Daniel Vanzin

OK, it is clear now that this “tetralogy” is going nowhere. As I have said in the previous book review, I only gave it two stars because of the beautiful prose and assuming it was split in four parts for an apparent unknown reason. But it was not a fluke, these series of books were intentionally written as they were in order to make a tetralogy. And so, I can say the previous book was awful, and this one does not seem to be doing any better.

The story starts ignoring the previous book. That's right, it begins nearly as a standalone reading. I was desperately hoping that the first chapter would redeem the non-ending of Shadow of the Torturer, but it quickly dismisses previous events as “So they got separated, and now Severian is alone again and continues on his journey.”. This is all it says about the previous book. The story does use one other character from the previous book, but as long as you know that someone has a reason for wanting Severian dead, you don't need any more context.

So, Severian now is hailed as some kind of hero, because wherever he goes his skills are needed. He is staying on an inn with his good friend Jonas (it doesn't matter who he is) and finds out that the man he is charged to execute is a friend of Vodalus, the leader of the rebels.

Severian had previously met Vodalus when he as a young teenager, and have since fantasied about joining him in order to take down the Autarch. Vodalus is also accompanied by his lover Thea, Thecla's sister, whom Severian had also met when he first saw Vodalus.

There have been some good amount of build up for those two characters. Severian is not exactly portrayed as the hero that will save the world the “evil” Autarch. Rather Vodalus is, and Thea is the first woman Severian had actually fallen in love with, and he also have spent a lot of time with her sister.

So you would expect something interesting to happen when they finally met. Maybe a psychological unraveling from one of the characters, a soul pouring dialog, a clever laid out plan to take over the Autarch, an explanation of why they want to take down him in the first place. But no, those characters are pretty much insignificant to the plot, and their encounter was very uneventful, plain and and boring.

The other subplot of notice was a re-encounter with Agia, which I did not care about appearing again. She coordinates an ambush in order to kill Sevarian but fails. When defeated, Severian motions his sword to execute her, but does not. Because he is in love with her. And Dorcas. And Thea. And Tecla. It is indicated that Agia would try that again, but he does not care. What could maybe be perceived as an attempt to make the character seem “psychologically interesting” just made for bad plotting in my opinion.

Also, no explication for how does she managed to pull that off. You could expect an account further on the book, but the author has proven that explaining things is not on his agenda. And also, WTF IS HER MOTIVATION? I hated the first time Agius said to Severian he was to blame for his death, since it was his fault to have money when he did not. And so he was justified to kill him. An now Agia carries off with this absurd vengeance. Severian is not that interesting to deserve such attention, nor is Agia deserving of an reappearance. This subplot should have died in the first book.


Read 3:46 of 11:27 33%

The first and most important thing I have to say about this book: this is not a full book. Reading it is like reading chapters 1-5 of a 20 chapters novel. It is part one of four. However, if I were to consider this a tetralogy, as people say it is, I would give this a one star and call it horrible. A regular book has a beginning, middle and ending. This book is just the beginning, it does NOT end with a cliff hanger or in the middle of a mystery, in a classic “to be continued” fashion. No, it is just a regular story divided in four books. I don't consider it to be self-sufficient, so I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt and continue to read the next one at least.

I say this because the story is not interesting by itself, but the book as a whole does have some positive features. Most notedly the prose, that although at times it's too allusive (i.e., meaningless), it's often quite beautiful as well. The author does go overboard with his scene and character descriptions, but coupled with Jonathan Davis pleasant reading I found it bearable. Also, it is a very short book.

Besides the prose, I liked the main character's unique background: he is a torturer. Not only someone who has chosen to be a torturer in a world that needs that kind of service, but one who was born into it, raised from birth into the profession. The fictional world has many guilds, each representing a distinct craft. Their members are selected from a very early age according to some criteria, and are raised through their whole lives into the practice of their art.

The focus of the book is more on that aspect then the torture thing. How does it feel for a young man, going into the world having spent his whole life enclosed with the same people, learning basically only one thing? Knowing none other than your colleagues in trade, having never made any real friends. Obeying and respecting your masters, never knowing your parents. Listening only to their teachings, never considering other options, other career choices.

And when your whole life you only learned how to cause pain, is there room for other emotions? This premise is the one I most liked about the book, but it plays a secondary role in the convoluted story. The part about alternative realities mixing in with the world just made me shrug. I will therefore ignore that in this review as It made no sense and no difference to the plot whatsoever. I'm sure it will come into play in later books, sigh.

Anyway, the story is told in first person by the protagonist himself, young Severian, a torturer by birth. Still at a young age, he is forced to betray his guild lest he betrays himself, as he developed feelings of love for one that be should have tortured to death. He is casted away in shame, into a world that fears and hates him for the clothes he wears, the colors of his guild that reminds people that he is a bringer of pain and death.

On the way to his punishment, an assignment in a distant town to the north of the Citadel where he spent his whole life, he is challenged into a mortal duel by an unknown knight. Thinking he deserves death for being a traitor, he does not dwell much on and accepts his destiny to die by his hands at the appointed time.

The duel has some specific rules however, and young Agia volunteers herself to help him with the preparations. She is a young woman that for some reason seems to have an estrange fascination for him. During this “quest” he also meets Dorcas, a women that appears from nowhere, remembers nothing, but saves his life, and for no apparent reason, falls in love with him.

Along the way he also meets two other important characters, Dr. Talos, a somewhat con artist and street playwright/artist, an Baldanders, a huge, strong and dim-witted man that follows the doctor around. The doctor sees in Severian a possible candidate for his street plays, being him and outcast and associated with death on sight.

So, this is the whole plot of the book. There is some small hooks here and there that promises an interesting story for the next books, but they do not make this book alone worth of reading.

There is a small twist that was kind of well developed, but I hated how it was delivered. Basically:
- (Severian) Agia, that knight challenging me when I had just met you felt like a scam to me. Are you trying to trick me?- (Agia) No"A little later.- Agia, this mysterious letter I received says not trust you. Are you sure you're not deceiving me? It all felt so convenient, you deciding to help me, a stranger you just met, in the preparations for his own death.- (Agia) No, really. I'm not lying to you."And later is revealed she was indeed betraying him.

Anyway, if this was central to the story it would have pissed me off. It may have occupied a large portion of the book, but I still see it as a minor detail. This book is much more about the setting and the unique relation of the protagonist with the environment around him. The expectations and reactions he arouses in other people, and how he manages to discover himself in this world he never had a connection with.

Reading other people reviews, I found little I found relevant. Here is one thing I can agree with:

“The sense of ‘love' in The New Sun is even more unsettling. It descends on the characters suddenly and nonsensically, springing to life without build or motivation.”
J.G. Kelly

There are many critiques regarding how some of the characters are under developed. I took that to mean that they are just not as important as the protagonist, and the story could be told very well without going deeper into they're backgrouds so far.

The book starts with a lot of descriptions and made up words, two of the things I hate most on books. Then it is followed by nonsense dialog. I imagine it will make sense latter, but this is no way to start a book for me. I felt a completely lack of connection to the story or empathy for the characters.

I stopped reading during a scene in a classroom I believe, where the “students” where arguing about their “religion” in a textbook like excitement.

My fourth Neal Stephenson book. His books are clearly not my kind of reading.

The emphasis (added by me) in the following comment captures one of the two aspects I most dislike about his books.

“You probably couldn't get a lot of people to read a frequently dry 937 page text on the material Stephenson is covering, but you might could if you dressed it up in the form of a science fiction story about an alternate world where the schism between science and religion occurred at the dawn of Western Civilization and both retreated to cloisters to observe their respective discipline.”
Matt

The second one is the hard sci-fi thing, with lots of made up concepts/words. It is not the difficulty to understand, just the usefulness of that kind of language is lost on me.

READ 7% 2:24/32:14

I almost could have finished this book and gave it a 2 star rating. But it is just so filled with boring scenes. There is a whole chapter describing a resurrect spell. Not the spell itself mind you, but how the character casting it is feeling.

The writing style is pleasant, easy to read. The overall plot kind of interesting, but it takes a backseat in the drama of the small and uninteresting subplots.

Every person in the fictional world of Alera commands a type of magic, related to some element. There is air, earth, water, fire, metal, wood. The use of magic represented through the Furies, a kind of “familiar” that each person must master in order to give it commands and gain access to its power. So you ask for Cyrus, the name of your air Fury, to lift you from the ground to scape from the earth powers of Brutus, another alerean's name for his Fury.

It is considered an anomaly to not command any Fury, which usually happens when the alerean reach puberty. The alereans are at war with the Marat, a race of barbarians that rely on a totemic kind of power, and affinity with beasts. These salvages believe it is cowardice to wear armor for protection, and that eating their enemies will grant them their power.

The world is ruled by the High Lords, exceptionally powerful wielders of magic, which in turn are ruled by the the First Lord, who is even stronger and capable of extraordinary feats. This is only hinted though, as they are barely mentioned in the book.

The book starts with a scene between Amara and her mentor, Fidelias. They are both Cursers for the First Lord, a position of high importance, that is never fully explained what it means. They are trying to gather information of a rebel group that intends to overthrow the First Lord, but Amara soon finds out that Fidelias is a traitor, and is working together with one or more of the High Lords to take power.

She barely escapes the betrayal of her teacher, and reports her findings to the First Lord. She is then commanded to further investigates the matter in the borders of the alerean empire, the place called Calderon.

So, this is more or less the first chapter. Everything that follows are the subplots the characters must endure in order to find out more about the threat to the First Lord.

The first subplot (1) deals with Chord, a vicious local lord that is called into a trial for the accusation of one of his sons of committing rape. Is found guilty, Kord will lose everything he has. Things get out of hand when he decides he does not need to to abide by meddling of other people into his affairs.

When Amara finds out more about the threat she came to investigate, she finds herself unable to report the problem and ask for help, because of this conflict with Kord. There is again a whole chapter describing how cruel the man really is. Since I already bored with the story, the detailing of his treatment to women felt really unnecessary and out of place. It stole the focus of the book from fantasy to a drama.

After Amara finally finds her way to seeking help, she is dismissed, because she does not have and appointment, and when she forces the matter, she is arrested (sublot 2). If I was enjoying the story that might have not mattered, but i was looking for fun and excitement, and that felt really like a bucket of cold water thrown at me.

What really killed the book for me though, was the other subplot (3), when Tavi is captured by the Marat, and instead of killing and eating him, as it is the costume of their people, they decide to give him a trial, for no apparent reason. That was a real WTF moment, that probably would have been explained until the end of the book, or maybe the next one, but that is no way to captivate me into a story.

The book has 4 main characters. Amara, Fidelias, Tavi and Ivana. Tavi is a 15 years old boy that lives in a steadhold in Calderon. He has no Fury yet, and although his family treats him well, he feels like an outcast and a freak. It is hinted that he is somehow more important than he appears.

Ivana is his aunt. She is very found of Tavi, and treats him as his son, since his parents are dead. She is a powerful water crafter. She is more present in the Cord subplot (4) when she and another woman are captured by him.

Read 64% 12:44/19:57

It feels like you're starting the book in the middle of the story. The characters and places are not properly introduced and there is no attempt to make you care about them. They also all sounded the same. Before you kill someone or destroy some city, make us care about them.

The author clearly have a message to transmit, a big world with a meaningful story. He just does not present them in a readable way. The whole thing is a mess of poorly constructed stories, with no cohesion and no reason to be emotionally interested in them.

Annoying features of the book
- Prologue: they can be interesting and might help to set up the mood of the book. I've seen prologues more interesting then the whole book by a wide margin, thus a misleading way to start the story. Then there is the ones that feels like an excuse to tell a bad short tale, one where you don't have to worry about describing your characters, nor to make sense for the reader, because it is assumed that after reading the book you might have a clue about the importance of what just happened. This prologue falls into the second category.
- Excerpts of other books: each chapter starts with a citation of a supposedly famous book inside the fictional world. Another mood setting tool I believe, again this sometimes might work. It did not work for me in this book, they were too long and boring like a history textbook excerpt. Or just a senseless poem.
- Start with a side-story: and if the preface, maps, list of characters, epigraph, lament (whatever that is) wasn't enough to NOT start the story, the first chapter doesn't do it either.
- Lots of thrown in proper names and/or made up words.

Reading other comments, people tend to agree with my opinion. The book starts slow, bad, confusing, the prose is not great, there are problems with his exposition. However despite of that, he gets 5 stars because if you manage to get pass that, you are rewarded with a deep, complex and satisfying story.

My favorite comments:

“The book is not well written; specifically, it is bad prose written by someone who is very intelligent, but lacks an ear for poetry, or in fact, language in general ... the sentences are disjointed in a kind of technical way that often left me rereading them because I had somehow missed the sense in them as I grappled with their structure.”
Ben

“... There's no story to speak of... it is just a collection of scenes and events that occur in the same “world”. None of it makes sense...“
Becky

Read 13% 3:17/26:03

TLDR: shallow fictitious world and a few words about magic does not a fantasy book make. This is a story about an orphan that is forced to live on the streets, then he has to make money to put him through college, then he meet the woman of his dreams. NOT FANTASY. And without that, a pretty ordinary tale.

I really wanted to like this book. I've been giving up on too many books after reading just a few chapters and I really made an effort to finish this one. It sounded like the kind of book I would like, with the promise of exciting adventures about “the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen”.

I expected notorious to mean the best, most intelligent, most interesting. I wanted to see battles of wits and wondrous displays of magic power, and perhaps that just might happen in the second or third book of the trilogy. This book however, is just too boring. The obstacles the hero has to overcome are poverty and the ill will of others.

I enjoyed the writing style, the author uses easy words and simple scenes. The first person narrative helps a lot and not much attention is need to follow the story, perfect for audio-listening while doing something else. What appears to be the main plot, “genius kid learns magic to seek revenge against mysterious magicians who killed his parents”, could be very interesting, but it is not developed at all in this first book.

The following is a complete summary of the story, as such contains some overall plot spoilers, nothing specific. Skip to END OF SUMMARY for my analysis.

The book tell the story of Kvothe, a young trouper (like a gypsie) who has an savant capacity for learning things. He understands anything he is though in the first try and has a photographic memory. His family and his troupe travel around performing theatric plays of a Shakespeare like quality and complexity, together with other entertainment acts you would expect from a traveling circus.

His life is changed when he meets an Archanist, a wise man knowledgeable in all fields of inquiry, such as Medicine, Astrology, Quimics, Psychology, Alchemy and Magic. Kvothe becomes fascinated when he sees the man performing an act of magic in front of him, and from that moment on, he decides that is what he wanted to do.

After a few years of learning, his life takes another turn, as his family and his whole wandering troop is brutally murdered by a group of mysterious men, who decided to spare his life. Shocked and with nowhere to go, the young orphan spends his next 3 years living in the streets of a nearby city.

When opportunity presents itself, he manages to get enough money to take him to the University, a place with many thousands of books and practitioners of magic. He barely manages to pay for his expenses through his music, and is faced with some of the same hardships he met on the streets, like bullies and hunger.

The next turn in his life happens when he meets the woman he falls in love with. At first she is presented as a very mysterious woman, desired by many men, but possessed by none. She doesn't stay around much, disappearing for long periods of time after each encounter with the protagonist. Later they meet by accident in a side-quest adventure, and become more familiar with each other.

END OF SUMMARY

My problems with how the story is told:
- The world's most intelligent person meets an infinite source of knowledge. Things are bound to get interesting. Instead, for the next three years (and 1/3 of the book), he lives in the streets, begging for food and struggling to stay alive against the hardships of the world. He makes no use of his learned talents as a skilled musician or anything else he learned for that matter.

- When he finally arrives at the University, he again is met with the opportunity to learn everything he ever wanted to know. Yet, he is banned from the University library, makes enemies with one of the teachers and one very rich and influential student, and again must struggle to survive in this harsh environment. He has no money for food, clothes, the University tuition and not even have a place to sleep.

- The very few exceptional acts that could make the book interesting are purposely downplayed:
- he is in a quest to find out about the men who killed his family, yet that is barely mentioned in the book. - in the beginning it is told that he is known as "Kvothe the Bloodless", which is dismissively explained with a scene where he is public whipped and sheds no blood, but because unbeknown to others, he had taken a herb that increases blood coagulation. - he finally manages to use his music as a means to make money, he is probably the worlds greatest musician, yet his rival makes sure no ones hires him to play. - he is confronted with hired assassins, and supposedly had fought them off with lightnings and fireballs, which turns out to be nothing of the sorts. Something like he just set someone on fire with a lamp and used another simple trick to make it look like the used a lightning spell. - the mysterious woman that keeps disappearing? Is she some sort of angel, goddess, noble woman seeking an adventure or something? No, she is just another poor soul struggling to survive in this harsh world. She disappears because she keeps looking for small jobs she can perform to make some money, and skips on some tavern bills. - there is this huge monster that expels blue fire through its mouth, that turns out to be a harmless herbivorous creature(the Draccus). They also find a suspiciously murdered man in the woods, possessing an unusually expensive weapon. Turns out he was a drug dealer, probably killed in a bad drug deal. Where is the fantasy in that? There is 3 chapters dedicated to this side plot.

- When he started to spend more time with his love interest is where I stopped reading the book. It couldn't be more tedious. They keep talking about nothing, for many many pages. It is not an engaging dialog, nor it is witty or fun. The whole “Draccus” thing was just too much.

- He is trying to learn magic since a very young age, yet by the end of the book the most amazing thing he can do is to produce a spark big enough to light a fire on dry branches. In fact, the book could have exactly no mention of magic or anything of fantastical nature and still it would read the same.

This last point is may main grip with the book. Its not fantasy when you just invent a few names in your world, and says it has magic in it. This is a book about a boy who have his family murdered and is forced to live is a harsh world. He begs for money, he makes enemies, he falls in love. It's a pretty ordinary tale about a potentially interesting character.

I was hoping that the many overly long described scenes about mundane issues would have an impact latter on. Would he meet his former teacher, the Archanist again? Would he find revenge against his bullies when he lived on the street? Would he sought out those who helped him in the moments he most needed, and reward them with his new found magical talents? So many possible hooks left unused.

Read: 88%, 24:27/27:54 hours

Overall this was a pleasant book, but I shy away from putting it at the same level as an Asimov mystery novel. This is a 2,5 stars. If I read through the end, I kind of liked it.

This is probably a book for those who love English literature, Shakespeare, Keats and others. The authors creates an alternative reality where books really matter, so much that there is a very active Spec-ops crime division, where our heroin Thursday Next works.

Some of the occurrences that are somewhat common in this world:

- literary forgeries, where books are slightly, but significantly rewritten to better suit the forger views of how the story should really have happened. They sometimes go through great lengths, even writing original manuscripts, signing it as a famous author. Only a very trained Literary Tech can spot the differences between the real thing.

- close to religion fights among different literary legends followers, such as Baconians and Shakesperians. Jehovah witness? Try some people going door to door, spreading over developed theories of how it wasn't Shakespeare that wrote any of his plays!

- Time traveling is somewhat common, even though heavily policed.

The plot is slowly developed along the book. The real plot only starts somewhat by the end of it. The villain appears at the start of the book, and then at the end again. He has some super human powers that are never explained, and our heroin is the only one that can resist them for whatever reason.

There are are many subplots that are nowhere connected. There is a 100+ years war going on between England and Russia going on. There is a whole chapter of a fight with a vampire. Yes, it did have an impact latter on, but it didn't play well for me. It added color to the story, but added to the lack of cohesion of the book.

I liked the villain. He is described as being pure evil, he delights himself in wickedness. He actually wrote the book “Degeneracy for Fun and Profit”. He is a mastermind criminal and he has superhuman powers (close to immortal, ageless, super strength). Because of that, I would expect a better end for him.

The book has a very standard happy ending, which did not sit well with me. I like unusual things, and the plot gave ample leeway for for that.

But again, for those who love English literature, who have read and liked Jaine Eyre, it must have had an special feeling to wonder how it would fell like to interact with the characters, to change the story, to fear for the integrity of its plot, for its very existence!

Slow and boring writing/plot. The first chapters describes the life of a pastor and his wife, as a new religion threatens to take over his flock. His religion is very strict, and the new one very liberal, encouraging the pursuit of pleasure.

Their daughter is the baby that will in the future be known as the Wicked Witch of the West. For some reason, her skin is green, and her teeth are very sharp.

The pastor looses the battle and is forced to flee, because his old congregation is told by the new priests that he must die.

The writing, characters and dialog are great. I just did not enjoy the overall plot of the book. It felt short-handed. As other people have pointed out, the author took a typical fantasy story, removed the fantasy/epic elements, and replaced them with... nothing.

The story arcs go nowhere. Having seen the tv-series, read/listened what other people have said, this is true for the following books as well. The author said in an interview this was somehow on purpose, to “break the mold”, but it felt empty to me. Still a good story, just not a great one. My greatest complains are with the latter books, if they follow the tv-series, which I was having problems following in the 3rd season and can no longer bear in the 4th.

The whole book felt as a prelude of things to come. Which is fine, as long as Martin don't kill every single plot thread, and start another, to just kill them again before they end. Kill as many characters as you want, just don't make their deaths in vain!

Among the more ore less minor plot problems I had:
- the Imp's trial outcome when captured by Lady Stark. For one thing, there was this whole scene that basically was just skipped in the book. In one moment he was talking, the next he was free. This plot device is not uncommon, and he uses many times in the book. This is not that bad, the offender here is the might is right part. He gets to go free if he wins a duel. Not only that, he can pick a fighter for him. Again, not that unusual in fantasy/medieval stories, but a very poor device. I was hoping Tyrion to use his wits to escape, not this 'deus ex machina' (the invocation of an ancient nonsensical rule that saves his dwarf ass).- master-sword Syrio Forel duel with the kings guard. I might have missed something here, because this felt like a "Really" moment. So, you're facing four armed opponents, and you are so good of a sword fighter that you probably could defeat them blindfolded. You manage to defeat and disarm three of them, yet you still keep using your wooden sword. Really?- Arya reports to her father what she heard and he ignores her. There was this whole scene, maybe chapter, where she lost herself in the castle caverns, with the dragons skeletons, and overheard sensible information that at the very least should not be ignored as a child's avid imagination. She was able to remember enough details that her could have used somehow. At any rate, this was wasted scene.- Sansa talks to the Queen about her father plans to smuggle herself and her sister out of Kings Landing. Another wasted opportunity to connect some dots here, something like Ned finding out and saying "Oh Sansa, so all of this was your fault!" :-). Well, or at least she feeling like that.

And the major one:
- Ned Stark's death. I have no problem with killing the "hero". I have a big problem with the "business as usual" attitude that follows. Yes, there was a war that followed. But there was already a war going on. And that war went nowhere. I want revenge, I want the unexpected, I want something awesome and magical to happen. I want that freaking Stannis Lord of the Light shadow baby assassin monstrosity to do something. Mundane drama I can get in other genres and, the reason I don't read them, in real life.

And another book about nothing. The book tells the story of two boys, Jim and Will who are friends, and Will's father, who likes to drink and regrets not being young anymore. There is a storm coming, and the boys are gifted an metal rod device that can prevent lightning from burning their house.

Books like Asimov's and Dune grasped me in the very first sentence. This, and the latest ones I've been reading, does not.

Read: 10%, 54:00/9:17 hours

Like many others I gave up reading, this is a book about nothing. The story describes the life of doctor Shevek, from infant to adulthood, revealing how he becomes a brilliant and famous physicist.

So he was a child, who had a few friend. They liked to talk. Then he graduated, went to college, had his first sexual experience. And so on. The sci-fi aspects are irrelevant so far as I read.


Read: 15%, 2:05/13:25 hours

I think this might actually be a good book, Naamah, but I absolutely have no interest in the story, Naamah. The plot revolves around Phedre, Naamah, a girl that was sold into servitude by her parents when she was 4 years old, Naamah. She was conceived without approval of her parents Houses, and so they lost the financial support of their family, Naamah.

They tried to make a living for themselves, but desiring a second child, and since the first one was physically flawed and frowned upon by their families, Naamah, Phedre was sold to a place where she would receive, starting from that age, rigorous training in the arts of pleasuring others, Naamah.

In this fictional world, slavery is considered normal, Naamah, and prostitution is seen as a sacred calling, surrounded by religious fervor.

Phedre has one eye fully black, and the other all red, Naamah. Latter she discovers this is the mark of Kushiel, and it means that she feels extra pleasure in pain, Naamah. And since a very young age, she longs to explore her desires.

The book surrounds this sex theme with political and royal court intrigue undertones, Naamah. Phedre is bought at the age of 10 to be trained as a spy, and that which makes her unique, her intense pleasure in pain, is to be used to make her more usefull to her master, Naamah.

Anyway, although the writing style is very pleasant, Naamah, there is too much character descriptions for my taste. Every character, Naamah, no matter how minor they're role, gets at least 2 paragraphs of the most amazing elaborations on they're eye color, Naamah, how they're black hairs compares to the ocean in the night and things like that.

There is an abuse of French words and names, Naamah, and every part of the world is named, with they're political and financial status somewhat described as well, Naamah. That felt really annoying, as the most I care about is the plot.

Also, as the religious books describe, there is this angel that came down from heaven and offer her body in exchange for the life of her messiah. In honor of her, men and women are proudly brought up to be sex slaves. Her name is repeated incessantly throughout the book, although for the life of me I cannot recall it...

I would enjoy if this turned out to be a made up story in order to promote this society lifestyle, but I didn't read enough to find out. And it did not seemed that would be the case anyway.

Read: 12%, 3:45/31:05 hours

After 2 hours of reading, did not get a sense of a plot. Just world building and some characters engaging in daily routines. There is this guy that robs people, and gets caught. Nothing exceptional about it. Also a young girl and his brother, interacting with the technological aspects of this futuristic world.

The writing is heavy on sci-fi slangs that denotes precisely the kind of book I don´t like to read. If the story is no interesting enough, this detracts me from reading the book.


Read: 10%, 2:00/18:30 hours

This is the kind of book that reads like a textbook. It is a detailed account of humankind first meeting with an object build by an alien race.

The story takes place in a near future, where other planets have already been colonized and we have probes stationed in space to monitor asteroids, to predict whether they will collide on populated areas.

One of this probes picks up a strange piece of rock in space, that turns out to be made by a long extinct, more technological advanced race.

I stopped reading as the the first chapters all detailed how this perfect spherical rock, that seems to be an artificial made planet, looks on the inside.

Read: 19%, 1:41/9:01 hours

The overall story was very good. It is a romance, but the time travel plays and interesting part to prevent it from being boring. The sci-fi is not the focus of the book, don't expect overly complicated explanations of paradoxes or the science behind it.

I watched the movie, and it captured all the important aspects of the book. There were some scenes present in the book that were intended to develop the characters, but felt too out of place.

Henry and Claire are in love. They have been in love since Claire was a little child, and Henry an old man. They wait through time to meet in the present so they can be together, but soon time will run out and they will be apart again, until the time will come again when they will meet for the first time.

Too many inconsistencies. Every couple of paragraphs I would cringe at the spilled nonsense, that wasn't even disguised as good writing.

Int the first meeting with Allanon (Gandalf), the druid (wizard) basically assaults the main character (some character) Flick for no apparent reason:“See, I could kill you, but I won't. Learned the lesson? Never talk to strangers. Now, take me to your brother, he has a destiny to fulfill, you are just a sidekick. I won't go into details about it though, just gonna say he is the chosen one, and if he doesn't do anything about it, the world will end. What does that mean you ask? What should he do? Who am I? Why should he trust me? Well, that is the feeling I want to pass: confusion! By the time he has the opportunity to ask me all these questions I will be long gone, hehehehe.”So, after that very convincing argument, with impeding doom lurking around, Flick and his brother Shea do exactly what you would expect of them: absolutely nothing about it. What did Allanon expected with that kind of attitude? Well, at least he did leave behind the Elven Stones to help out the brothers. And everyone KNOWS what that means. What, you don't? Well, if the author keeps mentioning the name in the story over and over, with reactions of amazement from the characters, it will soon sink in... just a few more hundred pages.Anyway, after a few weeks, an ugly creature appears. It can smell Shea's blood (I think they were warned about this by Allanon). They feel they must leave to prevent harm to come to their village. They have two alternative paths to follow: a safe route that the enemy will expect them to take, or the dangerous route, which might kill them. They take the dangerous route, but somehow (blood smelling anyone?) the ugly creature still follows them.Shea want to enlist the help of an old friend of them, which was the prince of a neighboring country or something. But Flick does not like the guy, because he is a meany, so he opposes the idea. Way to go Sam, I mean, Flick! Because I'll be dammed if I will ask for the help of a powerful ally to save the world if I don't like him, even though we have no one else to turn to.By the time they arrived at that country, I stopped reading. As it turns out his brother is the main character? Both were presented very poorly. This is a major sin in stories. The main character should appear first and be made very clear about it.

I read until the part the boy had his dog friend sent away to prevent him from using his dog-speaking powers.

The book read as a diary of daily events, nothing caught my attention. The story developed too slow.

A six years old boy was dumped at the king's castle by his grandpa, who did not want to provide for him anymore. The boy is supposedly the bastard of prince Chivalry, which upon hearing about this, abdicates his claim as next in line to the throne.

The prince's most loyal servant, his beast master, is charged to look after Fitz since he cannot be legally recognized to have royal blood. Under his care, Fitz spent a lot of times among animals, and found out he could communicate somehow with them.

This strange power is considered dangerous because of how it was used on the past, and for his own safety, the boy must never use it, on the risk of being recognized for what he is and killed for the peril he represents.

A good war book. I don't like war books. They all fell the same to me. The sci-fi twist is strong, but far from enough.

Abusive drill sergeant? Check. Intense military training? Check. Many fights with enemy armies? Check. Realization of how cruel and unfair war is and how that makes you feel like a monster? Check.

The first part of the book tells the story of John Perry, a 75 years old man who decides to join this space army, from which no one knows anything about except that they are very scientifically advanced. People sign up for this army because they assume that if they need old people to fight a war, they must have found a way to make them younger again.

So, John makes some other elderly friends in this journey, and at last, they do have a way to make them fit for fighting a war. This first part ends in space, where all the recruits are testing their new abilities and becoming accustomed to their new bodies.

The second part is your usual military story. Humanity is not alone in the universe, and we must fight to expand if we are to keep relevant in the universe. There is many battles with unusual alien species, very well described. There is this race of one inch tall creatures, mold people and some other warmongering monstrous races.

Reads like an ordinary tale of two people going into a volcano which supposedly could give them access to the center of the earth. It may sound wondrous, but it is basically o journal log with detailed descriptions of geology and geography.

Gritty, medieval, low fantasy, lovercraftian stories. Conan is no hero, he just like to kill things. He is nearly as likely to pillage a village as he is to slay a monster. He does what he feels like it to satiate his thirst for battle and curiosity of the unknown. Yet he does follows a code of honor, one he believes makes more sense then rules followed by civilized men.

He wonders the world looking for adventure, and his prowess in combat, fiery blue eyes, large muscles and indomitable will ends up attracting followers and beautiful women alike.

The stories are purposely not in chronological order. The first one starts with old aged king Conan, where he is warned in a dream of the rise of Set, and given a magical weapon to fight him. As he awakes, he thwarts and assassination attempt on his life and defeats one unimaginable horror that lurks in his bedroom at night.

One of my favorite stories was the one he is king as well, and is betrayed by one of his allied kingdom into a trap. Captured, he is sent to a dungeon created by an evil wizard and faces many monsters to obtain his freedom and reclaim his throne.

Many of the stories shows how civilization has made humankind weak and complacent, and their greed leads them into mortal danger, one that only Conan can succeed. He overcomes the perils that kills ordinary men, whether escaping death from an overwhelming number of foes or an abominable ape-like creature.

The prologue was very interesting, then the first chapter started and it had nothing to do with it. It takes too long to introduce the protagonist, which at the point I stopped reading there was two of them. I'm sure their stories would connect at some point, but up to that moment they were very uninteresting, specially the woman protagonist part.

I hate when an possible interesting story is littered with boring fillings in order to what? Build the world with excessive descriptions? Narrate every single aspect of a characters perspective? Add dialogs that do not further the plot and reveals only how tame the protagonist is?

From what I could gather there was this Kaladin fellow who was a very good fighter and then he was captured. Then there was this Shallan woman who did nothing for many, many pages.

I wanted to like this book because the TV series was not so bad. The quality of the writing is not the best, the main storyline is interesting, but the quest to achieve the main characters goals includes some side plots that were just not fun at all, like the Mud People.

Richard Cypher is the “Farm Boy” (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FarmBoy) who meets the damsel in distress Kahlan that turns out to be not so helpless after all. I liked the friendship between the two of them, it was very true and beautiful.

I already knew some of the story, so even though Kahlan decided to keep her secret from Richard for a long time, I understood her decisions along the way. However, I would be very frustrated if I did not knew that beforehand, as it took too long for it to be revealed, and was accompanied with a few few plot holes with it.

The Darken Rahl scenes were a bit annoying. He is an evil psychopath, and way too much time was spent trying to show how he could behave nicely to get what he wants. The outcome of one scene where this happened was very nice though, as it really transmitted his personality. He is only interested in knowledge and power, and the things he do to people to achieve his goals are of no consequence for him.

Zed is the very likable mentor/father figure for Richard. He is the old wizard who decided to live in isolation because the world is irrational and would not heed his warnings and advices.

One thing that REALLY bothered me is the book's title part of the story. The Wizard's first rule is stated as an actual “rule” for becoming a wizard, and it is a very “stupid” one (unintended pun, if you know the story). Basically they reduce being a wizard as being smart an intelligent. “You fooled me, therefore you could be a wizard” (paraphrasing). Not only that, but when Zed speaks of this, he makes it seem that only wizards can be smart. “Ah, you would know not to trust people if you were a wizard” (paraphrasing). It does makes sense that you need to be intelligent to be a wizard, but the exposition of this fact was too crude, close to saying “You need Int 14+ to be a wizard”.

I liked the Mord-Sith plot, as the transmitted perversion of goodness feeling was very fitting with the story. I think this might be the most memorable and unique part of the book. Oh, and I did not find the torture scenes too harsh as some people pointed out, but they were strong enough.

I do not intend to read any more books in the series because:
- This is the best book, and I didn't like it
- The way it ended, somewhat in the lines of the hero achieving ultimate power, is never conducing for a good sequel. (take Dune, Matrix or any other example for this)
- I know the plot of the second book because of the TV, and it is kind of good, but poorly executed.

By the way, the TV series as I remember was very faithful and well adapted from the book. Some concessions had to be made of course, such as the way Kahlan powers work. I found them to be much more interesting in the TV and a more convincing reason for she and Richard never being able to be together.

A good book, but for children. I liked the writing style, but the story just did not resonate with me. It talks about a young boy coming to maturity, having to choose a profession for himself and dealing with his feelings for the princess.

He is chosen, rather then choose himself, to be a magician, while his best friend becomes a soldier. The story is very cheerful and with promise of adventure, but there is no conflict and the plot which could be interesting is developed very slowly.

The plot is about the protagonist, Pug, having to learn about his mysterious powers and the threat of an invasion of his homeland from an army from another world. Elves and dwarfs may come together with the humans to fight a common enemy.

By the time the elven prince goes to his room and they're both start to talk it became painfully hard to read the child-focused discussion between them.

I liked how the story started. Magic in the XVII century England is gone, however a group of theorists call themselves magicians because they dedicate their lives to the study of the art.

Then comes a real practitioner of magic, Mr Norrel, and demands the society to be disbanded. He finds them to be too presumptuous in calling themselves magicians, when in reality their nothing but scholars of magic. Why couldn't they just change they're name? They never claimed to possess any magical powers.

Up until now, there were two main characters, and it turns out that Mr Norrel is the actual protagonist, and the other two disappear all of a sudden. And this is where things starts to get really boring.

I was expecting to read magic/fantasy, but all I got was the struggles of a magician to get his art appreciated and put to good use in society. That is, social parties, political meetings, etc.

A good enough book, not really the type of story I like. It is a survival tale of a father and his son. The whole book is about they trying to survive this harsh, devoid of life world. There is no hope for a happy ending, and everyday is a struggle.

They spend days without eating anything, and have to risk their lives each time they try to forage for food and supplies.

The portrayal of those little moments of happiness and joy were very well placed and described.