tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57518422371660939052024-03-19T14:30:46.695-07:00Two ReadsHusband and Wife, Richi and Lynne, Reading and Reviewing Books.Lynnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904071156864757350noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-5835295398006902362014-03-23T10:22:00.003-07:002014-03-23T10:22:57.615-07:00 Darkin: A Journey East (The Darkin Saga #1) by Joseph A. Turkot Darkin: A Journey East (The Darkin Saga #1) by Joseph A. Turkot<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText13276622225424374968">The greatest dark
wizard, long thought dead, has risen anew; in his wake marches the vast
army of the Feral Brood. None could have foreseen the total evil set to
descend upon Darkin.<br /><br />A long age of peace has left the land devoid
of heroes. Slavery has taken hold of the world’s commerce. All hope
rests in the rebellious spirit of one slave.<br /><br />Alien bloodlust
besieges Adacon late one night—an impulse drives him to murder his
guards and set out to find and kill his oppressers. Escaping into wilds
unknown, he realizes the great peril awaiting him.<br /><br />A strange
hermit appears from under a sand dune, claiming to know “magic.” He
believes that if they work together, they can build a band of warriors
powerful enough to change the fate of the world. Can they find any still
harboring valor and chivalry in their hearts?—or will their quest be
for nought, ending in the ruin of the world?</span></i><br />
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Review: There were a number of things I didn’t enjoy about this book.<br /><br />The
biggest problem was probably the characters, they didn’t really have
much personality to them and they didn’t really interest me. <br />Adacon,
is supposed to be an escaped slave, had no evidence that he was. What
there was of his personality didn’t match his status of being an
ex-slave, he was confidant, no fears, no worries about being captured,
intelligent and educated. He was also far too skilled as well, both him
and his fellow ex-slave have excellent fighting skills and are able to
overpower trained men despite not having practiced themselves. They have
other ‘natural’ skills they shouldn’t, such as being able to ride
horses skillfully.<br /><br />The love story didn’t see natural either, two
characters fell pretty much instantly in love and would do anything for
each other. The family had no problems with the relationship. It just
all seemed too easy and unrewarding.<br /><br />The characters were on the
whole overpowered. Most of the situations had no tension since the
characters always seemed strong enough to take on even overwhelming
odds.<br /><br />Too often the characters would say or do something they (and the author) would think was funny or clever, but it just wasn’t.<br /><br />The characters speak in a very unnatural way, almost archaic, but not really, more like a kid’s tv show from the 80’s.<br /><br />One
of the characters is a gnome who enjoys alcohol. The other characters
are always very critical of his drinking (despite the fact the gnome had
just found out his son had died), and the author is as well in the way
he describes the gnome and what he does, compared to the other
characters. Rather than coming across as a moral against abusing
alcohol, it seemed to be preachy and it annoyed me how badly everyone
was treating him.<br /><br />There was a massive overuse of magic, every
time the characters got into a difficult situation, the author would
bring them close to defeat, then someone would use magic and save
everyone. While magic is part of a fantasy novel, it shouldn’t be abused
in this way, even books where the main characters are wizards (such as
the Harry Potter series.) the characters use methods other than magic to
save themselves.<br /><br />The story was very clichéd and unoriginal, most of the plot has been seen many times before.<br /><br />The
descriptions were okay, but nothing special. It was generally easy to
follow the action and to understand what something looked like, but it
was lacking the attention to detail that most fantasy novels include.<br /><br />There were large chucks of world building information and occasionally it became difficult to remember it all.<br /><br />Overall
this book was okay, but had many flaws. I didn’t feel connection with
the characters, the death of almost any book, and I wasn’t convinced the
main POV character personality suited his background. It was clichéd,
and when it tried to be funny or clever it generally failed. The massive
overuse of magic and overpowered characters hit another nail in the
coffin by taking away any tension there might have been, and making any
dangerous situation pointless and the resolution dull.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.<br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview750575325">Rating **</span></span><br />
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-45742650136258983672014-02-23T11:20:00.003-08:002014-02-23T11:20:48.540-08:00 Light in the Gloaming by J.B. Simmons Light in the Gloaming by J.B. Simmons<br />
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<i>Synopsis<span id="freeText4851708900352658831">: “The Gloaming was worse than the grave…”<br /><br />Or
so Tryst believed when he banished the former prince to this secret and
brutal exile. Now Tryst sits on the throne of Valemidas. He feasts with
nobles and prepares an army to conquer the world.<br /><br />But things are
never as stable as they seem. Old loyalties remain. Tryst’s half-sister
wants vengeance for the disappeared prince she loved. What happens if a
man survives a place worse than the grave?<br /><br />Alliances will crumble, battles will rage, and souls will transform in the Gloaming.</span></i><br />
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Review:<br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview754239733">The
characters were outstanding, they had interesting and diverse
personalities. The good characters had flaws. There were also some
characters who appeared to be aiding the main character, but with the
way the author conveys the heroes thoughts we have doubts along with him
whether they are truly helping him or if they will betray him in the
end. The author did an excellent job of bringing across believable
thoughts and feelings from all of the characters.<br /><br />It was
interesting to see chapters from the point of view of the hero, Andor
and his rival Tryst from first person perspective and chapters from the
point of view of other characters written in third person perspective.
It was an good technique and it certainly made me feel it was a story
about these two main characters.<br /><br />The story was excellent. It was
different from your average hero having to overthrow the villain story.
Since the hero had to be more subtle about it and was attempting to do
it without killing his rival.<br /><br />The action was fairly light and the
fighting scenes tended to be short. That’s not to say there isn’t
anything happening or that it is short on excitement. There is plenty of
that; it just takes a different form, such as the main characters
planning on how they will overthrow Tryst. Probably the biggest
disappointment with the action was how the tension could build up, or
something appears to being set up for an action filled sequence only to
turn out to be fairly small. SPOILER<span style="color: white;"><span class="spoilerContainer"> The showdown between Andor and Tryst as well as the big battle were both disappointing given all of the build up to them.</span></span> [END OF SPOILER]<br /><br />The descriptions are very well written, every part of the world is more brilliant in the way the author describes it.<br /><br />The
Gloaming was a very interesting place, but sadly only fills up a small
section of the book, a couple of chapters at the start and at the end,
which was odd giving the title and the synopsis. The memories of the
place do effect Andor during the story, but I really would liked to have
seen more of it, either by having the prince spend more time there or
by having more detailed flashbacks to the place.<br /><br />Overall I would
rate this book four and a half out of five. The lack of action, and
results not matching up to the build up were my main reasons for not
giving this book the full five out of five. But it is strong enough for
me to be on the look out for the next book in the series.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview754239733"><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview754239733">In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span> </span></span><br />
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<br /><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview754239733">**** 1/2</span></span><br />
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-52500053131830677462014-02-09T11:23:00.001-08:002014-02-09T11:23:51.830-08:00 The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText2639194550886712260"><em>In the beginning, there was nothing but endless flatness. Then came the Carpet . . . </em>
That’s the old story everyone knows and loves. But now the Carpet is
home to many different tribes and peoples, and there’s a new story in
the making. The story of Fray, sweeping a trail of destruction across
the Carpet. The story of power-hungry mouls—and of two brothers who set
out on an adventure to end all adventures when their village is
flattened.<br /><br />It’s a story that will come to a terrible end—if someone doesn't do something about it. If <em>everyone</em> doesn’t do something about it . . .<br /><br />First
published in 1971, this hilarious and wise novel marked the debut of
the phenomenal Sir Terry Pratchett. Years later, Sir Terry revised the
work, and this special collectable edition includes the updated text,
his original color and black-and-white illustrations, and an exclusive
story—a forerunner to <em>The Carpet People</em> created by the seventeen-year-old nascent writer who would become one of the world's most beloved storytellers.</span></i><br />
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<span id="freeText2639194550886712260">Review: </span><br /><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview712248169">I
really enjoyed this book. It was originally written and published when
Terry Pratchett was just seventeen, and the reworked when he was
forty-seven.<br /><br />His humor and writing style are strong even though
he first wrote it at an early age. The characters are great and
observations into realistic human characteristics are what you would
expect from him, perhaps not as strong as his later works, but still
very good.<br /><br />I really liked the fact he would describe everything
from the Carpet peoples point of view and not from a human view. It
really kept me in the story because of it. For example when they find an
old penny he describes it as they view it (massive copper are with deep
ridges etc.) rather than tell us the reader it is a coin or penny.<br /><br />There
are many good ideas here, beyond the obvious things a race of tiny
people would encounter. Such as one group who remember everything,
including things that haven’t happened yet.<br /><br />The story itself is
good, as it is aimed at a younger audience it is a little simpler than
most of his discworld series. It’s not bad, just more linear. <br /><br />I
really enjoyed this book, it has much of what you would expect from him,
although as it is an early work it isn’t as strong. And perhaps that is
why it falls a little short of greatness, since he set the bar so high
with his more familiar stories. If you enjoy his other books then you
will probably like this one too. It did make me feel guilty and made me
worry I was harming Carpet people when I was vacuuming though.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview712248169">Rating: **** 1/2 </span></span><br />
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-59269725410776029032014-02-02T09:35:00.003-08:002014-02-02T09:35:40.240-08:00 Midnight City (Conquered Earth #1) by J. Barton Mitchell Midnight City (Conquered Earth #1) by J. Barton Mitchell<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText14184824933007756821"><strong>In a
post-apocalyptic world controlled by alien invaders, two teens and a
young girl with mysterious powers embark on a dangerous journey. What
they find will change everything...</strong><br /><br />Earth has been
conquered. An extraterrestrial race known as The Assembly has abducted
the adult population, leaving the planet’s youth to fend for themselves.
In this treacherous landscape, Holt, a bounty hunter, is transporting
his prisoner Mira when they discover Zoey, a young girl with powerful
abilities who could be the key to stopping The Assembly. As they make
their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, the trio must
contend with freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates,
feuding alien armies, and perhaps most perilous of all: Holt and Mira’s
growing attraction to each other.<br /><br /><em>Midnight City</em> is the
breathtaking first novel in the Conquered Earth series, and a stunning
work of imagination from debut author J. Barton Mitchell.</span></i><br />
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<span id="freeText14184824933007756821"> Review: </span><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview746717591">The
best book I’ve read in 2014 so far… okay so it’s only January and it’s
the forth book I’ve read, but I’m pretty sure it will still be one of my
favorite reads by the end of the year. <br /><br />While I do enjoy reading
dystopian and science fiction books, I tend to prefer fantasy. The fact
I rated this book so highly, despite the fact it’s not my favorite
genre, shows just how much I enjoyed it.<br /><br />The story itself is excellent. I really enjoyed reading what was happening to the characters and the world around them.<br /><br />The
characters were fantastic and rarely have I seen such evenly balanced
male and female in the lead roles. Their abilities are closely matched,
their personalities are just as strong, neither of them outshines the
other in terms of story or quality of writing, and neither of them
dominated the relationship. <br /><br />Speaking of their relationship I
thought it was really well done, they initially dislike each other and
very slowly they begin to fall in love, with very believable feelings
such as denial (to themselves) of their attraction and later accepting
the other is attractive but convincing themselves they are not
interested in pursuing a relationship. The long journey they go through
makes it more interesting. I don’t normally like much romance in
reading, but I did enjoy this one, partly because of the reasons I have
already listed, but also because the romance didn’t dominate the story.<br /><br />The
characters are developed through the story in more ways than just on a
romantic level. But it is done slowly and in a believable way.<br /><br />The thoughts and feelings of the characters was also written very well.<br /><br />The
world building is done exceptionally well. There is plenty introduced
to the reader to make the world interesting, but it is spread out
throughout the book so I never suffered from information overload. There
was always enough information and reminders, that I never felt lost or
confused.<br /><br />A few times I did think things were over explained, but
it was pretty rare and didn’t go on for too long. I guess it’s better
to have things explained a little too much than not enough.<br /><br />The
descriptions were of a good length, enough detail to follow what is
happening and to visualize the world, but not so much that it got
boring.<br /><br />The pacing was perfect, while there is plenty of action
and adventure, the author was never afraid to slow things down, to give
the characters more personal and intimate moments, or to give us
important information about their personalities or background.<br /><br />I
have very few criticisms of this book. The only one that bothered me was
the fact that neither Holt nor Mira never really questioned Zoey about
her powers, her past, or strange way of talking. Occasionally they would
ask her something but were accepting when she said she didn’t know why.
This seemed to go against Holt’s and Mira’s suspicious nature.<br /><br />Overall
I thought this was an excellent book, with a really enjoyable story,
with strong male and female lead characters, a very interesting world,
excellent pacing and descriptions.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview793867869">Rating: </span></span>***** + ♥</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-68118585215035156002014-01-26T09:35:00.002-08:002014-01-26T09:35:22.774-08:00 Aquaman, Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (Aquaman Vol. VII #3) by Geoff Johns, Paul Pelletier (Illustrations), Ivan Reis (Illustrations) Aquaman, Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (Aquaman Vol. VII #3) by Geoff Johns, Paul Pelletier (Illustrations), Ivan Reis (Illustrations)<br />
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Synopsis: <span id="freeText1711386867092319847">Aquaman, who long ago
lost contact with his people, must watch as armies emerge from the sea
to attack the surface world. The Justice League answers the call to
defend the shores from the invading Atlantean horde. But whose side is
Aquaman on? With his brother Orm at the head of the undersea army, will
Aquaman stand with his Earth-bound superteam? Or his own people? Find
out in this exciting hardcover collecting AQUAMAN #0 and 14-16 and
JUSTICE LEAGUE #15-17</span><br />
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<span id="freeText1711386867092319847">Review: </span><br />
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<span id="freeTextContainerreview767994262">This was the first comic book/sequential art book that I have read.<br /><br />I
thought the story was good. Even though it was vol. 3 in this series I
never felt lost in the story without having read the rest of them. <br /><br />The artwork was mixed in my opinion, some of it was really good other parts were pretty bad.<br /><br />In this case Raj was wrong, Aquaman does not suck.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span> </span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"> Rating ****</span></div>
Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-63134947135109610172014-01-22T19:36:00.001-08:002014-01-22T19:36:58.886-08:00 Sway of the Moon (The Sacred Oath Chronicles #1) by Nan Cederman Sway of the Moon (The Sacred Oath Chronicles #1) by Nan Cederman<br />
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<i>Synopsis: "Tonight, a war between<br /> the light and the darkness<br /> has returned. Two warriors<br /> clashed in the battle, which<br /> has continued throughout the<br /> ages. The dark one lies at <br /> our feet, righteousness has<br /> declared a victory" ~ Sahgi<br /><br />
In the year 9898HE (103BCE), tragic events compel a mystic
civilization to isolate itself from outsiders. Isolation provides the
serenity and freedom for the kin-people to expand innate abilities to an
unearthly level. Isolation provides their dark, twisted heritage to
fracture the three kindred bloodlines of the blended nation. Once again,
the ancestral battle for supremacy reignites.<br /> In the year 12020HE (2020CE), anthropologist Caeth Salkar begins to research her legacy.<br /> Amazed by the detailed ancestral <br />chronicles, she decides to document their epic struggle to overcome the thirst of the dark ones.<br />
Her research reveals 5 chosen Mystics. Each one swears a Sacred Oath
to battle the dark, heinous power, which becomes stronger with each
confrontation.
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Review: <span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview750575325">My
first big problem was with the characters. Apart from a few 'evil'
characters who have fairly minor roles in the story, the entire cast of
characters was way too nice. They are always saying nice things too each
other, doing kind acts, having nice thoughts. It just made them all
seem unrealistic and bland. Very occasionally one of the characters
would get angry about something and say something unkind, but upon
seeing the person upset they would immediately feel bad and apologize,
and the upset person would normally also say sorry for overreacting,
this is followed by more overly kind words to each other.<br /><br />One of
the worst example of this was when one of the characters sends his wife
away after an attack. She didn't want to go, but he became angry and
ordered her to leave. She is so traumatized by thinking about his words
while she is traveling back, she goes into premature labor. She prays to
the goddess of childbirth, who first saves the wife and child by
stopping the labor, then attacks the husband (sort of). He realizes why
he is being attacked and rushes to his wife, who by this time is at
their home. They are both very sorry and ask forgiveness, then... they
have sex! Seriously his wife just almost went into labor because she was
upset with him so they solve it by having sex! What was he going to do
poke the baby back in?<br /><br />The evil characters were just as over the
top as the good ones. The first one we meet was insane, pure evil, full
of anger and acted irrationally. He had no redeeming qualities or
reasons to justify what he was doing. All he needed was a mustache to
twiddle and he would be a stereotypical old movie bad guy. <br /><br />The
second group of villains actually started with more promise, they had
more diverse personalities and were interesting to read about. But after
a while they begin to change, and were similar to the overly kind
characters. They would be sweet, say nice things to each other, and
their only real evilness was their intent to battle against the main
group of characters. The change they went through was too quick and
unbelievable, for example the leader of the group went from ripping out
throats of those who challenged him in the slightest way, and abusing
women, to wanting to do the right thing, showing kindness to his rivals
and wishing to meet the approval of his 'beloved' in just a couple of
chapters.<br /><br />From the premise, I was excited to read about Caeth
Salkar, a person from the future researching about the other characters
and their history. This was an excellent idea and showed much promise.
Unfortunately it was badly executed, they never had any real voice, we
never learnt anything about them or their views on what they were
researching. Most of the time they were just there to provide a
narrative voice, explaining concepts or what happened over a period of
time between chapters. In the end they became pointless and their role
could have been written just as regular description.<br /><br /><br />The
speech was too elegant for too much of the book, characters would often
say things like "my soul dwells in darkness when you are not around." If
someone said phrases like this occasionally it would be okay, but when
it is used in most conversations it just becomes unbelievable, dull and
loses it's value, because everyone says things like this all the time. <br /><br />As
well as the speech, the general writing was too long winded, had many
repeating points and recaps on events that had just happened. The
pacing, especially at the start was painfully slow.<br /><br />Other than a
couple of things, their wasn't any long term plot. A problem would
arise, it would be dealt with by the characters, then once it had been
fully resolved a new problem would occur. It was unbelievable and gave
me less motive to want to keep reading since there was never really an
issue up there for long enough for me to I want to keep reading to see
how it would be resolved. Characters also tend to be able to solve
problems too easily.<br /><br />The point-of-view would also shift from one
paragraph to the next with no clear indication of it doing so, which was
sometimes confusing or at least disorientating.<br /><br />The text in this
book was left aligned, instead of the standard justify alignment. I
found it to be a little distracting at times.<br /><br />The story itself
was fairly good, especially towards the end of the book. And the concept
of having a character researching the history was a great one. The
writing was too elegant and rich for long periods, it would have been
better to have used a more natural way of speaking and describing for
most of the book and only use the elegant style at certain, important
points to make a more dramatic statement. It is certainly easier for an
author to tone down their work at times, than to elevate it when they do
not have this sophisticated writing style.<br />The characters need work,
just because a person is on the good side, it doesn't mean they have to
be completely nice all of the time. <br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview750575325">Rating **</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview750575325"> </span></span>Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-56552883382303000662014-01-19T07:08:00.000-08:002014-01-19T07:08:21.076-08:00 Sourcethief (Twinborn Trilogy #3) by J.S. Morin<br />
Sourcethief (Twinborn Trilogy #3) by J.S. Morin <br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText2477732073302300113">War ravages Veydrus. Driven back by the magical might of the Kadrin Empire, the Megrenn Alliance is in a shambles. <br /><br />The
war spills into Tellurak. and Twinborn plots spanning the two worlds
threaten the course of the war from all sides, including within the
empire itself. <br /><br />Desperate to find a way to counter the
unstoppable power of an army led by a demon warlock, Jinzan Fehr seeks
an ancient source of power. <br /><br />Thus begins the Fourth Necromancer War ...</span></i><br />
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<i><span id="freeText2477732073302300113"></span><span id="freeText2477732073302300113"> </span></i><br />
<span id="freeText2477732073302300113"></span><span id="freeText2477732073302300113">Review</span><span id="freeText2477732073302300113">: </span><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview793867869">The
originality of the concept for this series, having characters live
lives in two very different worlds, was what first struck me that this
was going to be something very special. The author continues to impress
me, not only did he go on with this idea but has developed it as well.
The importance of passing information between worlds, having alliances
that work on both sides and many other important ideas are all developed
in this book.<br /><br />The descriptions are again of the perfect length,
there is enough detail to fully visualize the world, but they are not so
lengthy that they take to you away from the story for too long. <br /><br />The
reminders of what has happened in the previous two books was almost
always the right length, enough there to remind the reader of an event
but not so long that you feel you are rereading the story again. The
nature of Iridan’s death was about the only thing that I felt wasn’t
detailed enough early on, although later in the story I was given enough
to remember how it happened.<br /><br />The characters are again enjoyable
and their personalities continue to develop. I really liked how Brannis
and Kyrus have blended together, both becoming stronger as a result. It
was interesting to read about Kyrus’s doubts about whether he is doing
the right thing and fear he will turn into another Rashan. The thoughts
and feelings of all the characters are believable, interesting to read
about, and come across clearly.<br /><br />While it is now clear exactly who
is good and who is evil, there is always enough good in evil
characters, and evil in good characters to keep them realistic and more
interesting. The evil characters often also see themselves as doing the
right thing.<br /><br />The relationships between the characters across both
worlds are done well, along with the many plot points that are both in
their own world and across both. For the most I was able to follow who
was who, and what was going on, only a couple of times did I feel a
little lost. Considering just how much is going on and how complex it
all is, this was quite a feat.<br /><br />We get to see even more of the
world in this book, and like the characters it is varied and has real
depth to it. It is really well done especially considering there are two
worlds in this book.<br /><br />The story is excellent, there are many plot
points all being developed through the book, almost all of them are
interesting and continue the overall story in some way. <br /><br />The
action sequences for the first three quarters of the book were rare.
There was interesting things going on with the story, but I did think it
could do with some more excitement at times. Also most of the early
action scenes are very one sided and it was pretty obvious who was going
to win (Rashan battling against unknown soldiers, Brannis and his
friends fighting off some street thugs, and Jinzan with his staff
attacking civilians and local militia). Since all of these main
characters were so much more powerful than those they were fighting
against, it took away from the tension and you never felt they were in
any real danger. The battle scenes for the remainder of the book are
fantastic, Avalanche really gets to live up to its name, and when the
main characters finally get to face each other, the scenes are exciting,
varied and you are never sure who is going to win. <br /><br />Just like
the previous two books this is a big one. It has a fairly small print
and large page sizes so it is even longer than the 381 pages would
suggest. It’s not a problem since so much happens and it is almost all
interesting. <br /><br />The author did an excellent job of tying up the
loose ends, but left a few just loose enough that there could be more
books in the series, but if there aren’t then you aren’t left feeling
something has been missed out.<br /><br />I have really enjoyed this series
and it is easily my favorite read of 2013. It is one of those books
where I found myself really hoping that the book and author will be
successful in a big way. The story is so fantastic that the author truly
deserves to have it be successful, the originality, story, characters,
and quality of writing is so much superior to major fantasy novels out
there I really want to see this series do well. <br /><br />If I had to
decide I would probably pick book two Aethersmith as my favorite in the
series. Almost everything about this book was great, the story, the
characters, the worlds, the descriptions, and the many plot points, it
was just lacking a little action and fast pacing compared to the
Aethersmith.<br /><br />I am excited about the authors next project “The Mad
Tinker Chronicles” which will pair up Tellurak with a completely new
world, which seems to be more steampunky, in a new Twinborn series. I
had been thinking for some time how cool it would be to have other
worlds for the Twinborns to live in and I am glad to see this will be
happening. And if it anywhere near as good as this series it is likely
to be my favorite read in 2014.<br /><br />A big thank you to the author for sending me a copy of this book.<br /><br />In full disclosure I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview793867869">Rating: </span></span>***** + ♥</div>
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview793867869"> </span></span>Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-6884772678895027852014-01-15T18:42:00.000-08:002014-01-15T18:42:18.708-08:00 Bastial Energy (The Rhythm of Rivalry #1) by B.T. Narro Bastial Energy (The Rhythm of Rivalry #1) by B.T. Narro<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText9068919795498059566">By using the energy of
the land, some humans have found they can develop extraordinary
abilities. At the age of seventeen, these warriors, magicians, chemists,
and psychics are allowed the opportunity to train at the Academy,
increasing their opportunity for a well-paying career. But there’s a
catch. They must fight beside the Army if requested by their king. Most
aren’t concerned by this, as the current treaty has prevented battle for
nearly seventy years…but that’s about to change.<br /><br />Of four
roommates with interwoven stories, Cleve Polken takes focus as a hostile
warrior who feels more comfortable in a duel than a conversation. Never
getting past his parents’ death, Cleve has developed a crippling fear
of psychics, for some may have the power to resurface the torment he
buried within himself upon his parents’ passing. Cleve’s forced to face
this fear head-on when he discovers that not only is one of his
roommates a psychic, but that he has an overwhelming attraction to her,
which he quickly attributes to a psychic spell, nothing more.<br /><br />By
the time an army of savage, reptilian men called Krepps become involved
in the war, all hope of resolution without battle is shattered. In this
powerful army, one born with the inability to smell doesn’t have the
same feeding urges as his fellow Krepps and is outcast because of it. He
finds himself with an unlikely ally in the middle of a crossroad,
trying to find a way to reunite with his sister. Little does he know how
much his choices will twist the fate of the war and alter the lives of
the four human roommates forever.</span></i><br />
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<span id="freeText9068919795498059566">Review: </span><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview678176425">I
have mixed feelings about this book, some parts were excellent but
there were some disappointing things too. It’s one of those books I wish
I could give a half star rating to because three seems too low, but
four is too high.<br /><br />Initially I didn’t like the main characters in
the story. For most of the main characters, we are shown fairly negative
traits such as recklessly putting another in danger to get what they
wanted, uncaring of others and being anti-social, killing of an animal
because it was a ‘failed’ experiment, and teenage drinking (although in
their world you are considered an adult at fourteen). The only character
who has shown to have positive traits was Zoke, who is a member of the
race of antagonists in the story.<br /><br />While it is generally a great
idea to give the ‘good’ characters negative traits in a story, having
most of the cast behave in this way at the start of the book didn’t work
for me as it put me off them for quite a bit of the book. Fortunately
as we get to see more of them, we get to see the good in them and I
found myself supporting them, but this took longer than it should have
due to how they started out.<br /><br />I did think the start of the story
was rushed and that some of the characters built up relationships too
quickly, not necessarily romantic relationships, but ones where people
were prepared to risk their lives or freedom, for someone they had only
just met.<br /><br />The thoughts and feelings of the characters were really
well explained and detailed. I really felt I was in their head and
could hear what they were thinking. As well as being well explained,
they also seemed to have believable emotions behind them, such as
self-doubt, attraction to others, fear, and worry whether they are being
influenced by Psyches.<br /><br />The rest of the descriptions were also
well written and for the most part it was easy to follow what was
happening and feel like you were in the world. Only a couple of times
did I find myself having to reread a paragraph to understand what was
happening.<br /><br />Some of the time I did think that things were
over-explained. This would often manifest when we are told something for
the first time, I found the explanation went on for several paragraphs
too long in an attempt to really make sure the reader ‘got it’. Other
times the problem was when something was re-explained, the reminder
could go on for quite a few paragraphs when only one or two would have
done. Whenever this happened it broke up the flow of the story. <br /><br />Conversely
some things are either not explained enough or not until much later in
the story. For example an important plot point is that bows are illegal,
we are told in the first couple of pages that they are illegal and one
of the main characters owns one, but we are not told why until later in
the story. I found this frustrating as I felt this should have been
explained much earlier.<br /><br />Some of the conversations characters had
were unnatural and seemed to only be there to explain a plot point or
perform some world building. This often takes the form of one character
telling something that realistically they should already know or was
written in a way it felt the author was speaking to the reader rather
than one character to another. This clunkiness pulled me out of the
story and didn’t feel right.<br /><br />One particularly bad example of
these was when one of the main characters has been arrested and being
brought before the king for a crime that could give life imprisonment.
While being taken through the castle the guard is giving our character a
guided tour and telling him about how various things worked. As well as
being unnatural it took away the dramatic tension as it felt if the
guard is telling him all these things, then our character can’t be in
trouble. <br /><br />There were some inconsistencies in the story, the worst
examples were centered around the psyches whose abilities seemed to
vary greatly, even within the same character. Sometimes they would be
able to do something psychically with ease and other times they wouldn’t
be able to do a similar action at all. This seemed to be plot driven
rather than follow any believable pattern. These inconsistencies made it
harder to find the story realistic in its own universe.<br /><br />Some of
the timelines also didn’t seem to fit and it seemed a lot more time
passed for some characters compared to what happened with others.<br /><br />The
choice of sending our main characters (who are first years at the
academy) on a dangerous and important mission didn’t seem right. The
explanation given, that the rulers wanted to save all the older students
and graduates for battle just didn’t seem right. Removing around five
people from the army wouldn’t make a difference to a battle, but it
could make a big difference to the outcome of such an important mission.<br /><br />Due to some scenes of a sexual nature and some swearing the book is really only suitable for an adult audience (18+).<br /><br />Overall
I would rate this book 3 ½ stars. The story was good but let down by
inconsistencies within it own rules, some over explaining, or things
occurring that didn’t seem natural. The characters were good, despite my
initial dislike of them.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview678176425"><br /></span></span>
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview678176425">Rating ***</span></span> <span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview678176425">½ </span></span></div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-51943981094150122772014-01-12T12:46:00.001-08:002014-01-12T12:46:26.610-08:00 Razor's Edge (Empire and Rebellion #1) by Martha Wells Razor's Edge (Empire and Rebellion #1) by Martha Wells <br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText5333026423068796701">Times are desperate for
the Rebel Alliance. Harassment by the Empire and a shortage of vital
supplies are hindering completion of a new secret base on the ice planet
Hoth. So when Mid Rim merchants offer much-needed materials for sale,
Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo lead an Alliance delegation to
negotiate a deal.<br /><br />But when treachery forces the rebel ship to
flee into territory controlled by pirates, Leia makes a shocking
discovery: the fierce marauders come from Leia’s homeworld of Alderaan,
recently destroyed by the Death Star. These refugees have turned to
pillaging and plundering to survive—and they are in debt to a pirate
armada, which will gladly ransom the princess to the vengeful Empire . .
. if they find out her true identity.<br /><br />Struggling with intense
feelings of guilt, loyalty, and betrayal, Leia is determined to help her
wayward kinspeople, even as Imperial forces are closing in on her own
crippled ship. Trapped between lethal cutthroats and brutal oppressors,
Leia and Han, along with Luke, Chewbacca, and a battle-ready crew, must
defy death—or embrace it—to keep the rebellion alive.</span></i><br />
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Review: This was a very traditional and familiar Star Wars story. While this was
good in some ways, such as making it familiar and fitting to the Star
Wars universe it also made it lacking in originality. Almost every plot
point I had seen in one Star Wars story or another.<br /><br />While it is
set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, it does very little to
connect the two movies, there are some references the Death Star and
talk about plans for Echo Base but these instances are few and far
between, and the story could have almost been set at any point in the
Rebellion Era.<br /><br />The cast of characters from the movies were
portrayed well and were fitting for their personalities at this point in
their journey. The story focuses mostly on Han and Leia and their
underlying attraction and tension came across well. Leia is especially
well written, she is strong on the surface but has self doubt, fears and
guilt over what she has gone through. Chewie, Luke and Threepio also
appeared a little in the story and their personalities were on target,
Threepio provided some comical moments. <br /><br />The main cast of good
characters were a little to perfect however, they were always able to
come up with plans that either worked perfectly or they could alter on
the fly to succeed. They also were always able to correctly interpret
events and what others were planning even it was unrealistic for them to
do so due to a lack of information.<br /><br />The rest of the cast of good
characters was okay but nothing special, I would have liked to have
seen more played with the Alderaanion pirates and what they had been up
to.<br /><br />The cast of evil characters was fairly weak and they never
really felt like a threat. The danger from the pirate leader was
undermined by constant reminders of how everyone working for her was
unhappy and seemed ready to betray her as soon as the situation
presented itself. The commander of the imperial vessel also never seemed
dangerous, he had a fairly weak spacecraft, he wasn’t a particularly
intelligent commander or tactician and didn’t have and powers that the
characters would need to be scared of.<br /><br />Overall this was an okay
Star Wars story, but if you have read many before you will probably be
very familiar with the plot and find it predictable. The characters from
the movies were well portrayed but the rest of the cast I found
lacking.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.<br />
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Rating: ***</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-20817337848957656722014-01-08T17:55:00.003-08:002014-01-08T17:55:25.577-08:00Sufferstone (Dolvia Saga #1) by Stella AtriumSufferstone (Dolvia Saga #1) by Stella Atrium<br />
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<i>Synopsis:<span id="freeText16678467338290843118">On Dolvia the women of
the savannah serve under the burka, but Kyle Le was denied that covering
by tribal leaders. Only her gift of second sight and the mortgage on
her father's land protects her and her three sisters. Kyle Le meets
Brian Miller, a Softcheeks who teaches her about offworld politics and
accumulating wealth while she teaches him the words of power from
Mekucoo. Working alongside the warrior Cyrus, they labor against the
mining enterprise that robs the savannah of it mineral wealth and leaves
the tribes with only the scarred and suffering land. ... an intriguing
tale. The struggle to overcome oppression, to preserve a way of life, to
maintain compassion in a cold and hateful conflict, is always
interesting and involving ... Atrium has a flair for creating and
maintaining an atmosphere of mysticism and mystery ... she stays true to
the situation, never slipping out of the frame she has set. -- Lisa
DuMond, online reviewer of science fiction</span></i><br />
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Review: <span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview372175593">I
was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, and I was excited to read
about a different and somewhat primitive culture and the effects of a
technological rich human race had on them. The culture and concept was
different to your average science-fiction story and I had looked forward
to reading about them, unfortunately I was disappointed with the book
for a number of reasons.<br /><br />Firstly there was a lot of culture and
world building in this novel, while I do enjoy reading about cultures
made up by authors, especially if they are rich as they are in this
story. In this case the author took it too far, I felt the heavy
emphasis on telling the reader about the world came at the expense to
the plot, story and characters. <br /><br />There is so much culture in the
book that it made it hard to follow and with so many unusual concepts in
the world I was lost at times. When ideas are revisited they are not
usually re-explained making it hard to remember what something was
about.<br /><br />The story jumps around a lot in time, sometimes a short
time occurs between one paragraph and the next and sometimes weeks or
months have gone by with no real description on what has happened in
that time. There were plenty of times where we are not told why
something is happening just that it is. This made me feel disconnected
to the characters and the story.<br /><br />The physical descriptions are
also lacking, and it was hard to visualize what people and things looked
like in the book. There might be a little description when a character
first appears but whenever they come back we are not retold what they
look like so it was hard to put a face to a name.<br /><br />There is a
large cast of characters in this book. The big problem with this is that
characters are referred to by different names depending on who is
talking about them and in what context. While this is a nice idea, it
did make it really hard to know who a certain character is and how they
tie in with the story. There is a glossary at the end of the book which
tells you something about each character, but it has its own problems.
Firstly characters only appear under one of their names, so if you don’t
know their other names you may not be able to find them without looking
through the entire glossary to find them. Secondly the glossary
contains spoilers, such as who a person will marry later in the book,
the children they have and even if they die.<br /><br />The characters
themselves I found to be fairly dull, there was nothing about them that
really drew me to them or excited me. The story is told from first
person, but the characters rarely reveal their emotions or inner
thoughts to the reader making them feel cold and distant.<br /><br />The
first person style writing had problems of its own. There are a few POV
characters and the story is always told from first person perspective.
The first three parts each follow a different character. When a new part
starts we are not given any insight on who the new person is, where
they are, and at what time-frame their story is compared to the rest of
the story. This confusion could go on for a few chapters before I had
all the answers. The forth part of the book was the most confusing in
this, as it follows one character, sometimes it seemed like it was
following other people but I was never really sure. It wasn’t helped by
the weak character voice, making it hard to know who you were reading
about.<br /><br />There are very few action/exciting scenes in the book.
Most of the time they are told by characters after they have happened
and it loses all of the tension and excitement at that point.<br /><br />Overall
while it is clear the author spent a lot of time developing the culture
of their world, it didn’t come across to me very well as the reader.
The story suffered as a result of the heavy telling of the culture. The
characters seemed dull to me and I had a hard time connecting with them.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview372175593">Rating: ** </span></span></div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-74845697748882706382014-01-05T12:11:00.000-08:002014-01-05T12:11:03.820-08:00Magefable by Heimdall Thunderhammer<br />
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<i><span id="freeText14301233647041348640">Synopsis: Durbin has always
dreamed of becoming a swashbuckling adventurer like his legendary
father. But unfortunately he's stuck in the secluded valley forest of
Verdancia, far away from the sway and swagger of the sea. On one fateful
evening a mouse named Clove and her spear hog companion Herod stumble
into his village. They had escaped from the terrible lion Sinvicious who
wants to stop Clove before she can gain the full power of a
geomancer--a mage with the ability to control the elements. Fire, water,
wind, lightning, all can be controlled by a geomancer. They can fly,
turn themselves invisible, make their skin as solid as rock, shift the
earth, and even control life... Although all Clove can do at this point
is make weeds move.<br /><br />The next morning when Durbin awakes he finds
Clove and Herod gone. Unable to resist the call of adventure, he
journeys out into the woods to find them, dragging along his reluctant
friend Morro the hedge hog, who would rather be sitting at home eating
scones and berries. On their way they meet other new friends such as
Reverie, a wounded sparrow who can mesmerize animals with his singing,
and Bailey, a courageous and boisterous young squirrel who is hunting
for a dragon to tame. But as Durbin and Morro seek Clove and Herod, so
does Krochek the Hunter--the most vile, savage rat ever to emerge from
Sinvicious's kingdom. Along with his horde of bloodthirsty rodents he
will tear the forest apart in his effort to find them.<br /><br />Magefable
is a beautifully illustrated fantasy adventure. It is the first book in
an epic tale filled with magic, treasure, humor, and friendship, as well
as many ferocious enemies and the dangerous elements of nature.</span></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigczAYJWfRk9HC1FEtn9_Q1HhnuWc6Iam9PqgCQNgbLfK9lH07db2payenbCqtgCMrtqyt6ES3hW0nz1isrXnAnXUYWW8JrAOb9BUmsqfvUFPR4V78MqTMrOJXNK6CpUysja2OYwt8w9VZ/s1600/richisreviews1a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigczAYJWfRk9HC1FEtn9_Q1HhnuWc6Iam9PqgCQNgbLfK9lH07db2payenbCqtgCMrtqyt6ES3hW0nz1isrXnAnXUYWW8JrAOb9BUmsqfvUFPR4V78MqTMrOJXNK6CpUysja2OYwt8w9VZ/s1600/richisreviews1a.gif" /></a></div>
Review: <span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview657266869">I really enjoyed this book, it is aimed at a middle grade audience but even as an adult I really liked it.<br /><br />There
was a nice balance between action scenes and slower scenes, with time
spent on showing the characters personalities and developing them. The
action scenes did get a little repetitive as they were almost always
battles between the good characters fighting against the rats or some
other evil foe.<br /><br />The descriptions were a good, they didn't go into
great detail but were descriptive enough to give a good idea what they
world looks like. They were short enough that the pacing was quick.<br /><br />The
characters were great and very suitable for the target audience. The
main good characters were kind, funny and brave. While they are all have
these traits they also each have their own quirks making each of the
unique.<br /><br />The artwork in the book was a cute touch. Nicely drawn, fairly simple pictures that go well with the story and writing style.<br /><br />It
should be said there were some violent scenes and death, while it
doesn't go into any detail there were some parts, such as animals
getting chopped in half, animals eating other animals or main characters
dying, making this book unsuitable for young children.<br /><br />There
were some similarities between this book and the Redwall series,
although there were plenty of differences to make this book worth
reading even if you have read Redwall already.<br /><br />In full disclosure
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I also got an adorable book
mark, featuring artwork of Durbin and Morro and a cute little plastic
leaf on it.</span></span><br />
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Rating ****</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-10361322571240060762013-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:002013-12-29T13:25:14.365-08:00Night of the Purple Moon (The Toucan Trilogy #1) Night of the Purple Moon (The Toucan Trilogy #1)<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeTextContainer3310538150059947923">Abby, 13, is looking
forward to watching the moon turn purple, unaware that bacteria from a
passing comet will soon kill off older teens and adults. She must help
her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while
she has a ticking time bomb inside of her--adolescence.</span></i><br />
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<span id="freeTextContainer3310538150059947923">Review</span><i><span id="freeTextContainer3310538150059947923">:</span></i><br /><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331">This
was an interesting book. It was a little different than most
dystopian/apocalyptic books I have read as the story starts the night of
the disaster and continues through the first year rather than your
typical dystopian which is set decades after the disaster.<br /><br />There
were many interesting and realistic scenarios that the characters have
to deal with, such as disposing of dead bodies, acquiring food and
water, and dealing with limited fuel and resources. <br /><br />Most of the
first part of the book has the characters dealing with these things as
well as deaths as people reach puberty, there wasn’t much in the way of
long term plot early on, other than listening for updates from the CDC
on how they are trying to find a cure.<br /><br />The last third of the book
was more exciting as two of the characters leave the relative safety of
their island in hopes of finding the promised cure.<br /><br />The
characters were good but not great, I didn’t find their personalities
diverse enough and I would sometimes have to double check who someone
was because they blurred together.<br /><br />It was nice that there wasn’t
any bad language and the violence was fairly mild, making the book
suitable for younger readers (perhaps ten and older).<br /><br />It did feel
that a lot of scenes were too brief and could have been expanded to
make them more interesting and give a better connection to the
characters. I would have enjoyed seeing more details on exactly how they
were running things, managed their resources, taught things to the
younger children, worked on cleaning the water, searching the homes etc.
most of this was only described briefly and it would have been so much
more enjoyable if these world details were expanded.<br /><br />There were
quite a few times were the science or real world happenings were
inaccurate or didn’t seem likely and occurred only for the convenience
of the story.<br /><br />Overall I would rate this book 3 ½ stars, as it has
some interesting topics and ideas but I just wish they were expanded
more. The characters were fairly good but too similar to each other to
be anything special</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331"><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331">In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331"><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331">Rating: *** </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331"><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview404106331"> </span></span> </span></span></div>
Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-79518070668642231972013-12-11T18:55:00.001-08:002013-12-11T18:55:48.958-08:00Win a Kindle Fire HDX!<b><a href="http://www.iamareader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/December-Kindle-Fire.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21619" alt="December Kindle Fire" src="http://www.iamareader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/December-Kindle-Fire.jpg" width="399" height="500" /></a></b>
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Lynnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904071156864757350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-47924396397511008842013-11-17T09:51:00.001-08:002013-11-17T09:51:18.317-08:00 The Crusades and the Soldiers of the Cross: The 10 Most Important Crusaders, From German Emperors to Charismatic Hermits, Child Armies, and Warrior Lepers by Michael Rank The Crusades and the Soldiers of the Cross: The 10 Most Important Crusaders, From German Emperors to Charismatic Hermits, Child Armies, and Warrior Lepers by Michael Rank<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText8052179889764654668">'The Crusades and the
Soldiers of the Cross' is an exciting new book by best-selling author
and historian Michael Rank about the quest to retake the Holy Land. It
looks at the lives and times of the 10 most important people in one of
the most interesting times in history, covering 1095 to 1212. <br /><br />Whether
it is Peter the Hermit raising an army of 100,000 peasants to fight in
the Holy Land with nothing but pitchforks or Baldwin IV personally
leading his forces against Saladin despite having terminal leprosy,
these larger-than-life figures were all drawn to the Holy Land and
compelled to forsake their vast land holdings while embarking on a
dangerous adventure against a superior enemy. <br /><br />This book will
look at the reasons for these 10 figures joining the crusade. Perhaps it
was for glory in battle, as was the case for Richard the Lionheart. For
others it was simple curiosity, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, who added
dramatic panache to the whole affair and brought along 300 female
servants donned in decorative armor and carrying lances while on the
march to Jerusalem. For many it was a simple faith conviction, such as
the thousands of child crusades, who legend has it marched to the
Mediterranean sea and expected it to open for them as the Red Sea had
done for Moses. <br /><br />Whatever their background, these 10 crusaders
demonstrate that a person willing to brave the enormously dangerous
journey -- traveling to to a different continent over land no less --
had a personality fitting for the fascinating time in which they lived.</span></i><br />
<i><span id="freeText8052179889764654668"> </span><span id="freeText8052179889764654668"> </span></i><br />
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Review: The book provides facts about various crusades in a very dry way. I
found some of the facts interesting but didn't ever found anything
exciting or enthusiast, it read more like a textbook than a fun read.<br /><br />Because
of the coldness of the writing I never felt any connection to the
historical figures and didn't really care how they fared.<br /><br />I do
have some knowledge of the medieval period, but I am by no means a
historical buff, still I found myself knowing a lot about what I was
reading and a lot of the information in here is probably well known. <br /><br />Quite
a few of the ten chapters overlapped and information in one could be
read about in another. Also some of the crusades in this book were very
similar to others and even if there were some differences it felt too
similar and I would have preferred to have read about a more varied
tales.<br /><br />Because each chapter was short, the information on each crusade was limited and I felt I was missing out on a lot.<br /><br />Overall
this was an okay read, perhaps a nice afternoon read if you fancy an
easy historical read even if it wasn't particularly exciting.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.<br />
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Rating **<br />
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-34085862830520956942013-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:002013-11-10T10:36:13.911-08:00 The Silver Falcon (Das kupferne Zeichen #2) by Katia Fox The Silver Falcon (Das kupferne Zeichen #2) by Katia Fox<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText12195214227098726155">England, 1184 <br />Young
Will, the Marshal’s bastard son, dreams of training falcons but as the
son of famous swordsmith Ellenweore, it seems his destiny will be the
forge. <br /><br />One fateful day, the falcon of King Henry II is lost in a
chase and Will happens upon the bird. Recognizing this great
opportunity, he begs the king to let him become a falconer. With no
clear path ahead of him, he decides to take matters into his own hands
and following his dreams of one day becoming a falconer to the king. <br /><br />Love,
intrigue and betrayal leave Will more than once only narrowly escaping
death and when his talent attracts King John’s attention, a powerful
enemy does everything to ruin him.</span></i><br />
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<span id="freeText12195214227098726155"> Review: </span><br /><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview656755370">This book was amazing and easily one of my favorite reads of the year.<br /><br />The
level of detail is excellent; the author does a fantastic job of
bringing the medieval world to life and fills every sense. The detail is
never too long and doesn’t take too much time away from the story.
There is no indication that this book has been translated from another
language and is better worded and constructed than most of books.<br /><br />The
detailing on many aspects of the characters lives is also very well
described, falconry is obviously an important part of the main
character’s life and we are told a lot about this, but other things that
are important to him are also given plenty of attention. A few times I
did find the information lacking, such as the types of horses people are
riding and the amount things cost is never given. Very rarely there was
a piece of incorrect information, such as referring to the priest who
opposed King Henry II as Thomas à Becket, but other than these few small
things I found the level of research and detail to be very high but
never described to the point it became boring.<br /><br />Most of the time
how the information is presented is not dull, although a few times when
the author is describing important events that are happening in the
world that don’t directly involve the character, typically real historic
events such as the imprisonment of King Richard or the deaths or
marriages of monarchs, I found these times to be less well told and it
felt more like a history book than an interesting story.<br /><br />The
characters in the book are wonderful; they have strong but realistic
personalities. You could always tell which character you were following
just by the way they are thinking and acting even if no names or context
was provided. They have real emotions and think things that a person
would in real life but it is presented so well that it is still
interesting to read. The characters have plenty of background and
history. The also make mistakes, think bad thoughts, feel guilt and come
to the wrong conclusions at times, all making them much more believable
and interesting.<br /><br />The world itself is realistic and very, very
brutal, we’re talking Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire brutal at
times. Very unpleasant things happen to the main characters.<br /><br />The
amount of action in the book is low compared to other historical fiction
books and as our main character is not a warrior when there is action
it is generally bad for him. Having said that I never missed the lack of
high paced action as the rest of the story is so interesting.<br /><br />One
side effect of having so many unpleasant things happen to the main
character was that whenever there was the potential for something bad to
happen in was a time of high tension, even if it turned out nothing
went wrong, especially as the author did such a great job of making me
care for William. <br /><br />The story details the highs and lows of the
characters life. The ebb and flow was always believable and never took
impossible leaps. The various highs and lows happened in a realistic and
random manner, and you could never tell if something good or bad was
about to happen simply because it was time for one.<br /><br />His rise in
rank while it would have been unlikely in the real world it wouldn’t
have been impossible, and it was done slowly enough it really was
believable.<br /><br />It was also interesting to see parts of the book
detour away from the characters main goal of being a falconer. It
reminded me of Pillars of the Earth in that way.<br /><br />I enjoyed the message that hard work and being good pays off in the end.<br /><br />The
story is spread out over many years, and while the date is given at the
start of each chapter I would have liked to have been told how old the
character was at each stage.<br /><br />I loved the internal artwork in this book, it is medieval in style and fits in perfectly with the rest of the novel.<br /><br />I
haven’t read the first book in this series, although after this one I
intend to, but I never felt lost or having missed out on anything
because I hadn’t read the other book first.<br /><br />I absolutely loved
this book, the characters and story are amazing, the level of detail is
high and everything is realistic but remains interesting.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview656755370"> </span></span>Rating ***** + ♥</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-40232925444534954242013-11-03T17:56:00.003-08:002013-11-03T17:56:32.894-08:00 A World Apart & Sword of Light (Jake Thomas Trilogy 1-2) by Steven A. Tolle<br />
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<i><span id="freeText2830569510931036285">Synopsis: A World Apart is the exciting first book in the Jake Thomas Trilogy.<br /><br />Jake
Thomas thought he was having a bad day. An after-school encounter with a
long-time rival had left him angry and dismayed, but little did he know
that before the day was done, his life would be changed forever.<br /><br />Suddenly
and mysteriously transported to another world, he finds himself alone
and without a clue how or why he was brought here. Cut off from his
familiar surroundings, he has to find a way to survive and return home.<br /><br />Soon
after he begins to explore this new world, he meets an enigmatic
warrior and is introduced to magic-wielding clerics. However, Jake finds
out quickly that danger lurks all around him as demons exist on this
world - and they want him badly!</span></i></div>
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<span id="freeText2830569510931036285">Review: </span><br /><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview475694789">The
descriptions used to describe the world are of a good length. There is
always plenty of information to allow a reader to really see the details
of what the characters are seeing and doing, but they are not so
lengthy that the pacing of the story suffers.<br /><br />The author also
does a good job of recapping events, for example if a character is asked
to describe something that happened to them earlier in the story. In
these cases, we as the reader do not need much detail and the author
just gives a few lines of reminders.<br /><br />The only part of the
descriptions I found lacking was when the main character is being taught
something, we are often told that the other characters tell him how to
hold a sword, maintain a furnace or use magic but these details are
never given to the reader and it left me feeling I was missing out.<br /><br />The
story, world and characters aren’t original, most of it has been seen
before in some form. The basic story is that the main character is from
our world, he is at school where he has some troubles, although he’s not
quite the outsider seen in most books like this. He is magically
transported to a fantasy world; the world itself is your typical
European medieval fantasy setting, complete with knights, kings, a
beautiful princess and an evil being bent on destroying everything. <br /><br />Once
there the main character turns out to be the chosen one, foretold of by
a mysterious prophecy. He then begins his training by a tough warrior,
who really has our hero’s best interests at heart, has a softer side
underneath that gruff exterior and has the compulsory tragic past. After
some training the hero is called upon to defeat a dangerous foe.<br /><br />The
characters are pretty standard as well. There was nothing really
dislikeable with any of them, it was just everyone is someone I have
seen before, many times in a fantasy novel.<br /><br />One problem was that
just about every good character was too nice, they would always say kind
things, insist on being the one that pays for the bill, always offer
and try to help everyone, be prepared to sacrifice themselves to save
someone else, hug and have tears in their eyes when thanking someone.
While it maybe okay to have one ‘perfect’ character in a story, when
everyone is like that it just makes it dull. It also makes what they do
less special since everyone is prepared to do the same thing.<br /><br />There
are one or two characters that break the perfect mold, although these
tend to be very minor characters and their rarity doesn’t alleviate the
problem with the rest of the cast.<br /><br />We are given a glimpse of some
of the evil characters, and in a similar problem to the good characters
they seem to be wholly evil with nothing good to say about them. This
gives them less depth.<br /><br />There is nothing special about the magic system either. It is just flashy lights to blast enemies or heal friends.<br /><br />There
is a heavy Christian theme throughout the book, while the religion in
the world our character enters isn’t actually Christian there are many
very strong parallels and it is really Christian in all but name. In
fact it is so close it is just another example of the books
unoriginality. <br /><br />For the most part the pacing is good, with a nice
balance between action and scenes with more depth to them. There was a
bit of a slowdown mid-book when the main character was in training
without a great deal of action or major plot development but it didn’t
last too long.<br /><br />I read the Nook version of this book and there was
some issue with the presentation that caused the text to be center
aligned. The lines were also often broken mid-sentence half way across
the page and only continued on the next line. This was sometimes a
distraction and would pull me out of the story, the worst part was that
it would often make dialogue confusing as it was often unclear who was
speaking since you couldn’t tell if the new line of dialogue was on the
same paragraph as the last one.<br /><br />Another issue with the
presentation, which may be in the printed book as well, was that the
author didn’t use the standard use of punctuation for dialogue. I found
this to be distracting and it would often pull me out of the story as I
noticed these mistakes.<br /><br />There was some swearing, violent scenes
and references to sexual content, mostly implications or threats of rape
(although no details are given), making this book unsuitable for
younger readers. It is probably aimed at a young adult audience rather
than middle-grade.<br /><br />Overall I did enjoy the story, and if
Goodreads allowed half stars I would have given it a 3 ½ rating. The
descriptions were of an excellent quality and the story was enjoyable.
The unoriginality of most of the elements is what hurt it the most.<br /><br />I have read the second book in this series and feel that it was so strong I would recommend this series overall.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won the second book in this series in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371750678l/18106326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371750678l/18106326.jpg" width="211" /></a><i>Synopsis: Sword of Light, Book 2 of the Jake Thomas Trilogy, continues Jake's quest to return home. Dominic and Jonas lead Hailyn, Marcus and Keria out of the demons’ stronghold, carrying Jake, who collapsed after his dramatic display of power. Jonas is stymied on how to heal Jake, but help arrives when Tomaris unexpectedly shows up in Sanduas. Tomaris informs them that he believes that he has found a way to return Jake to his world – with the Guardian’s sword, an object of great power. When the demons first appeared a thousand years ago, the Guardian had confronted them, but was defeated and the sword lost. Standing in the way of any effort to recover the sword are two seemingly insurmountable obstacles – it is being defended by the demons and its exact location is unknown. Following obscure clues, Jake, Dominic, and Hailyn go in search for the sword, trying to approach unnoticed by the demons. Jonas, Marcus and Keria remain in Sanduas and are confronted by a growing darkness that threatens the city itself. Lurking in the shadows, the mysterious figure from Creatos’ lair moves to protect the sword and find Jake</i></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview475694789"> Review: </span></span><br /><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview666930278">The
descriptions are very good, there are plenty of details allowing the
reader to fully imagine the world and follow the story. The details do
not go on for too long, and when short descriptions or summaries of
conversations will suffice the author uses them and the pacing of the
story never suffers due to too long descriptions.<br /><br />I felt the
characters were stronger in this book. They were more fleshed out and
had more interesting personalities. Just like the first book in the
series, the good characters did suffer from being too nice. They all
almost always say nice things to one another, always are prepared to
help someone, risk their lives and sacrifice them for anyone even if
they have only just met them. By having everyone act like this makes the
characters less diverse and interesting. It also makes anyone who does
these things less special since you know that everyone acts in the same
way.<br /><br />Likewise all of the evil characters are completely evil,
they all enjoy killing, forcing themselves on women, desire power and
have little loyalty to those around them. This makes them less
interesting and none of the evil people stand out since they all act in
the same way. It was also annoying that (Spoiler ahead, highlight to read)<span class="spoilerContainer"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;">all evil characters had been corrupted by demons. It would be more realistic if some people were just evil by themselves.<span style="color: black;"> End of Spoiler.</span></span><span></span></span></span></span><br /><br />Characters
also had a tendency to ‘just know’ something and their instincts would
always be right. This was hard to believe and wasn’t always the best way
for characters to solve a problem or know what to do next.<br /><br />The
first half of the book had plenty of story, plot and character
development, but there was virtually no action. There were some tense
scenes which could have led to action but these never turned out that
way. It would have been nice to have seen Dominic’s part of the story at
this point as this would have provided some much needed excitement.<br /><br />The
last part of the book was perhaps a little heavy in action. There are
still some character and plot scenes but the vast majority of them were
action based. Some of them were too similar to each other and I found
myself suffering from ‘battle fatigue’ and wanting something a little
more diverse and thought provoking. <br /><br />The religious element is again strong, it is not overpowering but it is usually present.<br /><br />There
was more originality in this book compared to the first one. It is by
no means an original story but it didn’t suffer as badly as the first
one. We also get to see more of the world and cultures adding more
interesting things and originality to the book.<br /><br />The romance part
is nice, it is not a large part of the story allowing a reader to enjoy
the book if they are not interested in this sort of thing, but it is
believable, people feelings are realistic and it is developed well. <br /><br />All
three main storylines were well written and interesting, and I found
myself simultaneously wanting to read the current POV and to switch to
one of the others as they were all so good.<br /><br />Just like the first
book the dialogue was incorrectly punctuated, most of the time this was
just annoying and distracting, and would pull me out of the story, but
sometimes it made it hard to follow who was speaking.<br /><br />There was
some swearing, violent scenes and references to sexual content, mostly
implications or threats of rape (although no details are given), making
this book unsuitable for younger readers. It is probably aimed at a
young adult audience rather than middle-grade.<br /><br />In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</span></span><br />
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-44381345379838948002013-10-27T10:39:00.002-07:002013-10-27T10:41:07.863-07:00 Stray Souls (Magicals Anonymous #1) by Kate Griffin <b>Stray Souls (Magicals Anonymous #1) by Kate Griffin</b><br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText8375804342902362842"><b>'Don’t look back. It wants you to look back.’</b><br /><br />London’s
soul has gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows – but
when Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she’s a shaman, she is immediately
called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to
rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise.<br /><br />The problem is,
while everyone expects Sharon to have all the answers – from the
Midnight Mayor to Sharon’s magically-challenged self-help group – she
doesn’t have a clue where to start.<br /><br />But with London’s soul
missing and the Gate open, there are creatures loose that won’t wait for
her to catch up before they go hunting.<br /><br />Stray Souls is the first novel in the Magicals Anonymous series, set in the same fantastical London as the Matthew Swift novels.</span></i><br />
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Review: In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.<br />
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It should be pointed out there is a lot of swearing in this book, it is not suitable for younger readers or anyone who is offended by such things.<br />
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I must admit, it took me a while to get used to the unusual writing style of this novel and early on I found myself wondering how hard it was going to be to finish this one. I shouldn’t have worried as once I had become used to the writing I really enjoyed this book.<br />
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The first unusual thing about the writing was that even though it is written in third person, the way it is written it almost feels like it has been written in first person and the author just changed all the instances of I to he/she. It made it sound like a crazy diva who talks about themselves in third person.<br />
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The thought patterns of the characters and how the pauses in action were broken up were written in a very strange way. The thoughts would often stop halfway through if the person became distracted, and if something interrupted some action the sentence would end without any punctuation and carry on in the next paragraph. At first I was very distracted by this, and found myself thinking about the writing style and was taken out of the story. Once I became more familiar with it, I actually found it to work well.<br />
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The chapters tended to be very short (about four pages long on average). The point of view often changed with the chapters and this did sometimes lead to a very stop-start style in the story. Quite often there would be a chapter following the main character, then a short chapter where one of the other characters tells you about themselves and then the story returns to the main character and follows her around again. Early on I thought this really slowed down the pacing of the story and I found myself wishing it would just get back to continuing the story. But later on it worked really well as it gave great insights into the many characters, and usually at a time that is appropriate to reveal something about that person.<br />
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The characters are fantastic and reminded me a lot of something written by Terry Pratchett. There are some great ideas that are well executed, there’s a germaphobic vampire, a druid with allergies, a werepigeons (yes pigeons, plural), a troll who doesn’t like violence and a shaman who doesn’t know how to be a shaman to name a few. They were very real, humorous in their odd ways, awkward and would act like people in real life. E.g. rather than being heroic and wanting to go on a quest they would be reluctant and only do it because they had to.<br />
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They writing style and language is very British, I am originally from England so didn’t have a problem but if you are not familiar with some of the British terms you may have troubles understanding what the characters are saying at times.<br />
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<spoiler><span style="color: white;">The ending reminded me of Bladerunner, in that the main evil character who we have been hating the whole time gives one small speech and I found myself feeling pity and compassion for them. </span></spoiler><br />
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Overall I would say it took a while to get used to the usual writing style but once I did it turned out to be an excellent story with fantastic characters and well worth reading.<br />
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Rating: *****<br />
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<br />Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-84557972216831978662013-10-20T19:12:00.001-07:002013-10-20T19:12:30.224-07:00Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders (Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin #1) by Richard Ellis Preston Jr.Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders (Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin #1) by Richard Ellis Preston Jr.<br />
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<i>Synopsis: <span id="freeText977790177452673683">In a postapocalyptic
world of endless snow, Captain Romulus Buckle and the stalwart crew of
the Pneumatic Zeppelin must embark on a perilous mission to rescue their
kidnapped leader, Balthazar Crankshaft, from the impenetrable City of
the Founders. Steaming over a territory once known as Southern
California — before it was devastated in the alien war — Buckle
navigates his massive airship through skies infested with enemy war
zeppelins and ravenous alien beasties in this swashbuckling and
high-octane steampunk adventure. Life is desperate in the Snow World,
and death is quick. Buckle and his ship’s company must brave poisoned
wastelands of Noxious Mustard and do battle with forgewalkers,
steampipers, and armored locomotives as they plunge from the skies into
the underground prison warrens of the fortress city.<br />Captain Romulus
Buckle must lead the Pneumatic Zeppelin and its crew of ne’er-do-wells
on a desperate mission where he must risk everything to save Balthazar
and attempt to prevent a catastrophic war that could wipe out all that
is left of civilization and the entire human race.</span></i><br />
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Review: This is one of those books that take a while to get going. I can see why some reviewers say they gave up with it after the first 100 pages. But this book is worth sticking with as once you get passed the initial part there is an excellent story and characters.<br /><br />The descriptions are of a high level. Most of the time this is really good as it gives you clear view of the world and what is happening in it. There were some times I felt that the description went on for too long and it hurt the pacing of the story. I didn’t really need a detailed description of every single part of the ship, its crew, where they sit etc.<br /><br />The lengthy descriptions are not limited to the sights, sounds and smells of the world, but also in the narrative of the characters. Just about every part of every conversation is included. The parts that slowed down the story the most was the bridge actions. First the commanding officer will give a command (usually a ship maneuver), a crew member will then repeat the command back to the commander, then we get a description of what the crew has to do (turning valves, flicking switches etc.) the maneuver or action being carried out and finally the result of what they did. There would often be several of these commands, confirmation, carryout and maneuvers in one go, making for a couple of pages of uninteresting story which really slowed the pacing down. Although for the most part this became annoying, one nice thing about this style was during times when the crew needed to do something quickly (such as hurry to a destination for a rescue) it really increased the tension as I waited for the slow paced ship/story to get to where they needed to be and I was worried they wouldn’t make it in time.<br /><br />Initially I thought there was too much world building, and this is true for the first 100 pages or so. It appears in large chucks making it hard to absorb and slowing down the pace of the story. Luckily like so much about this book once you get pass the slow part there is a much better balance.<br /><br />Similarly the characters suffered at the start of the story, with all the world building going on and some part spent on action, very little background is given to the characters and we don’t really learn very much about them. But just like the story, once you get pass the first part of the book there is plenty in there. We find out a lot about the main characters past, what their thoughts and motives are, and how they develop throughout the story.<br /><br />As I have already said, the pacing picks up after the first 100 pages or so, and there is a much better balance between, story, world building and characters. The length of the descriptions feels about right and we are not continually interrupted by large chucks of world building.<br /><br />If you are reading this book and get to page 100 and are thinking about given up then I would urge you to stick with it, at least for another 100 pages as the book really improves after the initial slowness.<br />
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Rating: ****</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-58628347859709198522013-10-13T11:53:00.005-07:002013-10-13T11:53:42.703-07:00The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick <b>The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick </b><br />
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<i><span id="freeText12193771634402146012">Synopsis (from book) "Edward picks up what he
thinks is a rock. He doesn’t know it is a sleeping Time Fetch—and
touching it will release its foragers too soon and alter the entire
fabric of time and space. Soon the bell rings to end class just as it
has begun. Buses race down streets, too far behind schedule to stop for
passengers. Buildings and sidewalks begin to disappear as the whole
fabric of the universe starts to unravel. To try to stop the foragers,
Edward must depend on the help of his classmates Feenix, Danton, and
Brigit—whether he likes it or not. They all have touched the Fetch, and
it has drawn them together in a strange and thrilling adventure. The
boundaries between worlds and dimensions are blurred, and places and
creatures on the other side are much like the ones they’ve always
known—but slightly twisted, a little darker, and much more dangerous.<br /><br />A
fast-paced tale filled with mythology, danger, friendship, and a
shocking centuries-old secret, The Time Fetch is sure to delight fans of
fantasy adventure with its tale of ordinary kids who tumble into a
magical situation.<br /><br />For ages 10 and up, grades 5 and up.</span>"</i><br />
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Review: The story itself was fairly good with some really interesting concepts that were well written. The big problem I had with this book was the characters.<br /><br />They were all one-dimensional, lacking any depth or interesting characteristics. They were also almost all unlikeable.<br /><br />Firstly there was Edward, he is lazy, uncaring, sometimes mean and a loner. He had no qualities to draw me to him and plenty to push me away.<br />
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<br />Then there was his friend Danton. He wasn’t too bad; he was a nice guy and encouraging to the others to get stuff done and tried to get them to get along. He was a contrast to Edward and although he wasn’t unlikeable he lacked the exciting personality to make me drawn to him.<br /><br />Next there was Brigit, who is a selective mute. She was probably the most interesting character and the most sympathetic. I did like her, but I would like to have seen her fleshed out a little more. We are told early on that she is mute because of the death of her infant brother, but other than being told that fact once it never really comes up again or is prominent in her thoughts. <br /><br />Finally there was Feenix, a girl at Edward’s school who he didn’t get along with. She was mean and a bully. At first I really didn’t like her. Then she was captured by the witches and has a hard time. During this period I did feel a little sorry for her because it was so unpleasant. Then she escapes (with a little help from the other children). My problem then was she was still pretty much the same mean bully she was before (although she is a little nicer.)<br /><br />All of this made it hard to empathize with the characters or get excited about what they were doing. It also made the situation less tense because I didn’t care what happened to them. And it really hurt the story.<br /><br />There was very little character development in the book. For the most part they stay the same throughout the story. When they do change it’s normally sudden and doesn’t feel genuine.<br /><br />Another problem I had was with the lessons the characters have. They go to a class where the teacher gives them some crazy lesson about some obscure fact. The things that they are taught then become relevant to the story a short time late. It felt unnatural and every time it happened it felt like there was a flashing red light and an announcer saying “Pay attention this will be coming up in the story shortly”<br /><br />There were several plot points that are never really explained, they just happen without giving any satisfactory reason why.<br /><br />The language the characters sometimes pulled me out of the story, it didn’t seem natural. For example the characters would sometimes literally use the word ‘bleeping’ in place of swearing or other language than you might hear on a children’s TV show but doesn’t seem real enough for a book.<br /><br />I really wanted to like this book, the concept was fantastic and the plot was good. It was just the awful, one-dimensional, unrealistic, unlikeable characters that made it a chore to get through.<br />
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In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.<br />
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Rating ** </div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-69293600370001945632013-10-06T11:06:00.002-07:002013-10-06T11:07:13.701-07:00Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life by William Bernhardt Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life by William Bernhardt <br />
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<i><span id="freeText2454283032044471591">"All fiction is
character-driven, according to William Bernhardt, despite what you might
have heard elsewhere. If your characters don't interest readers, even
the most exciting plots will fail. "Action is character," Aristotle
wrote, but what does that mean, and how can you use that fundamental
principle to create dynamic fiction that will captivate readers? This
book explains the relationship between character and plot, and how the
perfect melding of the two produces a mesmerizing story. Using examples
spanning from The Odyssey to The Da Vinci Code, Bernhardt discusses the
art of character creation in a direct and easily comprehended manner.
The book also includes exercises designed to help writers apply these
ideas to their own work.</span></i>"<br />
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In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I haven’t read any other writing books, but I had written about a 1/3 of a novel at the time of reading this book.<br />
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This book provides excellent tips for writing more interesting characters. <br />
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I must admit I was a little worried when I read the first chapter, it seemed a little wishy-washy without any real tips, fortunately the rest of the book was excellent with great tips and advice.<br />
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The tips are general enough to apply to whatever book you are writing but specific enough for you know how and where you will apply it to your own work.<br />
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There are plenty of examples in this book that calls upon well known characters both from books and TV (such Sherlock Holmes, Doctor House and James Bond.) The nice thing about these examples is that you can still understand them even if you don’t know the characters. He sometimes uses characters from his own books, although these were just because he knew them so well and could give excellent examples and it never felt that he was trying to promote his own books.<br />
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There were plenty of tips where it helped me realize how I could improve my book and writing, although rather nicely I also saw what I had done a lot right.<br />
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The writing style is very easy to read, even if you have never studied writing you will be able to understand everything that the author tells you. He very rarely uses technical terms and on the few occasions that he does, he fully explains what they mean.<br />
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One tip I have for this book, use a highlighter pen, there are so many useful tips you will need to highlight the ones that you find the most useful and relevant.<br />
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I liked the short length of this book, there was no filler, just great advice on how to write. The short length was nice as it meant I could read it without feeling I should get back to my own writing.<br />
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I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to improve their writing, I will defiantly getting the rest of this series.<br />
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Rating *****</div>
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<br />Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-18482613916483078462013-07-25T20:22:00.002-07:002013-07-25T20:24:46.659-07:00Review: Aethersmith (Twinborn Trilogy, #2) by J.S. Morin Aethersmith (Twinborn Trilogy, #2) by J.S. Morin<br />
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<i>Synopsis (from back of book) <span id="freeText1681856787167305390">War has come to Veydrus.<br /><br />As
Kyrus Hinterdale and Brannis Solaran work to understand the intricacies
of their Twinborn connection, they must also analyze and unravel the
game Jinzan and Denrick played to get a step ahead of them. While
planning a war, and coming to terms with Juliana’s impending wedding to
Iridan, Brannis knows that he needs to feed Kyrus more advanced magical
knowledge and training if they ever hope to keep the Kadrin empire from
destruction.<br /><br />However, just as plans are starting to come
together, a spell of Kyrus’ goes very wrong, and the two find themselves
in an even bigger dilemma than ever. With the help of other Twinborn,
they struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, and set everything back
as it should be.</span></i><br />
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In full disclosure I received a
free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</div>
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Holy crap this book is even more
amazing than book one of the series! How is that even possible? The concept is
original and just like book one it is perfectly executed.</div>
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There are a lot more twinborns in
this book. The plot is more complex than the first book, with multiple story
threads, points of views and plot. The truly amazing thing about all this it
that even though it is complex, with so much going on, it really should make
the reader’s head explode, but the author is so talented at explaining what is
happening it rarely gets confusing or hard to follow. Not only does the author
explain the story in such a way that it is easy to follow, but it is done in a
natural way and it doesn’t feel like an explanation.</div>
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About the only time it could get
confusing, was a result of having so many twinborns I had a hard time
remembering who some of the secondary character’s twin was. They were usually
named but sometimes I found I would need more detail to help me remember
exactly who they were, especially early on. But this really was only a minor
problem and for the most part the extra twins made the story even more
interesting.</div>
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The descriptions are once again
perfect, they are of high detail, allowing the reader to visualise the amazing
worlds in the story, but not to the extent that it slows down the pacing or
becomes boring.</div>
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The pacing and balance of the
story was better than the first. Because of the nature of the first book, which
was primarily focused on the Brannis/Kyrus point-of-view, and only switched
when one of them fell asleep, it would occasionally spend too much time on
action or too much time on a slower plot point then was natural. But because of
all the extra characters in this book, this didn’t happen and the flow was much
better.</div>
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The characters are once again
fantastic, they have amazing but believable personalities. With the strengthening
bond between Brannis and Kyrus their personalities begin to merge. But they
still manage to remain individuals. The thoughts each character has, and the
emotions they have are amongst some of the strongest writing in this amazing
book.</div>
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Just like the first book, no-one
is completely good or evil, they are much more complex than that. The good
people have bad traits or sometimes do bad things, and the evil characters have
good traits and sometimes do good things. Just like real-life, no-one see’s
themselves as evil. Also there are plenty of people who you are left uncertain
whether they are good or evil.</div>
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There are a couple of love
triangles going on (possible better described as a love square), this is made
even more complex as some of the characters involved are twinborns and share at
least some of the feelings of their twin.</div>
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There are many very clever and
well thought out ideas, some of them are large pieces of complex plot, but
others are small details that help make the story more realistic and its
characters more believable.</div>
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As well as Brannis and Kyrus
personalities merging, their two worlds also are starting to blend. Magic is
becoming more prominent in Kyrus’s home and technology is more prevalent in
Brannis’s world. The two blended in such a way that there are things that
incorporate ideas from both worlds (such as flying ships)</div>
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Sometimes it was clear what path
a plot point would lead, but it was still exciting to read about as you want to
find out exactly what happens once it gets there.</div>
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This book is even bigger than it
appears, the edition I read had 445 page, but it also has a fairly small print
and so much happens in this story it easily feels like a book with twice as
many pages, but in a good way.</div>
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The book has a more epic feel to
it, and you get to see more what is happening in the two worlds.</div>
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The book does continue the plot
from the last one, and does develop the series wide story leaving some plot
open for the final book in the series. But it doesn’t suffer with the normal ‘middle
book’ problems, and is a strong story in its own right and doesn’t leave too
many threads open.</div>
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One of my few real criticisms for
this one was that at one point the characters are able to send messages to
their twins while awake. This seemed inconsistent with the first book and most
of the second and it wasn’t how I had perceived how the two worlds worked. </div>
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If you enjoyed the first book
then you will love this book as well. It is even better (and I thought book one
was close to perfection.) The story is more complex but the author skillfully
writes it in such a way that it is never confusing. How he was able to keep up
with everything while he was writing without leaving massive plot holes or
without his head exploding I will probably never know. The characters expand
and continue to impress on every level. The concept is original, something hard
to do these days with any fantasy novel. I am eagerly awaiting the final book
in the series, but also a little sad, because once I’ve read it this amazing
series will be over. I really hope the author has more great ideas, either for
the two worlds featured in this series or a new one.</div>
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Rating ***** + ♥</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-24162401341957009532013-07-11T20:20:00.003-07:002013-07-11T20:56:09.784-07:00 Review: Minno by James Barlog<b> Minno by James Barlog</b><br />
<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1370370016l/18002242.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1370370016l/18002242.jpg" /></a><i><span id="freeText954154658793581603">Synopsis (from back of book): It isn't easy being
thirteen ... and being raised by your grandfather ... and having a name
like Minno ... and then having to journey through a strange land. But
Minno is doing the best she can. <br /><br />For all her young life Minno believed her parents were dead. Then she learns they're alive, but they're in grave danger.<br /><br />Her
friend Hailey thought she was having a sleepover at her friend's house.
Now she's Minno's ally and partner on an incredible quest. Together the
girls embark on the adventure of a lifetime, where they face a
veritable menagerie of strange creatures, both friendly and unfriendly
to their cause. <br /><br />Oh, yeah, then there's one evil high minister
Craveaux, who must stop Minno while he steals all the magic in the
kingdom for his own sinister purposes. <br /><br />Minno has to save her parents, and along the way discover who she really is.</span></i><br />
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In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.</div>
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Whenever I enter a giveaway it normally falls into one of
three categories, a giveaway that I REALLY want to win, and in the morning of
when the giveaway ends, I rush on to Goodreads to see if I won it. Or it might
be a giveaway that I would quite like to win, but I don’t go crazy trying to
find out if I won. Or a giveaway I am not sure about but enter anyway. This
book was in the third category, as it turned out I am glad I won this book
because I loved it.</div>
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The story is great, my biggest fear and the reason that I
almost didn’t enter was that this book would be girly. It really wasn’t the
case, and the book could be enjoyed by males and females of any age. </div>
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The pacing is really fast, the exciting scenes and action is
almost non-stop. It starts quickly and doesn’t slow for almost the whole book.
I thought it was a little too fast paced and never gave me a chance to catch my
breath. I found myself sometimes putting the book down simply to let my brain
catch up with everything that had happened.</div>
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There are lots of great ideas in this book, many of them are
original or rarely used, such as giant long-necked ladybugs, musical flowers
and warrior bunnies. In fact most sections of the book had at least some
original content to it, this was great to see as it is hard for authors to come
up with a couple of new ideas in their book, to have so many is very
impressive.</div>
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One of my few criticisms is that most of what happens in the
story doesn’t effect what happens in the long term plot, it is simply the next
stage in the journey. Most sections are exciting and interesting but if they
weren’t there you would not notice that they are missing or that the story had
jumped.</div>
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The descriptions have a nice level of detail, there is
enough there to conjure up clear images of what the world looks like, but not
so much that the story drags. It is very good that the level of detail is high,
because the pace is so fast, it is really needed to follow what is happening.</div>
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The characters were good and likeable, with interesting
personalities. I thought it was a really good idea to have one of the
characters be mute, I thought it was brave of the author to keep her mute even
when she moves into the magical world. Smallish spoiler <span style="color: white;">she does get her
voice later in the book, and I thought it was presented well. The girl acts in
a way a person who had just found their voice would act, speaking her mind more
often than most people and saying things out loud without realizing it.</span>I also liked that fact (BIG spoiler) <span style="color: white;">that the girls were not
sisters/twins. At first it seemed likely that this was going to happen, neither
girl has their parents, one lives with a grandfather, the other with foster
parents. One girl has never seen or even has photos of her parents. It all
seemed set up to reveal that they were twins or sisters, I was actually glad
that this wasn’t the case because it would have been an obvious and predictable
piece of plot </span></div>
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The friendship is well written, they are kind and genuinely
care about each other and their friends that they meet on the way, but and
times they can get snippy with each other especially during tense situations.</div>
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The kids do sometimes speak in ‘teen talk’, fortunately it
is not excessive so doesn’t become annoying and in fact gives it a more
realistic feel.</div>
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The POV shifts rapidly in this book, it can shift back and
forth over a few paragraphs. The rapid changes could get confusing at times. It
also made it hard to fully understand and like a character since the POV kept
moving around.</div>
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The book is also funny, at some points laugh out loud funny.</div>
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Overall I would rate this book 4 ½ stars. The story is
fantastic, it is interesting and has a lot of originality or at least twists
from the norm about it. Even though the main characters are two teenage girls,
the book is not ‘girly’ or only enjoyable by teenagers. The pacing is fast, at
times it was a little too fast as it made it hard to keep up. My biggest criticism
is that there isn’t much of a long term plot, other than journey from one place
to another, although as the rest of the story is so well written and the
journey exciting it really doesn’t matter very much. Even though I wasn’t sure
about this book I am really glad I won it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh75Q0uXIB_0ItX8OAG45vKWlh_7zayb18m23PWM27xv-LbWTf5cXJWTRNhpaXVJfiwv8PBjGcx2siDS_IdPAykAImubMERH9Ar74pNbSDdBN35B6Ar07xZcwiXEaV2EaiLNNfC3p4H8Qx/s1600/rating4half.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh75Q0uXIB_0ItX8OAG45vKWlh_7zayb18m23PWM27xv-LbWTf5cXJWTRNhpaXVJfiwv8PBjGcx2siDS_IdPAykAImubMERH9Ar74pNbSDdBN35B6Ar07xZcwiXEaV2EaiLNNfC3p4H8Qx/s1600/rating4half.gif" /></a></div>
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Rating **** ½ </div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-66296301849895695902013-07-08T21:00:00.001-07:002013-07-08T21:02:21.916-07:00 The Lost Gateway by Josephine L. Brooks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b> The Lost Gateway by Josephine L. Brooks</b><br />
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369839353l/17997234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369839353l/17997234.jpg" width="213" /></a> <i>Synopsis: </i><i><span class=" PIN_1373342043418_hazClick" id="freeText6517825836408505861">Invaded by Monsters<br />When
Enyeto's calam herd is attacked, he finds some unusual creatures are to
blame. Fearful of losing more animals, Enyeto tracks the creatures and
destroys them. But these invaders are only the beginning. The creature's
tracks lead him to a mysterious gateway where monsters are entering his
world. His tribe is endangered. His shaman is clueless. And no one
knows how to close the gateway.<br /><br />Betrayed by Wizards<br />Faced with
a problem beyond their understanding, Enyeto's tribe sends him to get
help from the Outsiders. But a stable gateway between worlds is a prize
no wizard can resist. Faced with a culture he barely understands, Enyeto
falls prey to wizardly power games as they vie for control of this
phenomenon.<br /><br />In the Company of Witches<br />Only two back-country
witches are willing to stand between Enyeto's tribe and total
annihilation. Can he trust them, or do they also have ulterior motives?</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigczAYJWfRk9HC1FEtn9_Q1HhnuWc6Iam9PqgCQNgbLfK9lH07db2payenbCqtgCMrtqyt6ES3hW0nz1isrXnAnXUYWW8JrAOb9BUmsqfvUFPR4V78MqTMrOJXNK6CpUysja2OYwt8w9VZ/s1600/richisreviews1a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigczAYJWfRk9HC1FEtn9_Q1HhnuWc6Iam9PqgCQNgbLfK9lH07db2payenbCqtgCMrtqyt6ES3hW0nz1isrXnAnXUYWW8JrAOb9BUmsqfvUFPR4V78MqTMrOJXNK6CpUysja2OYwt8w9VZ/s1600/richisreviews1a.gif" /></a></div>
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In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.</div>
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The story itself was good. It is an adventure story, where
the main character is in a race against time to seal a portal before monsters
destroy his tribe.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I thought some of the descriptions were too short, they were
lacking in detail and there were many examples of “Show don’t Tell”. This was
particularly bad during the action sequences. This made them less exciting and
harder to follow. Sometimes it was also problem during long dialogue, where we
are given plenty of interesting dialogue but not many details on things such as
facial expressions, postures, tone of voice etc.</div>
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Some of the paragraphs felt too short, they were only one or
two short sentences long, and the sentences on the next lines felt they all
should have been part of the same paragraph.</div>
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Most of what happens is part of the main plot, while this is
good for keeping the pace up, it did mean the story was lacking some breadth
that you would get from having multiple plotlines.</div>
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There was some back story/world history in the book. These
parts were interesting and well written. It was also fitted into the story very
well, in a natural manner and at a time it was needed.</div>
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The pacing is fast and the story moves along nicely. The
book is very short, the edition I read was 150 pages, there was also a large
number of chapters given the length (31 in total), and other pages are stretched
out because of the sentences over many lines when they should have been in one
paragraph. With all this white space, the book is probably closer to 100-120
pages in length if it had a more normal structure.</div>
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It was an interesting twist that one of the main characters
came from a tribe/nomadic group. This is not something we get to often see in
fantasy novels and I enjoyed reading about this. I would like to have seen this
to be more relevant to his story, other than some skill with the bow and
affinity with animals, it wasn’t really important that he was a nomad. There were
also times when he seemed to know things that he shouldn’t given his
‘sheltered’ life. For example (small spoiler), <span style="color: white;">at one point he is imprisoned and looking at the
door for a way to escape, examining the lock, hinges etc. for weaknesses. As he
is a nomad he probably would have no knowledge of how doors work and it seems
unlikely he would have any ideas how to plan an escape through it.</span></div>
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I did enjoy the Granny Fog Quotes that were at the start of
each chapter. They were often funny, insightful and relevant to the story,</div>
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The characters were interesting with good personalities. Their
thoughts and feelings were well written and they came across well.</div>
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Overall this was a good story and good characters, but it
was one where you could tell it was the author’s first book. The details were
too short at times, the structure sometimes felt wrong (broken up paragraphs
and too short chapters) and the story stuck to the main plot and didn’t have
much breadth. There were good points as well, the story was interesting and the
characters were likeable with well written thoughts and feelings. I also loved
the idea of one of the main characters being a nomad. The history of the world fitted
in nicely and good to read about.</div>
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Rating: *** 1/2</div>
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Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-12165776207041755242013-07-01T20:33:00.000-07:002013-07-01T20:33:02.601-07:00Free To Read<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917l/47212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917l/47212.jpg" width="181" /></a>I started reading Storm Front, book one of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher today. It's the first book since the end of April that I have picked to read. Everything since then has been either Goodreads wins/ free from authors or books in the Wheel of Time series that I am reading as part of my 2013 big series challenge. While I have enjoyed a lot of those free books it is nice to get to pick what I am reading for a change.<br />
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<br />Richihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398154099153060243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5751842237166093905.post-1868417713617973102013-06-30T21:37:00.001-07:002013-06-30T21:37:16.125-07:00<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5775617/?claim=76zwhswvvmx">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>Lynnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904071156864757350noreply@blogger.com0