Kyle
A fine young adult novel. The premise is clever, but the characters are all kinda one dimensional. Picks up a bit towards the end and left me mildly interested in continuing the series
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.
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.
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 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.
Really good core central idea and characters that the whole book flows naturally from. The by the last quarter of the book it starts to get old; that section feels a bit padded. Niffenegger is definitely a stronger romance writer than a sci-fi writer, but since this book is more of a romance than sci-fi, it works.
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.
Great narrative of the early history of Astoria and the big dreams of the man who started 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.
This book made me want to destroy all of humanity. It should be mandatory reading for the modern age. 10/10
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.
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.
A fine brief history of Winston Churchill's political carrier. I feel like the author could stand to include more context to the events around which Churchill was maneuvering, rather than sticking so rigorously to the politics. It also seems to me that Addison views Churchill through rose-tinted glasses (the title is already good evidence for that). Churchill is a controversial historical figure, and Addison kinda brushes over his controversies.
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.
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.
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.
Lovely little mystical story set in rural England. I love the way the main characters point of view changes between childhood and adulthood.
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.
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.
Enjoyed the first one a lot more. While it was interesting to see a larger body of Robinson's work, I didn't really like the non-Callahan's stories.
Good Russian romance. It kinda loses focus whenever it looks away from the two main characters, but it stays on track. I was kinda confused with about what was happening a) because of all the Russian names that I couldn't keep track of and b) because Pasternak doesn't take much time to give context to the situation the characters are in. It's understandable; the intended audience wouldn't need context having just lived through it, but I feel like some translator notes would not go awry.
Take the fact that I have given every book in this series as huge praise for it. Few series manages to keep the same characters fresh while not letting the plots get too overcomplicated. Fforde does a beautiful job dancing around cliché while never stepping on it, and the series has a feeling like good improv, where you can tell that he's making it up as he goes along, but you can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
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.