Michael

An Excellent view into the Skorne culture. I'm much more interested in the fiction and fluff surrounding this faction after reading this story.

This was a very interesting novel.

I enjoyed the world, and how the character used real history and presented the historical figures as real characters. I felt the plot of the book dragged a bit, with us waiting for the story while the author/main character showed us Colonial Boston. I will follow the series, but I'm not rushing to read next novel.

This is an excellent addition to the Star Wars Cannon, as Kenobi struggles with the trials of trying to not be a hero. I heard it described as Star Wars meets Firefly, but that's not quite accurate. While the overtones defiantly have a Western genre theme, it is not quite to the caliber of a Whedon'verse drama, but it does come close.

An excellent short novel with a look at Cygnar's favorite commando gunmage. Good story, done with style.

Drew Karpyshyn writes some of the best Star Wars novels I have read. His depiction of the Old Republic era continues to be a delight to read.

This novel does a great job of filling in some story background for the unanswered questions from KotOR and KotOR II and how those stories transition in the recent The Old Republic MMO. A wonderful read for Star Wars fans.

An excellent addition to the Dresden line. Butcher is the master of the long character development arc. I look eagerly for the next volume.

Continues to be an amazing series. Couldn't Ask for more.

Clearly a classic, and a wonder I had not read it until now.

Tad Williams takes the reader on a great modern paranormal adventure with some innovative takes on Noir in a Modern context. The main character is well portrayed; as a flawed angel, tasked with advocating for the souls of the dead, Bobby Dollar is both real and supernal.

In Noir fashion, our hero is dropped in the thick of the Cold War between Heaven and Hell when a soul disappears on his watch. What follows is a ride that takes Bobby D through the righteous underbelly of San Judas (Santa Clara), California, angering Angels and Demons alike.

While the mystery is solved by the end of the book, it leaves many questions unanswered and I eagerly anticipate the next volume of the Bobby Dollar series.

This is an excellent Modern Fantasy novel, and an excellent depiction of modern Noir. The Main Character functions like a foul-mouthed Noir detective, blundering his way through his problems with force and base cunning.
The setting is interesting. The characters are dark at face value, but complex when examined. The plot of this first book is a classic revenge story with several twists.

Simon R Green and Chuck Wendig Fans pay attention, read this series.

I am not normally into Vampire fiction, but the idea of the series intrigued me so I gave it a shot. I was not disappointed.

This novel had a good balance of paranormal mystery, vampire politics, interesting characters, and touched very lightly into paranormal romance - just enough to keep the vampire seduction vibe in view, but not too much to place it into erotica.

I enjoy the character, particularly because she is a strong character who doesn't actually want to be a vampire, which makes the dive into the secret world of Chicago Vampire House Politics all the more interesting.

I will be giving the other books in the series a try.

This was one of the most enjoyable reads I have done for my education.

The text gives great accounts of creative and innovative people, all linking back to the main points of the book: The Seven Secrets of Steve Jobs.

Every creative person, teacher, and individual seeking their passion should read this book. Sir Ken Robinson takes you on a journey in which you meet amazing and famous people who all gain success by finding ‘Their Element'.

An excellent addition to the series. The second one adds more geo-political “what-if's” to the alternate history. The story starts to go a little too over the top at points, but comes down almost as fast making for pulpy adventure fun.

One of the best Urban Fantasy novels I have read since I started the Dresden Files.

One of the best Nero Wolfe Stories I have read yet. Very Different in tone, but fascinating.

A decent intro to Shadowrun, but I was left wanting more. The book was also a little dense for my tastes in Genre fiction. Not a bad read, but this novel shows its age and the progression of the genre/setting and style.

I have always been a fan of the Elder Scrolls Universe, and Greg Keyes novel does an excellent job of bringing the world of these games to life in an excellent source of genre fiction.

The story is good, and keeps in line with the truths of the universe. The characters are interesting. My only two critiques are that I would have enjoyed more POV chapters by different characters, and the story ending was rather abrupt.

Excellent modern paranormal with a British twist.

I enjoy the pace of the story, the characters, and the mysteries surrounding the paranormal in this setting.

I enjoyed Mindstar Rising. I was in a cyberpunk mood and this gave me everything that I was looking for in a novel. Dystopian Corporate Schemes, futuristic technology, and psychic power.

Good Read.

I have been following Chuck Wendig for a few years now, and I have come to enjoy his writing style immensely. The story of Blackbirds is dark, following the story of a troubled young woman who can see when you die, and can't do anything to change it. The writing is fluid, the characters are interesting, and the plot is riveting.

My only critique is that the main character sounds much like Chuck, or at least sounds like the voice he presents during interviews and on his blog. This is not a bad thing, per say; but, it distracted me from remembering that the character was in fact a troubled woman, and not the middle aged self proclaimed pen monkey that entertains almost daily.

Set before the events of Episode one, Darth Plagueis takes the reader through the behind the scenes setup that foreshadows the prequel movies. In it we see Plagueis, Palpatine's master, rise to power, the training of Palpatine, and ultimately the rise of Palpatine to the position of power and influence that we see in Episode 1.

Darth Plagueis did two things that I didn't thing the EU could do, and it does them well.

First, while it does not redeem all of aspects of the prequel movies, it does tie many of the desperate elements together. Through the eyes of Plagueis and Palpatine we see the events unfold and answer many of the unasked/unanswered questions from the movies themselves and the EU as a whole. How was Palpatine trained, Who was Darth Maul, How was the Old Republic engineered fall, How does the Rule of Two affect the Sith through the thousand years from Bane to Palpatine? These and many more are revealed and explained within this novel.

Second, and most starlings, the novel uses the dreaded plot device (midichlorians) in a way that doesn't make me hate it. [This will likely be a hot topic for diehard fans, but my recommendation is that they read the book before unleashing hate for the topic.] In the novel, Plagueis is Sith Sorcerer working on methods of extending his own life indefinitely through the force. Through well written experimentation and revelation the reader is given a much more palatable explanation for the relationship between midichlorians and the Force, and possible alternate causes for Anakin's “miraculous” conception through the Force.
For all these reasons and more I recommend Darth Plagueis

**As a side note I got my copy of Darth Plagueis through a GoodReads contest for preview/review copies. So thanks to GoodReads for facilitating my enjoyment of this novel.

I read the first October Daye novel a while ago. And while I enjoyed it, there were elements of the style that were off putting. I am happy to say that Local Habitation has much fewer of those problems stylistically. The story was enjoyable and revealed much more about the world the novel inhabits.

My only criticism of the novel is that much of the character conflict within the novel revolves around October trying to investigate a strange situation. It feels as though very little progress is made through of her own accord.

Another of Tim Powers books, and I have yet to read one that didn't both intrest me, facinate me, and satisfy me.

Short version: British WWII/1960's Spy Thriller with supernatural undertones (loosly based on an actual historical figure).

I can't tell if this was supposed to be the end of the series or not. While the story was typical and enjoyable for Green, the ending did not feel like “the end”. It felt like it was building for another three part series in which another apocalypse is averted by John Taylor.