Kyle

Very well written and wonderful world building, but I found the characters somewhat wanting. The best part are the interludes, which look at a handful of other characters outside the main plot. They focus much more on the world building, and so I found myself excited to learn more about the universe the story took place in. Let me repeat that: I was EXCITED for the INTERLUDES. Still, decent enough stuff.

Too many twist endings

Some cool ideas, but the story spread itself too thin over too many different characters.

Characters, with a few exceptions, were dull and one dimensional. Nerveless, found myself enjoying the hell out of parts of this book. The overarching plot is cliched, but the plot of the game is fairly entertaining.

An interesting story in a good world. The plots a little too focused on romance, and the third act twist is a little wierd, but those are small niggles. The big one is this: this book does not end, it just stops.

ehhhhhhh, it's fine. I might read the other one at some point.

A good story, but the author provides WAY too much detail. Not all of the characters in the book need to be fully fleshed out, you can have some background.

Good mystery, but maybe a bit too convoluted. In my opinion, a good mystery should explain itself just as a reader would figure it out. That being said, I might just be a dumb dumb. The main character is a hilarious example of what would corporate assholes were like a hundred years ago.

Makes me want to strike into the bush and attempt to blow up every engine I can.

Lovely little mystical story set in rural England. I love the way the main characters point of view changes between childhood and adulthood.

This book made me want to destroy all of humanity. It should be mandatory reading for the modern age. 10/10

Excellent mystery. Keeps you guessing until the very end and suitably horrific.

A great perspective on the fall of the French in WWII. I feel like this works better as a primary source than as a objective take on the French defeat. Bloch seems a little too invested at throwing blame at the generals or the unions or many other targets.

Great narrative of the early history of Astoria and the big dreams of the man who started it.

I feel like the interview framing device is more detrimental than helpful to the narrative, especially since the interviewer is by far the most interesting character. Still, a decent plot keeps it from getting bogged down in interviews.

Wonderful insight into the Eastern front of WWII. The two leads play off of each other very well and the maturing of the main character gives a beautiful flow to the book.

I really like the conflict between the old and new beliefs, but can someone explain to me how the Russian name thing works? That always screws with my reading of Russian novels.

A fun read, but fairly bland. The game is a good concept, but the author could have managed to do more with it.

I feel like this book did a better job of giving the characters more depth. In the last book, my biggest issue was that none of the characters were super interesting: Kaladin was somewhat whiny, Dalinar was too proper and boring, and Shallan was morally questionable. But all of the characters have actual arcs this book, and I found myself very drawn into the character stories, especially Shallan's backstory. My only issues are (spoilers ahead) a) I'm not entirely sure where the story is going to go after this book and b) the two fakeout deaths have someone sucked all the stakes out of the series.

History x Magic.

The journalist voice that Inskeep uses is very different that the usual historical voice used in these types of books. I found that it created a much more engaging narrative than other historical texts I have read. It's still a little dry in places, but the story of these two men circling each other drew me in much more than I expected.

A good story, but I feel that a better author could have done a better job with it. Every backstory chapters had my eye's glazing over, and I found the ending very anticlimactic. But still an interesting story that did a very good job discussing the dangers of deep wreck diving.

The 2nd person narrative and the self-help framing is interesting, but the characters are really what holds this romance-disguised-as-instructional book up. The two leads are fascinating in their own ways, and weave they're way through the story like fish through water.

Thanks to this book I know how to become invisible after I forget to return it to the library!

Dragged on a bit long, but a good read