Reviews

Shattered Hourglass by J.L. Bourne

albikey's review against another edition

Ugh... cada vez era más aburrida y comoleja la trama y ya casi no había zombies.... Nada que ver con el primero.

thatjasonpace's review against another edition

3.0

While I still enjoyed the book, the change in narration style from the first two in the series was a little off putting as I really liked it. Plus, to be honest, almost every zombie story falls apart when they try to explain how zombies happened. Still worth reading.

pingthevile's review against another edition

3.0

Not a worthy successor to the first two books. The "diary" style of writing was replaced by a standard narration writing style, which took away one of the unique and engaging characteristics of the first two books in the series. With the introduction of quite a few new characters and locations, there wasn't much time given to developing them, which made it hard to really care what happens to them. This book never really grabbed me. It's left wide open for another sequel, however. I'll have to decide later whether to continue the series.

gnomon's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

gaugesymmetry's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

yeoldemandan's review against another edition

4.0

Bourne changed formats somewhat in this one. The book is not entirely comprised of the journal of Kilroy as the first two are. This is a little bit of a good thing in that it frees the author up to tell a bigger story involving multiple groups of characters located in very different and distant locations. However, it's also a bad thing in that it makes the series a little like all the other zombie fiction out there. The first person only point of view the journal form of narrative forced was unique in my readings of most genre fiction. One of the things I found a bit strange was that despite the abandoning of the journal narrative he still uses time jumps at various points in the stories which was a little weird I thought. It worked on a certain level to make you curious for how the situation could have changed, but again leaves questions I would have liked to seen answered first hand. I did really like the mixing of genres that occurs in this one. I think that is not something that is usually seen in zombie fiction.

Still, the story is solid though I'm disappointed that I think he raises a lot of questions that are not answered (there are hints at the answers). It would be nice to know more about Remote Six. It would be nice to know more about the Chinese. There is a lot of good loose ends for him to explore in sequels or parallel stories in this world he has created if he so chooses to. Overall it's a decent end to the series and recommended for any who enjoy this genre.

klieber's review against another edition

1.0

I was a huge fan of the first two books. The unique narrative, where the protagonist tells the story via his diary, made the story incredibly gripping and compelling. The story was all about the individual struggles of the protagonist as he adjusts to a post-apocalyptic world. Finding food, water, ammunition -- things that we all take for granted. It really made you think about what's important in life. It also made you connect with the protagonist in a way that few other books have been able to do.

The third book takes all of that and chucks it out the window. Gone is the unique narrative, replaced by a more traditional (some would say boring) novel format. Multiple characters are introduced and the story revolves through each of their perspectives. Gone is the gritty, visceral struggle for survival, replaced instead by a cookie-cutter military novel plotline, replete with cartoonish bad guy trying to take over the world.

It's almost like the author decided he wanted to try his hand at being Clancy and forgot everything that made the first two books so great.

In case it isn't obvious, this book was a HUGE disappointment for me. If you really enjoyed the first two, be prepared to hate this one. I sure did.

nooker's review against another edition

4.0

While I did still really did enjoy this third book of the series, I was really disappointed at the deviation from the previous format. I got into the series because I like the journal entry aspect of it, but this one really didn't do it. While still a good zombie Apocalypse story, it has become just another one.

sidrar's review against another edition

3.0

The narration style for this book takes a dramatic departure from the first two. In and of itself this isn't a bad thing. I feel the author had a lot more he wanted to express about the world than he could do from his previous first person POV. Where this book fails for me is the epilogue actually. I would have preferred that the information given in it were spread out into a forth book as opposed to quickly horned in at the end.

tattooedlibrarian's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5