Justin
Great book. Lots of plot holes but still a lot of fun.
Two negative things though: While I was amused that the author used Esperanto as the magic-spell-language, I was disappointed that there wasn't a single Red Dwarf reference that I noticed. Also, I don't know whether to be smug or embarrassed that I was able to pick his Esperanto grammar apart... “Porko latina” isn't ‘pig latin' it's “Latin Pig.”
...jes, mi devas diri ke, ‘mi devus esti embarasita'...😬
‘Immediately... Immediately... Immediately...' Word to the wise: don't turn it into a drinking game, or you'll be out cold before Zac finishes his next battle.
I noticed the author's love for this word a couple of books ago, but in Book 4 (especially the first half), it's relentless.
Hopefully, bro will get a new skill that replaces every ‘immediately' with something like directly, forthwith, instantly, promptly, rapidly, shortly, soon, urgently, anon, thereupon, in a flash, in a jiffy, in a New York minute, in nothing flat, instantaneously, on the double, pronto, soon afterward, straight away, summarily, whereupon, unhesitatingly, or hereupon—and I'll breathe a sigh of relief.
For now, someone get the author a thesaurus, tout de suite!
... I'm confused. This character is completely changed from the previous books and not for the better. It's as if the author suddenly decided to make his serious main character into the manic, comic-relief side character for someone else's story. I'll likely give the next book a try but the reviews from that book look worse than the reviews for this one - so, I'm betting it didn't get better.
This book is a bit annoying. The first 3/4 of the book was slow and a bit plodding. There were several times that I wasn't sure I was going to finish. However, I stuck with it, and the last quarter was suddenly very good, comparatively. Which led up to a plot-cliffhanger at the end...
So, now I'm stuck, I haven't decided yet if I'll give the second one a try.
His terror of the gallows drove him continually to commit temporary suicide, and return to his subordinate station of a part instead of a person; but he loathed the necessity, he loathed the despondency into which Jekyll was now fallen, and he resented the dislike with which he was himself regarded.
When Stevenson wrote a sentence he turned it into a paragraph and when he wrote a paragraph he turned it into a chapter. This is a short but dense novel (in a good way). I'm amazed at the amount of story that Stevenson was able to squeeze into less than 200 pages. I really enjoy the poetry of the language of this type of literature.
And, yes, the story still holds up. I had my doubts at first (the ending was obviously already spoiled - Thanks, Scooby Doo...) that the story would be relevant, outside of the cultural dualities of Victorian society, but it, nevertheless, held up.
Yeah, so, definitely not the type of book I would normally read. There was a copy of it in my classroom and I read the first page. Having read the first page, I had to read the second, of course. And, before I knew it I'd finished the book.
So, what does a normal, rational person do when they realize that they've read an entire YA light novel? They wash their hands and never speak of it again.
But, no, not me - I went on to read the first four volumes... So, yeah.
I have to say that it's high praise to the translator and the author that I had so much fun reading this. The sheer insanity of it all is breath-taking.
Great story for turning your brain off and just enjoying the lunacy of it all.
When I got to part 2 I had to double check that I was still reading the same novel. Interesting that the first half was Sherlock and Watson solving the crime and the second half was the perpetrator's motive. Great writing, of course, though a bit dry for my taste - I'll probably read more in the future.
“We have to destroy the radioactive brain of Madame Curie.” When I read this line in the book I thought for a moment that the author had gone too far down the slippery slope of absurdity. But, then, I realized that he'd done that in the first chapter.
This book is a great lot of fun. It's old school pulp done with flair and intelligence - and, it's a great read.
After sleeping on it, I'm revising my review (from a 3 to a 2) on this book. When I woke up this morning there was something bothering me about the story and I realized what it was: the story doesn't work in a technical way.
Here's why: The ending and particularly the climax don't do anything about the character's struggles throughout the book.
Here's where the spoilers start:
The main character (Jane) does all of her growth and changes at the front end of the book - she gets into shape, she becomes a fighter, she teaches herself to throw a knife, etc. etc.
And then we just see her existing after that.
Seriously, spoilers ahead!
The book's final antagonist arrives through some miracle and the antagonist doesn't make sense - Nikki arrives back at the island almost impossibly. She managed to fight the current of the ocean and sail all the way back up stream (through the storms) to arrive back at the island with little time passing.
And the antagonist doesn't make any sense! Nail was already set up to be our antagonist. Seemingly, Jane's attempts at bettering herself throughout the story were in direct reaction to the strength that Nail already had. She learned to throw a knife 30 meters when he could only throw a knife 20 meters. She was preparing for him. And the confrontation between the two never happened.
Also, the action of the climax doesn't make sense - Nikki went through all the trouble to capture two characters and lure Jane to her - only to ask her to stay. Jane says no and then just leaves...
What?
Sure, there's a little bit of a battle (very little) but everyone gets off scot-free from the climax with little to no struggle (except for one character I'll mention in a moment). And, we don't see Jane's changes in a struggle against the antagonist. I kept waiting for Jane's newly-developed knife throwing skills to save the day but she NEVEN EVEN THEW A KNIFE!!!
So, to sum it up: the climax of this story is broken. The antagonist should have either been Nail - or, at the very least we should have gotten a clearer sense of Nikki's journey back (or perhaps even better, discovered that she never left to begin with and just imagined her trip). Jane should have demonstrated all of her growth during the climax (through a physical struggle against the antagonist) and finally - I won't mention who it is - but the death of one of the main characters at the end of the story served absolutely no purpose...
Don't get me wrong, I finished this book and even enjoyed reading it - It's just that (as it is) the story is incomplete.
So,I gave this book 5 stars so I feel like I need to write something about it.
This is an amazing novel. And definitely among my top zombie apocalypse stories.
Something that the author managed to keep in mind (that a lot of authors in this category forget) is that the zombies can only ever be the environment of a story, and never a character. This is a human story that happens to be set in a world full of the walking dead.
It's written in third person present tense which was a little off-putting for me at first but the style really lends itself extremely well to the story. It felt like the entire novel was one long sentence (in the best possible way).
I absolutely loved this novel - and, whether you're into apocalypse-stories or not - you should definitely read it.
Great book. I love Blackmore's writing. There's not much I can say about this one that other people haven't said (beware of spoilers), but I wanted to write a review just because the author has such a great way with the way his stories unfold. I've read all of his Mountain Man series as well as The Bear that Fell from the Stars and I have never been anything but impressed by his ability to keep me reading late into the night.
I'll definitely be reading more of his novels and I'm looking forward to anything he writes in the future too.
Hopefully he'll write something else about werewolves...
I'm giving the same rating to all of these because it just keeps increasing in insanity. (Read my review of the first one if you think I've lost my mind).
This book was a pleasant surprise! The concept of involuntary travel between different worlds drew me in, and the author delivers on that premise beautifully.
What really made this story shine for me were the characters - they felt genuine and relatable. The protagonist's voice hit the perfect balance between being overwhelmed by his situation (amnesia brought on by his circumstances) and maintaining a sense of humor about it all. The author has a knack for finding the absurd moments in even the most dire situations without undermining the stakes.
I loved how the story balanced exciting, fast-paced adventures with gradually unveiling the deeper mysteries of the Traveler's journey and the broader multiverse. Each new world brought fresh challenges and dangers that kept the action moving, while still feeling purposeful to the larger story rather than just random encounters.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from this author. If you enjoy character-driven sci-fi with humor and heart, this is worth your time.