especially with Sony's second film coming out next year...