Julie
Diana Galbadon recommended this on her FB page so I took her up on her recommendation. And I didn't really like it. at the end if the hook the author describes how the book came yo be and says “....the character....would have to be rather more than the dashing army captain and oft-unscrupulous lover. He would have to do something. Thus he became a spy - among other things.”
Unfortunately I don't the character grew at all. I couldn't understand why Jack Absolute was this revered person. He was one dimensional, but could do EVERYTHING.
I will say the story got a wee bit more interesting 75% of the way through. But I still couldn't understand why I should care about Jack as highly as all the characters did.
Diana Gabaldon and her story of Claire and Jaime continues to engross me. When I picked up this book I knew that I wouldn't be able to put it down. With the new collaboration between Audible and Amazon I didn't have to either. I really liked the fact that I could read the book and then listen to the book as needed seamlessly. The story between Jaime and Claire continues and we get updates on those around them from Brianna, Roger and their family to William, Lord John Grey and Ian. There we're laugh out loud parts, horrible illnesses and surgeries, heartbreaking deaths and the solid love story of Jaime & Claire. There are some tantalizing bits to hang on to for the future as well. I'm not sure if I'll be watching the TV series but I'm glad that many more people will be introduced to this World and the characters that the author has so richly created!
This took me a while to get through. While I like the stories I much rather read a novel rather than short stories but I've found that by reading this anthology's like this I discover other writers I like and then go on to enjoy their novels. This anthology does this and allowed me to cross genre's as well. Of course I really like the stories done by my favorite authors like Diana Gabaldon, Brandon Sanderson and George RR Martin but now I have other authors like Cecelia Holland and Caroline Spector to check out.
I was wavering between giving this book 3 or 4 stars and decided on 3 stars. I liked the book but I got bogged down during some of it. I guess I'm wary of books that go from one place to another just to have the characters moving. If I notice the characters are just moving that's not a good thing. If a book is good I don't notice the movement it's just part of the story. While I recognize that there were reasons for the movement in this book , it was too much. The whole second book is about character development really not the action because there really isn't too much of it. However, I do like the characters and I'm glad we got some of the story told from their point of views. I'm not sure about going on to the 3rd book right now as I have other books that I want to dive into. I'm thinking a break from this story will help it in the future,
I loved this book and the whole series. I originally downloaded the first book from Audible as it sounded interesting and I needed to use some credits. But after getting through the first book, [b:Outlander 10964 Outlander (Outlander, #1) Diana Gabaldon http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PXCSX5AKL.SL75.jpg 2489796], I couldn't listen to it fast enough so I bought a copy of book 2, [b:Dragonfly in Amber 5364 Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2) Diana Gabaldon http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266449004s/5364.jpg 2866304]and would switch between the audiobook and the reading book depending on what I was doing. Eventually I decided that I had to have a written copy of [b:Outlander 10964 Outlander (Outlander, #1) Diana Gabaldon http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PXCSX5AKL.SL75.jpg 2489796] and bought it for my Kindle as well. I'm actually thinking of getting the whole series in hardback too. THAT is how much I loved it!I flew through this book. I love the whole storyline with a strong woman character and I man who is Scottish and ALL man. Love the accent! I'm really glad I actually listened to it as well as read it because Davinia Porter does an excellent job and I was able to learn the correct pronunciations of the Scottish words. All the characters in the book are fully developed and I felt like I was there experiencing everything with Claire.I highly recommend this book and series, but beware you will not be able to put it down!
Not sure where I picked this book up from and how it was recommended to me but I'd consider it something like watching “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” or maybe like “Big Brother” on TV. No, the book isn't that bad but it's like those shows because if you flip to them you get sucked in and you want to know what happens next so you keep on watching even though it's just ok. That was my feeling with this book, things kept on happening to the main characters but you always knew that they would get together. What happened to them had really no rhyme or reason but to keep them apart and they didn't grow as people or come to any major conclusions about life. They just wanted to get back together. I guess I wasn't even that invested in the main characters, they were likable enough just flat on the paper. So I just finished the book to see what happened.
Well that sucked! in a good way. I thought that book #3 would be the last book of the series and man was I wrong! The ended of this book was literally a cliffhanger and I was left going...what?! The third book again takes us through another characters point of view and adds another key character. All great additions to the story and adds to the complexity and intricacies of the cultures involved that need to ban together to fight a much greater evil. Obviously, I can't wait until the next books come out. After doing a little research on the internet this series is a 5 book series and if I know how authors work we can only hope that remains the case as he continues to write the books.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can completely understand why it won so many awards. It reminds me of [a:Kim Stanley Robinson 1858 Kim Stanley Robinson http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1217240935p2/1858.jpg]'s Mars series of books, which I liked but it took me awhile to get into. This book grabbed me from the beginning not only about the story but about the political and nuanced questions that were asked. Similar to the Mars series I'm probably going to be thinking about this for a good time afterword. I like it when I book makes me think. I'm usually more on the Fantasy line of things but this book and [a:Kim Stanley Robinson 1858 Kim Stanley Robinson http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1217240935p2/1858.jpg]'s make me want to get more into the SciFi genre more and more. Maybe it is because I'm getting older but I'm wondering more and more what will the future be like and with all our social debates where will end up. This book allows me to look at the good, bad & the ugly and ponder this question.
I picked up this book because it was similar in nature to the TV show/series Downton Abbey which I thoroughly enjoy. However, this book wasn't as enjoyable and was more like a Diary of the author's time while in “service”. It was all about how she moved around in “service”, what the personalities of the other's “downstairs” were like and how the female servants tried to get out of service by getting married in various ways. I guess I just would rather have a well written story than a biography which is more like a diary.
I guess I'm disappointed but on the other hand I guess it had to be that way. The Last Battle is just that a battle that takes 900 pages to describe. People die....a lot of people die, and there are still lessons to be learned. Maybe over the last 20+ years I grew out of these books but then again I liked the first 13. But this book was just not for me, it left me thinking: it took 14 books to end this way? I would have just liked more. Maybe if I had read the whole series from start to finish it would have been better received but the length of time between the first book and the last may not have helped. Overall, my feelings are that It was too simple of an ending for the amount of complicated relationships and characters that this series has introduced.
I really enjoyed this 3 book arc of the Pendergast series of books. Finally we see Pendergast as more human and acknowledging his faults although in a Pendergast way. Looking forward to reading more of his story as you know by the end of this book that there are pretty big loose ends to learn about in the future,
As usual [a:Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 5424818 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] have continued the story of Pendergast in a unique and satisfying way. I love that we are getting more personal with Pendergast although through his love life this time rather than his family life. As usual the reader has the feeling that they are close to figuring out what is going on and by whom but there is always an unseen curve ball that one missed. This is why I come back again and again to these authors. I enjoy the story, the unknown and the unexpected way it comes together.
The first half of the book was rather dull, and it took a lot for me to keep going. But I trust in the author as I love her Outlander books and the second alf if the book was much better. I think the first part was just way to out there for me and I really didn't care about the characters at all. The second half I still didn't care about the characters but I wanted to know how the story ended.
I've had these books on my to read book shelf for years and finally got around to reading them. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed these books tremendously. After some of the books I've read in the past I loved the pace of the books and was delighted with the storyline. Things flowed smoothly and I liked most of the characters and found myself teary-eyed at one point of the book. So a good sign that I'm invested and I love being invested in a book and its characters. What I kept on thinking while reading this book was how easy it was to read and that there wasn't any annoying abruptness. In the past year, I've read a lot of books where I liked the storyline but the romance was just abruptly shoved down my throat, or that characters were going from place to place without any rhyme nor reason. So it was refreshing to just read these books and go along for the ride. At no point was I jarred out of the story with some weird storyline, movement of the characters or asking myself what the heck just happened. Great enjoyable read!!!
This story was ok, and I'm curious how the next in the series but I hated the writing style. It was like reading a movie script than a book. In addition, this book really didn't tell me anything. It obviously was the first book in the series and hopefully it sets up the rest of the book but there wasn't a lot of meat to it. I guess I really didn't make any personal connections with any of the main characters and would have just liked more.
This series got better and better through each book. Loved the way things all got put together at the end. You could see a lot of it coming but there were enough surprises as well. My favorite book of the series and I'm looking forward to more books by the author. It was a pleasant surprise to see how the author grew in her craft through the three books of this series.