Married with two kids and he still comes off as weirdly repressed.

The fact that the words themselves are a bit sexual isn't really his fault. Picking "consummation," though? That's definitely his fault.

You could just about call it an echo of the failure in years gone by to establish why Galbatorix has to be overthrown ASAP and why the Varden is so keen to oppose him.

I'd say that particular problem is more analogous to "why is this hole so goddamned fucking important?"

This is waaaay too unnecessarily graphic. Paolini really needs to tone it down on the over the top gore in his books.

I'm a little mmore inclined to forgive it here since I'm pretty sure this book is supposed to verge into horror. My problems are more with the charged actions and wording, especially considering the backstory Paolini gave Talia, and the tonal hiccups.

Now THAT I'd pay good money to see.

As would I!

Closing a dead person's eyes only works in the movies anyway. In reality they won't stay shut if they died with their eyes open.

And that's without having a crust of alien gunk all around the eyes that might harden and keep them open.