Gregg Nicholas
I chose to knock the rating down to ‘It was ok' because as far as I understand it, all the ‘science' in this series is impossible. The author seemed to keep inventing new impossibilities, just to keep the main character one step ahead. Thankfully, the artificial intelligence presented in this series is also impossible (at least during my lifetime).
Perhaps this adventure was written to appeal to those of us who couldn't wait for the next manual of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st Edition) to arrive at our local bookstore. Like the heroes in this tale, we are past our prime - but we're not dead yet.
Almost makes me want to call my old gaming buddies and say, “We're getting the band back together!”
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.
A fast paced time travel story. Any story that allows interaction with the past, will have a potential ‘causality' problem - and this story has several. Perhaps the reader needs to ignore the logic problem, and just enjoy the tale.
A boy being trained to deal with witches, ghosts, and similar things from the horror genre. The writing was okay, but YA and horror aren't my favorite categories.
In my opinion, this final book in the series would have fared better with less ‘Adult' content, and more adventure. If listening to the audio book, be sure to do so privately.
Changing the battery on a phone would not give it encrypted communications - nor would it suddenly enable the phone to work when the government has taken down the cell towers and internet. They had the data drive before the internet went down. It doesn't make sense to physically transport the drive when they could send the data instantly.
This story is almost too short, but it seems geared to make the reader think. What if the rich and powerful could slow the aging process? What happens to society when the rich can afford to live 4 times as long as the poor?
In my opinion, the vulgar language was used in the title and in some chapters primarily as an attention getting device. Author doesn't want you to care about nothing, just be mindful and selective about what you do care about.
I picked up the book from my library on a whim. Wish I hadn't. Like all self-help books that I've encountered, they take a lot of time to expound on philosophies that are obvious.
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.
There are some parts of this story that I wish had gone differently, but I still like this author - and the way he mixes humor and C&C (D&D).
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.
Author used a lot of words to say that the situation for privacy is bleak, but we shouldn't give up.
The story is well written, but has far too much romance for my taste. Too many pages were filled with details of attire and a teen girl's attractions to various males in her life. It is primarily a romance novel with some elements of science fiction. Unfortunately, a third book is coming - and I hate to leave a series unfinished. Without revealing any spoilers, there are elements of the story that haven't been explained yet.
It was a pleasure to hear Wil Wheaton read this story.
This is the second (and probably final) book in this near future, science fiction series. The writer explores the possibility that immersive virtual reality technology will continue to improve. While I look forward to those advances, I can't help being disappointed in how humanity uses this technology in this story. To my thinking, it is unlikely that many thousands of people would spend every waking minute researching and memorizing trivia of fantasy, science fiction, and pop culture from the past. To give a real world example, would you study every detail of the private lives of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for the possibility of winning a prize? I wouldn't.
This is the best book of the series. I especially enjoyed the way the author was able to weave ancient history into the story - and the discussion between the characters as they pieced everything together.
This final book in the trilogy was a disappointment. Much of this book reads like an outline, or the author's notes on the character's back story for the previous book. The ending tries to tie up loose ends and pair up people romantically so that it can end with ‘happily ever after'.
This is a story about US government overreach, trampling the rights of citizens. The heroes and villains are both a bit larger than life - at least, I hope that the government isn't really spying on its citizens as depicted in this story. It's disturbing that the technology in this story is pretty much real - and from what we've seen in the past, it's easy to believe that elements of our government believe that spying on citizens is justified.
I've waited to post any comments on this book because the story is left hanging at the end of this book.
A fun story, although the fantasy and science fiction components of the story followed no rhyme or reason.
In this story, the future is particularly depressing and hopeless. The peoples of earth have begun colonizing other moons and planets with the help of science fiction ‘inventions' of cryogenics and some limited terraforming. Human tensions escalate beyond belief and earth is basically destroyed before any of the colonies are self-supporting. At the same time that war is begun, we are introduced to an implausible ‘nano-virus' that becomes the crucial sci-fi element of the book.
The character that this book follows is passive. At times, this made the story boring for me. Life goes on around her, and she doesn't do anything. She never experiences life - but skips through time by hibernating. The physics, or science, in this science fiction book is mostly unbelievable.