Bob Shacklock
I just finished reading Red Mars and was so disappointed. This book had so much potential going into it, but in short the characters suck. The main characters in Red Mars are all part of the first 100 people to colonize Mars. You don't get to meet all 100 of them (thank god), but out of the ones you do meet there is not one of them that is likeable. This lack of any characters to get attached to or even like a little makes reading Red Mars a painful experience. There are some good ideas about Mars, the technology to live there, and ways to terraform it all presented from characters that are just not enjoyable.
The Tears of the Sun has to be the worst book in the Emberverse series if not the worst book S.M. Stirling has written to date. Dies the Fire and the next 2 books were fantastic, but starting with book 4 (The Sunrise Lands) this dystopian story has gone down hill. The Emberverse series has turned into a fantasy book series that spends a great deal of time describing the smell and color of things in the environment instead of producing any story. This over-description of everything along with the flashbacks in The Tears of the Sun I found this book a complete waste of my time. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless you simply feel you need to read the entire series.
I gave The Prophet of Yonwood a 2 star rating because it really didn't have any impact on the other Ember books. Being a prequel I expected something to be about the City of Ember before the last few pages. This was not the case. If you love the other three City of Ember books this one is simply not needed nor has impact at all on the story.
I absolution love the Dark Tower series. I read it once several years ago and got the itch to do so again. I can't believe how many things from the other books in the series are laid out in The Gunslinger. The Dark Tower series is definitely worth reading more than once. I Can't wait to read [b:The Drawing of the Three 5094 The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2) Stephen King http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165517583s/5094.jpg 2113248] next!
I kept hearing so many good things about A Game of Thrones and with the new HBO series airing they hype was building up. I decided to read this epic fantasy masterpiece and very quickly got bored. One of the problems I had with the book is the amount of characters, there are way too many to really enjoy the story. The only character I even remotely cared about was Tyrion Lannister because he was the only one that actually felt real to me. Everyone else is stiff and before you get attached to them you are off to the next character. There is no real build up to anything thrilling until the end of the book and by that time I was just hoping for it to be over and done.
I am not a die hard fantasy reader and unless you are a die hard I don't think you will enjoy this book. I think if you invest the time to read the next few books in the series it might get better, but this first book was nothing more that a super huge introduction to the characters and the world they live in.
This is the second book in the Foundation series and like the first book, the beginning is dry. After The Mule story line starts the book becomes very enjoyable. I'm all already to start the next book, [b:Second Foundation 29580 Second Foundation (Foundation, #3) Isaac Asimov http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168033540s/29580.jpg 64823]. Although this book was published in 1952 original, the Foundation series continues to be one of the greatest science fiction series of all time.
The Lost Symbol is the third Dan Brown book about the character Robert Langdon. Dan Brown books seem to follow a pattern in the Style they are written. Because of this, if you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code you will probably enjoy The Lost Symbol. The chapters are short making it easy to read the book in small chunks one chapter at a time. What is lacking is the surprise of the other Robert Langdon stories. Many of the twist and surprises are predictable. The central focus in The Lost Symbol is Washington D.C. and The Masons. After finishing 1/4 of the book I had already figured out who the villain is and where The Lost Symbol was hidden. Many of the problems with this book are the same problems the movie versions of the last two Robert Langdon stories and I think that was Dan Brown's intention in order to make the book more movie script friendly. Even though I enjoyed The Lost Symbol, I only gave it three stars because I felt it could have been better if a movie version had not been thought about while writing the book.