Good idea but story is recited too rapidly
925460
Story is told too quickly. Anyone, but especially kids, need to be lulled to sleep softly and sloiwly.
402667
I liked the idea of the story being about an autistic child and his first word. I really did not care for all the time spent in the book about the care giver and the child's father. Too much detail or their in counters!
2489065
It is true that the book takes you well beyond you thought the initial story would be. This is the problem: the author does not spend enough time on what is happening, what do people think and feel, but rushes quickly to the next big thing. If this ever increasing plot had been more linear and realistic, it would have been very enjoyable.
1340382
Pears has a very clever idea here:  present the same events from four different viewpoints, with increasingly intricate layering of the overall scope of events as each story is told.  Unfortunately, he was unwilling to step out of the way and allow the story to proceed on its own.  Pears is constantly name-dropping and placing silly little speeches in his characters' mouths and then winking at us as if to say, "Isn't it funny when Da Cola trashes Shakespeare?" As a result, there is no way to believe in these characters except as marionettes, dancing to the author's tune.
1539223
I liked the story itself. Two high school students that are bookworms get drawn into an ancient conflict. There's magic, adventure, good vs evil, all that good stuff. I just had an issue with the writing. I couldn't get sucked in at the beginning with all the wordiness. More adjectives were thrown out than necessary. Kind of felt like a student trying to meet a minimum page requirement in a school writing assignment. Or like being forced to reread The Grapes of Wrath. There were a lot of silly mistakes like spaces missing between words (probably at least one a chapter). And then there were statements that made me laugh and facepalm. At one point, we're told that a character is petrified "as though turned to stone." Dunno how else you'd interpret petrified. Turned to plastic? And at another point, not far after that line, we're told that a 'sexton' is a navigational tool. It's a sextant. I'm a speed reader, and every time I run into one of these mistakes, I slow down. If they're too frequent, I have to have short reading periods. I get so frustrated seeing these kinds of mistakes. Some are *really* easy to catch just by using a normal word processing software. Others, I can't get why someone wouldn't just look up a word to make sure it's the right one if it's not something they've seen a lot.

I do try to keep the 'writing' separate from the 'storytelling' when forming an opinion, because these books are by authors. The story is what's important. But in this case, they really detracted from my enjoyment of the tale.

That being said, I'm still going on to read the sequel :) So far, it seems to be a bit cleaner. The story really is interesting, and this book is worth reading if for no other reason than to know the backstory for book 2. But be warned that if you're a bit nitpicky like me, it'll be a slow read.
2514977
The idea is good but the story itself isn't that well written. Also it is reads as if it is part of a longer story
2423704
I like the way and words the retold writer used. They are easy to understand. However, the plot seems to be jumpy too quick, so for several characters there aren't enough description to let the readers knows their stories.
3579228
good story premise.. But it takes more than halfway through the book to get interesting.. like others said , the writing style drives you crazy unless you like long, drawn out, super descriptive narrative about nothing important.. It is like reading a 500 page poem. Half of the book you can skip and still know what is going on . The hard part is that he will throw important things in the middle of his boring writing and sometimes you almost miss it. I had the book on audio so it wasn't so bad to get half way through it to the good parts.. I think if I was reading a book I might not of had the patience to finish it..
566509
Good story - enjoyable premise but the writing style is bulky and stands in the way of an enjoyable story.
3303109
The story and concept are great but the way it's told is not. The storytelling jumps over details too frequently. I felt like I was reading someone's outline instead of a story.
1990912
This book recives three stars because the story was good, but the writing was not.

The overall emotional turns and trials the principal character faces were well done enough to be an enjoyable story, but said enjoyment is significantly hampered by the writing. Since the piece is in first person, the author really overused the narrator's ability to simply recount events. About some 70% of the books and events perhaps are the narrator going "this happened to me, and then this happened, and she felt this way." Only 30% includes any actual dialogue or action between the characters. The moments in which there are actual events are good, but the story is too long to be written in the he-said she-said manner that it is.

Overall, I would like to read the next books in the series, but not if I have to pay for them.
4572414
I really liked the concept and the beginning story line.  But the book left too many open ended stories.
3977286
The writing is fluid and the premise of the story is compelling. Unfortunately, the book became a bit tedious, primarily in the present day perspective, because instead of editing the story in a way that maximized its emotional power and impact, it felt like every idea/scenario the author thought of had to be incorporated, whether it strengthened the story or not. Being cognizant of hitting the too much of a good thing mark is especially important in a narrative that is balancing between the readers knowledge of something versus a characters ignorance. While Sam/Zoos mindset in the present is understandable, when the reader is stuck in this realm of omniscience too long, particularly after what should have been several revealing events, the rawness, vulnerability and poignancy of Sam/Zoos situation is drained and starts to make each additional scene/flashback seem almost self-indulgent. This feeling of dramatic tedium was only reinforced by the ending, which while obvious, was manufactured in such an irritating way (LITERALLY, a simple sentence without preamble could have saved Zoo from adding to the already mile-high burden of inner monologuing angst) that I couldn't help but be thankful to be finished.
875926
I like the concept of a story that follows the exploits of a mercenary company that blurs the lines between black and white. Initially, I liked the idea of the entire story taking place through a first person narrative from a character with a dry sense of humor. The cast of characters in this book is pretty compelling. However, my problem with this book was eventually the first person narrative begins to overshadow the story itself. Details of the story that would have made for a more thrilling adventure are glossed over in favor of recounting this single character's view of things. It left me feeling like the use of a first person narrative does not work in the fantasy/sci-fi genre.
1481240
The concept of this story is brilliant. The first sentence introduces a mystery that drives you to turn pages all story long. The events and backstory--on a macro level--are awesome. One of the most creative concepts I've read and I read a lot.

But the execution of these concepts was sloppy. Characters suddenly swing into rages, standing and yelling at each other. The health and fitness aspects weren't believable (some people run distances too easily and later in the story are winded by less, healing happens too quickly. The social dynamics aren't nuanced--they're pretty stereotyped. And for a long while I wasn't sure I liked the main character.

So it's worth reading, but you'll have to be patient with immature writing. I'm hoping the author got better in the next books.
4050789
This book weaves a good story but it takes way too long to get to the meat of it. The author uses too many ten dollar words and includes side stories that aren't really necessary to the plot. Take away the unnecessary side stories and its a great book.
2115227
This was a really good storyline, but when you have to read page after page of self-contemplation (or navel-gazing as I call it), forcing the reader to skip pages forward to get to the next piece of action, that's a real plot problem. It's the characters and their actions that move the story. We all like to get to know the characters, but I don't want to know every thought that goes through their brains ad nauseam. Especially when it's repeated over and over again. After the third time Fate asks Karma that she'll be leaving when her time is up, that part of the story got very boring. Will be checking out the next story in this series, just hope it's written a little cleaner.