Aaron
An interesting plot but a slow read. Has enough hooks to keep going but was tough to come back to it every few days. Also hard to keep track of so many characters.
Flat and one dimensional characters. The protagonist is clueless and thinks he's witty, which he isn't. The female is nothing more than her looks and overt sex, without any actual qualities to her besides her looks.
Of course by page 87 she “likes” him and things start getting physical. Because this book sucks. Officially a DNF for me.
Could not get into the story and I think the concept of this universe has been stretched thin. I loved the first and second installments. Even the third was good. At this point, I feel the fun just isn't there.
I'd complain how slow this book was and how nothing happens the entire time, but GRRM may kill me.
The Frontiers Saga starts off as a fascinating book with a strong opener dealing with United States and then galactic politics. Unfortunately the first chapter is where the good stuff stops.
In Aurora: CV-01, Ryk Brown makes wild attempts to borrow pieces from all the space science fiction out there. Unfortunately the blend of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and countless others fails hard. Paper-thin characters offer nothing for us to feel invested and I couldn't care less if someone's life was on the line. Shallow dialogue and lack of any plot development further derail Aurora. It is only because of the central plot that I kept trudging through this book, but it's at nowhere near a level to entice me to read the rest of this series.
I would have given this book three stars but the nail in the coffin is the lack of editing and gratuitous amount of stylistic errors littering this book. I must ding Aurora: CV-01 a whole star because of this. Sentences repeat themselves as if banging readers on top of the head to get a point across. Ryk Brown also breaks a cardinal rule over and over with multiple point-of-view changes mid-scene. One moment you're in the mind of Captain Nathan, the next it's the thoughts of some random person you don't care about. Whole paragraphs make no sense and others drag on. I was relieved to know at least Ryk Brown ran a spell check on this book before self-publishing it.
Aurora: CV-01 is a textbook example of what is wrong with the self-publishing world today. It is glaringly obvious that Ryk Brown did not have an editor or anyone with writing / critiquing experience edit the book. I would bet good money that he typed ‘The End' and then ‘Publish' on Amazon five-minutes later. No editor would allow a book with this many stylistic errors be published, even as a self-published title.
Ryk Brown does himself a great disservice by not having this book edited because the main concept was interesting enough to keep me reading. Unfortunately a lack of editing, borrowing too much from Star Trek (I could envision the entire story taking place on the Enterprise), and offering a story with no depth is what ultimately sank this book. While I won't read them, I can only hope these issues were resolved in the other installments of the Frontiers Saga.
This book is one of the best on Steve Jobs for two reasons: 1. It has all the insider information into how Jobs was thinking about projects and how he attacked issues. 2. It pulled no punches when showing him in a negative light. In the end, the book is very open about his life, the right and wrong things he's done, and an honest introspective into one of the greatest CEO's of the 20th century.
Quite a clever book that I called from the start as to what the ‘door' was. It kept me locked in most of the way but near the end it got a little goofy, hence the three stars. Overall, a solid book with good writing and pretty good characters.
While I enjoyed the characters, I felt a lot of the plot points and the big reveal were not so great. I'm actually surprised I made it to the end on this one.
Ready Player One is a gratuitous trip through the 80's, complete with tons of video game, movie and pop culture references. While mixing it with a Matrix-like system that keeps the book high-tech, Ready Player One is a welcome trip down memory lane. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did and I applaud Cline for sending me back to the 80's. Well done!
I enjoyed the overall plot and story of Fluency though I felt this was challenge after challenge hitting the main character without anything tying them together. It picked up by the end though which left it open for a sequel and pulled this book back into the 3-star range. Overall: a good, quick read.
A well-done sequel to the Hunger Games, yet one where you had to have read the first book or else you'd be lost. A little predictable at certain points, yet the book was still exciting and a fantastic read.