Saša

This is an interesting story of a very unconventional life.
It is written in a simple language but has some profound and inspiring ideas.

What a fantastic book! It was glued to my hands.
The storytelling is great, going strong throughout the book with brave twists. I was wandering so many times “how in the hell will this work out in the end?!”. Main characters are captivating, intelligent and full of life, you will root for them sincerely.
Actually, the less you know about the book the better, just pick it up and enjoy.

It took almost the whole first book of The First Law Trilogy to finally get things going, develop characters and find the purpose. The second book is much better because of it. The story line is really interesting and the characters are real flesh and blood. None of them is very likeable but you get to know them and understand the way they act out of their weaknesses as well as strengths. There are some epic moments in this book that you will long remember. And some great moments of wisdom, courage and dignity that after the first book I didn't think the writer was capable of delivering so beautifully. Very nice piece of “realistic” fantasy that I couldn't put down.

This book has two distinct sides to it, entwined throughout the book.
The one is Robert's road trip with his son and a couple of friends.
This part is really good and enjoyable. It has an unassuming way of conveying the beauty of a journey in a lot of easy going things making you spontaneously appreciate the way Robert enjoys life.
It can make you remember how good it feels to appreciate the moment for what it is.

The other side of the book is the author's home brew philosophy. This side is the direct opposite of the first one. I found it to be very pretentious and self glorifying. And a lot of times the philosophy is very outdated (to be fair, the book is over 40 years old) and pretty narrow minded. And it's written in a way that it should be obvious that this is the best way of thinking.
After a while it became extremely cumbersome and I had a hard time pushing through it.
Unfortunately the emphasis is on the philosophy part which for me ruined the whole book.
If only the motorcycle travels were a separate book. That would be a gem.

This is a uniquely imaginative book. The idea of the translator chiming in and then going of on tangents about his personal life was very odd at first. But the way the book ties both stories together and starts to bring together lives of the people a few centuries apart is very engaging. The writing itself is nothing extraordinary, but as the book goes on it becomes more and more intriguing.

This book was so disappointing.
The second book was a huge improvement on the first and it turned out to be a great book.
The third fell back to all the problems of the first book which is even worse because by now the story is well on its way and we are very well acquainted with the characters. The basic storyline is still pretty good and interesting. But it was so poorly executed. For me the whole book had a feeling of a very experienced dungeons & dragons player, who knows all the little tricks he has to do to make a good session, and he goes through the motions but he just doesn't feel like it. In the same way this book ticks all the right boxes but in an artificial way. Lost is the occasional profound wisdom of some characters, their sudden burst of glib humour, no more heartfelt moments. It's more first go here, then go there.
On a personal note, I was really annoyed by the author's constant need to turn everything to sh**. Every single second of the book is filled with something intensely negative. By the end of the book I had a feeling that reading this book was some kind of penance. If by some miracle something positive or cheerful happens, be sure that two sentences later the same thing will be down in the mud, trodden over. This thing alone made it very hard for me to push to the end. But like I said, this is a personal nuisance.
The other thing that bothered me personally is that I had a strong feeling that the author has some serious issues with beautiful women. There are just a few women in the book and every single one of them is extremely good looking and at the same time an obviously horrible person.

All in all, I didn't like it.
But a funny thing happened. After finishing it I was drawn to another Abercrombie book. I wanted to know more about the lives of main characters.

It's hard to rate this book by itself, it should be seen as a part of the whole trilogy, but here goes for the people with similar taste...

I heard so much about this trilogy, a lot of people saying it was at the top of their fantasy books list and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a good piece of fantasy!

But the first book is not great.
Most of the time it felt like the author has no idea where he wants to go with the story and what makes a character develop. Most of the time he is trying too hard to be different and cool by focusing on “something nobody ever thinks about” like needing to pee in the middle of the fight.
The way he tries to paint the backdrop, the atmosphere around characters is very awkward and filled with a lot of unnecessary and childish slapstick that almost made me give up on the book.
I was really struggling through it and I couldn't get it why it was so praised.

But once the ball starts rolling and the book finally gets its heading, it's a whole different story!
Suddenly there's so much going on and it's all interesting. Suddenly we see the characters with their warm sides, and funny quirks and I started liking them more and more, and the ones I didn't like I respected.

So, my point is, if you're like me and if you're struggling through the first book, keep reading!
The second book is way way better, with so many fantastic scenes that will stay with you long after you are done with the book. By the time I got to book three I couldn't put it down!
The guy that produced barely readable first chapters is now giving us real breathing and sweating and loving and hating characters. Some of them are weak, some of them are full of unexpected beautiful wisdom but they just keep growing on you. And the way he tries to think about situations in a new way really starts working. It's like the author matured two decades between first and second book.

So....by my account this book is mediocre. But it is well worth the read because it leads you to great and fantastic books 2 and 3 that are not to be missed if you're at all into fantasy.

Ken Liu has a very interesting writing style and even more interesting mind. He's bringing up new ideas and ways of thinking that are fresh and make you think.
On the other hand, a theme of the protagonist being a victim of a cruel and undeserved injustice is repeated in most of the stories. For me personally that was very tiring and became annoying. That's a shame because each story is a little gem. That's why I would recommend to read the stories in bursts of two or three, with other readings in between.

This book missed the mark so completely for me.
The beginning is quite good, but then it quickly spirals down.
The writing is very basic and unimaginative. All the characters speak in the same voice so throughout the book I had a feeling that the author is just speaking with himself. And constantly patting himself on the back with phrases like “that's a very insightful thought”.
It's filled with self help ideas that are as old as time, but pushed in a way that would have you believe that the author came up with them. But that wasn't enough so it's crammed with well known quotes as well.
The protagonist travels to 3 very interesting locations that are completely unused. Instead of using special allure of each of these places the book would be exactly the same if it was happening in some basement.
Apart from the good beginning, the only good thing about the book is that it is short.

This book is challenging to review.
That's because I believe that the people who are already familiar with Wim Hof, and especially if they are familiar with the way he speaks and expresses himself, will enjoy this book a lot more.
Wim wrote this book exactly like he talks. It's very energetic and enthusiastic, with a lot of exclamations. If you know him already, you'll enjoy the same energy and joy for life coming out of the written page. Otherwise, it may seem a little choppy and I have a feeling that newcomers will not likely rate it above 3 stars.

The book is a combination of Wim's personal stories, his method and different techniques, and his vision of the world and the future.

Wim describes his method well, and there are a number of individual techniques offered for specific situations like headaches and hangovers. They can all be easily performed and I find them effective.
Throughout the book Wim is extremely honest, fully aware that the way he sees the world, his own stage of development and his ambition to unleash the human potential are a bit out there.

His life story is very interesting. He had a unique life that was a very enjoyable read. I was happy to hear that a Hollywood movie about his life is in the works.

In short, I think this is a great book for people who already enjoy Wim.
For the newcomers to Wim's world, I would recommend getting to know Wim first, through other books and a huge collection of videos on YouTube.

Taisha's book follows the teaching and writing style of Castaneda, though it's a much lighter and less dense read than your average Castaneda. The language is very easy to read but sometimes it's hard to comprehend.
The biggest value of the book is that it gives you a step by step technique for recapitulation. And it is a powerful technique.
The only thing I didn't like is the way it ends. It gets suddenly more and more interesting towards the end and then abruptly everything stops.

The final installment sees our characters with increasingly more difficult obstacles and life decisions. The changes in the Republic start to show and we get to see where the Republic is in the great scheme of things.
And just as it happens in real life we get to see how our characters had naive outlook on life based on their rather narrow experience, and how they get more mature in the process of unraveling.

By the end of the book you will be so emotionally invested in the characters that you'll find yourself clutching the book and yelling or crying or laughing. It is steadily building up to the roller coaster at the end.

I must admit, I'm biased about this book because it brings me back to my childhood and reading my first Dragonlance novel under a pine tree on the seaside.
Time of the Twins for me still holds the same sense of magic and adventure. It's not overly realistic, which is so trendy in modern fantasy, but instead it's full of color and magic and heroic feats.
I like how the very writing style changes to complement the character it is following.
And of course, it has one of the best characters ever!
If you don't know who I'm talking about you have to read this book.
Raistlin is so layered and so deep that you will adore him and at the same time be deeply hurt by him.
Even as a reader I know I'm being manipulated but I fall for it every time.

The book goes into describing some of the big events in Krynn history, that were mentioned so many times in other Dragonlance books. We get to see how our great twins Caramon and Raistlin affected the events that happened so long ago.

Time of the Twins is a nice segway to the War of the Twins which is from the very beginning a great read.