John

80's Stephen Kings is my favorite! ❤️

Now that I have an infant child I can appreciate this book way more than I would have before. Losing a child and having the ability to bring him/her (or if you allow your kid to identify as a an Apache helicopter) back to life, would you do it? Even if you're being warned your kid may not actually be your kid? Idk if I could live with myself without trying.

Sometimes King novels are to long or their two short but I think King does best between 300-400 pages (yet my favorite is The Stand...).
If he stays in that amount he has just enough pages to give you character development without all the filling, and he's more fast paced and really gives you a thrilling ride. In this case he gives one hell of a gut punch and it's going down as one of the best he's written. It's too bad most movie adaptations are so bad since they don't follow the books.

DNF. A huge disappointment to me since Brom is among my favorite authors based off his latest three books but this book was just incredibly boring for me. But of course his illustrations are wonderful as usual.

This one took me a while to get through. The first half was incredible. You get horror, sci-fi, and historical fiction all in one while exploring more of the characters besides Joshua. There are a couple historical figures in this book that are a blast to read.

The second half is when it takes a bit of a turn for me. It becomes serious hardcore sci-fi which is not a topic that I understand very well. I still don't really understand the ending but oh well, this book still rocks and I'm sure I'll understand everything better on a reread as I will most certainly read this again one day.

I would consider this the Wal-Mart version of Edgar Allan Poe. Pretty good story but I would be better if I was alive when he wrote this book because a lot of the references I don't understand. Also the relationship between Dorian, Basil, and Henry had creepy homoeroctic undertones.

All in all I'm pretty disappointed in this series. It's just too damn long. Tad always writes long winded, but I can usually justify it but this series should be half as long. I thought the first 2 books were really good and I was very interested but I think Tad decided to change the path of the plot to differentiate this series from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn but I hated it. I give this series as a whole 3 stars

Absolutely loved this book. McCullough's narrative skills are very good and keeps you engaged. I also didn't think a book of only a few hundred pages would have enough material for me to learn stuff that I don't already know but I was quite wrong. He shows tons of diary scripts from both American and British soldiers to show you exactly how they felt and what happened. I always enjoy history straight from a historical figure's hand. He was also very descriptive on battle scenes to give more enlightenment on how terrible war really is.

Easily the best history book I've ever read. It's crazy the absolute horrific atrocities that humans have done to each other and this wasn't 200 years ago. The narrative of today's history is “look what the evil white man did to the poor innocent natives” when there is so much more to the story then you could ever perceive on your own. Yes the white man did horrible, awful things to innocents but the sheer barbarism the Native warriors not only did to innocent whites, but to other tribes, is something out of a nightmare.

This book tells more about the Comanches as a whole more than Quanah Parker but I'm honestly glad of that since he's probably the least interesting part of the whole book. The story sheds some light on how tragic frontier life was. Cynthia Ann Parker being abducted several times, living a life of misery. Quanah living a life of vengeance. Pioneers and natives facing horrific murders. It really is a sad story but extremely interesting and I would recommend to anyone.

Some people hate on these books because it “rips off LOTR”. Well if that's how you feel then you shouldn't like a single classic fantasy novel in existence because every single one is going to take some sort of inspiration from that book. Why? Because it's amazing, it works, and we all love it. That being said this series has some similarities in the first book with LOTR but he progresses from those common tropes to make a pretty great series that is probably the best series you can get into for a new fantasy reader, besides Mistborn.

This book in particular was my favorite of the series for 90% of it. There was so much action, it was just wonderful. However the ending was soooo prolonged and Galbatorix's death was so anti-climactic that I just had to bring it down a star.

He left the series in such a way that he'd be able to pick off where he left it pretty easy so I'm pretty excited for the next book coming out soon!

Crazy how different the movie is from the book. I think the movie is honestly better. The iconic scenes in the movie aren't in the book and I appreciate those. The movie also didn't have the corny Hedge Lion. all that being said it was still a great book and his best book of the first three he wrote.

Sorry Señor King. Your fiction is borderline perfect but your non fiction is just as frightening as any of the monsters you create.

One of the best novels I've ever read and automatically makes any book Follett has written a must read. It's a historical fiction book about building a fictional cathedral in 12 century Britain, but there is so much more to this story. I've never read a book that could move me emotionally as well as Robin Hobb. Every death is a gut punch, every character you will care about deeply, and every enemy you will loathe with every fiber of your being. There is romance, there is violence, there is political/religious exploitation, drama, and tribulations from nature.

I went into this with very little knowledge of what it's about and I think everyone should as well. Just go read it and thank me later!

Probably my favorite Sackett book so far. The heart wrenching agony of losing a loved one, the desire for revenge, and the sense of familial loyalty gives this book an actual connection with the reader that you can relate to.

The first 90% of this book was really good but the last bit is just missing something. Idk what it needs but it was all I good do to read the last 2 chapters.

I now know that to be considered a “classic” it has to be the most god awful boring book. Most of the chapters felt like fillers and had no relevance to the story and the characters that are heavily accented are the ones that talk the most just to make it even worse. For example, “...for onny o' th' monny causes that carries grief to the poor man's door, an' there'll be tender wi' yo, gentle wi' yo, comfortable wi' yo, chrisen wi' yo.”

I was forced to read this by my cousin which he apparently hasn't read this in 20 years and just remembers how much he loved it as a kid. This is very YA and I just couldn't do it. Also doesn't help that I listened to the graphic audio and it was terribly performed.

Top 3 Sackett book so far! Full of action, corruption, and betrayal. Short and sweet just like this review!

I was worried this would have the “middle book syndrome” but I believe this to be an even better book than the first one. Although that could be because it's been awhile since I read The Final Empire. This book had an awesome mystery twist in there that completely bamboozled me. Vin and Elend are becoming some of my favorite characters in all literature and Oreseur is an awesome side character. I also thought the big beasties, Koloss, were pretty interesting and unique. Sanderson can write very well and it's a shame his new writing is almost all corny YA :/

Finally broke my Sanderson cherry and it was so dang good! He deserves every 5 star review.

First off, this is the best magic system I've ever experienced. Very very cool.

Second, he writes some wonderful characters. Every life you adore and every death you feel deep remorse like you just lost a brother.

The plot is simple enough. There is a gang of thieves who obviously steal or get paid to do things. Well now they have a bigger goal and that is to usurp the government ruled by a so called “God”, but they aren't powerful enough to face them head on. So using the help from a new found friend who is very powerful but she doesn't know it yet, they seek to create discord between the aristocracy to make everything crumble in on itself.

Right when I think I have my Top 10 list of favorites figured out, Sanderson completely dismantles it. Idk where I will be putting this series but definitely in top 10 without a doubt.

Cronin has to be the master of character development. I don't care how little a character's role is in a book you are going to know the whole back story of that characters life. I love vampire stories and this was a cool adaptation of that. Can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy

Heroes Die was the most action I believe I've ever read in a book and it is very very dark. It kind of reminds me of Assassins Creed or avatar in the sense that you have a real world people that are connected to a machine or something and brought into a new world and you're being televised on your murderous adventures. Caine is the most famous “Aktir” and makes his company lots of money by slaughtering people in this “overworld”. He also has marriage problems with another aktir. She was on her own journey but is stuck in the Overworld and now Caine must save the woman he loves even though she hates him.

I also enjoyed the Joe Abercrombie-esque introspective quotes in this book!

Most people say The Stand is King's greatest work but I think I will have to disagree. IT is scarier and has fantastic character development. I loved Richie. His accents and personality were a great comedic relief although his Mexican accent missed the mark pretty good.

I'm a huge fan of the movies and I think the movies are better although it's definitely nice getting a better backstory on the creation of this universe, and the characters, and understanding what IT is. The movies don't explain very much and I've always wondered what that “bright light” was.

My only issue with this book, surprisingly not the length, was the cringy homosexual child porn scene as well as the child gang bang...what the F was that about and why wasn't it edited out?

I was going to give this book 4 stars but the ending was just too satisfying that I had to give it 5 stars! Solid book and possibly my favorite Talon novel.

Top 3 L'Amour book, behind Bendigo Shafter and Last of the Breed, in my opinion. The I think what made the story great besides the fact that it had a solid protagonist was that the antagonist, Albert Heskith, was such a great bad guy. All the conniving acts never cease to end and you hate it him more and more as story proceeds. Well done L'Amour!

3.5 ⭐️

My love for samurai history began when I watched Tom Cruise's “The Last Samurai”. I promptly googled to see if the movie was based on a true story, which made me scroll across Yasuke, the black samurai. Unfortunately there is very little material to go off of in his life since tribal cultures of any kind use oral histories instead of written, which obviously are going to be skewed or vanished after 500+ years.

This book is pretty entertaining but it has several historical inaccuracies and information which are entirely speculation or imagination, which the author to his credit tells you at the end of the book. The author imagines what Yakuze would have thought or gone through coming from an African tribe, going to war for the Portuguese against the Ottomans, being the guard of Jesuit priest, being a samurai and friend to one the most famous Japanese warlords, to finally having freedom.

SOFT SPOILERS:

Some of my biggest issues with the historical inaccuracies are the fact that he gets kidnapped by Portuguese (white people) and enslaved. That narrative fits perfectly with Hollywood movies and pop culture, it's definitely possible but knowing how slavery works in Africa it's far more likely that he was enslaved by Africans and then sold to the Portuguese but there is no evidence to back any of these claims up.

There are also several instances of historical people dying and the author has depicted them dying at an incorrect time or the person who killed someone was not actually the person who did it.

Pretty good

I completely did not realize this was historical fantasy. I thought it was going to be historical fiction and honestly I think I would have preferred it that way.

The story follows several characters during Kublai Khans invasion of Persia. I really appreciated this book just because it made me interested in that era of history and have been researching a lot about it.

The prose is really easy, the length is perfect, the ending made me want to continue in the series. My issue is instead of describing action scenes he would say someone “used lurching tiger” or something like that. Idk if that's some kung fu move or he just pulled something out of his rear but it happens multiple times. Also the pacing was pretty slow but I'm willing to give forgive that on a first book. All in all a good read that I would recommend to people interested in Asian history with fantasy elements.