Jabartik
Pretty good, slightly better than the previous one. Start there in any case, and if you hate it, don't read this, otherwise do.
I really liked this one, although it left me wanting more - I don't suppose I can hold it against that. The editing issues I noted in my Thermal and Odyssey One reviews are essentially eliminated.
Overall, a very good hard military sci-fi book. Anyone who likes that sort of thing should probably read this.
Could use some help in the editing department, but I think this is potentially the start of something really good. Very solid near-future military science fiction up there with the works of Weber and Ringo.
Although I guess it shouldn't matter, this is even more impressive to me because it's self-published. I highly recommend anyone who has any interest in the genre to grab this one.
I guess I would classify this as an exciting near-future techno thriller. Start with a known nuclear terrorist, add a kilometer high solar tower in Australia, shake thoroughly, and enjoy trying to figure out what the two possibly have to do with one another.
I stumbled across this in the kindle store for 99 cents. It's a pretty decent quick read, although it seems targeted at the YA crowd.
The basic premise is about people stumbling on the wrecks of two alien ships that did battle and crash landed in new mexico in 1948. It could have easily turned into a rehash of so many other roswell stories, but it had some pretty cool unique elements instead.
These really are amazingly short, but what can you do? I enjoy reading them, so that's that.
I stumbled on this in techno-thriller best seller section of the kindle store. I'm assuming this was because of the price (99 cents), but it was surprisingly good if you happen to like the niche it falls info.
This is the author's (40-something male engineer) first book, but it reads like Tom Clancy. If he keeps writing, he may be worth keeping an eye on.
I just finished re-reading this today and it was as good or better than my first time through it.
For anyone who stumbled onto this review because they're potentially interested in the book, my advice to you is to buy it and read it. Right now. It's absolutely fantastic, both in the sense of the information it provides and the manner/style in which that information is presented. William Bernstein is an absolute pleasure to read, I don't know anyone else who can make such a potentially dry subject so accessible, and dare I say - actually fun to read.
For anyone who stumbled onto this review because you follow my personal feed/reviews, be warned that this probably isn't what you're looking for.
Overall, pretty good. I think I'll read the second one to see what happens because the series shows promise.
This specific book suffers a little from a large amount of setup and character introduction up front, but starts finally moving along decently in the back half.
One thing I don't particularly love is how every essentially every chapter switches viewpoints - it's not that it's difficult to keep up, but something interesting happens, and I need to wait 6 chapters to get back to it. I hope he tones that part down later on, it just feels gimmicky. Not every viewpoint needs equal and equally spaced representation!
IMO this was an ‘OK' book, and there were even parts I genuinely liked, but in no way does this deserve the hype/high praise that's been dumped on it.
It's like harry potter for dystopia/conspiracy nut jobs with a little mysticism sprinkled on top. I can only assume the primary reason it has so many fans is because it's accessible to the lowest common denominator.
It was OK, but I'm not loving this series. Sorry Nick!
I find myself more curious about the underlying “b” plot of the third Oreska than I do about the main characters.
I'll probably finish the series just to see what happens, but I think I'll take a little time off first.
Pretty decent, kind of an “infodump” style book though. All the characters were basically plot devices, it was fairly difficult to tell them apart at times. Some very interesting concepts though, and I rather enjoyed it.
Adding to to-read list. Somehow this got lumped in with discworld for my “read at the end of time after all the other books are done” list.
I liked this one, but if I step back and think about it... nothing really happened. Kind of odd, but I won't hold that against it punitively since I did get a kick out of it (for some reason).
Not a great standalone book, this was almost all setup for what's to follow.
I'm interested enough to see how the second book fares, but if nothing noteworthy happens there, I may call it quits.
I continue to enjoy the ongoing story, but it felt like I was reading the ARC instead of the real one.
Just feels a little rushed and could have benefited from some more polish. The ‘sabotage' subplot especially I think will leave many people puzzled, I feel it should have been resolved within this book and not the next one (although I believe I understand what happened, shoot me a message if curious).
