Gregg Nicholas
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
This book is more ‘Historical Fiction' than ‘Science Fiction'. There were some sections of the book that I had trouble following due to the author's usage of words and phrases that I couldn't find in the dictionary. The characters seem somewhat mentally challenged because they spend two thirds of the book, looking for the answer to a mystery, that the reader can already guess at based on the clues they were given.
The author put a lot of research into this series. I especially like the section at the end where he gives some details about what was accurate, what was extrapolated from trends, and what was imaginary. Personally, I don't see any possibility that ESP can exist, let alone be the perfect ESP that is used in the story. In his imaginary world, the internet is faster and covers more territory than I think is possible - and somehow they never have to pay an ISP for connectivity. The issues raised and discussed regarding advancing technology, declining privacy, and ethics are worth reading.
Some parts of this book seem to be almost scripted for the screen. Perhaps I've been too parsimonious with my rating stars. This author has given me a few chuckles, and considerably more entertainment than I'm finding on television these days.
As the author admits, this book has a similar style as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Most of the book is a stream of utter nonsense. Thankfully, it's a short book.
An enthralling story for the second book in this series. At one point, I think the author made a mistake in describing the process of transferring consciousness differently than it worked in the first book - but maybe the mistake was in my recollection. I was impressed with the way the author took the viewpoint of the villain, and almost made me believe that the villain was the good guy.
Despite the disgusting nature of magic in this series, the author tells a riveting tale. This book of the series has a bit more humor than I saw in the first two books. Amazingly, the author doesn't tie up all the loose ends, but I'm still satisfied with the story. Even though this is in the fantasy genre, not every character gets a happily ever after. To paraphrase one of the characters, “it's a pretty effed-up world, isn't it?”
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 book is a mixture of autobiography and self-help. It may seem odd to have an autobiography about such a young person, but she's amazing. I don't want to spoil your journey through this book by revealing any of the details of her life, but if you've ever felt like you don't quite fit in, (and who really does, anyway?), you may enjoy some of the life lessons that Felicia shares. . . . I've probably said too much already, but read the book anyway. Or, better yet, get the audio book.
This story takes an unusual viewpoint on time travel and paradox. I wouldn't say that I ‘enjoyed' the book. The explanation of how time travel handles paradox just didn't make sense; I could no longer suspend my disbelief in the ‘science'.
An interesting tale of an airplane crash and . . . to say much more about the story would be giving away spoilers. Personally, I think the author included a bit too much mushy romance - but some people like that stuff.
In my opinion, this book has too much politics and war, and too little science fiction . . . but maybe that's the type of book you want. Frankly, the idea that children could be genius commanders in war is not really believable.
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.
It was a mistake to watch the Amazon Prime Video series based on these books. There are significant differences. The books are better.
The author seems to have several recurring themes in this series. Predestination is powerful. Free will is an illusion. Women may let men believe that they are in charge, but behind the scenes they work together toward their own goals and belittle the men.
The author brings up the subject of women vs. men so often that I wonder what tragic events in his life gave rise to such a twisted viewpoint.
A space adventure starring a ragtag handful of people who each needed to leave their old lives behind. They aren't heroes, or even the ‘good guys', but they do have something of a moral code. Somewhat similar to the back story of Han Solo or Firefly.
Any book that can make me literally laugh out loud, deserves at least 4 stars. As a computer nerd and fan of role playing games I could identify with situations in this series.
I'm tempted to knock a star off the rating for this book in the series because the author starts the book with a scene, and then makes the rest of the story into a flashback on how they got into that situation. Not cool bro. I'll forgive him because the story mentions several of my favorite songs.
This book introduces us to story lines that are involved in a first contact with aliens.
Somewhat like the X-Men, a small percentage of people are born with magic capabilities. Each gifted person has a single talent. In most cases, it is very weak but some few have more natural power. Practice can increase an individuals power. There are more details and twists in how magic works in this series, but I wouldn't want to give spoilers.
The Wheel of Time series on Amazon Prime Video is based on this book, but differs significantly. Unsurprisingly, the book is far better at story development.
This story has elements reminiscent of Tolkien's Hobbit, but I wouldn't call it derivative.
Every character in this series is evil. Scumbags, one and all. Even the ones that seem to have a small amount of conscience, choose to do bad things, hoping for a good result.
When reading this book, don't look too closely at the science. Like many science fiction authors, “nano-technology” is used as a magic wand to violate many physical rules. I was intrigued by the timing of space travel. The long travel times in cramped quarters are hard to imagine.
This is a disaster story. In my opinion, the story is nearly a disaster itself. The chapters abruptly jump forward and backward in time. Although most of the people on earth die, I believe that the author overestimates the negative impact this would have on humanity. It is as if any survivors lost most of their intelligence in the process. You could argue that we only get a glimpse into the lives of a few people in a small area of the world. However, it is very difficult to believe that no survivors in the world, knew enough technology to keep some communications going. An amateur radio station doesn't need much power to reach the world. Alternative power sources for radios are relatively common. Wouldn't some dictator in oil rich lands, seize upon the opportunity to conquer the world? Any number of possibilities suggest themselves - but I just can't imagine why the author wants to believe that all the survivors would be shell shocked for a couple years, and then be stuck in the technology of the middle ages.
This is a collection of short stories with the common theme of artificial intelligence. What could possibly go wrong?