Gregg Nicholas

If the author removed half of the paragraphs talking about people crying for joy, bouncing between highly emotional states, and removed half of the paragraphs where people eat meals to celebrate or grieve - then the entire set of 4 books would have easily fit into a single book.

This book is absolutely intended for juveniles or very young adults. It starts as a typical coming-of-age story with a young nobody who discovers that they are special. In my opinion, the author omits important story elements because there is basically no growth process, no conflict and resolution. The protagonist goes quickly from a ‘nobody' to surpassing all the experts with his abilities. There appear to be almost no rules to magic - or, if there are rules, they're frequently broken whenever it suits the storyteller. After a couple chapters, I was disappointed with how effortlessly the hero achieved his goals. In many cases, he just imagines an outcome, perhaps even subconsciously, and it magically happens.

Definitely a children's story. Has some similarities to Alice in Wonderland, in that there isn't much logic to it. Wouldn't recommend this book to any teenager or older.

A well written short story, although I'd have liked it more without the supernatural element.

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?

Imagine visiting a retirement or nursing home, sometimes called an ‘old folks home', and being trapped there, forced to listen to the meanderings of poor souls who can remember things from 60 years ago, but can't remember anything that happened this week. The “stories” in this book could have been written in the 1800's. They have more in common with ghost stories than they do with science fiction.

I'll admit that I liked this story, which was split into 3 books, because I felt that, in some small way, I could relate to the main character. It would be great if we really could digitize the human brain and personality.

This series is really a single story. It has been arbitrarily split across 3 books, probably for marketing reasons. The chapters are helpfully titled with the year (within the story timeline) and the name of the person who is relating that chapter. Normally, I'd be distracted by the fact that we jump back and forth in the timeline, but the reader can mostly ignore the date and just enjoy the story. And there's a lot to enjoy about this story. The ‘science' in this fiction story isn't believable - but it is consistent in following the rules of the story. The author adds a sprinkling of humor and references to geek culture that helped me identify with the main character.

What if we could digitize a person's brain, turning their thoughts into a dataset and program that could be backed up and duplicated and effectively immortal? This is the first book in a series that doesn't limit itself to imagining science that can actually happen. If you can ignore the bad science, and just enjoy the story, you'll find that the author has created an interesting tale with a liberal sprinkling of humor.

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.

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'.

I've waited to post any comments on this book because the story is left hanging at the end of this book.

This is a collection of unmemorable short stories. It would be more accurate to say that some are mere sketches, not actual stories. They have no entertainment value, no ‘moral', no purpose except as an attempt to illustrate a trope. I had textbooks in high school literature class that contained more interesting stories than this anthology. The last hundred pages or so, aren't even stories, but lectures and diatribes - mostly from people who feel that their particular subset of humanity has been slighted in most common books and movies. Don't even try to wade through these lectures unless you're familiar with some very old and obscure movies and books.

A fun story, although the fantasy and science fiction components of the story followed no rhyme or reason.

This tale takes place in a modern world, like our own but where the Supernatural is real. It is a fun story with a bit of mystery, a bit of the super spy, some humor, and a bit of fantasy. In my opinion, the male author does a pretty good job of writing from a female perspective (although, I'm not qualified to make that assessment). I do have a few criticisms, however. The author frequently interjects letters as flashbacks, but I can't imagine how the main character could always be reading the right letter at just the right time - and most of the time, the main character couldn't be reading at all when the flashback is thrown into the story. The various supernatural capabilities and gifted individuals are imaginative, but give the world a chaotic appearance. The reader can't guess what weird capability will be introduced next because there seem to be no rules and no framework for how the supernatural exists.

A light-hearted collection of short stories, one of which is sure to make you LOL.

A fun trilogy in which mankind manages to establish a foothold on an unspoiled world.

I could quibble about a few details that don't seem logical. I could take issue with the author's technique of writing some chapters as if a different character was writing the story. None of my nitpicking should prevent anyone from reading this enjoyable series.

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'.

This is a collection of short stories with the common theme of artificial intelligence. What could possibly go wrong?

The zombies in this series follow the Hollywood movie rules - which is to say, they're impossible and illogical. Since the author clearly intends to give us a fun story, rather than a scientifically believable one, I won't complain too much about the zombies. I did enjoy the series, but found it annoying that Jason ‘Jace' Stanford kept being referred to as being smart. In my opinion, Jace never exhibited more than average intelligence.

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.

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.

An entertaining tale of how people might survive if somehow the zombies that we've seen from Hollywood could actually exist. It would be nice to have the wit and snappy comebacks that are exhibited by Jace in times of stress.