Savage Doc

Action. Intrigue. Pacing.

There are too many great moments to choose one. The plot, characters, subplots... It doesn't get any better than this.

Porthos. His refined accent seems to contrast with his rough character.

Too many to enumerate.

No way.

Ditto.

She has a hard time with mens' voices. They all sound like she is hurting her voicebox trying to go into a too-low register, and apparently she feels that all men sound rather gruff.

NOOOOO! OK, it has a little (very little) kinky sex in it. Yes, I'm a guy. Yes, that interested me. But it's packaged in a romance novel - never a genre I have enjoyed. Many romance novels are erotica, and this was in that category or I would have deleted it within three chapters. Worse, though, it was a coming-of-age romance novel. In other words, a romance novel written for teen girls. (Sigh.)

Therein was my quandary. It's a teen romance novel with pretty explicit sex. So it was obviously not written for fourteen-year-old girls (I hope.) The target audience was... young (adult) women? In that sense, it was almost insulting. How many repetitions of "this Greek God," or "he is so...HOT!" can one take? I was rolling my eyes more than the heroine was.

And, according to the author, every unmarried, adult woman feels guilty about having sex. (Wearing the horrible, pink pajamas for a week afterward.) Really?? In high school, maybe. But, in college? Apparently, I've missed this undertone in modern sexuality.

I'm guessing (or hoping) that the subsequent Shades Of Grey installments dabble more into the B&D side of sexuality. But I can't bring myself to go through another romance novel. In the end I felt cheated and insulted.

Women: from what I gather, this is a novel that most of you will really enjoy.

Men: pass on this one. As erotica, it's pretty tame.

Yes. Interesting story, and a lot of backstory that was not in the film.

The details of how the plan came to together.

His voice is consistently whiny. I've heard the same in another book he read. It really gets annoying. Also, his tendency to over-enunciate the last "s" in houseguests. It's like a college drinking game where you want to down a shot every time he says, "HouseguestS."

No

A tough call, but I'd say it was just as good.

Reminds me a lot of William Gibson, but Gibson's voice is very, very dark, whereas Stephenson injects a lot of humor in his descriptions and dialogue.

Delivering the pizza and getting lost. Very funny.

One of the signs of his talent is how he weaves a plot out of Assyrian and Babylonian languages, throws some biblical references in, and it is impossible to determine what is factual and what is shear fantasy. You know there is a kernel of truth in there somewhere, but it is all so seamless, who can determine where his imagination kicks in? Really thought provoking.

Great stories, well read.

Can't think of any.

Give me a break.

Are you seriously asking this question? Did a middle school student think this up?

Yes. It had an engaging story line and interesting characters. Michael Prichard read it very well. Quite good!