Jeff
An excellent continuation of the original TV series episode “The Conscience of the King” some 20 years later. Though the “mystery” is rather predictable, the evolution of the characters is what this story is really about.
Though this story had its occasional bright spots, this was probably my least favorite Greg Cox novel from the Star Trek universe. Most of the time it seemed more plodding than it needed to be.
Merged review:
Though this story had its occasional bright spots, this was probably my least favorite Greg Cox novel from the Star Trek universe. Most of the time it seemed more plodding than it needed to be.
Very enjoyable story, lots of action and, as always, a pleasure to see Star Trek: TOS and Star Trek: TNG characters interact.
An interesting mix of sci-fi, noir tropes, humor and colorful characters.
The concept contained a lot of possibility, but the execution was strictly formula and more reminiscent of 30's and 40's pulp fiction than any other genre.
This is an excellent story with an interesting plot and a variety of well-rounded characters. If you have the chance to read this book don't pass it by.
I am grateful to have won/received this ARC edition of “The Time Traveler's Almanac” from Tor.com two weeks ago.
This anthology consists of 69 time travel stories, broken down into 4 categories: Experiments; Reactionaries and Revolutionaries; Mazes and Traps, and Communiques over a space of 960 pages. I'm a fast reader, yet it still took me 2 weeks of using all my spare time to read in order to finish this large collection.
And what a collection! Stories by masters we are all familiar with such as Asimov, Turtledove, Wells, Martin (before Game of Thrones), Bradbury, Silverberg, and Adams, as well as those that may not be as familiar such as Chu, Kutner, Moore, and others.
If you are a fan of time travel stories, this is a collection you will enjoy.
Another great story. I love how the chapters are woven into the tapestry of the books and the books into the series with characters who possess breadth, depth, and fullness. Many thanks to my daughter for introducing me to The Expanse.
Another excellent story in the series! The one less-than-stellar part for me was the “battle” scenes involving Miller, Elvi, and the whatever it was supposed to be. I found that section difficult to follow and to understand what the whatever it was even consisted of. But, as usual, the plot, characters, and pacing of the story were far superior to most other works, especially in series as long as this one.
Since I'm a dedicated night-owl I was looking for some inspiration to motivate me to move toward being more of a lark (morning person), not because I want to be successful, per se, but so I can be more productive with my time. I found enough to inspire me to at least try.
I could not get through more than 20 pages of this book. Too many spelling and grammatical errors.
What an excellent story! This was a difficult book to put down as I was reading it, but I had no choice due to work commitments and illness. On the other hand, I enjoyed drawing out the enjoyment of this story. I found myself, at the end, feeling what we all feel when we have finished a good book; happy to have reached the end and sad that the ride was over.
Read this book!
A very well-written story and an interesting story, though the ending was “meh.”
My main complaint is one I have had with recent books; the author's tendency to move the story back and forth in time, sometimes (as it was in this story) to the point of confusion. I understand the use of that for a story mechanism such as in “The Time Traveler's Wife” but could find no such need in this book. There were too many times in this story that something would happen that was almost incomprehensible until you read the flashback 3 or 4 chapters later, almost as if the author had mixed up the order of his chapters.
Still, that is a matter of style and I do not hesitate to give the book a solid rating based on the story, characters and plot.
Interesting plot, exotic settings, good storytelling and interesting characters. Jake Needham's “Laundry Man” has it all and in great abundance. Highly recommended if you like your action stories served up with intelligence and wit.
Awesome Life Story
But how could it be otherwise? Stan “The Man” Lee lived an awesome life and created awesome characters and stories for our reading pleasure.
A captivating novella that weaves history, magic, fantasy and fairy tales together to form a story that is difficult to put down.
Out of the dozens of books I have read this year, this was one of my least favorites.
About halfway through I realized I was only continuing to read it because I just knew, after all the depressing scene of the first half, that there HAD to be a positive, satisfying point to the story by the time it reached its conclusion.
There wasn't.
This was a difficult story for me to understand. No, that's not correct; it was difficult for me to understand the point of the story. The major focus, at least of the latter portion of the book, seemed to be how Eileen, and to some extent her son Connell, dealt with Ed's Alzheimer diagnosis and inevitable slide into the horror of that neurological nightmare. But by the end it felt more like “We made it through that” than “We overcame that and emerged better than we were” though there was a tiny bit of that with Connell.
They were unlikable characters in a depressing and monotonous story.
Mr. Thomas has a way with words and is able to evoke nuanced feelings with a high degree of skill and talent. I would still look forward to reading his next work because of that skill and talent. I only hope that either he or I have reached a different point by then so that I will be able to enjoy the story he tells as opposed to just admiring his ability.
An enjoyable story. If you like “end of the world” type stories with a healthy dose of tech and written in the style of Dan brown, you'll like this.
I love how Butcher keeps moving this character forward in a totally organic and believable manner.
While most of the broad strokes of what occurred are known to many, Karl provides many behind the scenes looks at details that most of the public did not know. Charting a timeline that begins on February 10, 2020 with the first public acknowledgment of Covid-19, Karl reveals the public and not previously public history of Donald Trump's final year of presidency and the extraordinary actions that were taken during that time, and wraps it up with his in-person interview with Trump four months after he left the White House.
A decent story with an easy to follow plot and some standard characters. Biggest disappointments were the distractions caused by improper word usage (“chalk full of” instead of “chock full of” was a huge one) and grammatical and punctuation errors. These kinds of inattention to detail make it unlikely I will be reading the planned sequel.