1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 2 stars

“I generally like John Case's work. ( I read somewhere that this is a psuedonymn for a husband and wife team, not sure about that though.) This was a letdown for me.

I found myself having a hard time rooting for anyone, as the antagonist had been so irrationally wronged that I felt he had a case, and on the other hand his plans were so destructive that I didn't want that to happen.

I also found the actions of the books "hero" seemed unlikely to me.

The government agents were cardboard cutouts that made consistently stupid decisions to drive the plot.

And the ending was implausible beyond belief.

It really wasn't a very good book. Several times I almost didn't finish it and I even read (and finished) another book while I was reading this one. Genesis Code is the pinnacle of this author's work.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Thursday, October 4 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 1 stars

“I appear to be in the minority here, but I didn't care for this one at all. It felt dated, and it didn't really explore anything that I felt hadn't been explored before with the whole "multiverse" or "infinite time threads" idea. Plus it was just weird how the guy falls in love with himself. Not my cup of tea.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Thursday, October 4 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Argh, shelfari just screwed me. Lost my whole review. Well, this is the abridged version.

Decent book. I barely gave this four stars, but it was readable. Starts off like a collection of short stories but when it gets into the main plot it is pretty good. But then there's the ending...

Very lame. Without giving too much away, a main character dies, is grieved, and then comes back to life for a "happily ever after" ending.

Don't kill the character for impact if you are going to magically ressurect the character at the end of the book. That is lame.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Tuesday, July 17 2007. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“Excellent cyberpunk. I find this genre to be completely hit or miss, and although Amazon recommends all of it to me based on my purchases and reviews, I don't like it all.

I like this! In fact, I love it. Writing stories of a world where death is merely an irritation (in most cases) and backups can be restored in a moment's notice is difficult, because the stakes seem so low. Morgan manages to create a rule-set that still makes it interesting and characters that you are still able to care about and root for in his stories.

I've just ordered everything that Morgan has written from Amazon, so I'll post reviews on his other works as soon as I finish them.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Tuesday, July 17 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“I recommend reading A Deepness in the Sky first. I read them out of order and it did not ruin things for me, but I believe I would have enjoyed this book better if I knew more about Pham from the first book. Vinge writes aliens better than anyone else. He doesn't make aliens that are human but have different appendages, he makes aliens that are alien. But that is only part of his skill. He also weaves together a story that is plausible and interesting with characters you care about and are rooting for in the book.

His only flaw - in my not so humble opinion - is that he often tells you the story from multiple points of view, including the antagonists viewpoint. This means that you know the traps that are laid for the protagonists before they do and you spend half the time dreading them, rather than learning of them at the same times your "friends" do. In spite of that, his work is some of the best sci-fi out there today.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Tuesday, July 17 2007. ( reply | view 2 replies | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“I actually liked this better than the original novel - The Peace War. Basically a sci-fi whodunnit with a very interesting cast of characters and typically good writing from Vinge. You can read this without having read Peace War if you like, they aren't connected to each other in such a way that you won't enjoy them out of order. Although having said that, I suspect reading this one first might spoil parts of the Peace War for you...”

tsteele93 wrote this review Tuesday, July 17 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Vinge is the best at doing aliens. He comes up with aliens that ARE alien. They are not people with different appendages, they are alien. And he is good at doing stories with two groups on a collision course and bouncing back and forth between these two groups.

There is one thing I HATE about Vinge's work though. He lets the reader see the pitfalls that the protagonists are about to face, before they see them. So I spend a large portion of the book stressing out about problems that the protagonists haven't even encountered yet. I'd prefer to learn about most of them at the same time as the protagonists.

That said, it is worth the frustration to read this author's incredibly imaginative works. This is probably some of the most creative sci-fi being produced today. Highly recommend this and his other works.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Saturday, June 2 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I enjoyed "A Dirty Job" a great deal. Christopher Moore has a very readable writing style and an oddball sense of humor that usually gives me a laugh or two. The Stupidest Angel has all of that, but spread out too few and far between. It is an OK book, but not as good as A Dirty Job. I've purchased several of his books, so I'm hoping for better with the others.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Monday, November 27 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I have enjoyed several of RCW's books (Chronoliths, Spin) but this was not one of my favorites. Too many unexplained and implausible happenings with "mirror girl" and a small wooden character list made the story dry and unappealing to me.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Monday, November 27 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“Wow, this was recommended to me by a coworker and I cannot say that I feel as strongly about it as she did. She claimed it was one of the best books she had ever read. Hmm. I wonder how much she has read? The emotional journey that the main character undertakes is interesting and makes for a good story. His wife has just jumped/fallen (?) from a tree and he is trying to teach his dog to talk so he can figure out what happened.

That's where the book goes wrong. The absurdities of this part of the story detract greatly from the interesting story to be told. Ultimately, the writer also deprives you of being able to fully "solve" the mystery by witholding KEY facts until the end of the book. These are facts that the main character knew, but did not reveal until the end.

By the end, I felt like the book had the potential to be a 5 star story, but ended up with only 2 stars because I had to completely suspend my disbelief in regards to every single thing about the "teaching the dog to talk" part of the story and also because major plot reveals were held to the end of the book.”

tsteele93 wrote this review Monday, November 27 2006. ( reply | permalink )