Lyle
Very well written with non-cardboard character development, excellent plot, great scientific extrapolation, atmospheric yet believable descriptions and a great twist at the end!
Superbly drawn characters, a tightly woven plot and a well-developed universe/framework make for a very enjoyable read.
Another excellent story that reads just like a Monk episode but even more so if that makes sense. Kudos to the author!
The premise was intriguing, but the execution was...lacking. I did not appreciate the constant references to one character's, um, “very large attributes”. It seemed like the whole story was written by a hormonal teen-aged male, solely for the purpose of mentioning the above-mentioned female physical properties in one joke or snide comment after another. Also, there were a number of story-telling gaffes which dumped me out of the story, and the descriptions of the in-game mechanics and rationale were quite poor for someone (like me) not intimately familiar with D&D. 36% read but DNF. And I won't be reading the remaining books in the series.
An informative and yet entertaining volume covering a wide variety of areas where visual imagery helps to understand.
This all-too-short series was a lot of fun and kept me laughing and scratching my head and thoroughly enjoying things all the way through. Has anyone deciphered the secret message contained in the page glyphs? Is there going to be a Beyonders Vol. 2? (I hope so).
Another excellent re-creation of what I like to call “the adventures of Monk and Natalie”. The author has captured the nuances of characters and their idiosyncrasies in a thoroughly entertaining manner.
A fun and fact-filled little book which explores the history of Popeye and fellow characters from the original Segar comic strips to the various animated offerings from the 90s. Well-illustrated.
I found this collection to be of higher quality than other such collections; Brin's “Shoresteading”, Phyllis and Jake Eisenstein's “Von Neumann's Bug” and Nye's “Virtually, A Cat” are among the best, with Vinge's “A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation Being an Excerpt from the Memoirs of Star Captain Y.-T. Lee”, and Resnick's “On Safari” quite enjoyable as well. Nearly all of the tales I would rate as better-than-most.
As is usual with collections-on-a-theme books such as these, the stories were a mixed bag, but all were generally interesting and enjoyable. The tales by Alan Dean Foster and Alastair Mayer stood a bit above the rest.
A good yarn, with a nice balance of hard science fiction, aliens, and philosophy (both human and alien).
The author successfully builds upon the universe(s) created in the first book of the series, with a diverse cast of characters, plenty of action, and dashes of philosophy, humor, and AI thrown into the mix.
I find it hard to describe this book: it is so unique (at least to my experience). All I can say is it is a superb follow-on to book 1 and makes me all the more eager to read the next book in the series. Complex, culture-rich, and utterly enjoyable.
Who knew that digging into the ancient past could yield such a sense of wonder? Apparently, the author did; well done, Mr. Silverberg, well done!
Worthy sequel to the first book in the series (The Chara Talisman), with continued development of the T-Space universe; looking forward to the next book.
Thought-provoking with well-written text and numerous references to the relevant Scripture and other writings; the author's arguments are well-developed and clearly defined.
While the premise looked intriguing, I could not get on board with the main characters, who seemed like entitled rich kids in attitude and actions. I quickly stopped caring.
Hal Borland's near-magical nostalgic prose paired with Les Line's evocative photographs make for an enjoyable trip through the seasons.
Very informative and written from both a foundation of knowledge and experience, with clear explanations and endearing case studies.
The book did not live up to the expectations I had based on the title and the cover image. I expected more of a thriller-with-aliens storyline instead of an exploration of a hidden civilization on the moon.