Cyn Newman
Wow. What a great read!
I don't give out many 5-star ratings, even to my favorite authors. They should be reserved for really special books. This one counts.
I doubt that any information about the book itself would be very meaningful to anyone who hasn't read the previous 17 novels, honestly. I just can't imagine starting any series anywhere but in the beginning, but this work, in particular, will be much more enjoyable if read with the full knowledge of all that has come before.
I did enjoy the occasional flashbacks into the past as they occurred. Some authors don't handle that technique well, but Stabenow keeps readers anchored well enough that I never felt whipsawed back and forth.
As with the last entry into the Shugak series, the miscreants weren't obvious this time. That's always such a blessing with any mystery! Too many authors either toss in an entire school of obvious red herrings or beat the reader over the head with the identity of the villain, causing me, at least to wonder how the supposed hero could avoid knowing his or her identity too.
I always look forward to more books from Stabenow. She's a wonderfully reliable author and will always be on my “Yes! But whatever she puts out NOW!” list.
I never had any interest in reading the Da Vinci Code, and if I'd heard about this, I might not have been interested in it, either. But somehow I picked up a damaged copy of it, and got terribly interested but it was in such bad shape that there was no way to go on reading. I found that I had to request it from the library, and as soon as it arrived I started over at the beginning. I've read it in chunks since then.
If I'd read this book when it was first released, back in 1998, I'm sure it would have been much more chilling. It was quite effective, even in 2011. I can easily remember the public figures who are echoed in Rabb's books - there are certainly similar ones in the news every day right now (some of them the same ones!)
I did, however, enjoy The Overseer for what it was. I didn't find myself chafing at the flaws other reviewers here have mentioned. Yes, government agents in such thrillers have to be nearly superhuman, and the protagonist, in order to survive, has to learn new rules very quickly. But the reader also has to suspend her disbelief, or she has no business reading such things. If the hero is an idiot, I'll accept that he's a slow learner and likely to die - but then he wouldn't be the hero, would he?
All in all, a decent read if you enjoy thrillers.
Every bit as fun as [bc:Touched by an Alien 7283762 Touched by an Alien (Katherine “Kitty” Katt, #1) Gini Koch http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1277088475s/7283762.jpg 8498290]! Come on, [bc:Alien in the Family 8714075 Alien in the Family (Katherine “Kitty” Katt, #3) Gini Koch http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1285844542s/8714075.jpg 13586954]! (It says “expected publication April 5, 2011” which is pretty specific if you ask me! I know from reading other authors' blogs, though, that these dates can get changed at the last minute, so as much as I want it, I'm not holding my breath.)
Squee! What a fun book! I was nearly did not pick up this book due to the main character's name (Kitty Katt?) but I'm oh so glad I did. She sees a guy go from blowing his top over a little fender bender to actually, well, blowing his top - or, at least, blowing his back, by turning into a mutant and murdering the other party, then starting in an many others. What does she do? Run, hide, scream like a baby? Call 911? Trip in her high heels and cower until a he-man saves her?Oh, hell, no!She also doesn't take the super sexy, Armani-clad guys in the know who show up later at face value, a trait I liked almost as much. I may not share Kitty's taste in music, but I do like her. A lot. I like her family too! In fact, I want her family. I want to be adopted into her family. I could happily live without the whole nasty aliens invading our world thing, but her parents are cool. It's refreshing to have a heroine from a good family with cool, living parents for a change.I picked up book two, [bc:Alien Tango 7948544 Alien Tango (Katherine “Kitty” Katt, #2) Gini Koch http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Oc9ib%2BrrL.SL75.jpg 11556310], right away. After reading it, [a:Gini Koch 3219496 Gini Koch http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1275081028p2/3219496.jpg] is officially my favorite new author. There is one little problem. I want to read [bc:Alien in the Family 8714075 Alien in the Family (Katherine “Kitty” Katt, #3) Gini Koch http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1285844542s/8714075.jpg 13586954] right NOW. Right. This. Minute. Just how firm is that April release date, anyway?
I had no idea what to expect of this story, as I'd downloaded it from Tor and stuck it on my e-reader for some time when I was stuck with nothing else to read. It was perfect filler reading, and very thought-provoking.
I suppose everyone knows the Four Horsemen of the Apolocalypse, yes? Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence? Well, after they've done their jobs, what do you expect is left for them? That's the basic setup of the story, but it gets much better than that.
I am feeling somewhat fan-girlish about Richard Parks right now, to be honest. I can't really offer to have his babies, but I'd happily buy him coffee and gaze adoringly at him while listening for a good while at the very least. I intend to check out anything else I can find by him!
I quite enjoyed this one. There was less gratuitous bitching between Roarke and Eve - perhaps they're learning to work together as a couple better, as most people do if they're going to make it in the long run. That's good to see depicted realistically, for a change.
The plot itself was a bit of a puzzle, and has been adequately described in the book description. I honestly can't say much more without spoilers.
One of the things I really enjoy about this series is that Eve is shown to be growing as an individual, and not just in her relationship with Roarke. She has relaxed in her interactions with her partner, Peabody. She thinks about how the current murder spree might affect her friends, and reaches out to warn some of her friends not to take any private appointments until the case is over. The Eve we met in the earliest books wouldn't have done that - for one thing, she had very few connections to other people. When she realizes that one of her friends is still grieving deeply for a loved one who was murdered in an earlier novel, she invites him over for a gathering of friends the following weekend - despite the fact that she really doesn't like socializing at all (and follows through by making that weekend happen and inviting the rest of their circle of friends).
As usual, I enjoyed the depiction of a society that has largely gotten past the need to worry about criminalizing what goes on between consenting adults or the genders of adults persons engaged in a relationship. It's still a bit silly about permitting some drugs while criminalizing others - there's no explanation of why are alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and “boosters” and “focus” permissible while “whore,” “rabbit,” “zeus,” “zoner,” and others are illegal - but I suppose that's one of those areas where Robb/Roberts and I just don't see eye to eye.
I can't think of many authors who can take a series to 31 volumes and keep me interested. I'm not going to claim that these books are deathless prose, but they're fun, and they keep me interested. I haven't been driven to pick up anything she's published as Nora Roberts, but I'll keep reading this series for a while yet, and I might even go back someday and read this series over again from the beginning.
Definitely not one of the best of the series. The science plot twist was a bit of a surprise, but the “who is this guy?” was telegraphed (for me, at least) pretty early on. I'm fairly tired of the on again, off again love thing with Ryan, but the depiction of Brennan's relationship with her young adult daughter is very accurate to this mother of a 20-year-old. Bringing in the “gangsta” angle seemed ridiculous to me, but I suppose there had to be some immediate danger somewhere to keep the publisher interested.
I still enjoy the television show Bones far more than the novels, which is unusual - but the show has more humor. I don't think I'd read novelizations based on the show, however, because a lot of the humor requires the chemistry between the actors as well as good scriptwriting. There are few authors who can translate that from screen to text.
Just how this book ended up on my iTouch is something of a mystery to me, but it was there and I'd read everything else, and it was the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep, so I figured what the heck.
A few minutes later, I stopped, looked back at the title and author, and tried really hard to figure out where this book could have possibly come from, because, um, wtf? A guy is sitting in his kitchen, minding his own business, and a pig comes sailing through the window? A live pig? Right. Then he starts checking the thermostat and it is pretty clear that he must live in hell. Oh, and the pig sits down and helps itself to his cereal, sitting upright in the chair and using the spoon.
That's before things really get odd.
I have no objection to a few fnords, but I generally know what I'm getting into. I suppose that when a novel apparently puts itself onto your e-reader, you just deal with whatever happens.
So maybe I shouldn't be complaining about the fact that there isn't exactly a happy ending, because the ending isn't as unhappy as it could have been. But I LIKE happy endings. In fact, I have a thing about them, in that I tend to choose my reading with a very strong preference for them. That's one reason I'm unlikely to be reading any more Neil Gaiman (I know, I know, he's such a good author - but he's depressing as hell, too).
Let's be honest here: Savory is not Neil Gaiman, and there wasn't a really happy ending. The ending didn't wholly suck as much as it could have, but there wasn't any goodness and light. Or redemption. Or reward. No love. Just - blah.
So I don't know what else Brett Alexander Savory has written, but I probably won't be looking too hard at any of it. The book did keep me reading for about an hour and a half, though, so Savory did better than many other authors could. Kudos for that!
I know he put this novel, at least, out under a Creative Commmons license, according to the copy on my e-reader. I don't know if any of his other material is licensed that way or not, but I give him thumbs up for being part of the CC movement.
Marvelous! I'd missed more short pieces than I realized, so this book was even more of a treat than anticipated. I read quite a few anthologies, so I had thought that only the much-anticipated new novella would be new to me. Even the ones I've read before are good enough to revisit, though - a sure sign of a very good author. They were like revisiting old friends.The new novella, Aftermath, was fascinating. I don't want to say too much, as I know that quite a few people ended up with too many spoilers about the end of [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1304027244l/6585201.SY75.jpg 6778696]. I think I'll just say that the it is well worth reading and leave it there. As promised, it does pick up right at the end of Changes. If you've read that, you want to read Aftermath. Come on, you know you do!
Eh. I don't know that I'll read any more of this series. I found it far too frustrating to wait for the supposedly intelligent lead character to catch up to the killer's very obvious clues. The identity of the murderer seemed plain to me from the moment he was introduced, yet all the other characters were oblivious. And for a “mystery by the numbers” there were very few numbers - I would have thought that at least one little puzzle would have been included for the reader, but there wasn't so much as a reference to Sudoku to be found.
This was a charming story about a unique boy and the stories he creates based on his collection of seashells. His parents helped him start the collection so that he could take something with him as they moved from each of his Navy father's postings to the next, rather than feeling completely uprooted. The story starts with him as a very young child and follows him into high school. I felt like I knew him, watching him grew and change, but continuing as a gallant fighter and gentleman, old-fashioned and geekily awkward in some ways, so creative and sweet. What a treasure!
This has been on my “currently reading” shelf for what seems like years, but it really was a fast read. I was just about to start it when I switched from the Palm to the iTouch, and I didn't get around to converting it from a .prc file to an .epub until this week.
Yes, I know that Calibre, which is a marvelous and indispensable piece of software for anyone who reads e-books (and I firmly recommend that everyone should run out right now, download it, and show some kind of support to the author, especially in the form of donations if at all possible), can do that kind of conversion automatically. It does them very well.
But I am OCD Woman. Hear Me Whine. I edit the epub files I buy. No, really. I feel it necessary to strip out extraneous crap in them before I read them or I'll be bitching about it the entire time I'm reading the book. Or I make my own table of contents the way I like it. I'm serious.
So yes, I had Calibre convert the .prc generously provided Mr. Brust, and then I went through and did all my editing.
THEN I loaded it onto my device and started reading it, and honestly, my only complaint at that point was that I would have been happy to have many more hours of material to read.
Brust got the character interplay so precisely right that I felt like I was reading a script for an episode of Firefly I had somehow missed viewing. I could hear the voices and see them clearly. Sometimes it's so right that one thinks the dialogue might be quoted from actual episodes, but it isn't - I've seen all of them, and this material isn't there. River's lines and thoughts, in particular, are eerily good.
I don't read fan fiction. I simply don't do it. I'm not going to engage in a debate about it. Let's just say that it isn't my preferred entertainment. But I am a Brust fan, and a Firefly addict who is missing her fix.
This novel probably counts as fan fiction, so I've broken my rule, and I don't regret it. I would happily do so again - for Brust.
This book is absolutely amazing, and I strongly recommend it to everyone.
Yes, I said everyone. If you are a human being who is reading this post/review, you live in a first-world society and you interact with females. You will benefit from a greater understanding of what modern social standards do to young females and how they shape us for the rest of our lives, how they twist us into disordered thinking that touches absolutely everything we do, from how we think about ourselves to our personal and business relationships, our spirituality, our health - everything. And you will have an opportunity to change how you interact with females, particularly girls, so that you are more of a positive influence rather than yet another person who is pulling her down and holding her back.
I was already familiar with some of the research regarding the media and unrealistic portrayals of women. I knew that every magazine cover is Photoshopped and airbrushed, that “normal” models represent only 1-2% of real women, etc. I didn't know that 5% of American high school girls have turned to taking anabolic steroids in order to get a more toned, slim look, according to the CDC's 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, and that one out of every 14 girls in American middle schools have tried steroids for the same purpose. I had heard that the popularity of cosmetic surgery for young people was rising, but I had no idea that it was as prevalent as it is. I can't remember exactly how high, but it was frightening.
If there is a young lady in your life, stop for a moment and think - are you a positive influence on her? When young women in college were asked about what they recall their parents saying about their bodies as they grew up, 80% of the responses were of negative remarks. What will the girl in your life remember you saying? If you've ever wondered whether or not you should talk to her about losing a little weight, don't. Believe me - the rest of the world has already beaten that into her, and will go on doing so every minute of every day. There's no way she doesn't know that her body is unacceptable, whether she's still carrying a little baby fat, is morbidly obese, or simply has a slightly round face.
One of the things I admire most about Good Girls Don't Get Fat is that it doesn't just talk about how bad things are, it gives concrete suggestions for improvement! That's what we need.
The book is available in any format you can imagine. Pick it up. It's an easy read, and wonderful.
Well, that was disappointing. I'm honestly sorry that I ever read that first book (which I got free somehow?). I remember being annoyed at the spelling of the main character's name, “Faythe.” I should have stopped then.
The way the plot wound up, for the most part, had no real surprises. Anybody who has followed the series has to have figured out what was going to happen by now. It's been foreshadowed - heck, shouted from the rooftops.
No, my disappointment is in the way the damned romance thing was handled.
If you've bothered to read this but haven't read the series, I'm surprised. Anyway, we have a classic love triangle between Faythe, Marc, and Jace. The setting is supposed to be current day America with a twist - the characters are werecats, part of a hidden subculture.
We all know that mainstream Americans are supposedly monogamous but more serially monogamous and closet - something - in practice. Anyway, werecat society is fiercely monogamous. Females are rare, and they're supposed to hit puberty, get married, and produce the next generation with their One True Love. Period. No other options.
So Faythe has defied tradition so far. She went to college. Good for her! She had a boyfriend there. Even better! A non-Pride boyfriend. Great! (To my way of thinking, not her subculture's). She left her guy, Marc, standing at the altar to do all that, though. Eww - not classy.
But after she goes back home, she gets back together with Marc. Hmph.
Then she “connects” with Jace. That means “has sex with.” Ooo, bad idea, since she was in a committed relationship with Marc at the time. Very bad idea. But Oh, They were Grieving! Together! For her brother and his best friend, who had just been treacherously killed by enemies! So of course the way to do that, instead of talking about their memories of him, is to roll around naked in the middle of a public room, right?
Um, not the way I'd do it, but, apparently that's their way. They do their grieving with a lot more alcohol than I would too, though.
They don't get caught, at least - not then. No, an enemy figures it out due to how the three interact, and tells Marc, and he believes the enemy (because everybody believes enemies over allies in the heat of battle). And they're all too immature to put the crap behind them and just deal with the fact that they're in the middle of a “war,” too.
I kept wanting to spank all of them, and it wasn't because I found any of them sexy.
I did hope, at first, that bringing Jace in as a love interest - and Faythe does repeat, over and over and over again, that she loves Jace, that it wasn't “just sex” - might mean that there was hope for some sort of surprise in the end of the book. That would have been nice, right? Something of a twist that didn't lead to an unhappy ending? I would have loved to see that!
She's going to be the first female Alpha, so why not the first Alpha with two husbands? She'll be the first Alpha who has to deal with pregnancy, so why not have one husband to protect her while she's pregnant and another to get deal with what has to be done in person? What a concept?
My hope was buoyed by the fact that Vincent deliberately developed Jase as a decent potential partner, showing him taking care of Faythe well when she's injured, supporting her as she would need to be supporting when she takes over the Pride as Alpha, and working well with Marc and others repeatedly.
Marc, on the other hand, is a jerk, slamming doors, stomping around, and doing everything but pissing on the furniture to mark his territory.
Just once, I want to see a hero or heroine walk away when someone says, “I cant live without you!” I want to see someone say, “Whoa - that's WAY unhealthy, babe! You need THERAPY!”
Instead, Faythe's father tells her to “Choose the one you can't live without.” UGH. Thanks, Daddy! Codependent much?
Do I think she chose the wrong Tom? Absolutely. But - she's a spoiled brat, and she chose a jealous ass. They deserve each other. Let the sweet, loving man go find the sweet, loving woman he deserves. Hopefully he'll stop the drunken escapades and keep it in his pants from now on. Maybe Kaci will grow up to be his Tabby?
Anyway, there you have it. Volume Eleventy Billion and thirteen of How To Do Dysfunctional Relationships.
Next, please!
Is Vaughn growing tired of Kitty? Maybe so. And at volume 8, who would be surprised? Few authors can keep a series fresh that long.
The main plot, dealing with three survivors of an unauthorized military unit of werewolves, could have been much, much richer than it is. There's so much potential there, and Vaughn even touches on that briefly. Whether that's an indication that she intends to return to the theme in another book, or that she wanted to go deeper and couldn't, is left as a mystery.
The secondary (maybe?) plot is somewhat sloppy. It is somewhat difficult to believe that a radio discussion of a chain of convenience stores would lead to a lawsuit, honestly. Yes, I am aware that the book is a fantasy, but that bit required a little too much suspension of my disbelief. There are too many “shock jocks” and “conservative” talk radio jocks on the air who seem to get away with saying whatever they please on a daily basis for that bit to work as anything other than a publicity ploy, if that - but it isn't played that way in the book. Anyway, that part gets weirder and “mushier” from there.
Then there's everything having to do with Cormac. I don't want to give you any spoilers, but I will say that Vaughn lobs one in for his plot line that seems to have come from Odysseus Grant's supposedly retired box. That was just - say what?
The way this series works, it's not really possible to skip one book and keep up with the series. It might be best to wait until the next volume comes out, though, and read the two together. Hopefully that one will be more solid.
Ooo, this one was a downer! Ok - it was every bit as hilarious as the rest of the series, but I think I could have stood not knowing quite that much about the overall philosophy of the universe. I do hope that we will be hearing more from Bob, although I'm not feeling optimistic at the moment. It's hard to be very optimistic after reading this book, to be honest. And I don't know how much more I can say without getting into spoilers - but I do still recommend it to anyone who has read the rest of the series.
It took me a ridiculously long time to finish this book, not because it isn't engaging (it is, oh my goodness, it is!). I had devoured the first four books of the series, and the sheer emotional impact of them was starting to wear on me. I finally had to put the book down and take a breather, reading some fluffier things. When I came back to it, though, I fell right back in without missing a beat.
Finishing the book was very emotional, after spending so much time immersed in the universe. I had to go to the author's site RIGHT THEN and check through blog entries for reassurance. I found myself breathing ever so much more easily as soon as I found a post mentioning books six, seven, and eight. None of them are published yet, of course, but they're coming, and I'm satisfied with that for now.
I finished it, but I didn't read every story. I couldn't. This is not a collection for cat-lovers, and I am an unabashed ailurophile. I appreciated the introductions, as the helped me avoid some stories, and I regret reading others—most particularly “Not Waving” by Michael Marshall Smith. It was a very well-written story, showing first-hand knowledge of bulimia and the way it can twist those who have it and those who love them. I was nauseated, though, and hated the twist even though I knew how it would end.
I strongly recommend that people who seek out every cat-related collection avoid this tome. If, however, you simply enjoy good writing, go for it. Datlow has, as always, selected fine pieces, every one. I didn't find one piece that rang false. I would have chosen a darker title, as I found less of wonder than the macabre, but what do I know?