This series jumps into the Zombie Apocalypse scenario, assuming that the reader is familiar with the genre (which is a pretty safe assumption). The author doesn't delve into what caused the epidemic, but he gradually describes the particular set of rules that his version of zombies follow. There are some sections with situational comedy, to lighten the mood, but it's mostly a survival story. It's a quick, enjoyable read as long as you can ignore the impossibility of zombies.
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).
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.
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.
This book is more coherent than the movie. I've rated it somewhat low for a few reasons. The story had basically no ‘science' to make it qualify as science fiction. Long passages of the story are written in an overly descriptive, yawn-inducing style. However, if you have a strong interest in descriptions of New York City life during the last part of the 19th century, this book is for you.
It was difficult for me to get deeply involved in this story. Perhaps the cultural differences were just too much for me to identify with the characters. Several of the science fiction elements didn't seem any more believable than light sabers. Nevertheless, the story was good enough for me to continue reading it.
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.
In my opinion, the plot in this book continues the pattern of the whole series. Too much of the story depends on an unbelievably smart person. The rest of the inhabitants of earth are portrayed as idiots who can't even come up with obvious applications of an invention - or obvious attack tactics, without getting help from the guy who must be the only genius on earth.
This is a fun story about a girl inheriting a fortune and villains who have technology that grants almost comic book powers. The ‘science' is a bit ridiculous, but the tongue-in-cheek humor makes this book well worth reading. I'm a bit disappointed with the final couple of pages, where the author shamelessly throws in a reason to write a sequel.
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.
This story has some similarities to [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One Ernest Cline https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1406383612s/9969571.jpg 14863741]. In this story, the description of the physical, real world is a bit hard to accept as possible. However, most of the story takes place in the virtual world - which is also hard to believe, but it sure sounds like fun.