Look...I wanted to like this book. Like so many other books that have ended in my "Didn't Finish" pile. It's a good idea (or seems like it would be a Look...I wanted to like this book. Like so many other books that have ended in my "Didn't Finish" pile. It's a good idea (or seems like it would be a good idea) but has (for my money anyway) poor execution.
The idea here is that modern troops end up in a "different" world. It's actually Earth in the far future...the result of a sort of mutating plague and a jump into the future that was supposed to be a few years but ended up being 10,000 years. There they find the "inhabitance" of Earth have "mutated" into fantasy beings Elves, Orcs...vampires. You get the idea.
Sadly it just never drew me in. I can't really say why except that it is very wordy and a bit...I don't know...disjointed. It seems (for example) that he never uses one adjective when 7 or 8 will do...
Anyway, I didn't finish it, I laid it aside. Too bad really. I wish it were better....more
The attitudes and emotions behind this book have caused more damage and division than healing. I think the title might better be, "Guilt of Left Wing The attitudes and emotions behind this book have caused more damage and division than healing. I think the title might better be, "Guilt of Left Wing Academics".
Blacks and whites (and Asians and Native Americans and everybody else) are all human. If we keep fanning the hurts and hates of the past we may as well all resign ourselves to being like the middle east still killing each other over wrongs from 4000 years ago.
My black friends and my brown friends and (again) everybody else are simply, "my friends"....more
I am 68 and I suppose might be called a "proto-nerd". I mean I have been married, served in the army, worked I'm sorry...that I started this disaster.
I am 68 and I suppose might be called a "proto-nerd". I mean I have been married, served in the army, worked all my life. HOWEVER since I read and have for most of my life read fantasy lit. (even back in the 1960s when it could be hard to find outside pulp magazines) AND I have played D&D since around 1978 (when I was the one who bought the books and dice and organized the game) I DMed for years so, many apply the title nerd to me.
Okay, that's cool. I wear it proudly. Really.
So any way I told you that to tell you this. There's a running joke among some gaming groups where parties who seem to only "travel around and kill things" for treasure and experience point are called "murderhobos". Sometimes when we start to "slip" our DM (yes I still play) applies it to us. So, when I saw the title of this book on Audible I had to get it.
And I returned it the same day I started it. First the reader/narrator is...well let's be kind and say, not the best, poor.
My ears felt like they'd bleed.
I really couldn't tell if the story was a poor as it seemed or if most of it was the reader. Was it the reader, or the story??? I don't know but I can't recommend this one. As a matter of fact I'd suggest a wide track around it.
If anyone reads a text version and finds it better maybe let me know but as for this one...
Look, I don't know what happened here. I've seen this before. And I must admit at first it could be me. Maybe others will love this book.
The first bookLook, I don't know what happened here. I've seen this before. And I must admit at first it could be me. Maybe others will love this book.
The first book of this series is one of the best books I've ever read, bar none. It's great. The second is okay but weaker. This one lost me almost right away and it never drew me in...at all.
Can't recommend it. Maybe I didn't hang in long enough but for me it was just another "oh good grief" slog. Maybe see for yourself....more
I just couldn't get into this...in other words I found it uninteresting. May be me, I find that I'm harder and harder to please where novels are conceI just couldn't get into this...in other words I found it uninteresting. May be me, I find that I'm harder and harder to please where novels are concerned. I have started several in the last few weeks and none of them has really drawn me in. I have unfinished novels of a couploe of different types and different genres laying around waiting.
Oh well, I won't rate this as frankly I didn't care enough to finish it.
Yeah I laid it aside. With giggles and dances still going on a quarter of the way through the book and continual thoughts about lovers, life partners,Yeah I laid it aside. With giggles and dances still going on a quarter of the way through the book and continual thoughts about lovers, life partners, marriage...and aour young girl now qualified to be the next Queen...
as noted laid it aside. Not really "my cup of tea". Enjoy if it's for you....more
***I'm a couple of chapters into this and I'm "||" this close to pitching it aside. the protagonist is supposed to be a major in counter insurgency a***I'm a couple of chapters into this and I'm "||" this close to pitching it aside. the protagonist is supposed to be a major in counter insurgency and military intelligence but sometimes she reads like a teenybopper. She vacillates from super-person to idiot. I'm giving it a little more room/time to see if it turns a new leaf (maybe explains the inexplicable actions of our heroine). ***
Okay, sorry to all you who hate it when I give a book I didn't finish a 1 star rating...but it just seems to me that if I don't care for a book enough to finish it...it must be a 1 star read, for me.
I tried to like it.
I started to get very disenchanted with the book during an action sequence where our protagonist was trying to stop some nefarious types from blowing up a ship. She proceeds along shooting the bad guys she meets and then...she comes upon the two bad guys with a nuke. One is a man programming the nuke and a woman. She rushes in and says the equivalent of, "hold it!".
Now why didn't she at least take down the guy programming the nuke? We've already learned that her AI can deploy nanobots that can pretty much do anything (and they do indeed stop the nuke). Instead she sets up a confrontation where she (and of course her AI) almost die and the nuke will be set off. It simply made no sense. Also the dialog gets very juvenile here in at least a couple of places.
I went on to her arrival at the colony ship and her taking over and I just couldn't get involved in the book. I'm actually sorry about that as I haven't found a good military sci/fi I can get lost in for a while.
So 1 star in a subjective rating while I know many of you will probably like this I just didn't get involved enough to put my time into it.
You'll notice that as in a few other cases I do not rate this book. If I did I'd have to go one (1) star... But I'm not rating it. That one star ratinYou'll notice that as in a few other cases I do not rate this book. If I did I'd have to go one (1) star... But I'm not rating it. That one star rating would be for this edition alone.
I have the audio edition I bought from Audible. The plot seems as if it should be an interesting one I picked the book up on the strength of the synopsis and the reaction of other readers. Sadly this edition doesn't hold my interest. The book has some weaknesses that bother me a little. Combine that with a lackluster narrator as omnipotent story teller and different readers for different characters reading in a rather stiff and stilted manner and I got about halfway through the book (dropping off to sleep a few times) and laid it aside. I plan to return the book to Audible.
Here we have a universe where one side of a galactic conflict should already have smashed the other as they have ships so advanced that they can't even be scratched by their enemies and one shot from them pierces the shields of the other side... Also we have physical confrontations where the same thing seems to apply, one race so strong and powerful the other can't even harm them (yet manages to win a fight using a piece of bent metal). The logic holes here are...well annoying.
Then as I said the narration is at best (to use the same word) lackluster. No I'm moving on to another book. maybe someday I'll try the print version...but probably not....more
This looked like a good book. The idea was/is good, the synopsis looked great...sadly the execution was less than wonderful.
Let me first sayWell crap.
This looked like a good book. The idea was/is good, the synopsis looked great...sadly the execution was less than wonderful.
Let me first say that I bought the Audible edition. One problem here was the reader/narrator. He just didn't do a good job. I'm sorry Mr. May, maybe you've done better work, I don't know. This however was not a great job of reading. It came across as stiff at places with the emotions coming across (when it did come across) sounded forced. Had the narration been better I might have finished the book... But it wasn't and combined with the other...problems...I laid the book aside after reading half or so.
So, on to the problems with the book itself. I do leather work. Wallets, knife sheaths, belts, holsters I enjoy the work. Sometimes I'll get an idea and my brain will run with it. The idea may grow and I begin cutting and tooling the leather. BUT sometimes the idea has become "ideas" and when I finish I find that the project has become what might generally be called "busy", or just overdone.
This book is like that. There are so many ideas here that range from science fiction to fantasy to comic book characters to mythology. There is one point where we had a fight that seemed more like a fight between Superman and the Hulk. Our hero smashes into the street and leaves a crater (taking no damage of course) and then shatters bricks in the nearby building's wall...
Without spoilers our "hero Victor" woke up 10 years or so ago with no memory of his past. He's apparently immortal, knows about magic (but doesn't seem yo posses any) is filled with biological nanites (which seem to me to bear a remarkable resemblance to "midichlorians" [one of the worst ideas ever to come out of science fantasy]), he can generate a transparent protective shield which protects him but can be extended to do other"stuff". The world has all kinds of "evil" from undead to shape-changers and mythological beings.
Oh yeah and Victor isn't human but he doesn't know what he is.
Anyway I saw echoes of dozens of novels, comic books and movies I'm familiar with...that along with the poof reading was just several bridges too far. I plan to return it to Audible....more
You know....this is the second time I got this out of the library and the second time I've sent it back. I forgot, thus I mark it "read" here but planYou know....this is the second time I got this out of the library and the second time I've sent it back. I forgot, thus I mark it "read" here but plan to pick it up in "actual book" version later. This is only about the "audio version".
I love audio books, they make it possible to "read" as you handle other things that leave the mind more or less free. But sometimes the reader is bad or as in this case make incomprehensible decisions. Angele Masters for some reason chose to read this book in what seems to be a thick Russian accent. I've heard her read other books...the accent is...well as I said it's a choice.
It's also highly annoying and makes the book more of a chore to listen to than a pleasure. Put it aside and really can't comment on the book's quality. Wait until I actually read it....more
Look for you who like this book, I'm sorry. I wanted to like this one, it sounded so good.
In my opinion what we have here is another case of great ideLook for you who like this book, I'm sorry. I wanted to like this one, it sounded so good.
In my opinion what we have here is another case of great idea, poor execution. The "hook" here is that our protagonist is a wreck diver. She travels through space looking for derelict or abandoned ships. She then explores them or claims them...sometimes she leads tourists on tours through them.
Okay sounds good huh? The thing is... Well there are several things. I got almost halfway through the book (which is really a series of novellas strung into a longer book) before I returned it to Audible. What we seem to have here is a seemingly half thought out multiverse. First of all it's set 5000+ years in the future. Yet somehow the vacuum suits are only good for 60 minutes of breathable air (I mean come on we can do better than that now). Also in spite of the fact that humans have been "spacefaring" for many centuries their "space suits" not only can't carry more than an hour's air/oxygen everyone seems to live in deadly fear of "sharp edges and corners". Over and over we hear about how the suits can be ruptured by sharp edges...
Our heroine goes on and on about how she's been been doing this for many years and is ready for it. then she goes on and on about her panic. I think the writer was going for a semi-horror (maybe something like the first Alien movie) but it never comes off.
So, halfway through I pitched it...to bad. Can't recommend this one....more
...note no rating and I still have this on the "currently reading shelf. That said a I'm about to lay it aside. We opened with some action and mytholo...note no rating and I still have this on the "currently reading shelf. That said a I'm about to lay it aside. We opened with some action and mythological tie in. However the angst is so thick you can cut it with...well with a cliched remark.
Opening on well trod ground (I mean it's not a spoiler if it happens on the first couple of pages) a broken oath (or oaths. If it's one oath made by multiple characters is it oath or oaths???? Oh well) anyway "we broke our oath" and we watched as "one we loved must be given up". We move forward to find another bed mate (I mean she's a Valkyrie she can't really commit to a guy who'll die as she stays young...right?) and then she meets....taa-dat-ta-da-daaaa! A hero elf whom she wants to ravage one minute and punch the next. Classic "romance relationship"...I threw up in my mouth a little.
Not my kind of book. The cover warned me but you know I've found a couple of books where the cover was misleading. Anyway we're back to the plot...for now. So I haven't laid it aside...yet.
Okay, enough. With her almost 'crying out" at the "touch of his mind" and her being so moved by his song (even though the song of no Alf (Elf) "had ever moved her before", I will leave the "smouldering glances" to those of you who enjoy PNR.
I like Norse Mythology...I'd like to see more novels based on it. Sadly I'm not a fan of romances....more
I may go back to this at a later date so I'm holding off on a rating.
I love military science fiction....space opera etc. I find that most of the bettI may go back to this at a later date so I'm holding off on a rating.
I love military science fiction....space opera etc. I find that most of the better books in the genre I've read have turned out to be "space fleet" type books, so I'm always looking for good "ground-pounder" science fiction action.
This sounded like a far fetched but interesting story... Sadly not only is it far fetched it's just not that interesting.
Now, I'm in a reading slump. Nothing is really appealing to me right now. That said I'm still very underwhelmed here and am laying the book aside. At a later time I may go back and give it another shot. For now the "really strained" plot (and I mean really, truly strained) and fumbling attemots at political insight/pontification have exceeded my shoz-bot-ometer. ...more
Okay...first I love military sci/fi. There are 3 series that I snap up as quickly as a new sequel is released. Just had to correct a couple of typos.
Okay...first I love military sci/fi. There are 3 series that I snap up as quickly as a new sequel is released. I got these (I checked out #1 and #2, oops) from the library (thankfully rather than buying them). I got them because I was/am in the mood for some good space opera/military science fiction/fantasy. The synopsis looked good, so I downloaded the 2 books from the Hoopla audio files our library has.
Okay the first almost 3 hours were info-dumps about the world, the universe and the alien races. We got introduced to the main character (Master Sergeant Frank Sage) and also the alien enemy leading character. I was frankly so bored I wanted to lay the book aside much earlier than this.
I am now 3.5 hours in and we've gone the other way. The last half hour have been one long running battle against...well against the planet sort of. Enemy troops and giant spiders are ripping into the Terran soldiers.
Now, there are also Human natives and humans who work for the (seemingly) requisite "evil corporations"...they're called "corps". I've seen the evil corporation trope so often in the last 60 years it does seem to be almost a requirement. Anyway...I haven't rated it yet, I'm trying to "hang in" but I've almost decided to lay (and if it were a real physical book fling) it aside...
To be continued soon.
**Update** Yes I laid it aside and thus went with a 1 star rating. I know some will like these better and I'm sorry to go with the lowest rating but I just didn't care enough to finish the book. Too bad as I really wanted to like it and was looking for a good military science fiction/space opera....more
Mike (the Paladin)
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