Eric Allerton

I love this series more with every passing book! “Black Order” flowed so well that I easily read it in a week, which never happens to me. The climax was a bit outlandish, but one could assume that to be the case when you're dealing with quasi-non-fictional Nazi technology.

I really hope Fiona becomes a main character in the books to come as her street-rat personality really fits in well with this series.

I'll continue to say this, but if you ever find yourself yearning for an Indian Jones-type adventure with a touch of the historically bizarre, Sigma Force never fails to keep me wanting more.

I'm noticing a trend in this book as well as his previous book. The symbology and occult themes are giving way to modern-day explanations for ancient mysteries. It kinda ruins the mysticism I've come to love from this series and the genre as a whole. I hope future books in the series bring back “the unknown” a bit more.

This book deals with the very cool notion of a branching lineage from the Oracle at Delphi, but waters it down by presenting that lineage as a group of autistic savants with brain implants. It's a well thought out plot and is mostly believable, but it just disappoints me a bit personally. Leaving that feeling behind, I really enjoyed this group of characters probably most out of any in the series. Grey and Painter are great as always, and the secret spoiler character is explained well, but I must give a special shout out to Kowalski. I hope he shows up in future novels. His fascination with shoes is endlessly entertaining.

The more elaborate plots points are a bit far-fetched, but they really don't get blown out of proportion until towards the end, so I didn't find myself put off by their over-the-top notions much at all.

Of the 5 books in this series I've read so far, this is the best as far as cover-to-cover action. There really isn't a dull moment to be found, and James Rollins is a man who knows how to write action. I've said it before and I'll say it every book until it happens that he needs to helm any future Indiana Jones movies.

Flirting with the known, the unknown, and the magical is what really drove this book for me. If a story can keep itself grounded in reality, it makes its idea of real magic feel like a possibility until the very end. Using the universal unknowns and combing the oddities of history, The Diabolist has done well in solidifying my love of historical and religious fiction novels. Can't wait to read what's next!

This series has been the most excited I've ever been to read, and I thank it for renewing my interest in reading over the past few months. I read these books out of order without knowing it (#3,1,2), with The Egyptian being the 2nd book of the series. Thankfully the 3rd book, The Summoner, spoils nothing.

What makes this book different from, say, the Sigma Force series which I've also been reading by James Rollins is that nothing feels forced. The Indiana Jones/Religious Occult Thriller story was interesting, thought-provoking, and to the point. The love story was what it should be; fleeting and not made the shared point of the story along with the quest. I love Dominic Grey and Viktor as characters and I was super psyched to see Layton Green is already hard at work on the 4th book.

If you want adventure mixed with myth-turned-fact from the darkly fascinating world of the occult and religion, then this book, and entire series, are the pinnacle in my opinion.

Perfectly fine short story that wets the palette for the next full novel.

Everyone has that song, movie, book, tv show that was “made for them”. This is my book. That should have been obvious from the synopsis, but I didn't believe it.

‘An adventure to find a dead man's treasure in the near-future's hybrid virtual reality of the Internet and an MMO role-playing game. Where solving the riddles and experiencing the world is done through a myriad of mostly-obscure 80's pop-culture references.”

I don't know why I put off reading it so long after hearing everyone I respect in media expressing their love for this book.

I can't recommend this highly enough for any child of the 80's like me who spent more time blowing into NES cartridges and watching every movie, good and “bad”, that HBO had to offer rather than going outside. From “Family Ties” to “Voltron”, this book touches on everything that makes you a nerd from the 80's and makes it so cool, that the future of the world is based around its obsession.

Minus the rampant poverty the book's world, I would champion this future whole-heartedly. I also think that this is the first book to make me shed a tear when (very minor spoiler) Wade meets Aech in real life. That is by far the best relationship in the book.

There's been word of a movie version of this since 2010 and I really hope they find a way to do it justice. Reading it with that in mind makes me realize how hard a movie this would be to just script, let alone make it with enough money for however they'd represent OASIS.

If you're between the ages of 30-45, start reading this book immediately.

While I really enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down during the last half, I didn't enjoy the fact that its time-period allowed for the driving force of the story. The ignorance of the town council throughout the entirety of the book is frustrating. Without it, however, the idea of witches killing children with their spells and alchemy would be a completely unneeded plot point, and that's what drew me to this book in the first place. I didn't get what I wanted from that aspect of the plot, but what I did get was an intriguing true-to-life character in Jakob Kuisl, a relatable forward-thinking doctor in Simon, and the spunky, defiant and strong-willed Magdalena.

I wish there was a bit more of the fantastical, but because of the strong characters, I will gladly read The Dark Monk (the second book in the series).

A bit of a c-tease at the end, but I really am enjoying this series. This book wants to have a huge payoff so bad, but resorts to a cliche life lesson about the journey being more important. Also, Mr Rollins is very bad at writing a love story. There's really no need in either of these books so far and it feels so shoehorned that it makes me cringe. However this series is so enjoyable in religious relic adventure that I have no problem forgiving it over the next 7 books in the series!

Thankfully this was a very short book. The “unreliable narrator” is definitely not for me. Also, this is not a “horror” book; it's “slightly chilling for half a chapter”. I was pretty darn disappointed and Shirley Jackson's writing style didn't help much. I dug her prose well enough, but its point seemed to want to confuse the reader more than enlighten her story, and I wouldn't read another book from her because of it.

I understand this is considered a classic of the genre, but as we all know from reading shite books in high school, classic does not necessarily mean good. A lot of people love this book; deciding in their head what has been happening all along, but like all books and movies that try to pull this crap on me, I don't want to waste my time only to find out that there is no resolution to the story and I'm supposed to figure it out myself. You and I both know, Shirley, that you have a resolution in your head. Don't try to be clever (or lazy) and not give it to me. Pretentious, I say!

This is a great follow-up story to a fantastic first book! I really care for these characters and their allies. That's obviously important in a multi-book series, but what keeps me going are the new situations, the new cons, and the twists and turns that follow. It's been pretty obvious in both books that the Gentlemen Bastards are going to pull off all their long-cons successfully, but they're always pulled off with unforeseen results and consequences.

The most fun part of this book is the plot. Taking our flawed, yet beloved heroes and making them unwilling pirates is a twist on the fish out of water (no pun intended) trope that I don't think I've ever encountered. Scott Lynch's realization to make that the focal point of the book is genius; and making them break into the life of being pirates the way only Locke and Jean could, by conning, is a testament to how well Lynch knows his protagonists.

The ONLY gripes I have about this book are fairly moot. First is that it's too obvious when a certain major character is headed to meet their maker. The whole setup is just like, “Well, OK, they're not making it to the end of this chapter”. It's just a bit disappointing because I didn't get that obvious foreshadowing in the first book's dealing with major characters' death; but I digress.

The other fault is more of a pet-peeve. In TV shows, I greatly dislike it when the show opens with a major battle, or a “WTF situation” and then the credits role and you're presented with “24 hours earlier” first act. Ugh, that bugs me. There's no need to do that unless the story leading up to that moment is sub-par and you (the writer) know it.

In this book, the story begins with an impossible situation from close to the end of the book where Jean betrays Locke. The point is thrown in the reader's face that the always-aware Locke sees no hand signals from Jean that he's playing a role, and then BAM, you rewind a few months to the actual beginning of the story; Chapter 1. Pretty intense. The whole time reading the book, that moment is in the back of your mind. You can't wait for it to happen! Then you kinda forget about it as you are too busy being engrossed in this great story. Then, a chapter begins with a familiar situation to the reader and you say, out loud, “Hell ya, this is it!”. Then the moment happens, the situation is played out and, just like in those TV episodes, it turns out to either be a misunderstanding or a double-cross you see coming from the actual story leading up to the moment. In “Red Seas Under Red Skies” case, the explanation is super lame and a total cop-out. It feels like Scott Lynch himself forgot he wrote that Prologue, realized he needed to craft a scene with it, and then explains what happens in the most character-breaking moment in the history of ALL BOOKS EVER! /hyperbole

So, ya, stop doing that crap, writers. It benefits no one. Focus on the story and not an “inside of the jacket paragraph”-type prologue to grab your audience. There are so many other great pay-offs in this book that the in-your-face moment that needed a huge pay-off was pitiful.

So, after that diatribe, get reading this series. It's fantastic!

Yowza this is a huge book!

After hearing everyone I respect say how much they loved it, I had to give this book a shot and it was well worth it! All the characters that are focused on are fantastic. I have a soft-spot for Shallan, but Kaladin becomes the one you're most proud of. It seems like it takes 800 pages before anything major happens, but the build up with little hints dropped and getting to know the characters is well worth the journey. (Journey before Destination!).

The only real criticism is how much of a chore the Interlude chapters are. Not that they're not enjoyable to read, I just found myself not caring about the person or place that only lasts a chapter and then never returns. Even if they do return in the next book, I doubt I'll remember since their appearance was so brief.

I've heard the next volume isn't as attention-keeping, but I'm excited to read the further adventures of my new friends :)

The purpose is to fog the mind almost as if you are drugged and can't make sense of reality. As the fog clears and things come together you the reader are changed and not alone.
This was an interesting ride and left its mark as intended. I am not clear on who the Bug Man was though. My only lingering question.

Not sure why it took me so long to finish this book as it's probably my favorite in the series so far. Rollins thankfully (and hopefully intentionally) went back to using buried treasure and occult lore to progress his story instead of deadly viruses inspired by them. I really hope this theme continues. This book also serves as a good character building book for Kowalski and Seichan. I've always dug Seichan and I hope she gets to play the spiteful hero in future books. Kowalski serves as comic relief for the most part, but he's so lovable with his shoe and teddy bear obsession that I look forward to him being a permanent part of the gang.

Could this book be more English? /ChandlerBing

I thought my inclination to be passive aggressive was abnormal; turns out, thanks to this book, it's just because of my English heritage. Every character is flawed and neurotic; especially Rachel. I don't want to spoil anything about the plot (even the basic setup) because I'm sure most people will be seeing the movie coming out soon, but what I will say is that this book always kept me guessing. Just when I started assuming “whodunnit”, the very next chapter would introduce a a new flaw to a character that makes you say, “Well, shit. Now it's probably them.”

This book is a great example of the dark side of the old adage “the grass is always greener”. Experiencing Rachel's yearn for the life of a married couple seen only outside the window of her commuter train quickly spirals into the truths of breaking such a facade. Really engaging and written as neurotic as Rachel actually is. Once you get to the point where you're piecing things together, you realize that 3/4ths of the book is finished. I can't decide if I like that or not.

I did 50/50 reading and listening to the audiobook. The woman who reads Megan's chapters is SO GOOD! I wish she took on the Rachel chapters instead so I could hear more of her. She nailed the acting part of audiobooks.

I don't think there's enough substance to make the movie anything more than a cheap thriller, so definitely listen to the audiobook beforehand. It's the best version of this story.

Informative, influential and ya, humorous. Because of this book, I'm no longer squeamish of surgery videos. Quite the opposite. I seek them out to see and learn how weird and wonderful the human body is and how we've learned to master it. This is only achievable because of a lot of the history found in this book. Donate your body, people! At the very least, your organs.

I'd like to think this book's purpose was to get me excited for the rest of the series, and it has. Kvothe's life story and the world he lives in makes for an engaging read, but this particular book left me wanting more. I found the major events rather bland in comparison to the evil he's searching for, hasn't found yet, and only too infrequently makes mention of. The story really only picks up once he gets to university, and then turns into a Harry Potter with an attitude scenario, which is fun to read and written well, but looking back, it just made me realize that I forgot his main quest of the Chandrian. Thankfully it kept me enthralled enough to eagerly await reading the rest of the series to find out why he turned out the man he is throughout the book's interludes.

It drags out the last stand quite a bit, but I loved the mystery and adventure. One of the most fun books I've ever read and I can't wait to tackle the next in the series!

“The original non-fiction book” is definitely engaging; if not a bit drawn out. I'm obviously late to the game in reading this, but I'm glad I did. Getting a non-fiction story from 3 different points of view sucks you in like no other true story I've ever read. You go on each person's journey as the pieces of this murderous adventure are put together and getting to know them as intimately as you do puts you right in the middle of their lives and it's done very well thanks for fantastic story writing. So fantastic, in fact, that it's hard to not believe that a lot of the dialogue is hear-say and otherwise made up; based on events gleamed from interviews and expanded upon with prose.

This book is longer than it needs to be. Some parts definitely could have been cut, such as all the legalese junk and cellmate backstory, but as pure telling of a real-life story, I can see why a lot of people consider this a modern classic and why Truman Capote was made famous. I can see this being required reading in highschools.

It's hard for me to sum up how great a person Malala Yousafzai is. I, like most people, knew the gist of her story, but when her interview on The Daily Show a couple months ago moved me to tears, purchasing this book was must.

What I didn't know about her was how much of an activist for girls' education she was BEFORE she was shot.

A normal girl doing extraordinary things for the world, and she's only 18! It's inspiring to learn about someone who has a passion about making the world a more equal and peaceful place and actually has the ear of major world leaders. I can't imagine how much good she will do with the rest of her long life.

Thank you, Malala :)

The series continues to entertain. This time, blending real-life mysteries such as the history of Marco Polo, Angelic writings, and the coolest looking temples to exist in real life in Angkor Cambodia, The Judas Strain is thrilling high-brow adventuring. I really hope the character of Surina comes back in subsequent volumes of this series. She seems so badass! On that note, while this series revolves mainly around the male cast, the female characters are all a lot more interesting and fun to read. Seichan is kick-ass, Lisa is like a scientific Velma, and even all the tertiary female characters peak my interest. I'm really glad to see that Rollins continues to introduce strong female characters, because in adventure books, they always seem to be the highlight.

This is an incredible book. Simply said.

You'd think a book told mostly from the point of view of a single, completely isolated character would be boring, but you'd be very VERY wrong. All it really takes is the very first chapter for you to instantly fall in love with Mark Watney. His personality just smacks you in the face the moment you start reading his recorded personal logs of his life while stranded on Mars, alone, after suffering an assumed fatal injury while his team were forced to make a quick exit from their stay on the red planet in our not-so-distant future.

It's an amazing story of survival and ingenuity; of the brightest minds on the planet Earth banding together to save a single human life 12 light-minutes from home. The surprising aspect of this book is how funny it is! Watney's day-to-day survival logs are injected with humorous one-liners such as, “Why can Aquaman control whales? They're mammals!”.

There's enough twists and turns that you honestly won't know if there's a happy ending, or if Watney's fate is to be memorialized as something humans just can't overcome yet. This unknown keeps you engrossed right up until the last few pages. The ending is satisfying, but deserves an epilogue that sadly doesn't exist yet.

I am not a fan of space stories. Books, TV, movies...space is rarely my cup of tea for entertainment. Firefly the TV show, and now “The Martian” are such exceptions to the rule that I think everyone needs to experience them as well.

If that's not enough to sway you, the audiobook (which I usually listen to for all books I'm reading while in my car. Thanks WhisperSync for Kindle!) is top-notch!

This book was very hard to put down! I found myself sneaking off to read/listen to another few pages of this whenever I could. I haven't read too many mystery thriller books, so maybe I'm just a n00b to the genre, but I really got into it.

This book is very mature, and I'm thankful for that. The main character, whom you believe in the beginning to be a green reporter that's going to come out of this a stronger person, is (minor spoiler) EXTREMELY flawed and, just, wow...

Being from a small town myself, I was sucked into the idea of the main character, Camille, being forced to leave the big city of Chicago and slum it back to her Podunk home town; only to find it not only exactly how she left it, but f*cked up beyond all belief. Really great setting and great, completely unsettling, side characters.

The only reason for a 4/5 review is that the author seems to be really hung up on making everything as sexual as possible. Maybe it's just how women talk, feel, and act (and I'm a naive member of the opposite sex), but sexualizing and titilating the story points at every possible moment just makes it seem salacious for the sake of being so; like a PG13 movie who's writers were forced to find ways to make it an R.

I read this on recommendation from my sister and, like her, it has inspired me to explore this genre feverishly. I can't wait to find a similarly dark mystery who's ending takes just as many twists and turns. I'd definitely watch this as a movie/tv show for sure!

Ernest Cline unapologetically borrows lines and objects from all areas of 80's and 90's pop culture; which makes his books a ton of fun to read. With “Armada”, he also unapologetically borrows plot points from 80's and 90's pop culture. That makes it a little less fun to read...BUT even though it's an obvious knock-off of “The Last Starfighter” (the main character even acknowledges this more than once), this book still makes me smile and, like “Ready Player One” before it, made me teary-eyed a bit in places.

The biggest criticism I can give this book is that the tertiary characters aren't given their due time for us to get to know them. I'd really like an Alex backstory as she's quite badass, but we know almost nothing about her (or any of the EDA recruits) from right before they get recruited. It was also a little disappointing to realize that I was more than halfway through the book before the main plot points start. That's not to say that I wasn't enjoying the backstory of Lightman up to that point, but I feel that my biggest issues with the book could have been squashed had the main story started sooner so I could learn about the characters more in-depth.

Anyways, Cline remains the best example of geek writing, and there's a ton of fun to be had in this follow-up novel. Looking forward to his next venture!

While probably the best book in the series (so far), it took the longest for me to read. For some reason, the 2nd third of the book was a mountain for me to climb. It's also strange because I think that was the best part! Unlike the climax of the first 2 books, which can arguable be considered the same concept, the climax of The Beggar King was able to give me a multiple-climax scenario with villains whose deaths I really wanted to read about as Potzsch did a great job of making me hate the villains, once revealed.

I was almost thinking about stopping the series after this book, but the lives of our three protagonists are about to change significantly, if the end is to be dealt with in the next book, and I really want to know how they turn out!

The “B” story turned out to be the “A” story, and the original “A” story turned out to be pretty anti-climatic. Even to the point where the final battle was eerily similar to the final battle of the first book. I still really enjoyed the continuing adventures of Kuisl, Magdalena and Simon, and will definitely read the 3rd book, but I hope it gives me a better pay-off and a more creative way to take out the bad guys at the end.