Ryan Wenneker

Though this is well into the series, and this is first of the series that doesn't beat you over the head with back story.

This book is an interesting foray, or rather a modern translation of the Objectivist principles found in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Yes, I know. It's a fantasy book, the Sword of Truth's wielder, Richard Cipher/Rahl, is forced into a enemy land, a land that purports to put the highest value on humanities need to be in service to its fellow man - to the detriment of the society.

Goodkind goes further into the extremes of a co-opted government seeking to persecute those whose abilities and drive are above average than Ayn Rand's reimagined world; however he maintained the Tagart and Rearden aspects of iron ore and transport, and a female character infatuated with the man who would tear down the system.

I love this book, in no small part because I've labored through the previous books in the series and finally got to a book with a story that was a vision of traditional epic fantasy story arc that was not just well done, but at times astute.

It was compelling, and BONUS had less rape than its predecessors.

I've not reviewed the other books in the series, but I'll state this as general statement. I found the laws of the magic and culture/society were being selectively disregarded and that's not uncommon for teen lit, which I assumed this was as even curse words were replaced with apparently sole expletive “Bags!!” - which was cute, up until characters (most often women) were being subjected to sexual assault, recounting or witnessed such.

Likewise I have a problem with the love relationship between Richard and his ‘true' wife, Kahlan - Richard in true fantasy trope gathers a harem of female followers. The description of the couple's feelings for each other, their romantic and even somewhat intimate moments, were often less eloquent and shorter than the descriptors of various other gruesome events.
All this makes me feel that the character development seems stunted. Goodkind narrates a wonderful moral evaluative process, but its detached and cold. I miss character specific nuances, and behaviors that make characters read/feel familiar.

I am comparing this book to Name of the Wind - easily one of the best budding romances I've read in recent years in fantasy fiction, and the obvious parallel series “The Wheel of Time”

A vastly better written book than the first in the series.

Many reviews of the Divergence reviews include the cultural references of Twilight, The Hunger Games, etc. - that is valid to compare against such given its release date, but its also not accurate. I'm sure when the movie of this is made... and its written for such, clearly. It will be compared against the last of the Mortal Instrument Series.

Insurgent, deals with some pretty intense emotional content and proto-typical relationship drama, but not in an inappropriate way and not without some significant plot infrastructure, and there is even at one point (Kuddos to Mrs Roth) work on defining healthy relationship boundaries.

At points she even transcended the normally prosaic elements of teen lit and provided those brief snippets and lines of a story that are art.

Taken more broadly than the work likely merits: its an interesting conjecture on governance. The structures are non typical and the divisions are intriguing and could be looked at as a weak allegory to partisan behavior in her home country. [I went there.]

Why not five stars? Timeline. Overly used themes. Derivative work - though everyone who said its like Twilight - I challenge you to support that without stretching reason.

I think the author would have benefited from a better developed or drawn time line, I might be mistaken but their are some elements which seem to suggest temporal inconsistencies... perhaps that will be resolved in the final book in the series. Let's hope.

Is a big “twist” or reveal in the final book? Likely, it is again derivative, but its the rage - ala Snape/Dumbledore; Jace/Clary ewwww etc. etc. etc.

I think I've unfortunately established my tent in Laurence Yep's camp.

The book may be more impactful for women readers, as the interactions between mother and daughter are the fulcrum of these stories. I felt like the story was a rich start, but that it ended too soon. As a framework for short stories about these women, its wonderful.

Still, I would like this to be a series and expound upon the characters.

On stage, you are always to leave them wanting more.
I don't believe that is the case in literature.

So, if you can forgive me my marking it down because from 4 because I felt the characters could have been expanded upon even more - I give this an average. I appreciated the information in the book, but leaving me still emotionally entangled with the characters also left me unresolved.

A fair teen-lit title.
Koontz's writing style is the star in this story, though I did find the protagonist, Odd Thomas, to be more engaging then the first story.

I'll be reading more of Chris Cleave's work.

I admire a writer who can personify multiple character's inner dialogue so well.
To be honest the story wasn't really that exciting for me, it was the occidental insights of the writer I enjoyed most.

Dan Brown's most recent work, is thankfully short.

I'll attempt to give the same consideration.

The most interesting character of the book dies in the first few pages.

The plot elements of a book featuring Robert Langdon seem to be a homage to The Hardy Boys with just with a bit of history thrown in to to make you feel like some research was done.

This series seems to be winding down intellectually, with Langdon's insights over the last two books being on par with that of a teenager, rather than a scholar.


Oh, and Mr Brown, if you want to address an ethical topic, I hope you'll give it more consideration than having a James Bond-ish evil villain' soliloquy in a dark room. The attempt to resurrect the topic ala a soap box sermon by disturbed woman's rant at the end as (presumably) an to attempt to wrap it up and provide coherency just didn't work. It felt forced and fake.



So, in summary if you want a mindless romp that is about as ‘unpredictable' as an M.Night Shamanism movie... you will likely only be annoyed by this book.

I suggest borrowing it from the Library.
It's not a keeper.

This book - in true tawdry fashion - drew me because of the cover...

I've found that this is the Author's first effort. Its a light and clever read, and I hope indicative of Mrs Fox's talents.

Its clever. You are told of the ending, know that things are going to end... and (at least so far) I'm rooting for the implausibility of a magical/cathartic “happy ending”

Its a sort of deconstruction romance novel.

Ryan

I'm a HUGE fan of Stephenson.

HOWEVER; I found this work only fair. I've so often fallen in love the not just the characters, and the settings, but with the unifying story idea.

Pizza Delivery gone bad meets pycho Eskimo with a nuclear bomb in a world ravaged by a computer virus that infects people. !HEY! that's crazy and fun!

Fully actualized potential for human comprehension leads to a war of separate realities in a neo- medieval culture. Wow that's pretty clever philosophy.

Fate crossed family lines intertwine while a massive money laundering service is developed off shore in a datahaven. Bravo.

This. This was World of Warcraft bumps into Terrorism... hilarity ensues.

I'm not sorry I read it, Mr Stephson's work still is excellent, however; he's the monster of his own making, and I'm unable to compare the work favorably to his other works.

This was a powerful... painful... story to read.

A mother's love, a child with a loss that he could not fathom.

Its an interesting read immediately after reading Guns, Germs and Steel. Serendipitous timing.


I just Finished Eating Animals - by Jonathan Safran Foer

Meat is Murder.

Delicious, Juicy murder.

I liked the book, an interesting next step past The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I've been to a couple of factory farms for animals, and my family is mostly agribusiness background so I'm not surprised by its conclusions.

Its an eye opener for those who haven't been through such.
As my father (cattleman/farmer/insurance salesman/financial adviser/terrible joke teller) is dead I can say I eat more vegetable than animal protein these days without much fear of his retribution, but I like the inference that there is a market for humane slaughter / meat prep facilities.


http://www.eatinganimals.com/

What would happen if Encyclopedia Brown or the Hardy Boys were dropped in a more cynical world?

This is the premise of The Boy Detective Fails. A meandering story of the protagonist his sister (deceased, though only mostly) and their childhood friend who drift apart, and either get murdered, grown up wistful and without a sense of developed self, or as the case maybe - insane.

I cannot say the book is inspired but the idea is clever and its written in a way that combines sexuality, violence and a moral distopia of the adult world in direct conflict with a once cheered, do-no-wrong child detective who awakes to find himself an adult, and in a rehabilitation ward for the psychologically damaged. (Nut house)

It was a light hearted read and humorous insight into the family. I had a friend suggest that the best way to experience the Sedaris (Sedarii?) is as an audiobook, with the author reading the work.

I've read the book and just finished the Audio book, something I've done only rarely before - comparing the media.

A well produced audio book brings something to the work that doesn't exist in strictly the inner dialog of reading, apparently the Amy and David have jointly produced most of their own books, and I'll look forward to listening to their audiobooks.

This is a thoughtful and well articulated explanation of a view of history, of invention and of culture.

As they say, the simplest answers are often the most profound - and this was a remarkably short feeling read for such an expansive topic.

A rather interesting almost “Fringe” (tv show) like book.

Two cities, but one city space. Two different cities exist, in what appears to be two separate realities the overlap in a specific areas “Crosshatch” zones. The citizens of the two cities are required and trained to ignore their counterpart reality. Recognizing, or gasp acknowledging the “Alter” city denizens is a thing called “breach” which is the penultimate crime in the two existences.

To manage this Breach (Capital B), an organization of both realities - oversees such crimes, was crafted to investigate and somehow be a shadow organization whose members can interact with both sides.

The book appears to be a political mystery with a distinct sci-fi - multi-reality flair.

I find the ubiquitous elements of the term Breach becoming a bit tiresome, its completely appropriate to the story and narrators point of view, but I am beginning to feel like I'm reading Wolfe, with his idiosyncratic of avoiding the obvious question of “why??”

Why are the cultures like this? Why does this duality/bifurcate city exist?

If China answers this later in the book, I'm not sure if it will be “AAAAhhhh Haaaa!” or rather more “oh thank the Lord, now I can focus on the story.”


Oh there is a murder that is the supposed to be the motive, but I have to say its a weak pulse at present.

I'll continue chewing through this book... much like a mouthful of saltines and no water.

Robert Harris does a great job with dealing with the complexities of Hedge Funds and translating that into a enviroment for the common person to digest.

The story was the typical Neuromancer-esque master computer gone awry story line, with some notable gaps in reasoning along such lines.

Its a good story concept, executed well, however as good as the research was with regards to the Stock Market aspects, the technological research and cohesion of the reported abilities of that technology lacked significantly.

Its a fast read, perfect for a long flight.

A lot darker than the other books. Boys and I are reading it aloud.

This was an unexpected find.

Were it not for Landen's book club, I'd never have picked it up, and were it not for a Thanksgiving away I'd never have read it.

The story is about Gabe, a ward of the state, who goes to live with his Uncle Vernon, a distinguished veteran, who is about as crusty as they get, and doesn't like to toot his own horn. One day Gabe returns home to find Uncle Vernon dead, and that's were I was hooked.

The young man does his best to keep that from those around him, working to establish his life - in respect of his Uncle's guidance - and to avoid loosing his newly found home, to be put into “the system” again.

The writting and style are easy and technically adept. It was a quick read, and I often attribute that to the best writters, because even Dan Brown's book was hard to put down, BUT it was formulaic in it lay out to be a series of short reads - which worked for his story.

I'll read it again, found myself overcome at times, so if you're a softy - its not a book to read around little kids or on a company lunch break.

This book only suffered from excessive hype, it was recommend/insisted to me.

Pratchett's work remains a witty banter, with an increasingly rich world to draw you into the story.

The book is clever, a little surprising but not as good as some of the others I've come across in a more voluntary way.

Still worth reading.

In interesting overview of the development of Linux's progenitor. It tends to downplay Linus's more eccentric and (to my way of thinking) humorous antics.

If you are a lit buff and enjoyed Dan Brown's DiVinci and Angles and Demons, this is a worthy sister work to fill the time.

Well written and wonderful lead into Steganography. Lots of fun - even my youngest son enjoyed it.

Gray goo vs. the world.... of couse I'm going to like this.

Its worthwhile to note, that I am a geek by profession. This book was a serious blow to the image of Dan Brown that I held, the information was sloppy and not engaging, and the subject matter that I find passion in working with daily, I found souless and seriously out of date - even when published.

Began this after 9/11 - was a great insight into the truths that we now openly acknowledge about the Taliban's rise, and the US's hand in creating that threat. It takes an unflinching look over their crimes against humanity. I found it balanced and disturbing.

The hardcover art makes the book worth it alone.

This a wonderful dip into neurchemical transmitters, general neurology, and behavior.

It may sound like esoteric science, but Linden is able to manage making even 12 syllable transmitters, proteins and the like - immediately understandable and enjoyable.

In short, this is what I'd always hoped to have as a text book, or as a long chat with a witty and smart friend.