Kyle

I want whatever Liu was smoking when he wrote this book. He draws a fascinating plot that makes you question science and humanity as a whole. While I did not fall in love with any of the characters (with the exception of Da Shi), the books strong and captivating plot easily holds the narrative together.

This book was really well paced (which is my normal complaint with these type of competition based plots), had interesting characters, and a solid plot. It would have gotten five stars from me except HOLY SHIT SO MANY 80'S REFERENCES! I swear, there was an average of four per page, and some pages had up to 10. I get how it fits in with the plot, but it's just way over done.

A good, simple pirate story. The love interest side plot seems to come and go at random times, and the book would benefit from a single villain, rather than rotating three or four, but memorable characters on a fun adventure makes this a great book.

The initial premise and writing of this book is shockingly ridiculous, but that only highlights the decent characters and plot. Fforde knows exactly how seriously to take his writing and dances around cliches, using them to his advantage. They'res a character named Red Herring, and the entire time you wonder weather or not he's a Red Herring, trying to guess what level Fforde is thinking on. That being said, it's far from perfect. After 6 books, the concepts beginning to get a little played out. Switching the main character out for her fictional copy helped with this, giving us a new character to work with, but the books all feel kinda samey and similar. Fforde could also stand to set up his ending a bit better, as the big reveal looses a bit of punch since I didn't catch all of the setup. But it's so unique, you have to ignore the flaws and read it anyways.

So, part of the problem is that I don't really enjoy biblical mythology so much and find the whole concept of hell ludicrous. Putting that aside, this is a perfectly adequate book. Barlowe needs to work on showing, not telling, as a great deal of the characters emotions are simply told to us. I find most of the characters motivations sort of weird, and the ending is a little too happy for a book about hell.

All set up, but no pay off. Lovecraft describes a fantastic scenario where scientists discover an ancient and advanced civilization in Antarctica, but nothing ever got me invested in the actions of the characters, so it never gave me chills when they were in danger.

A fun and energetic tale of adventure and friendship. The characters feel real enough that, even across the intense cultural differences, they still feel like a modern group of friends

A fun short story, much in the style of Lynches other works. He does a great job fleshing out his characters in a very short amount of time, and I hope to see more of the Duchess Unseen and her crew in the future.

This book is less about the plot and more about the engaging characters and the fantastically detailed world. Chambers has dived into the idea of intercultural (and interspecies) relations in an inventive and fascinating way.

Vonnegut deal with his themes of inevitability and a soldiers choice in battle fantastically. However, Slaughter House 5 deals with the same themes, if a little less effectively, and also has much more engaging characters. So, if you want a good character novel, go for Slaughter House 5. If you're more interested in the themes, read this.

This book has some good things going for it, but fails in a few major regards. First of all, Aaronovitch needs to work on his characters a bit, especially their relationships. I still cannot tell you what the relationship between Peter and Leslie is; are they dating, are they friends, but he wants it to be something more; are they friends who have sex every now and then. This particular lack of characterization kills the very interesting plot in my opinion because when (SPOILERS) Leslie is possessed and her face starts to melt, it evokes almost no emotion for me because I have no idea how she relates to the main character. On top of that, the lore is fairly ill-defined, although it feels like that might get fleshed out more in future novels.

Interesting story with a facinating cross-section of WWII history and art history. More a biography of his family that of him or his father. A little bit dull at times, but still very gripping.

This book is completely utter nonsense and I love it.

The main character made me furious at a few points in this novel and I don't think that he was supposed to. You're made to empathize with him and the book treats him like a basic protagonist, but he does a few things for the convenience of the narrative that are infuriating.

I feel like I would have had a better connection to this excellent mystery book if I was Jewish. Neverless, this book has wonderfully engaging characters, even if they start out a little slow. It would have gotten five stars except for two complaints. First, the plot lost me a once or twice, but I was able to put myself back on track. Secondly, and most importantly, the edges were fucking perforated.

In my review of the last book in this series, I said that Phillip Reeve was running out of ideas. With this book, he proved be wrong. A Darkling Plain is the excellent conclusion to the Hungry City Chronicles, bringing each of the many characters story arcs to a satisfying conclusion.

Some good characters and interesting plot devices, but I feel like this idea is running out of steam (budum chhhhh). The first books great, focusing on Hester and Tom, the two strongest characters, in an interesting dystonian future. Each subsequent book has drifted farther away from this strong core concept and has become less enjoyable.

These fun and engaging characters dance through multiple short stories that all tie together to an amazing ending. Good writing and fantastic imaginary follows them on their journey across ancient china. This book has no slight character flaws at all.

A drug filled mess of crisscrossing timelines and paranoia (which is perfectly legitimate when they're actually out to get you) all held together by a fantastic cast of engaging characters. Only fell short of 5 stars because a) it can be really confusing and b) the ending is somewhat disappointing.

I feel like I would have liked this book a lot more if I hadn't been comparing it to the Martian. It's got the same realism through the details, but the characters are a bit more of letdown. I found them much more annoying than the protagonist of the Martian. It also fails because of the further distance from now. The Martian felt like something that could happen in the next couple years, but this feels farther away, and therefore, less realistic.

Also, I'm probably one of the only people who read both of these books, but did anyone else notice how similar the plot is to that of Luna: New Moon?

Alright, I have to give this series more credit than I did after I read the last book. Willis did a masterful job tying all the threads from Blackout together. However, I still did not enjoy it as much as her other books, and I really feel that Blackout and All Clear would have been much better as one book.

Good world, and pretty good, if predictable, but got bogged down at the end by needless romantic drama.

I feel like Stephenson sat down a wrote a book just for me. A metaphysics gives this book it backbone, but is followed up by a mix of a punchy adventure serial, orbital physics, and complex politics. Strong characters take this book from good to great. The language can be a bit dense at the beginning, but push through (and use the glossary at the back) and it will be well worth your while.

I love the way Chambers builds complex communities and cultures out of simple biological and environmental restrictions. The way she describes the exodus culture makes me believe this is where we'll be in a few thousand years.

I like the geologic magic focus, but I feel like the author need to open up the world a bit more. I shouldn't finish the book understanding less about a magical element than the main character does.