Steven Tucker

Very great book! It only has a few minor flaws, the most egregious being that most of the world is described through an infodump. It kind of works, but I would've liked descriptions to be a little more subtle.

If you are into 80's video games, music, movies, or other geek culture, this would be right up your alley!

I enjoyed the book up until the very last chapter. The perspective was in 1st person, but information that the main characters knows is withheld throughout the book.
As a result, the “twist” at the end is extremely forced. We should have known about it, because the character whose mind we are in knows about it. As a result, the book dropped from a 3-star “liked it” to a 2-star “it was okay.”

I'm pretty disappointed. I thought that I would be reading more about the cutting edge of science, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case. The first chapter on dark matter and dark energy was interesting, for sure. And some of the other chapters got me to think. But overall I was underwhelmed. The author had a formula where he would introduce you to the prevailing theory, introduce some research by some scientists who were a bit out there, avoid discussing counter arguments to those scientists theories, and then make it sound as if the majority opinion shunned those scientists. It almost comes across as a conspiracy.

Thing is, many of his points rely on the assumption that certain research is valid, despite the fact that no one has been able to repeat it. Also, there are some serious logical fallacies throughout the book. For example, Brooks claims that the WOW! signal must be from aliens because Occam's Razor says it would be so (i.e. the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one). He believes that because we can't figure out what caused the signal, it MUST be from aliens.

I don't recommend picking up this book, but if you do stick to a few select chapters and leave the rest alone.

I very much enjoyed reading Through Many Fires, a book about the end of America as we know it (following the nuclear destruction of major cities). The book has just about everything I enjoy in that kind of story: people trying to find comfort, difficult decisions, and even a budding rebellion of sorts. Right up my alley!

The story is enough for me to like the book, but I can't quite call the book amazing. The story ends rather abruptly, leaving me feeling a little unresolved. I'll have to wait for the second book, I suppose. I think the ending of this first book could've benefited from a more climactic conflict (it was a little lackluster).

The author is new at writing (this is his third book, I believe, and his first non-science fiction) and he could use a little practice. I'm having trouble putting my finger on it, but the writing seemed very simple to me. I think it has to do with the way people speak and act. It just feels slightly unnatural. There are also numerous grammatical and spelling errors, but they aren't really enough to make the book unenjoyable.

Despite the downsides, the upsides were really there! I found myself relating the main character, Caden, even though I've never been in the military and my own life situation is completely different. I had a little bit of trouble with the military jargon, but the glossary in the back solved that for me. And again, the story was superb! I couldn't put the book down! In fact, it only took me this long to finish because my father picked it up over Thanksgiving break and wouldn't let it go!

I received the book in a Goodreads giveaway, otherwise it is likely I would never have picked it up. But I'm glad I got it because I truly did enjoy it. With a few more books under his book and a good editor to help out, I think Kyle Pratt has was it takes to put forth a truly great piece of art.

I look forward to part two!