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abigcoffeedragon's reviews
1707 reviews
A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans
1.0
"My Patience is at an end before this conversation started"
Yeah, I agree with the main character - my patience is now at an end before anything 'real' happens.
ACT i = Introduce Main Character - show struggle with his past - show other characters dislike of him and/or disbelief that he is who he says he is - and travel ... a long time ... to get to the next place only to ... travel a long time again -
The character has a cool name and the novel has an interesting concept, but I grow weary and tired from Fantasy novels that have 5-10 pages of action, followed by 90 pages of walking and talking to fill up space - is the 100K word count so difficult to achieve, we have to wander and reflect for pages at a time before we get to the meat of the story and the purpose of the characters?
CONCEPT = great idea and, as I said, I liked the Main Character that everyone else in the book seemed to hate - but the story itself, the dialog and the 'movement' was lackluster and therefore, this goes into the 25% complete pile to be read no more ....
Yeah, I agree with the main character - my patience is now at an end before anything 'real' happens.
ACT i = Introduce Main Character - show struggle with his past - show other characters dislike of him and/or disbelief that he is who he says he is - and travel ... a long time ... to get to the next place only to ... travel a long time again -
The character has a cool name and the novel has an interesting concept, but I grow weary and tired from Fantasy novels that have 5-10 pages of action, followed by 90 pages of walking and talking to fill up space - is the 100K word count so difficult to achieve, we have to wander and reflect for pages at a time before we get to the meat of the story and the purpose of the characters?
CONCEPT = great idea and, as I said, I liked the Main Character that everyone else in the book seemed to hate - but the story itself, the dialog and the 'movement' was lackluster and therefore, this goes into the 25% complete pile to be read no more ....
Song of Dragons: The Complete Trilogy by Daniel Arenson
1.0
If you want me to care about your female character. do NOT, under any situation, Rape her - repeatedly - without reason - I despise books that make you "feel" for their female character by raping her - FIND ANOTHER WAY! - why are the boys abused with punches or prison and the girls ALWAYS get raped - to make you hate the villain (he did it) and "feel" for the female potential lead - I say potential, because I stopped - I mean, seriously - throw away that trope in Fantasy fiction - it is a waste of ink on paper -
The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
4.0
This is by far one of the better Steam Punk books.
It focuses on Alchemy and Machinery all in the Victorian style and the steam, while minimal, the time period rings true.
The Punk is also representative by the revolution contained within the pages and the struggle for balance in the city.
The main character is an automaton, and she befriends the towns gargoyles to help her in her plight.
Overall, a good enough story, a bittersweet ending, and plenty to make the imagination run rampant.
It focuses on Alchemy and Machinery all in the Victorian style and the steam, while minimal, the time period rings true.
The Punk is also representative by the revolution contained within the pages and the struggle for balance in the city.
The main character is an automaton, and she befriends the towns gargoyles to help her in her plight.
Overall, a good enough story, a bittersweet ending, and plenty to make the imagination run rampant.
A Journey to the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne
4.0
It is a classic, and it is entertaining enough. Once you get past the older style of writing, with more description than dialog, it goes fairly smooth.
Dawn of Night by Paul S. Kemp
2.0
Meh - I will not be continuing / Finishing this trilogy - 1st, if you have a Someone Name Trilogy, they obviously cannot die in book one - and please, do NOT repeat this in book two - even though Cale walks away, his "close call with death" had no real tension because I knew that there would be a book 3, and I doubt that things get resolved in an earlier timeline - this isn't Back to the Future - Forgotten Realms Edition or similar - and I hate that every tavern in these books has horrible tasting "swill" and smell rank and disgusting - they would not be able to stay in business - why is it that the Mercenaries and assassin's all like to go to the dark and smelly places with bad food and drink and horrible service - no - I for one am quite done - thank you for showing me what NOT to write, Mr Kemp.
The Scions of Shannara by Terry Brooks
1.0
OK - I am officially finished with Shannara - I tried, I seriously did, but this is book four, and I cannot do it anymore - Terry Brooks is an intelligent man and a brilliant speaker, with wonderful ideas on story creation, but this is it - I hate the character Alanon so much, and even in death he comes around to anger me in these stories - I hit the 50% mark and NOTHING HAPPENED! - I cannot go on with the insistent ramblings and meandering story-lines that go absolutely no where but to travel, tell some history, travel, history, travel - ad nausium - I am finished - sorry, but no more Shannara for me.
Fiendish Schemes by K.W. Jeter
1.0
This is only good for you if you enjoy the style of writing from 100 years ago. This reads like a Jules Verne novel (in writing style, not in quality) and that is not a compliment.
Jules Verne is known for his wonderful tales, but the writing style from his time was so wordy while saying nothing. This reads like someone that spent too much time reading Verne so that he could write his own coined term, "Steampunk". This novel was published in 2013. Speech can be indicative of the time period, but not the exposition. The boredom of this novel makes me never desire to read a Jeter novel again - ever.
Again, if you like the older style writing, this might be enjoyable for you, but 25% in and i couldn't care less about anything in this book, and I felt like i was covered in the dust of a long bygone age.
Jules Verne is known for his wonderful tales, but the writing style from his time was so wordy while saying nothing. This reads like someone that spent too much time reading Verne so that he could write his own coined term, "Steampunk". This novel was published in 2013. Speech can be indicative of the time period, but not the exposition. The boredom of this novel makes me never desire to read a Jeter novel again - ever.
Again, if you like the older style writing, this might be enjoyable for you, but 25% in and i couldn't care less about anything in this book, and I felt like i was covered in the dust of a long bygone age.
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
3.0
This was only okay - it was enjoyable enough to finish, but ti was also a struggle, because I could not care about a single character in this thing. If I should have felt emotion or compassion, then the author failed to deliver, because each person had a purpose, but who cares?
The concept is what made me continue, and the world building, which was intriguing, but the characters were so flat and boring and lifeless, that I could not care less. When one died, I did not even think that it was a bad thing.
I am going to have to say "No' to future Alistair Reynolds books at this time.
The concept is what made me continue, and the world building, which was intriguing, but the characters were so flat and boring and lifeless, that I could not care less. When one died, I did not even think that it was a bad thing.
I am going to have to say "No' to future Alistair Reynolds books at this time.
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
1.0
This was no where near what I had expected - This is actually quite full of meanderings and non-committal rantings.
To say that you get your writing from God, unless you don't believe in God, then you get it from spirit, unless you don't believe in spirit - wait - stop right there. Teach, don't worry about offending someone. Just explain and be done with it.
20-something pages of this type of yammering before getting to the week one lessons, which, while they may work for some people, is not something I will do.
Morning pages has an interesting concept of writing out your negative thoughts before you write, but this is not something that will work for everybody, and I am one of those that this will not work for. Thank you for your time, but this wasted mine completely.
To say that you get your writing from God, unless you don't believe in God, then you get it from spirit, unless you don't believe in spirit - wait - stop right there. Teach, don't worry about offending someone. Just explain and be done with it.
20-something pages of this type of yammering before getting to the week one lessons, which, while they may work for some people, is not something I will do.
Morning pages has an interesting concept of writing out your negative thoughts before you write, but this is not something that will work for everybody, and I am one of those that this will not work for. Thank you for your time, but this wasted mine completely.
Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb
1.0
As an author, I enjoy reading Robin Hobb - however, this series is a long winded three part tale of maritime fantasy. The pro is the prose - this is well written, and has wonderful world building and some interesting character - the con is no conflict - there is no plot or purpose - not really - I mean, things happen and character move from place to place, but not quickly and not to a satisfying ending - sad to say, I have learned quite a bit from reading Ms Hobb, and the most important is that a trilogy is NOT the same as a three part epic fantasy novel.