Zan Baldwin

Oh, another series by that author that does the mythology short stories...
God fucking damn, this book was dark.

2/5 stars for plot. +1 star for sheer fucked-up-ness.

I started this because somewhere on the internet someone compared the anime to a queer-coded journey about the self-discovery of aromanticism (comparable to the vibe of Studio Ghibli's [probably] accidental queer-coded early 90's film Ocean Waves) whereas the rest of the manga concludes as a neat way to wrap up the story with stereotypical romanticism.
This volume is where the anime ends. It can be viewed as an optional ending of the story that enables you to view the storyline through one lens, and then to carry on to Vol 8 to view the entire storyline through a completely different lens.

It's been a long time since a book made me cry.

Loved this book so much! Knowing the community, some parts of this book weren't quite believable - however this is explained by the author at the end of the book (being more about positive exposure than factual accuracy).
This book is definitely aimed at a teenage audience and I think I would have enjoyed it even more if it had been aimed at a slightly older audience, but that does not in any way make it less enjoyable.
A brilliant book. I wish more people would read it.

It is a good book, but not a style I personally enjoyed - had to force myself to read the next chapter again and again.

This book had a lot of information. Seriously. I was going back chapters to remind myself on topics that had already been covered (that's not easy on on an eReader).

Makes me wish I had a print version of this on my desk at work.

This book was written a decade ago; whilst it has very useful knowledge compiled into one source, the majority of it is what I would class as common knowledge to those already interested in the field.

I wouldn't normally like this style of writing, but it's been a while since I have read something similar. I can't tell if my reading preferences are changing or an endearment to the skill of the author. I'll start the next in the series and find out!

Whilst I wouldn't say this was the most enjoyable book to read, it is one that should be read. Review to come shortly.

Having watched the TV series first, then some independently-written fan fiction, it was amazing to analyse the stark differences between the show and the book - the why's, what-if's and possibilities had my imagination running the whole time I was reading it: how would Glass have been portrayed if her storyline was cast for the show; how unbelievable would the Wells-Clarke interactions be on the show had they had kept Wells' very simplistic backstory; how gritty and dark would it have been if they kept the Blake's backstory (though perhaps better portrays Bellamy's protectiveness over his sister)...
If I hadn't have watched the show, I probably would have given three (perhaps four because i dont like giving bad reviews) stars - but I have and I can't help but think that the script writers completely transformed this this bland book into the acting that I loved. I will read the other two at some point but that's more because I've already bought them, or I'm interested in what other major plot changes that the script writers improved, than the actual books themselves.

The story, in usual Dan Brown style, started great - I really got into it and thought it was going to be another 4 or 5 day read. It's now 2 or 3 months later and I have absolutely no motivation to finish the rest of the book.

It is a shame as I'm sure the underlying storyline would have panned out to his usual exciting twist - but the amount of factual inaccuracies was too much (dealing with encryption is part of my job so I'm extremely biased).

Being one of his earlier works (published 17 years ago), you can tell hsi works improve greatly over time - I still think Dan Brown is a brilliant author and look forward to his next novel.