Jasher Drake
I actually really dug this book. The writing made this character feel like the Scully I know and love, the story was original and interesting, and it kept me guessing right up until the very end.
Only downsides were the very repetitive chapters spent visionquesting at Beyond Beyond and the confusingly written visions and dreams.
Probably the best book that I have ever read. To be honest I really have never been a big fan of war stories/films but this book absolutely changed my mind. Such an awesome mix of action, mystery, thriller, romance and even a little comedy thrown into the mix. I got so immersed in the world of the story that half the time, I forgot about everything else all together and was just along for the ride. From the knowledge of everything Leonard Mokos wrote about, the believable and unique characters and the extremely thrilling plot, I got pulled right into Edenville. Also, that finale was completely awesome and felt so cinematic! I could imagine the whole thing playing out before me and it was so cool!
Loved being back in the world of Dragonlance and had an absolute blast devouring this book - but didn't find myself engaging with the actual story so much this time around.
Our heroine, Destina, frustrated me. She's set up in the first act as a really well fleshed-out protagonist that you can't help but relate to and feel sorry for but by the end of the book it's like her actions don't even stay true to who she was set up to be, and it gets harder and harder to root for her.
Add in the whole time-travel element with Tasslehoff that was already done well multiple times in the original series, and everything just feels a little like a shallow repetition of what I once fell in love with.
In saying all of that however, I love Weis and Hickman's writing style. I loved reading a story set in Krynn again and I loved all of the callbacks and characters from stories of old. I also really dug the tension of the finale and really do hope that we see more from this series because even though this might've been a bit average, it has set up some very very exciting stuff.
This book was great! If you want to see Sturm...
Herd cattle, fly to the moon, become king, fight tree-men, ride giant ants, adopt a young girl, buy raisins, see ghosts, have visions, use magic, cut off someones arm, change clothes, make a girl get angry at him, reject a helpless dragon, eat plants, lead a gnome mining expedition, unbutton a knight's tunic, get tricked by a wizard, get stuck in a storm, obtain super-fast healing powers and go sailing, this is the book for you!
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. This is my independent opinion.
Looking through my Goodreads a few months ago I was surprised with how many books I've given 5 stars. Like surely all those books I've rated can't all be masterpieces, right? So I made a commitment. I wasn't going to just throw out 5/5s willy-nilly anymore, I was only going to give them to stories that completely captivated me, moved me, entertained me and had me on the edge of my seat.
And then along comes E.M Powell with her latest mystery and try as I might, I couldn't help but rate it honestly.
‘The Canterbury Murders' once again follows Stanton and Barling, two men who now are no strangers to murders and mysteries after solving a few in the last entries in the series. This time though, they are caught completely unawares as disaster strikes at the Canterbury Cathedral, a place they were only visiting by chance. With a superb cast of shady characters and an almost impossible deadline to meet, can they solve the mystery before it's too late?
Powell never fails to impress me as she takes the reader back in a journey through time, you honestly feel like you're there in Canterbury, and that the story you're reading is just so real. This is an absolute credit to the her and all of the research she does and dedication she has to the subject matter. It makes everything come alive and jump off of the page.
Then we have the characters, and man alive do they deliver. No joke, Stanton & Barling may just be my favourite duo to ever be put on paper. Each character is so fleshed out and unique and that makes for engaging moments of banter, conflict and discussion. And that actually goes for every character in this book, each one is absolutely and believably brought to live, even though the majority are entirely fictional.
Then there's the mystery, the crux of the whole book. This is the first time in a long time that a mystery was too smart for me. I thought I had it figured out and I was completely wrong. I ABSOLUTELY loved it. Everything ended up making so much sense, how everything played out was nothing short of masterful and the conclusion left me breathless. I will say though that it did feel like the mystery took a while to actually get going, but when it got going it really got going and you see that the setup was super important.
Lastly, the final chapter hit me harder than I think anything I've ever read ever has. Such a phenomenal piece of writing that made me unexpectedly well up with emotion.
I loved every single bit of this book, and E.M Powell has made me fall in love with the historical fiction genre, something I never really found all too appealing before reading her incredible works. Each of her books feels like an improvement on the last and every one of them is an absolute must-read. I cannot wait for whatever comes next.
While unique and at times genuinely chilling, Loam simply doesn't live up to it's premise and ends up feeling unfinished and unrealized.
Yeah it was okay. It was all over the place at the start with so many different characters that you couldn't remember who was the kender and who was the dragon. But eventually it all came together with a stunning conclusion, it just didn't seem like it was up to the standard of all the other Dragonlance books I have read. :/
Raistlin, Caramon and a kender, What a perfect mix! What starts out to be a mediocre story about lost cats actually turns out to be one of my favorite Dragonlance adventures. Caramon and the lich was the best!
There were some really great bits in this book, one of them being the awesome two main heroes. Rhys, who is an ex-monk, and Nightshade, a kender who likes to think he can talk to the dead. These two characters were written so great and all their emotions, feelings, and thoughts were shown extraordinarily well! So yeah, overall, not an amazing book at all, and definitely my least favourite Dragonlance book I have read. That being said however, I'm halfway through the second book in the trilogy and that one is pretty amazing so far, and already so much better than this one. I still have faith in you Margaret!
This was probably the weirdest book I've ever read.
Like honestly, I really didn't know that I was in for a novel about a musical-theatre actress saving talking animals from zombies in a haunted swamp by using the magical powers of her dancing, but that's what I got and it was actually really good.
Pacing was a struggle at the very start, but once the story gets going, it really gets going.
Dance of the Dead was a super unique book with memorable characters and a great plot. Had a few awesome horror moments as well which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The first book in the Ravenloft series called ‘Vampire of the Mists' was such an awesome mixture of horror, intrigue, adventure and romance, and Lord Soth in the Dragonlance series was probably one of my favorite characters, but I gotta say, together they really don't mix. Soth just felt really out of place in the world of Ravenloft and the shape-changing badger that was paired with him really didn't help. I gotta be fair though, the story was decent but it really wasn't as good as it could be. And the conclusion of the book was truly terrible. All in all, okay story but Lord Soth should've stayed on Krynn.
Very cool monster fights in this - creatures from heaps of different Toho movies teaming up and facing off for the first time. Love that we're able to get these crazy stories even if it's not in a film/tv medium.
Also, Matt Frank's art.
I love the way Brett J. Talley has written this series so far, the first book written as a collection of short stories and this one written as a collection of different diary entries and articles, it's a really creative way of writing that works fantastically! As far as the story goes, this one was lacking a little bit for me. The first half of the book was reeeeeaaaaalllllllllly slow, but when I finally got to the second half, it was absolutely awesome. I hope we get to see the gang on future adventures and I gotta say, even if it was a bit slow, I like Talley's writing better than Lovecrafts himself. I could even say that I think he's out-Lovecrafted Lovecraft.
I have serious mixed feelings about this book because, just like a lot of the other reviews are mentioning, it feels like two completely different stories in one.
The first half of the book was incredible. It had me completely hooked and managed to constantly make me feel like I was in the intense, dire and downright terrifying situations that the characters were going through every time I'd read it. It had great character development, so many clever twists and takes on classic horror tropes, and actually may just be some of the best horror fiction I've ever read.
Then in the second half, all of that went away. The whole story lost momentum, almost felt like it even changed genres and just went off the rails into pure fantastical nonsense. That was really disappointing.
All things considered, I'm still going to give it 3 stars simply because of how great the first half was, and the very end was actually decent. It's very disappointing how things ended up panning out though, and I really wish that the feel of the first half of the story had continued throughout the whole book. It's actually quite baffling to me as to why the author chose to go with what he ended up going with when he was onto something so unique and captivating initially.
Robert Sherman's guide is actually really good! I enjoyed reading about his opinions (even though I didn't completely agree with them all) and I still use it so I can remember what happened in each episode. :)
Straight after finishing ‘The Blood of the Fifth Knight' I wanted to read another, but the next one wasn't going to come out for about a year. So I waited patiently, reading other random books, some I really liked and some not so much, just waiting until ‘The Lord of Ireland' would be released. So, you can imagine how uncontrollably happy I was when the one and only E.M Powell herself sent me a free, signed copy of ‘The Lord of Ireland' a week before it was actually going to be released. The thing was, when the book arrived, I couldn't get myself to start reading it. I mean, it looked so awesome! And it was signed by E.M Powell! I didn't want to tarnish it one bit, didn't want to bend the spine or tear any pages, so I waited. And finally, on April 5th, the kindle copy was available to buy.
I gotta say, I didn't read it as fast as I would have liked, because of school and work and stuff, but man, was it a good book. It brings back the characters from the first two books that you became so close too, and throws them into another crazy situation. What I really like about this series is how it mixes history in with a little bit of fiction and creates an amazing historical-fiction thriller that keeps you on your toes the whole book through. The twists were so crazy and unexpected but every single one of them made complete sense. Two things really stuck out to me the most from this book: The crafting of the characters of Theodosia, and John. In this book we see Theodisa in a new light, thrown right into the middle of a very dangerous situation, having to fend for herself really the whole book long. This was really cool to see how her character has grown from the first book all the way up to this point. The other thing I really liked was the character of John and how Powell portrayed him. He's such an classic villain, an amazing mix of youthful ignorance and cowardice, but at the same time, someone who is supremely feared by everyone.
In truth, I could probably write forever about everything I loved about the book, but instead, I encourage you to go and read the book instead. It's flippin' awesome! I really hope that this series continues, and until then, I'll continue to stare at the signed copy I have on my bookshelf. Thanks so much E.M Powell!
My fave Lovecraft story yet! Follows a mysterious narrator walking through his garden when all of sanity seems to unravel before his very eyes. Great stuff!
Absolutely love the character of Kaz and this book did such a great job at completing his journey - but I sadly found a lot of the Minotaur stuff a tad tiresome, and a few of the plot beats a little uninspired.
Really gonna miss this series though! Knaak has a truly engaging, unique writing style that pulls you right into the action and doesn't let go.
Is Edgar Rice Burroughs the master of the cliffhanger?!
Love how wacky this story is and I really really dig the crazy way Burroughs describes Barsoom and all of its inhabitants. Issus in particular is INSANE!