I enjoyed this book very much, but perhaps not as much as the other two Martha Wells books I've read (City of Bones and Death of the Necromancer). Wells is incredibly gifted at creating fascinating worlds. The landscapes and creatures in this book (and some of her others) are unique and refreshing--all these vampire stories are feeling overdone--so it was nice to read a book with an entirely new type of creature populating the pages.
The creatures in this book mainly involve Raksura and Fell. Both races can shape-shift from a "groundling" form (two arms, two legs, no wings--something like us humans) to a flying form (although there are a few that don't have wings). Fell, however, are the evil race--piliaging, killing, stealing, and tainting everything in their path. Obviously, the Fell are the antagonists of this book.
Moon is Raksura (he's the one featured on the cover of the book). He grew up with just his mother and siblings and very isolated. He was orphaned when he was very young when his mother and siblings were killed and left without a home or any knowledge of his what he was or where to find others like him. So Moon struggles along trying to fit into groundling settlements, but never with much luck. But before long another Raksura finds him--Stone. Moon agrees to let Stone take him back to Stone's "court" (a Raksura city), but quickly learns there's more to this than he first believed.
Moon continues to struggle to fit in, even among his own kind, and learns he show more knows very little about Raksura. He quickly learns part of the reason he was brought back was to help breed more Raksura. The court is failing for some inexplicable reason, the babies dying, and very few males are left to breed with the queens. Thus, Moon learns that the court is failing and the Fell quickly identify themselves as a looming threat. They must deal with the Fell, but their plan is dangerous and puts them in a vulnerable position. Will Moon find a home with the Raksura? Will the mystery of what is causing the court to die be revealed? Will the Fell attack and if so will the Raksura be able to defend? And will Moon mate with either of the queens or find love with one of them? It is these struggles that are the main plot of the book.
Wells does well at keeping mystery in the story right to the end and produces several surprises throughout the book. It was well written, attention grabbing, unique, and intriguing. Although I struggle at times to fully visualize Wells' descriptions, I always love what I finally do visualize and I applaud her for keeping my attention and my imagination captured so wonderfully! I highly recommend any and all of Wells' books--even the ones I haven't read yet, I have every confidence they are all fantastic! show less
The creatures in this book mainly involve Raksura and Fell. Both races can shape-shift from a "groundling" form (two arms, two legs, no wings--something like us humans) to a flying form (although there are a few that don't have wings). Fell, however, are the evil race--piliaging, killing, stealing, and tainting everything in their path. Obviously, the Fell are the antagonists of this book.
Moon is Raksura (he's the one featured on the cover of the book). He grew up with just his mother and siblings and very isolated. He was orphaned when he was very young when his mother and siblings were killed and left without a home or any knowledge of his what he was or where to find others like him. So Moon struggles along trying to fit into groundling settlements, but never with much luck. But before long another Raksura finds him--Stone. Moon agrees to let Stone take him back to Stone's "court" (a Raksura city), but quickly learns there's more to this than he first believed.
Moon continues to struggle to fit in, even among his own kind, and learns he show more knows very little about Raksura. He quickly learns part of the reason he was brought back was to help breed more Raksura. The court is failing for some inexplicable reason, the babies dying, and very few males are left to breed with the queens. Thus, Moon learns that the court is failing and the Fell quickly identify themselves as a looming threat. They must deal with the Fell, but their plan is dangerous and puts them in a vulnerable position. Will Moon find a home with the Raksura? Will the mystery of what is causing the court to die be revealed? Will the Fell attack and if so will the Raksura be able to defend? And will Moon mate with either of the queens or find love with one of them? It is these struggles that are the main plot of the book.
Wells does well at keeping mystery in the story right to the end and produces several surprises throughout the book. It was well written, attention grabbing, unique, and intriguing. Although I struggle at times to fully visualize Wells' descriptions, I always love what I finally do visualize and I applaud her for keeping my attention and my imagination captured so wonderfully! I highly recommend any and all of Wells' books--even the ones I haven't read yet, I have every confidence they are all fantastic! show less
This 3rd book in the Wheel of Time series continues the adventures of many of our favorite characters from the first two books. (Note, there are vague spoilers here, but for the most part you discover everything I’ve written in the first sixth of the book—it’s a big book!—and I don’t think anything I’ve written will spoil the suspense or mystery of the story =)
Rand, in a decision of desperation and restlessness, flees Moiraine. He decides he must settle once and for all whether he truly is the dragon reborn, so off he rushes to fulfill a prophecy and seal his fate, one way or the other, forever. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills and the remainder of the characters find their threads still strongly tied to Rand’s thread.
Moiraine, Lan, Perrin, and Loial pursue Rand’s flight in an attempt to protect him and find themselves being chased as well. In the process, Perrin saves an Aiel man and pulls the thread of a new character into the mix (and she annoys him enough to be a little sister). Perrin continues to struggle against his new identity as Young Bull, but cannot escape even in sleep.
Nynaeve, Egwene, Elayne, and Mat return to the White Tower. A few days after arriving, Mat goes is own way and picks up the luck of the devil along the way. As he travels he finds Thom and he agrees to accompany Mat on a mission, which quickly turns into a mission to rush after his friends in an attempt to save them.
Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne struggle in the White Tower show more until finally they realize they must leave once again and seek to spring a trap in the hopes they can also foil the trap. Their journey takes them after the Black Ajah and toward Rand. Their mission is two-fold, do what they can to bring the Black Ajah to justice, and do what they can to help Rand—if they even can.
This book is full of the action, danger, and constant running from danger that the first two were. It’s once again full of inns and traps that they must flee in the middle of the night. Rand appears crazier than ever, but also more powerful. A new world, the world of dreams, unfolds and plays a significant role (and danger) in the lives of each of the characters.
Overall I found this 3rd book in the series very engaging. I’ll be honest, in some ways it’s not much different than the first two books—they are constantly fleeing in the middle of the night from some danger or other, and Rand still seems lost, crazy, and weak even in all his power, and all the Aes Sedai still plot, scheme, and never explain more than they want to. However, if you’re comfortable with the author showing his writing style and tendencies, it is an engaging read and extremely difficult to put down and an excellent continuation of a great story. I do suggest, however, that if you intend to read the entire series (as I do), take breaks in between and read a couple other authors/books in between the Wheel of Time books. You could easily burnout on Robert Jordan’s style, even as gripping as his stories are. Happy reading! show less
Rand, in a decision of desperation and restlessness, flees Moiraine. He decides he must settle once and for all whether he truly is the dragon reborn, so off he rushes to fulfill a prophecy and seal his fate, one way or the other, forever. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills and the remainder of the characters find their threads still strongly tied to Rand’s thread.
Moiraine, Lan, Perrin, and Loial pursue Rand’s flight in an attempt to protect him and find themselves being chased as well. In the process, Perrin saves an Aiel man and pulls the thread of a new character into the mix (and she annoys him enough to be a little sister). Perrin continues to struggle against his new identity as Young Bull, but cannot escape even in sleep.
Nynaeve, Egwene, Elayne, and Mat return to the White Tower. A few days after arriving, Mat goes is own way and picks up the luck of the devil along the way. As he travels he finds Thom and he agrees to accompany Mat on a mission, which quickly turns into a mission to rush after his friends in an attempt to save them.
Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne struggle in the White Tower show more until finally they realize they must leave once again and seek to spring a trap in the hopes they can also foil the trap. Their journey takes them after the Black Ajah and toward Rand. Their mission is two-fold, do what they can to bring the Black Ajah to justice, and do what they can to help Rand—if they even can.
This book is full of the action, danger, and constant running from danger that the first two were. It’s once again full of inns and traps that they must flee in the middle of the night. Rand appears crazier than ever, but also more powerful. A new world, the world of dreams, unfolds and plays a significant role (and danger) in the lives of each of the characters.
Overall I found this 3rd book in the series very engaging. I’ll be honest, in some ways it’s not much different than the first two books—they are constantly fleeing in the middle of the night from some danger or other, and Rand still seems lost, crazy, and weak even in all his power, and all the Aes Sedai still plot, scheme, and never explain more than they want to. However, if you’re comfortable with the author showing his writing style and tendencies, it is an engaging read and extremely difficult to put down and an excellent continuation of a great story. I do suggest, however, that if you intend to read the entire series (as I do), take breaks in between and read a couple other authors/books in between the Wheel of Time books. You could easily burnout on Robert Jordan’s style, even as gripping as his stories are. Happy reading! show less
I generally love Crichton books but this one fell short... probably why I found it on the $1.00 rack at 1/2 Price Books. The book details 5 case studies of patients with various maladies. In typical Crichton fashion, it's easily seen that he devoted much research to this book. However, as a work of fiction goes he may have devoted a little too much as it reads more like a history book on the hospital and medicine. I won't deny that there was some intriguing information contained here, but I don't tend to enjoy history nor did I buy this book to brush up on my medical knowledge. His writing tends to involve jargon and references I have know understanding of largely because I have zero background in medicine. The stories of the 5 patients hold some potential to be captivating, but Crichton kept interrupting his stories with more history, statistics, and facts, slowing down the entire book to a textbook-like read.
Perhaps I could rate this book higher if I had known what I was getting myself into before I started reading it... like I said, it *is* interesting, but in a that's-an-interesting-bit-of-trivia way and not a that's-a-great-story way. Bottom line, if you're interested in this history of hospitals and medicine you may very well enjoy this. If you're looking for the type of Crichton story found in Jurassic Park, Airframe, Prey, or Pirate Latitudes, then there's really nothing to see here.
Perhaps I could rate this book higher if I had known what I was getting myself into before I started reading it... like I said, it *is* interesting, but in a that's-an-interesting-bit-of-trivia way and not a that's-a-great-story way. Bottom line, if you're interested in this history of hospitals and medicine you may very well enjoy this. If you're looking for the type of Crichton story found in Jurassic Park, Airframe, Prey, or Pirate Latitudes, then there's really nothing to see here.
MY OPINION:
To be honest, I'm in a bit of a quandary over this book. This is the first Terry Goodkind book I have ever read, but I've heard from many that he's a good author. In my own opinion, I think Goodkind must be the worst "famous" writer I've ever read. The characters were shallow and without complexity, the plot was predictable and dimensionless, and the dialogue was juvenile and contrived. On the other hand, I must have liked it because I read every 820 pages and all in good time, too.
GENERAL PLOT (no spoilers):
The story is about Richard Cypher the Seeker, Zedd Zorander the Wizard, and Kahlan the Confessor. Together they must discover how to stop the evil wizard Darken Rahl from ruling the world. They all three have their own special powers, unfortunately none of these powers will have any effect against Rahl, and worse, they end up being a great danger to each other. They have one hope and that is to find one of three magical boxes and keep it from Rahl--if he gains all three and opens the correct one he rules the world with evil and tyranny. Thus, the general storyline is based around Richard, Zedd, and Kahlan's struggle to find at least one of the boxes and keep it from Rahl long enough for him to die. In the process the help, are helped by, and are hindered by several different characters and encounter many adventures and terrors.
NOTE TO PARENTS:
I personally am not sure I would want any of my kids under 15 or 16 to read this book. It does contain sexual and show more somewhat gruesome material. In fact, a surprising large chunk of the book is all about the torture of one of the characters. And there are other somewhat gorey scenes regarding entrails, castration, and being ripped apart. Although it isn't the most graphic content out there, it may not be appropriate for your kids and, if made word for word into a movie, would be rated R. In addition, there are sexual scenes one of which involves men trying to rape a woman and several references to child molestation and other sexual acts. Again, it isn't explicit and doesn't go into detail about various anatomy, but it is certainly there and something you may want to be aware of as a parent.
BOOK VS TV SERIES:
I have seen very little of the TV series, but what I did see differs somewhat from the book. If you haven't seen the series and want to, I would recommend actually reading the book first. If you have seen the series, likely many of the major plot lines will be given away, but many of the specifics and details are different. And if you aren't at all interested in seeing the series, you may not be at all interested in reading the book =)
In general I recommend seeing if you can borrow the book from the library, get a sample of the 1st chapter, or borrow the book from a friend before you invest in buying all the books in the series. If you can stand his shallow, simplistic, contrived writing (I apparently was able to!) then you may very much enjoy the entire series. As for me, I'm still debating whether I dare pick up the second book as I still can't get over what a terrible writer Goodkind is--yet I still didn't put the book down. All I can say is you'll have to judge for yourselves =) show less
To be honest, I'm in a bit of a quandary over this book. This is the first Terry Goodkind book I have ever read, but I've heard from many that he's a good author. In my own opinion, I think Goodkind must be the worst "famous" writer I've ever read. The characters were shallow and without complexity, the plot was predictable and dimensionless, and the dialogue was juvenile and contrived. On the other hand, I must have liked it because I read every 820 pages and all in good time, too.
GENERAL PLOT (no spoilers):
The story is about Richard Cypher the Seeker, Zedd Zorander the Wizard, and Kahlan the Confessor. Together they must discover how to stop the evil wizard Darken Rahl from ruling the world. They all three have their own special powers, unfortunately none of these powers will have any effect against Rahl, and worse, they end up being a great danger to each other. They have one hope and that is to find one of three magical boxes and keep it from Rahl--if he gains all three and opens the correct one he rules the world with evil and tyranny. Thus, the general storyline is based around Richard, Zedd, and Kahlan's struggle to find at least one of the boxes and keep it from Rahl long enough for him to die. In the process the help, are helped by, and are hindered by several different characters and encounter many adventures and terrors.
NOTE TO PARENTS:
I personally am not sure I would want any of my kids under 15 or 16 to read this book. It does contain sexual and show more somewhat gruesome material. In fact, a surprising large chunk of the book is all about the torture of one of the characters. And there are other somewhat gorey scenes regarding entrails, castration, and being ripped apart. Although it isn't the most graphic content out there, it may not be appropriate for your kids and, if made word for word into a movie, would be rated R. In addition, there are sexual scenes one of which involves men trying to rape a woman and several references to child molestation and other sexual acts. Again, it isn't explicit and doesn't go into detail about various anatomy, but it is certainly there and something you may want to be aware of as a parent.
BOOK VS TV SERIES:
I have seen very little of the TV series, but what I did see differs somewhat from the book. If you haven't seen the series and want to, I would recommend actually reading the book first. If you have seen the series, likely many of the major plot lines will be given away, but many of the specifics and details are different. And if you aren't at all interested in seeing the series, you may not be at all interested in reading the book =)
In general I recommend seeing if you can borrow the book from the library, get a sample of the 1st chapter, or borrow the book from a friend before you invest in buying all the books in the series. If you can stand his shallow, simplistic, contrived writing (I apparently was able to!) then you may very much enjoy the entire series. As for me, I'm still debating whether I dare pick up the second book as I still can't get over what a terrible writer Goodkind is--yet I still didn't put the book down. All I can say is you'll have to judge for yourselves =) show less
This was a great book, very well written and engaging and I couldn't put it down! I finished this first book and moved right on to the second, but... I couldn't finish it. I got maybe maybe 1/4 through and felt a little sick of how tortured everyone was. Jamie was always being physical tortured (and Claire too sometimes) and in this one Claire was particularly emotionally tortured. I don't know, it just got old really fast. But if you can get past that then I'm sure you'd love the entire series (and trust me, it's an *entire* series!), at least based on what other fans of the book have told me =)
This was a very enjoyable book! It was humorous and well written with fun and fast dialogue and plot. It isn't a deep read or a difficult one, mostly for those looking for a bit of escapism, but I definitely thought it worthwhile and am now interested in reading more books by both these authors together and by each of them separately.
BASIC PLOT (no spoilers):
The story is essentially about an amusement park that is a prison for five of the most dangerous demons, one of which includes the devil. The owners of the park are the Guardia, entrusted with keeping the demons locked safely away and, if they happen to escape, putting them back under lock and key. Of course they do escape and it's up to an array of wonderful characters to capture them again. But along the way many of the characters find out secrets they never knew... and true love.
NOTE TO PARENTS:
There is sex in this book and some language. It's nothing horrific or terribly explicit, but it's there and perhaps not appropriate for the under 16 age group.
Overall I enjoyed reading this and read it pretty quick, too (for me at least!). It's definitely an "escapism" read, nothing terribly thought provoking, but it does have some intriguing lines in it and some of the characters think/say interesting things, too. I liked the humorous and fast-paced style of writing.
BASIC PLOT (no spoilers):
The story is essentially about an amusement park that is a prison for five of the most dangerous demons, one of which includes the devil. The owners of the park are the Guardia, entrusted with keeping the demons locked safely away and, if they happen to escape, putting them back under lock and key. Of course they do escape and it's up to an array of wonderful characters to capture them again. But along the way many of the characters find out secrets they never knew... and true love.
NOTE TO PARENTS:
There is sex in this book and some language. It's nothing horrific or terribly explicit, but it's there and perhaps not appropriate for the under 16 age group.
Overall I enjoyed reading this and read it pretty quick, too (for me at least!). It's definitely an "escapism" read, nothing terribly thought provoking, but it does have some intriguing lines in it and some of the characters think/say interesting things, too. I liked the humorous and fast-paced style of writing.