Tadhg

Oh god why did I read this?! Need volume 2 now! Will be upset if Waterstones in Elgin doesn't have it (and it won't but it will have volume 3 because they all have only volume 3 of all series, why is that? )

Maybe this suffers because I was so excited by the premise; but I didn't enjoy it or laugh very often. Maybe I just don't know enough sci-fi references...After the he said/she said was pointed out to me, it was all I could see!Plan to give this another chance though, because I liked the premise so much and I think it may have suffered from being read between [b:A Feast for Crows 13497 A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4) George R.R. Martin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358261107s/13497.jpg 1019062] and [b:A Dance With Dragons 10664113 A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5) George R.R. Martin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327885335s/10664113.jpg 2936175]. I'd just read the first 4 books of A Song of Ice and Fire very quickly and wanted a break for a completely different type of book; but maybe I was too much in the Ice and Fire world and was expecting a book with equal depth which was impossible for this book to deliver as that's not what it's trying for.OK, second reading has been lemmed (T said). I don't know why I ever wanted to give this a second chance (said T). Even Wil Wheaton's narration couldn't save this (T said); in fact, listening to the audiobook may have highlighted the sheer pain of the ‘Dahl said/Duvall said/Hansen said/etc' every few seconds (said T).

I tried to push through this, but it just didn't grab me at all. Apparently its normal to feel like you don't have a clue what's going on but it was too much of that feeling for me.
I do struggle with classic sci-fi though; anyone reading this review should take that into account

Quite poorly written imo, however the storyline is good; not sure I would have gotten into it if it weren't for the tv series

Pretty standard Lovecraft fare, really liked the artwork though for some reason the book itself smelt weird... not sure what that's about. I personally think GNs are the way to read Lovecraft, I just can't get into his writing style (the mountains of madness is the only one that I've managed to read) and this cuts out a lot of the wading through laborious and overly-archaic language.

Strictly speaking I didn't finish this, but I'd read so much of it, spent so many hours on it, that there is no way I'm not counting it.
When reading a collection of just Lovecraft stories I very quickly get tired of the same style of story being used over and over again. It seems that every author in this anthology disagrees with me because they all used it too. The fact that I read 32 of the 40 stories is more telling that finishing this became a personal challenge rather than a pleasure - and that's no reason to read a book

I think that if I'd read this straight after Days of Blood and Starlight, I would have loved it. I've been out of this world for too long and was not really in the mood for it. I pushed myself to read it because I was so excited waiting for it.
I don't think adding the Stelian plotline really added much to the story and it disrupted the ‘natural' ending to the series which was the end of the war. In a way it was good to have that little bit after, especially as it mentioned economic realities for the Chimaera but as I was reading it I was feeling dissatisfied.
Still, I loved this series; will hopefully read again one day all together, might raise my rating of this one.

I really like the use of comics for biographical works, something about the visual element allows for a expression of mental states which resonates better with me.

It was a jolt to see a medication I took briefly mentioned in this book, but it hit home that there are commonalities between bipolar disorder and unipolar depression. I think the author got across the mania of a manic episode really well as well as the frustration of not being able to ‘fix' the ‘problem'.

definitely didn't enjoy this as much as volume 1

I did enjoy this though I must admit that I faded in and out of it a lot. I really liked that it was set in a Middle Eastern style world, a refreshing change from Eurocentric fantasy worlds. Will probably read the sequel when it's published, but I won't be counting down the days.

Warning #1 - read whilst alone; or only with people you are willing to cry in front of. It takes a lot to make me cry and I was blubbing whilst reading this.
Warning #2 - do not start reading at 11pm. It may be a fairly quick read (2.5 hours for me) but it will keep you awake for hours afterward.

This has been at the top of my to-read list for months now but I've been putting it off because it was getting such great reviews, so it couldn't possibly be great, right?
There was no ‘getting into' this book, first couple of pages and I was hooked. Whilst I expected a couple of the big events to happen, they didn't feel like the author was taking the easy choices (not in the slightest).

I am very glad this book did not end the way I expected; finishing is important.

significantly better paced than Black Powder War, though I do feel like both (and the next) books are excuses to explore the world (first China, Africa and next Australia) with its dragons rather than being plot-driven.

I realise that this is supposed to be a critique of society and so forth, but it doesn't stand out to me in any way. Read it in one go, but mainly because it's so short and very simply written; that is not a criticism, having just forced myself through a very dense SF book.
Easy to read, but I'm left with nothing, just meh. It really reminds me of another book, can't place it though

Read, not yet learnt by heart :)

Loved rereading this, but this time as the audiobook. The narrator got the tone perfectly and I burst out laughing several times (not ideal when walking along the street...)

Loved getting back into the Temeraire series, especially after I was disappointed by the author's stand-alone book Uprooted. One problem I have with the series though is that I feel each book is driven by the author's wish to explore the dragons on different continents rather than being driven by plot and therefore the plot is not as strong as it could be. However, Temeraire and Iskierka more than make up for that

“oh god, never listen to an audiobook which has sex scenes in it. horribly awkward”

My first statement still stands, it was even worse when they were...uh...complete sex scenes.

Not sure that I'll bother with the rest of the series as I suspect it'll be mainly Justine trying to choose between two of the characters. The world is interesting, sort has a comic book feel which is not my thing but the disillusioning was intriguing though morally suspect.

I was cursed with this book, and in the end it just became about finishing it rather than enjoying it. Will have to read it again someday because I usually like Neil Gaiman's books

I never thought I'd find a Terry Pratchett book which I'd struggle to finish, but I really struggled with this one. Not sure why, but it just felt very different from other Vimes-centric books and the humour didn't quite work.

This was a 3.5 for me. Really enjoyed the different take on a zombie breakout and the style of storytelling

Started off great, but then it slowed down quite a lot once we got inside the wall. Perhaps that pulled me out of the story too much for me to get back into it fully, but I didn't feel compelled to finish it, though I did not struggle to finish it.

The ‘theory' of this book annoyed at the beginning which has probably ruined the book for me. I can't really comment on the effectiveness of the practice as I've not started it yet; it may improve how I view this book

I was so disappointed by this. The best bits were straight from the monologues of her TV show, which I'd seen on youtube. The first half was ok, but the second half was terrible; the only reason I finished was because I'd read half and I'm already behind on my goodreads 2014 challenge! (This is the main drawback of the challenge, finishing books you would normally scrap).
I had high hopes for this because I like her stand up (obviously a good few years old at this point) but there was too much surreal waffle.

Quite poorly written imo, however the storyline is good; not sure I would have gotten into it if it weren't for the tv series

This was between one and two stars for me. Whilst the basic story fits the mythos style very well, it didn't really do much for me. The rape went on for quite a long time, which I'd been forewarned about after reading a few reviews (which I read after buying it, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bought it). Yes, it's fundamental to the plot but I think it did cross over the line into gratuitousness.