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abigcoffeedragon's reviews
1707 reviews
Princeps' Fury by Jim Butcher
4.0
Well, this one fell off a little bit - the story is great, yes, but this is not a completed tale - you definitely get the sense that the end is near (one more book to go) but unlike the previous novels, this one ends with you knowing that it is a break in the story and not the finished product - I am also to the point where I do not care about Bernard and Amara anymore, though I am still very much into the Tavi story and Ehren is by far my favorite character, though he is so underused - but when he is on the pages, they are my favorite moments in the stories - the series is almost completed and I am excited to see the final resolve - still a must read to continue the series to completion, but my least favorite, which is saying something since it is still a 5 star novel.
The Good the Bad and the Infernal by Guy Adams
3.0
This was a middle of the road book for me. The things that I enjoyed were the weird west elements to the tale, and the premise behind the novel.
Some of the writing was brash and vulgar, but I expect that a bit in westerns, and this is no diffeent.
What I did not like was the huge cast of characters with no development, the jumps between present and past within paragraphs, and no resolution to the ending. The tale ends and I was left wanting to know what happened, but not in a good way. In the, 'this-book-feels-incomplete" way.
All in all, I may continue the series, but this should have been condensed into one novel and not three seperate parts to one mega-novel. A trilogy is seperate stories with commonalities, not one tale split into three parts.
Some of the writing was brash and vulgar, but I expect that a bit in westerns, and this is no diffeent.
What I did not like was the huge cast of characters with no development, the jumps between present and past within paragraphs, and no resolution to the ending. The tale ends and I was left wanting to know what happened, but not in a good way. In the, 'this-book-feels-incomplete" way.
All in all, I may continue the series, but this should have been condensed into one novel and not three seperate parts to one mega-novel. A trilogy is seperate stories with commonalities, not one tale split into three parts.
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
1.0
This is exactly the type of book that I hate - the Characters talk about doing things, but never do anything. Or talk about what happened off screen (off pages) in between chapters.
I also hate when a man and a woman work together and they cannot see each other as attractive nor being attracted to one another but everyone else says they are and should be and ... BLAH!
And, while this has 'elements' of Steampunk, you never 'see' anything steampunk. There is a missing automaton - there is a machine factory that makes automatons - it just does not work for me.
Classic that this may well be and may well remain, it is boring and yawn worthy to me and the rest of the series will remain untouched.
I also hate when a man and a woman work together and they cannot see each other as attractive nor being attracted to one another but everyone else says they are and should be and ... BLAH!
And, while this has 'elements' of Steampunk, you never 'see' anything steampunk. There is a missing automaton - there is a machine factory that makes automatons - it just does not work for me.
Classic that this may well be and may well remain, it is boring and yawn worthy to me and the rest of the series will remain untouched.
Story Physics: Harnessing the Underlying Forces of Storytelling by Larry Brooks
2.0
This was no where near as informative and inspiring as the first book, Story Engineering.
This book references his first book many times, and mentions the 6 elements of story physics, but, I could not repeat them back to you for the life of me.
This also uses chapter after chapter to let you know, that at the end of this book (Chapter 24), he goes into great detail breaking down The Hunger Games (Chapter 24), which while that may or may not do it for you, this should be about teaching the reader what you mean by Story physics.
Instead we got countless references to others movies and novels (Chapter 24) without any real understanding of what the author means by Story physics. Even when you did reach the often mentioned CHAPTER 24, there is no explanation for what the parts are, and he basically explains every scene, giving the reader Cliff Notes to the Hunger Games, instead of insight.
And, he mentions constantly, does the author do this intentionally? We don't know. But it fits.
So, you don't know, you assume, you praise, but without any real grasp of the author's approach. I would rather have seen the physics in action, even if in a lame small story scale, to understand, instead of being forced to analyse the Hunger Games without knowing what physics are in play. I get to see the six core competences again, but I already knew those.
This book references his first book many times, and mentions the 6 elements of story physics, but, I could not repeat them back to you for the life of me.
This also uses chapter after chapter to let you know, that at the end of this book (Chapter 24), he goes into great detail breaking down The Hunger Games (Chapter 24), which while that may or may not do it for you, this should be about teaching the reader what you mean by Story physics.
Instead we got countless references to others movies and novels (Chapter 24) without any real understanding of what the author means by Story physics. Even when you did reach the often mentioned CHAPTER 24, there is no explanation for what the parts are, and he basically explains every scene, giving the reader Cliff Notes to the Hunger Games, instead of insight.
And, he mentions constantly, does the author do this intentionally? We don't know. But it fits.
So, you don't know, you assume, you praise, but without any real grasp of the author's approach. I would rather have seen the physics in action, even if in a lame small story scale, to understand, instead of being forced to analyse the Hunger Games without knowing what physics are in play. I get to see the six core competences again, but I already knew those.
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
3.0
This was mediocre writing at best - it is a debut novel, so I am confident that this could get better, but the tension is lacking, the character development is lacking, and having read as much Fantasy as I have by now, the originality is lacking -
This is a novel best saved for those getting into the genre and not already years vested, because everything that is said and done on these pages has been done before (or after, depending on the timeline of your reading experience) -
Shannara started a new generation of writing, and this is still and simply the straight form of farm boy hero with a destiny, however, I feel that I have moved well beyond this, and I could not take this novel seriously anymore.
This is great if you are getting your children into the Fantasy genre, and I will most likely have my young boys read this when they get a bit older, but I for one could not continue the interesting sounding world of Shannara that had no real value for the learned and aged like myself.
This is a novel best saved for those getting into the genre and not already years vested, because everything that is said and done on these pages has been done before (or after, depending on the timeline of your reading experience) -
Shannara started a new generation of writing, and this is still and simply the straight form of farm boy hero with a destiny, however, I feel that I have moved well beyond this, and I could not take this novel seriously anymore.
This is great if you are getting your children into the Fantasy genre, and I will most likely have my young boys read this when they get a bit older, but I for one could not continue the interesting sounding world of Shannara that had no real value for the learned and aged like myself.
The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
1.0
Meh - this failed the 25% test as well.
The issue is that, though the concept is there, the style of writing is that which I cannot stomach.
Classics such as Verne, Wells, Burroughs, while great stories have lackluster story TELLING. This thing happened, of which I am telling you, though it is non-consequential, as this person is now dead. So, why are you telling anyone? I did this thing, and I doubt I will again I said, and as it turns out, I was correct. Well, friggin good for you. Again, why did you waste the space telling me these things. I felt as though I was reading a reading of a journal written by a man dictating to another, so I am at the fifth generation of the story, and it is slow, and boring, and very uninteresting.
No disrespect to Gene Wolfe, who at his time, was one of the masters of the craft, but this does not hold up well in the passing years, in my opinion.
The issue is that, though the concept is there, the style of writing is that which I cannot stomach.
Classics such as Verne, Wells, Burroughs, while great stories have lackluster story TELLING. This thing happened, of which I am telling you, though it is non-consequential, as this person is now dead. So, why are you telling anyone? I did this thing, and I doubt I will again I said, and as it turns out, I was correct. Well, friggin good for you. Again, why did you waste the space telling me these things. I felt as though I was reading a reading of a journal written by a man dictating to another, so I am at the fifth generation of the story, and it is slow, and boring, and very uninteresting.
No disrespect to Gene Wolfe, who at his time, was one of the masters of the craft, but this does not hold up well in the passing years, in my opinion.
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
What does Brandon Sanderson do right? He grabs your attention in the first chapter and he never lets go. I will start a book because of recommendations from websites and people, but I finish them because the author wrote something worth the paper it is printed on or the bandwidth it was downloaded from.
This book starts off running and never stops, with a fast pace but not at break-neck speed. This has been a disappointing year for books for me so far, and Alloy of Law is only one of two books that has made me happy to have been able to read. I know that this has been out for a couple of years, but my queue has 400 books in it right now.
As for Alloy of Law, it has all of the things that made the Mistborn trilogy (first of three) so fun and interesting, only this time, we have a frontier-style gunslinger in addition to the magic system. It works and it does it quite well. So many novels are great ideas but the author loses sight of telling and good story and spends 100 pages setting things up. Brandon Sanderson sets you up with the details, while telling a story. the Action/Reaction cycle is very smooth and at no time did I feel that the story sagged in the middle.
Fantasy Novels need to accomplish a few things to be good in my HUMBLE opinion. They have to be in a world that I could see living in, even if only for the time of the novel, but more important, I must want to RETURN. Fantasy should also have enough believable set-pieces, that the events COULD happen IF all of the qualities are met in magic, people, and places.
My new favorite thing to find right now is novels with Magic and Guns and make it work. Alloy of Law is this novel and it is a success.
This book starts off running and never stops, with a fast pace but not at break-neck speed. This has been a disappointing year for books for me so far, and Alloy of Law is only one of two books that has made me happy to have been able to read. I know that this has been out for a couple of years, but my queue has 400 books in it right now.
As for Alloy of Law, it has all of the things that made the Mistborn trilogy (first of three) so fun and interesting, only this time, we have a frontier-style gunslinger in addition to the magic system. It works and it does it quite well. So many novels are great ideas but the author loses sight of telling and good story and spends 100 pages setting things up. Brandon Sanderson sets you up with the details, while telling a story. the Action/Reaction cycle is very smooth and at no time did I feel that the story sagged in the middle.
Fantasy Novels need to accomplish a few things to be good in my HUMBLE opinion. They have to be in a world that I could see living in, even if only for the time of the novel, but more important, I must want to RETURN. Fantasy should also have enough believable set-pieces, that the events COULD happen IF all of the qualities are met in magic, people, and places.
My new favorite thing to find right now is novels with Magic and Guns and make it work. Alloy of Law is this novel and it is a success.
Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
3.0
This was not a horrible book, but it was also kind of anti-climatic.
PROS - I had the Grphic Audio version which was fun to listen to
- This is classified as a Space Opera, though I would say that this is also very Logistics Heavy, which for me is fun, because I have Loggie Experience
CONS - the intense action scenes number to about 3, the 1st being medium, the 2nd raising the stakes, and the 3rd felt wedged in to meet rule of three
- the Model and the fruitcakes, though not Deus Ex Machina (more like Chekov's Band-aids and Chekov's Wallet) felt un-natural as well. How would someone know that Ky needed cerain parts for her engine BEFORE she left? Why would her aunt hide something in a fruitcake that she knew Ky had thrown away uneaten before? Felt too convenient for my tastes.
Overall, while not a horrible book, it had too many things I did not like to continue, but the Logistical parts were fun for me.
PROS - I had the Grphic Audio version which was fun to listen to
- This is classified as a Space Opera, though I would say that this is also very Logistics Heavy, which for me is fun, because I have Loggie Experience
CONS - the intense action scenes number to about 3, the 1st being medium, the 2nd raising the stakes, and the 3rd felt wedged in to meet rule of three
- the Model and the fruitcakes, though not Deus Ex Machina (more like Chekov's Band-aids and Chekov's Wallet) felt un-natural as well. How would someone know that Ky needed cerain parts for her engine BEFORE she left? Why would her aunt hide something in a fruitcake that she knew Ky had thrown away uneaten before? Felt too convenient for my tastes.
Overall, while not a horrible book, it had too many things I did not like to continue, but the Logistical parts were fun for me.