Jason

Possibly the best book I have ever read.

This is the first time I've ever read a Sanderson book. Obviously I know the hype around this author and his books. But I've taken a while to get around to reading anything of his.

This is one of those moments where I find myself facepalming myself.

Why? Why did I leave it this long?

The hype is real. There's a purity an cleanliness to his writing which made every page just embed itself into my brain with no effort whatsoever.

I rarely had to re-read a sentence or try to figure out what was going on or what he was describing visually.

It's just fantastic to be able to pick up a book and know that it will almost read itself to you.

And nothing felt rushed. This is an epic story with a huge lore and magic system, but not once did it feel out of control. Sanderson knew how this was going to play out from start to finish. It was obvious he knew where it was going, and he took the time to flesh everything out before things started heating up. The stakes were high because the time was taken to get me to know and love these characters - and their history. And at no point was I bored or wanting to "get on with it".

I can't say enough about this book. My only regret is that I haven't got the next ones in the series all ready to go yet. I can't wait to get my hands on them and really soak up this world even more.

5 out of 5.. 10 out of 10. A+ and then some.

Just..read..it

Book of short stories. This was a hard miss for me. Lots of typos, poor grammar and just amateur writing. Felt like a collection of short stories written by schoolkids to be honest.

Unique little story. Cute and terrifying all at the same time.

I absolutely did not expect to be so moved by such a short story. I haven't cried reading a book for years. It took this tiny little tale to bring it out of me. Beautiful. Sad. Lonely.

ugh

I hate it

I love it

I hate it

I love it

That was my journey with this.

I originally started reading this a couple of years ago and DNF at about 20%. It's one of only two books I've ever not finished.

But it kept popping up as recommended and I had now seen the movie (loved!) and I though, "Give it another go".

15% in I was ready to drop it again for exactly the same reasons.

Mark Watney comes across as a know it all, condescending douchebag with terrible Dad humour.

I'm a Dad.. I know what bad Dad humour sounds like.

And I was forced to listen to him rabbit on for quarter of the book - which essentially amounted to a math's lesson. I swear there were more numbers in this book at this stage than words;

"I'm screwed. However, the body needs 2 litres of water every day to survive, which I can get if I split the atom of 376 oxygens and combine with 800 hydrogens, while parsing them over 65 potatoes under 200psi of pressure at a temperature of 100 kelvin. But I must do this over 56 hours under a strict light intensity of 100 lumens. The advantage of this is that it will also generate 25 pirate-ninjas of power".

ugh

UGH

UUUUGGGHHHHH!!

I feel like Mark Watney was just a vessel for Andy Weir to show the world how bloody smart he thinks he is.

But I'm a tougher reader now so I persevered.

And then something wonderful happened. Mission control. NASA. Other characters. People who were just people solving a problem and with a real personality and a PLOT.

I LOVED these parts of the book.

Unfortunately they kept being in interrupted by Mark F*cking Watney.

Seriously, just let the dude die on that cold red planet. It would have been more interesting just to follow NASA's attempt at retrieving his body for a memorial service.

5 stars for NASA. 1 for Watney.

I chose to wait until I finished the entire series before writing a review.
And this is a series review, mor than a book review.

I took on the task in March of last year to get through the entire series, and I only took a break here and there with a few other books as a breather.
This is a strange one to review as I am a huge King fan, but found this series extremely uneven. I'd even venture to say that I think he was stoned when he wrote some of this.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. And I became VERY connected to the characters. I just thought some of the ideas were a little too cutesy (Blaine and the riddles for example - which took up WAAAY too much of an entire book).
Also, I love that King is able to essentially come up with new languages and weave them into the story, but I feel he tried to get too clever sometimes, losing the flow of the words and therefore losing my interest and focus in places.

I definitely found the earlier books much stronger than the later books. With Songs of Susannah being by far my least favourite.
What makes this hard is that through the entirety of this, I discovered some of King's best and also worst writing. So this leaves me conflicted.

I thought the ending was actually perfect. I honestly couldn't see anything different for it, and it brilliantly played into Roland's self indulgent need to find the tower at all costs.

But I find myself fondly looking back on the earlier books, more so than enjoying the more recent ones.
Who knows. Maybe that's nostalgia playing a part in it. Which in itself is a beautiful thing.

It's rare for me to discover a new author that compels me to seek more and more of their work.
I first discovered Ross Jeffery a few months ago when “The Devils Pocketbook” was recommended to me.
I was immediately struck by the absolute clarity in his writing and story direction. It made every page seep into me almost effortlessly. Like I wasn't even reading.
I followed this up almost immediately with Juniper. Yet again the consistency and ease of which his words found their way into my mind struck me, so I immediately followed up with Tome.
Dare I say it, this one surpassed the others.

I don't really need to talk about the book. It's covered in every other review. But you will feel the darkness here because it's rooted in the people. People that we see every day on the news but try to pretend don't exist. The supernatural elements of this book simply use those people as a conduit, not really doing anything but removing the shackles that usually stop them from carrying out the depraved thoughts in their own mind.
The imagery that Jeffery builds through his words is palpable. I struggle to develop pictures of scenes in my mind when reading, but again, Jeffery made this effortless to me, and I can visualise Juniper Correctional with insane clarity..

In 3 books, Jeffery has raised himself into the list of my favourite authors, alongside King and Blake Crouch.

Please...don't stop writing.

Dark, depressing, captivating and atmospheric. This was a fantastic read from start to finish. There are some very dark themes in this book, but all handled in aid of the story, not just for the shock factor.
Brilliantly paced journey into grief, the psychological damage it can do to you, and the vulnerability it leaves you with. All neatly wrapped up in a damn fine horror novel.
I absolutely loved this and will be looking for more from this author.

My least favourite of the series so far. Still very enjoyable, but I thought there were some sections that King tried too hard to be clever, and this made things a little muddled and confusing. Not something I'm used to in his books.

Yes it's a YA novel, but this whole series had this 50 year old hooked. I loved every minute. A great concept lies behind the YA tropes which made all the predictable parts so damn fun!

Coming back to these books is like coming home and hanging out with the mates.
Loved it

I'm leaving a short written review purely to explain my rating. This was actually a very good book. Well written, obviously well researched and planned, and with well fleshed out characters.
The setting and the story were great.
But for some reason I just didn't connect with it the way I thought I would. I honestly can't explain why. Everything is there, it just wasn't for me.
So for enjoyment, this was actually more of a 2.5,
Yet I still find myself wanting to read the next book in this series at some point.
Figure that out.

I would call this a work of literary fantasy. I am not a huge fan of literary fiction.
I adored this.
Just beautiful. I saw, I felt, I cried.
An exquisitely written journey, and a perfectly executed ending. Even the epilogue was gorgeous and perfect.
Bittersweet and gorgeous.

Like others have said, this is a tale of pure brutality. An examination of fear, pain and terror. A story that serves no other purpose than to make you feel what it's like to explore pain and death.
Very well written and translated. Some of the sentences were too long, but other than that, this is a short, well executed book that achieves exactly what it sets out to do.
Don't read if you are squeamish.

This is a homage to the classic fairy tale. My first non horror King book and I admit I was still expecting there to be some horror thrown in, but there really isn't (outside of the traditional fairy tale type “horror”).
So if you are expecting that type of book, then look elsewhere.
However this is a typically beautifully written book by King with great characters, dialogue and world building, and it did take me back to my childhood a little with the wonder that came from reading those old books.

Schwab has become one of my favourite authors in both the adult and YA field (this is . She seamlessly develops completely unique worlds and stories without the need for extensive exposition.
Her prose flows beautifully and naturally - making you forget you are reading a book.
Just another excellent read and another completely unique concept.

This was just so lovely. It was an easy read focussed on characters and relationships. With an important message too.

It was totally predicable but I didn't care. I have kept these characters with me.

Firstly I would like to thank Netgalley for providing a free, pre-release copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I went into this with no idea what to expect. I quickly found myself completely engrossed in the world that Cameron created here. His writing style was flawless to me. Absolutely beautifully crafted prose, completely fleshed out characters (and there's a lot of them to flesh out), and world building that had me living in it.

A word of warning if you have not read any other reviews.. This book probably should have a trigger warning for almost everything!

You will have a good idea within the first 3 chapters. This is dark and descriptively gruesome.
There's Murder (including children), rape, sexual violence, chauvinism, general violence, and extreme language.
This does settle as we get more into the story, but it never really goes away.
Think Game of Thrones mixed with Lord of the Rings.

That said, all the above serves a vital purpose to the story, and this has to be one of the tightest stories I've read in a long time. It feels like the Author knew where this was going before he wrote it. Everything has it's place, every character has their place, and every Trinket has it's place.

I loved this book so much that I threw away my free review copy at 70% and bought the final book.

Look forward to seeing more novels from this very talented Author.

I'll be clear from the start, not much actually happens in this book. I won't say too much for fear of spoiling anything, but there's no actual clear major plot that the book focuses on. This is more like a biography.
I hate biographies. And I hate books where nothing much really happens.
I didn't gives a rat's bottom, because this was masterful writing. For the first time in a long time, I didn't want a book to end. I wasn't checking how much was left so that I could start on a new adventure. I was enthralled by the world created here, and the characters that were so beautifully fleshed out.
The writing from start to finish was such a beautiful, smooth flowing work of art, that reading every line was effortless.
Humour, anguish, day to day frustration, heroics, jealousy, grief. It's all here, but without making much of a big deal about any of it. It's written as just part of this persons life. It happens, then move on to the next part.
Every location was built with visual clarity and every character with emotional depth.

I absolutely adored this, and the only reason I'm not jumping straight into book two, is the hope that maybe book 3 will eventually be finished, so I'm stalling just that little bit to give more time for what looks like a pipe dream to eventuate.

Never have I hated a story that I loved so much.
This was wonderful, frustrating, confusing and a pain in my butt to get through.

It took me a while to figure out why I could not get my head around this book. Then it hit me; too many characters.
Let me clarify, not just too many characters, but that fact that the author did not stick to the same naming convention for each character essentially created 3 times as many names to keep track of.
The fact that there's a cast of character at the very beginning of the book should have been a warning sign, but when you also decide to start calling the characters by their nick names, last names, first names, house position names and descriptive names means that I gave up trying to understand who was talking to who half the time - no, virtually all the time.
This completely ruined any sense of understanding of the intricacies of what I wanted to be a wonderful world.

By half way through this just became an exercise in refusing to not give up. However I was just going through the motions because I refuse to not complete a book.

This saddened me, because when this book was good, it was exceptional. I loved the two main characters. The relationship between them and the witty dialogue was top notch. But I just could not be bothered keeping up with anyone else. I didn't care who died because I couldn't actually place who it was.

The fact that this was a hard slog for me is reflected by the fact that it took me TWO MONHTHS to get through.
That is not a sign of a book that I enjoyed reading.

A shame, because I really should have.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good little story. Short, fast paced, and I enjoyed the historical link.
Definitely well written, decent characterisation and descriptive imagery.
Despite that, I didn't find myself hugely invested in it for some reason. This was possibly due to its short length, which is ironic because I was specifically looking for a shorter book to read in this instance. So I can hardly blame the author for delivering exactly what I was looking for.
I guess for me this felt like a popcorn book. Thoroughly enjoyed it, but didn't really care much.

I would like to thank Netgalley for an uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a genre I have ever really had any interest in at all. I generally stick to Sci-Fi and Horror. This book however has opened my eyes to another world.
I found this absolutely compelling.
I've not come across many books that make me think and care about the characters after I've put it down. And now that it's over I find myself missing them.
The story is deep and perfectly paced, the setting is beautifully realised, and the characters are compelling and realistically fleshed out. All in all creating a world that I found myself sucked into and struggling to leave.

This is a gem of a book and I recommend it to anyone that likes an all round brilliantly crafted story.

If that doesn't convince you, I loved it enough to purchase the final copy. This author deserves to be rewarded for the journey he took me on.

I'm very conflicted with this book. I so wanted to enjoy it but it was extremely hit and miss for me. I loved some of the character interaction immensely, but at other times found it extremely wooden.
Go into this understanding that it is hard sci-fi. And for me there was too much science and not enough fiction.
There would be times where I found myself finally connecting with the characters only to then have them ripped away from me by 2 chapters of scientific exposition. By the time I slogged through that I had lost the connection I had just made with the characters.
I enjoy reading the science that drives a story, but I just found that there was far too much here and it broke up the flow of the book for me.
Ironically, the final few pages had some of my favourite character work, but at that point I was too exhausted to care much.

That said, I'm glad I read this, and I'm left with a dilemma because if the areas of strong character work that I loved are carried through to the second book more consistently, and the exposition is toned down, I would love to read it.
However I'm not sure I'm willing to take the risk.

This was a simple, quick read with good characters.
It was a bit of a mixed bag for me with several sections that were tense and well written, and others that felt somewhat amateurish. I don't mean that as an insult to the author, but more of an indication of sections that pulled me out of the story because of a writing style that seemed to change in quality. More often than not during dialogue or an overuse of metaphors that made it feel like I was being spoon fed. I did note however that these occured more often earlier in the book.
Then there were other sections that were so gloriously descriptive and gruesome that had me feeling everything.
Overall this fell short of being great and was more of a popcorn read for me.