Richard

I had always enjoyed David Baldacci?s books until I encountered ?Split Second?. I was very disappointed with that book. Excessive coincidences, people doing totally illogical things seemingly just to advance the plot, poor dialog, and on and on.

Convinced that this must have been a Baldacci aberration, I was somewhat excited to see Audible.com quickly pick up his newly published book, ?Hour Game?. Since Scott Brick (possibly the best book reader in existence) was the reader, purchasing that audio book was literally a no-brainer.

The same main characters grace ?Split Second? and ?Hour Game? but I decided I could not hold that against them. Well, I?ve heard this newest book ? even the excruciating last hour or so. Cardboard characters, mouthing unrealistic dialog, stumbling through a convoluted collection of plot twists that go no where satisfying. When the main character in the book has to endlessly tell other characters what is really going on, it strikes me that the author might better be writing essays rather than novels.

One last cavil ? and I am sure this does not give away any important plot. Two characters shoot at each other and their bullets collide in mid-air. Really silly -- and worse yet, it contributed nothing to advancing the plot.

I really think the citizens of the thinly veiled Waynesboro, Virginia may have a valid class action suit against Mr. Baldacci.

Disappointing. Disjointed, Depressing. I struggled through the whole book only to conclude that I had wasted a great deal of time on very little.

I'm pleased to see that the several other reviewers of "The Neighbor" enjoyed the book so much. I found it to be a crashing bore. All of the characters just felt so damned sorry about themselves that their whining simply drove all interest and involvement straight away. I finally started skipping along just to see how the "plot" worked out. I should not have bothered.

Did I really want to listen to a 37 hours and 1 minute biography of Warren Buffett? He's a fascinating person, of course, but 2,220 minutes? I'm 75 now -- that's a big investment of my remaining minutes.

Well I clicked the "purchase" button and got hit with a five part download. I transferred it to hundreds (it seemed) of CD's and left for work. Luckily it's a 45 minute drive. 49.3 one-way trips. I could handle it!

I quickly got hooked. A generally (needed a touch more editing for a few redundencies) well written biography on basically a good man. It's not a gloss-job. The warts are in there too. I give Buffett credit for his cooperation in producing this biography, warts and all.

Really an excellent book and a fascinating subject!

Having recently enyoyed Ken Follett's "World Without End", I figured, "Let's see what living in ancient Rome was like."

I found some of Saylor's explanations for many myths, gods, and legends as originating from ignorance, over-interpretation, and sometimes, just plain chicanery most amusing. My problem with the book, and what has frankly stopped me part of the way through, is the writing. It is so simplistic that I felt I was reading a children's book -- or at least a young adult's book.

Mildly interesting but numbingly simplistic -- just not enough excitement in Roma.

The first line of Lisa Gardner’s “Hide” catches your attention right away. Definitely better than “It was a dark and stormy night.” No plot or character discussion here, but suffice to say that the first hour of the book after that first line hook keeps you careening along.

There are a few slower moments scattered about, but all-in-all this book is a real page turner, word listener, or a CD switcher (your choice). Much of the credit also goes to the reader, the aptly named Maggi-Meg Reed.

I’ve seen some criticism of the ending -- which may not be the book’s strongest point -- but by my standards the book hung together right through the slightly convoluted ending. Good book!

I’m going to squeak out five stars for this one.

OK! Am I the only one who thinks that the latter Steven King books have become wordy, predictable, and – frankly – a bit boring? Unfortunately, it seems to me that Joe Hill has learned at the knee of the latter (father) Steven King, not the early (daddy) Steven King.

The opening scenes of Heart Shaped Box were excellent. I have been around for many, many years and I find few books, films, etc. to be pleasantly scary. The opening of this book was excellent. It was scary. But then, the story settled into repetitious scenes, much ghost-babble, uninteresting flash backs, etc. In fact, words, words, words.

I once accused an author of writing as if he were paid by the word. The same thought occurred to me while reading this book. “Get on with it, man!”

I found this book to be ultimately boring. (Pre-thanks to the one or two of you who will agree with me.) Oh, yes – good reader!

Please, Dr. Kellerman, stop, pause, get your writing steam back before attacking your next book. Rage was pitiful. The entire story takes place in the first quarter of the book. Then it is talk, talk, talk. I have read here that this talk cleverly reveals two bright criminologists, Alex and Milo, working their way to a solution of the case. Sorry, but no!

Three quarters of the book is little more than repetitive conversations going over and over and over the minimal facts that actually exist in this tissue-thin plot.

And then Dr. Kellerman's editor called just before his dinner reservation was coming up, so -- he ended the book.

Thank God for John Rubenstein and his magnificent reading. Almost as great a master, in his own way, as his dad.

One last comment. Have we been had? Who is writing these Frankenstein books anyway?

Book I ? Dean Koontz AND Kevin J. Anderson

Book II ? Dean Koontz AND Ed Gorman

Try a Google on these second bananas and see what they have been writing. I am getting terminally wary of these Big Name Writer AND No Name Writer books.

I think we need a little truth in authorship, guys.

I really don't want to be negative about this book because I essentially liked it. Excellent -- and unusual -- plot ideas. Good writing. Interesting characters (most of them, anyway). Absolutely first rate reading by Robin Miles, the female Scott Brick.

I've seen Tananarive Due compared to Steven King in other reviews here. It strikes me as a valid comparison, but not always in a positive way. Ms. Due's story-telling is, I think, actually better than the latter Steven King's. Unfortunately her use of words -- words -- words is most definitely comparable to Mr. King. As an example, the scene of Angie in the woods is needlessly repetitive and goes on way too long.

I try to avoid listening to abridged books. I would much rather have a novel written to the optimum (not necessarily shorter) length through the author's own editing process.

OK! Enough of my own words. Good book! About a third too long! Let's see. Five stars times 66.6 equals 3.33 stars. That's my rating.