MJP_MD

This is actually solid and creative sci-fi. A few of the reviews I read accuse the book and the author of racism but I think this is going way too far. The story is basically about Republican physicists saving the world. Even as someone who is very politically progressive I enjoyed it immensely. The conservative stuff is not hidden, the author just throws it right out there and in that way it's almost funny. The good guys are heads of corporations who are trying to save humanity despite government interference/regulation. There's a bunch of little digs in the vein of "if we can just keep the damned government off our backs" and even a slam on space-environmentalists ("we've trashed our own planet enough...")

That said I didn't find any of this overbearing and in reality the author is probably correct that first contact with alien species would not dry up all the hundred year old political squabbles on earth.

Alot of this book is concerned with the size/scope/power requirements of spacefaring. I bring that up to say that despite the levity of the dialogue it's actually pretty hard core sci-fi. Those hoping for laser battles or light-saber fights will be disappointed by this novel. The major battle scene reads almost like a physics textbook.

Overall this is a fun read. The narrator is excellent, he does some voice modulation for different characters but does not go to the ridiculous lengths to which some are tempted.

All the references from things in my childhood (I was born in 1981). It's hard to talk about much other stuff without spoilers but suffice it to say that when the first challenge is revealed I actually started laughing.

That's a hard question, there is really nothing like it out there that I can think of.

Oddly enough probably when Wade talks about his new apartment. It was clearly sort of homage to shut-in gamers. Those of us who game can relate to this idea that if the real world really sucked we might really be drawn more into the virtual.

I wouldn't say extreme. Some of it is quite funny.

There are a few loose ends in this book but overall it is just great. I think the most compelling this is the way the author fleshes out his new world complete with new slang (Sucksorgs, Gunters) in a style that reminds me a bit of Justin Cronin. This is truly a "driveway" book, one that you will want to stay in your car to keep listening to.

Best - stories about training. Least - editorializing.

No.

Yes.

Not really.

Kyle is clearly a great war hero. His book is nearly ruined by pointless editorializing about military hierarchy, religion, family life, patriotism etc. I know this has made him even more of a celebrity on the political right but if you don't share his politics there are better books about life in Special Operations out there that don't come with the Tea Party message.

Absolutely, You can't put it down.

There aren't really characters, they are real people who were interviewed.

The Delta people are the most interesting.

When the cooks, secretaries, mechanics, etc loaded up and headed into Mogadishu. Good reminder of how everyone in the military is ultimately a soldier.

Probably not, it's not the sort of book you listen to over and over.

Final test of MJOLNIR armor.

Master Chief.

Absolutely not.

Solid reading if you are a fan of the game. The worst thing about this book is the way that Nylund makes the MC both a sentimental soldier (concern for his Spartans) and a mindless drone. The most violent combat in the book is when John is fighting/killing some ODST in an apparent test of his capabilities and armor. It makes the UNSC seem pretty nasty and John seem like a psychopath.

No I doubt it. It's a VERY complex book and I am someone who listens to my ABs while jogging, lifting, doing housework, driving etc. There are so many characters in here and so many factions it's easy to get confused. I love GOTM but I wish I had a non-spoiler crib sheet that would have told me who was who and who was aligned with who.

Fall of Pale.
Interactions between Wiskeyjack and his team.
Rake fighting the hounds.

It was great.

This is a fantastic epic fantasy book, but it is so complex that sometimes the audio format makes you lose track of what is going on.

Probably the biggest problem for me was that I couldn't even keep track of which way the factions were aligned.

The magic is incredible.

Nope. I did NOTW and then got about halfway through this, just don't care what happens to Kvothe.

EVERYTHING!There just isn't much going on. Much like in NOTW huge sections of the story are about Kvothe trying to earn money. It drags on and on. The first half of this book is exactly like NOTW but less exciting if you can believe that.Oh no! Kvothe doesn't have any money! Oh sweet relief, Kvothe made some money! Oh no! Kvothe is in trouble! Oh boy, he got out of trouble!I got so tired of listening to Kvothe whine and bitch about things, and so tired of Rothfuss's overblown prose with respect to Kvothe's music. The great hero is completely unmanned and depressed if he can't play his lute? There is this ongoing tension between the fact that Kvothe is the best at everything he attempts (music, sympathy, artificery, medicine, naming, cards, etc) and the fact that he is a whiny little ponce who pouts if he can't play his tunes.You think there is going to be some excitement halfway through but you are disappointed. I "finished" the book by reading a plot synopsis on Wikipedia and it looks like it picks up a little bit after I quit but come on, it's just too much to slog through.Again I would say this is highly derivative of Harry Potter without being nearly as fun to read.The Denna story arc starts to drive you crazy. I got to where when she showed up I wanted to just stop reading altogether and it was actually this that made me quit. After her 20th appearance when Kvothe has to keep pretending he is just her friend I was done. It's so juvenile and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. When the thing driving your epic fantasy novel is a coy 16 year old girl, you have major problems.

Maer's illness.

Absolutely not.

I am still just stunned by these reviews that say this is the next LOTR. This series is like if the entirety of the Fellowship took place in the Shire with Frodo planning his trip and organizing Bag End and then by the middle of the Two Towers they had made it to Bree. Take the Nazgul out and replace them with a corrupt innkeeper, take the One Ring and replace it with Frodo's overdrawn checking account and you've got this series.

Most of it. It's got some decent sci-fi in it but never really makes you care that much. So much of the action takes place inside a windowless ship. I didn't buy many of the plot twists including the very concept of "Star Force."

More Patrick Rothfuss

He actually did a great job.

***Spoiler alert****Probably would not have the kids murdered. It's just so hard to believe that someone could lose 2 kids in a brutal murder and then go on to think about getting a couch or having a new sexual partner within a few days/weeks.

Comments saying this is the best thing since Star Wars are just ridiculous.

I stopped listening with many hours to go because I just didn't care what happened to any of the characters or the story.

Maybe.

n/a

Very good.

No.

I'm really surprised at some of the comments I read stating this was Tolkein-esque or a new fantasy masterpiece. It's decent but that's about it.

The influence of Harry Potter is pretty heavy-handed. Most of the action takes place at an exclusive school and follows the exploits of a underdog wonderkid. It's not totally Hogwarts, but some of the scenes are shockingly similar. Hero takes off to do something secret and faces the consternation of two wise-cracking friends when he gets back.

Mild SPOILER ALERT: The book opens with what seems like true epic fantasy then degenerates into a financial problem. A great deal of the action involves Kvothe trying to figure out how he is going to finance his ongoing education. Despite the promising first action scene when you get hints of demons, evil, and minions the rest of the action revolves around a bully, an industrial accident, and a wild (but in no way evil) animal. At the end of the book I realized that the epic fantasy aspect had shrunk to basically nothing.

As others have stated there is an incredibly annoying story line with a love-interest that never goes anywhere and from reading reviews of book 2 continues to not go anywhere.

Imagine a mid series Harry Potter book, make Voldemort much more of a background figure, and pretend that Hogwarts had steep tuition and you've pretty much got this one.

Let me start out by saying the action sequences in this book (especially the Theme Park) are first rate. The members of the team are believable and Clancy can certainly write a fight.

The story is a long shot to believe, as you will see. You sort of have to suspend disbelief, any reader will recognize that even for Clancy this is pretty unlikely stuff. I'm not really spoiling the book since you'll figure this out in the first 2 hours but it's a tale of a special counter-terrorism unit that basically forms up and then immediately has tons of business. It gets explained why, but the unrealistic thing is that an outbreak of terror attacks like happen in the novel would likely cripple the Western world, whereas in the book it just trips along.

The thing that made me really irritated is the "sleuthing" factor. All of Clancy's heroes and villains are always at the top of their game - best at everything, great shots, fluent in multiple languages, etc etc etc. But there is this stupid theme in the book where a few clues are dropped and whether it's the good guys thinking about the bad guys or the bad guys thinking about the good guys they pretty much guess right every time.

So every time a few characters are speculating about the opposition it's like Sherlock Holmes on steroids. The next sentence is not a spoiler (as all will become apparent in the first few chapters) but an example: Hmm, this operation seemed expensive and involved money, drugs, and terrorists. Therefore it must be a rogue American pharmaceutical corporation with a former KGB spy working for them. Bingo.

It gets a little tiresome, and you pine for Clancy's descriptions of training and operation deployments.