Gregg Nicholas
Targeted at a juvenile audience. If you enjoyed watching the movie in a theater of pre-teens, then you might enjoy this book. While many books are better than their movie adaptations, this one is more like the script of the movie. I can't understand why this series became popular. In my opinion, anyone over the age of 12 would think the book was childish.
This book is heavily dependent on remembering the previous books, because it jumps right into the story without reminding the reader about how the characters got into the mess they're in. It has been so long between books that I wish the author had included some type of prologue. I think the concept of the books has been explored and nearly exhausted. This book ends abruptly. It's obvious that the author plans another book. I certainly hope the author doesn't try to drag this out to 20 volumes.
I'm not qualified make a judgement on whether or not the book offers accurate health advice. As a reader who was looking for practical guidance, I had to read quite far into the book before coming to anything useful. It's easy to be cynical about his motives, when he repeatedly suggests that your physiotherapist use his book to guide your treatment. As a person with very little disposable income, I'm put off by his repeated suggestions that we need to regularly visit a medical professional and a massage therapist. When it comes to practical suggestions, the main points that I recall from the book are:
1) shorter strides, landing on full foot - not the heel
2) good posture, minimize trunk movement
3) work toward lighter shoes
4) good sleep patterns, nutrition
5) fix the causes of pain, don't ignore it
6) rest sometimes, don't run every day
7) cross-train, especially to strengthen the core
In this final book of the trilogy, the rules of time travel are completely confused. Apparently, there are no rules and the story flounders to a stop. There are a few continuity errors that should have been caught by the editor. At times, the humor seemed to be a bit contrived, but it still made me laugh.
I'd give this 4.5 stars (if that was an option). This space opera can be a bit confusing at the beginning because it's not immediately obvious that there are multiple sapient species, or how the human species got to its standing in the galaxy. Continue reading and much will become clearer. The story is well worth it.
There are a variety of recreational drugs and food items that I'd like to understand better. They mentioned coffee once, so while it's nice to know that it will still exist in the future, that tells me that none of the other beverages are equivalent to coffee.
I did not enjoy this book. It's the opposite of ‘politically correct' and uses a lot of foul language and hate speech. The author also chose to ignore grammar rules, presumably so the reader would think they were listening to a rough soldier. The events of this book take place in 2018 and the following few years. The focus of the book is on the military, with some talk of farming and politics. The only science fiction elements are a more potent form of the flu and a slightly cooler sun.
This book is not a story. It's written in the style of a soldier's memoir. It is a diatribe - a ranting monologue by an opinionated, close-minded, intolerant, racist bigot. (Note: I'm talking about the protagonist, not necessarily the actual author. I've never met the author. Perhaps these viewpoints are his too.) In the first 2 chapters almost every sentence is cluttered with military acronyms and abbreviations. Unexplained abbreviations continue through the rest of the book, but occasionally there are pages written in actual English instead of military jargon. I nearly threw the book across the room when the fictional author wished that he had assassinated the President of the United States. Seriously, no matter how much you might disagree with their decisions, the office deserves some respect. The guy telling his life story is a caricature of the ultimate conservative republican. Every racial group is presented as inferior to Anglo-saxons. Every foreign system of government and health care is supposedly inferior to the traditional American culture. Human caused climate change is presented as laughably impossible. Anything ‘organic' or ‘environmentally conscious' is denigrated.
The character in this story takes the attractive female refugees, and basically forces them to work and provide sexual favors in exchange for protection and food - and some of these females are less than 18 years old.
This novel is a thriller, complete with black ops and spies. It's set in the near future, with only a few technological improvements beyond what already exists. Then the author throws in a sci-fi invention or discovery and imagines what impact it would have. In my opinion, the story has some flaws but overall I enjoyed the author's research. Don't miss his explanation at the end of the book of what was fact and what was fiction. I also enjoyed when characters made references to other works of science fiction - although I find it hard to believe that a special ops soldier would have much familiarity with sci-fi.
<< spoilers below >>
I can't discuss the flaws without giving away some parts of the story, however, I'm still not going to reveal much in this first section.
in chapter 2, it is very difficult to believe that the characters would be so docile. Their ridiculously submissive response is almost enough to make me drop the book. With barely an objection, they yield themselves to military-type men who have no insignia and offer no credentials. They don't run, call 911, scream for help, lock themselves in the bathroom, or throw anything at the intruders.
Later in the story, this same docile woman somehow transforms into a person capable of carjacking an innocent civilian with a sub-machine-gun. We're told that a wireless flash drive can be used as a backup device without being connected to power. Throughout the book we are expected to believe that stolen cell phones won't be secured with some type of pin.
<< now for a BIG SPOILER >>
At the end of the story, I think we may have avoided another ‘Adolf Hitler' - only to be stuck with something almost as bad - a super powerful, black ops organization that is accountable to no one.
Just because a story includes things that sound like technology, it doesn't qualify as science fiction when it also includes magic and a total lack of rules about what is possible in the world. This story reads like a comic book for kids. Lots of swearing - but all with phony words like ‘shizz'. The humor is also geared to a kid's mentality, largely involving bodily functions.
Perhaps I'm rating this book so highly because many of the books I've read recently have been disappointing. The story is a mixture of thriller, action, science fiction - and other genres that I won't mention for fear they would spoil your enjoyment of the book. In my opinion, the science fiction elements were mostly believable - to someone as ignorant as me. Even the parts of the story that dealt with computer technology were vague enough for me to believe.
This book takes place in a medieval world with swords and magic, but no gunpowder. Told from the viewpoint of a warrior medic in a military group similar to the Foreign Legion in that the members are all running from their past. It sounds more interesting than it is. In my opinion, the story gets bogged down with troop movements and the fact that, as mercenaries, they're fighting on the side of evil - but that's inevitable since there is no ‘good' to side with in this world.
This story is all the more scary because I think that the science is possible.
{spoiler}
I think that there is an inconsistency in the story, though. Early in the book, the wax blocking the ants into the container was presented as being easy for the thawed ants to tear apart so that they can exit. That's how the ants were delivered, without eating the delivery boy. However, in the final chapters, a container is in a pocket for a long time before the human scratches out the wax.
The story hit many of my favorite topics: near future, mostly believably possible sci-fi, hackers of many varieties, and government conspiracies, just to name a few. My biggest criticism of the book would be a spoiler. Let's just say that the underlying technology of the villain is not believable. That won't stop me from reading the sequel.
Most of this book is filled with tedious political maneuvering and melodrama. Toward the end of this volume we finally get some action, but I found the repetitious writing style to be distracting from the story line. The author apparently discovered cut-and-paste because we're repeatedly given a scene and dialogue, and then we go back in time to read it from another character's point of view - or we're subjected to reading it again as a character remembers it for us.
Occurring mostly in the year 2144, the author imagines a dark future. Countries have mostly disappeared, replaced by corporations. In some ways, this story reminds me of Cory Doctorow's work. The patent system and intellectual property rights are more powerful than human rights. Slavery goes by the more acceptable name of ‘indentured'. The callous attitudes towards the taking of human life in the pursuit of protecting profits was disturbing, as was the laissez-faire attitude regarding drug usage and loose sexuality.
This book barely rated 2 stars with me. The science is entirely unbelievable. Some mysterious force instantly kills every human on the entire planet - except for teenagers who are actively considering suicide? I guess it's easy for the author from that point. He doesn't have to come up with any rational reason since the only survivors are too immature and self involved to do any sort of scientific research. At the end of the book, we're left with 2 young adults raising a child - and their plan is to lie to her about everything??! Frankly, all the teenagers were despicable and made stupid decisions. Was this a statement of what the author thinks about adolescents - or just the suicidal ones?