Richard H. Parker

Seriously dangerous to listen to this while drivin

Reviewed: 12-22-18

I laughed, my wife laughed, my kids laughed, and I had to pull off to the side of the road because I couldn't see.

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Really needed a story editor

Reviewed: 11-02-17

This book really needed a second set of eyes to smooth out the rough edges. There are problems both big and small. Examples: in one scene a character’s phone is destroyed, but in the next chapter (taking place the next day) the character has a fully functioning phone with all the specialized apps with no comment on how that happened. On a bigger scale; the main character performs mighty feats without worrying about power drain in one scene, only to be completely run out of power in a pivotal scene without having actually done anything. Perhaps this was intended, but it does not have any of the normal tells that such an event is taking place.

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Guilt, guilt, guilt

Reviewed: 08-16-15

The overriding character trait held by all of the characters in this book is guilt. Guilt that they survived when others didn't, guilt that they were not omnipotent brings incapable of completely controlling the battlefield, and guilt for things the OTHER side did. This would have been okay if the characters were working through it, but no, it's just unending guilt. It's so pervasive that it is unclear why at the end of the book the main character doesn't decide to eat a bullet.
Outside of the guilt, we get to see more about the bad guys. The description of who and what they are is original, though even after a couple readings of that section I'm not sure I fully understand it.

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Author and reader both need more practice

Reviewed: 06-18-15

Where to start?

First, this has the bones of a good story. Unfortunately the outline got fleshed out... Badly.

To quote Harrison Ford, you can write this shit, but you can't say it. The author needs to read her dialog and figure out that a five minute conversation does not fit into a 30 second scene. This happened several times. The worst was during a battle two characters hold a serious conversation while the enemy are running at them. Apparently these werewolves run like arthritic grandmothers using walkers because the conversation drags on and on.

Speaking of writing fight scenes... The author needs to do some research. The fight scenes do not make sense from a logistics standpoint, as well as a results of damage.

And there are storytelling flaws. A lycan who is several hundred years old has no idea who the leader of all the Lycans is? Exactly how out of the loop is this guy? There are several flaws in the world building like this.

Characterization... The characters (other than the POV) are all centuries old, but act like teenagers. It's bad characterization for the sake of drama in story. There are better ways to do this.

Final point, the audible reading. This was just no good. The narrator paused in odd places that actually made it hard to understand what was being said. It felt like she was reading the novel for the first time. Very amateur.

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Excellent

Reviewed: 06-09-15

Very reminiscent of the story in Starship Troopers (the book) in all the best ways.

This book was all around good. The characters were more than cardboard props. They had depth and motivation. You could see and understand the main character overcoming all obstacles because ANYTHING was better than going back to where he grew up.
The world building is interesting. There is a lot of depth, but only partially explored because the main character is a grunt who grew up in the poorest of backgrounds. There is an explanation given midway through the book that turns everything about the expected military experience on its head.
The final third of the book is intro of a new problem. This really could have been its own story, and feels tacked on. A little foreshadowing earlier in the novel would have been better.

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Another hit out of the park

Reviewed: 03-17-15

Sanderson is always good, and this book does not disappoint. He explores the world created in Steelheart deeper, and shows why the heroes still have no idea how everything works.

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This is the last of Bob Mayer's books for me.

Reviewed: 01-31-15

I picked up the three books in this series in a package. The first book was good. I had some theme issues with the second, but it was overall okay. Book three tanks the whole series.
Someone convinced this author he needed a twist ending, or he decided to do it on his own.
And sucked at it.
The twist is completely unsupported by the preceding events. The twist also requires a bunch of apparently unrelated events, and ties them together, but the author never actually shows you what ties them together. It is so convoluted that the author tries to hang a lantern on it in the epilogue and that only serves to make it seem more stupid.
That's it. I'm out.

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Good story, bad message

Reviewed: 01-28-15

I can't say what ruined this book for me without also ruining the ending. Either the author wrote himself into a hole and had to use the duex ex machina to get out, or he has some really twisted views on government and power.

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