simplistic and ultimately unrealistic
926731
This book addresses a deep moral conundrum -- if you have a child with a really hard-to-treat form of cancer, is it right (and to what extent) to have another child that can act as an organ donor? The story is told from different viewpoints -- the donor daughter, the mother, the father -- everyone, in fact, but the sister with the cancer. In case you don't get it that these are different people talking, each chapter appears in a different typeface, and it is this kind of beat-the-reader-over-the-head-with-the-obvious approach that put a damper on my reading enthusiasm. No nuance was left unexplained. As a result, the characters come across as figureheads for didactic points of view rather than real people with real conflicts. The writer is obviously seasoned, and descriptions and dialog flow along glibly and seamlessly, if not with any great originality. The ending to the book -- which cleverly avoids actually making the difficult choices that have been so painstakingly and painfully developed -- is completely contrived and absolutely annoying.
4323054
The Cross Gardener by Jason F. Wright is a novel that is meant to be inspiring and profound but ultimately it is merely saccharine sweet and overly simplified to be real.  The novel starts with the brutal death of a pregnant girl whose child miraculously survives.  That the reader must suspend every modicum of rational belief is exposed from the first chapter which contains information that could not logically be revealed in the envelope which the narrator, the child who survived, receives upon his sixteenth birthday.

The story goes on to tell how John Bevan grew up on an orchard, raised by a taciturn man who had already adopted two other boys.  When John meets Emma Jane his life is apparently predestined--he falls in love at first sight and even his dating others until she is old enough to date herself are merely distractions.  Emma Jane herself is drawn by the author with such idealized brush strokes that one can't help but find her false.  Even a virgin on her wedding day becomes a flawed wife after the honeymoon but apparently she has no flaws, loves John regardless, and is the ideal wife.

The inevitable happens, a death so similar to his mother's own, the parallels I suppose are meant to be all the more relevant but there is so little that is relevant about this novel that this plot twist seems merely contrived.  Even John's grief is tedious and overly romantic.  While I understand everyone grieves differently, the truth is that grief is ugly and includes moments of rage and howling, especially when one has lost the love of one's life as presumably John has done.  Even the parent holding it together for the sake of a surviving child will fall to his or her knees in anguish when alone.  Instead, we are given a first person narrative of loss that is one note:  numb.  I would have hoped the author would allow John to feel more than the single response; numbness is often the response to a shocking and sudden loss.  This is all John feels although the author does momentarily touch upon the guilt this character would inevitably feel; unfortunately this is layering of emotion is too quickly glossed over leaving me to assume the author didn't have the confidence in his ability to fully communicate the devastation of loss and rather than fall short he didn't try much at all.

What this book lacks is psychological depth.  It doesn't even offer spiritual depth.  Nor does it contain any genuine characterization, for none of these characters actually grows emotionally although the reader is supposed to believe that John himself grows spiritually; this spiritual growth which is the result of an obvious ploy on the author's part (which, if the reader doesn't see it coming, the reader must be intentionally obtuse, not wanting to see the obvious in hopes of some inspiration filled conclusion).  Ultimately, this book is too simplistic in narrative content, structure, and development, peopled with two-dimensional characters who do not surprise nor engage.  Altogether, a superficial look into something that is never shallow when experienced in real life.  Loss.  Death.  Grief.  These are not superficial issues and deserve better treatment than is found in this novel.  That at no point did I find myself fighting back tears of sympathy for anyone reinforces why I was so disappointed.
3807133
Good plot, but writing is over simplified, very predictable, and highly unrealistic.  Author has promise, but has a good ways to go.
3715770
As a "neuro-typical" I found the endless litany of the advantages of Aspergers to be far over done. While I understand that the author was deeply invested in reframing Aspergers from being viewed as a handicap to something more akin to a human aspect not to far out on the bell curve, she unfortunately went well beyond that point so that it became both grating and a story crutch.

Since the typical response of law enforcement would have derailed the story line the author simply had them behave in an utterly unbelievable and irresponsible fashion. Note to the author. I happened to suffer a "suspicious" house fire and the fire department in my tiny town took it very seriously, had it clearly been arson their response would have been vastly greater. No fireman is going to term an arson attempt a prank or tell the victim after all it's just arson not murder. Further, while I don't know about the arson laws in Georgia, most states have enhanced penalties when an arson attempt is made against a occupied dwelling.

The responses of the protagonists to the various threats they encounter are totally unbelievable. Their actions are poorly structured plot devices to prevent any kind of real world response and leave them abandoned to their own efforts.

Then the reader is subjected to "Big Oil", profiteering corporations specifically including evil power companies, global warming, and other progressive villainous straw men. Please hit me with another spoiled fish. Were it possible to build "the machine" in sufficient scale to power large scale generation, the power companies would be first in line to convert. Hydro is probably the cheapest generation mechanism known and this device would cost a small fraction of a hydro plant.

The characters are not believable. Their actions are uniformly absurd. The author's knowledge is shallow in many areas which she depends on. As a result, given the heavy investment in the tropes mentioned above, the plot is weak and transparent and the book is a struggle to read.
3017401
A remarkably post-apocalyptic bit of fiction, for a picture book. But really unsatisfying, and simplistic. Humanity has so destroyed the world that there are no plants or animals, and then a young boy discovers a tiger, and is brought to a secret haven of nature. And, on seeing this nature, the world suddenly changes track, and all will be well. It's just too simple! And it feels patronizing.

The artwork feels overly messy, even taking into account the messed-up state of affairs. It's just too busy, with lots of texturing added to any section of solid color.

There are definitely better books about conservation out there. Try "A Boy and a Jaguar" by Rabinowitz.
1916948
A quick, cheap gorging but without much satisfaction.
First for the good points that earned the book its two stars.  The one thing that this book certainly didn't lack was imagination.  The world which he has created is strange, bleak, and sarcastic -- and it's somewhat interesting, though not on any "deep" level.  It is full of sometimes subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle critiques about the current (meaning 1992) world and the direction in which Stephenson thinks it's heading.  There are plenty of reviews here which describe many of the critiques (franchises taking over the world, the absurb beaurocracy of the US government, etc), so I won't delve into them here.
The book certainly had that cool techie factor that you'd expect from a cyberpunk novel.  A virtual reality "Metaverse"; goggles allowing nightvision, infrared, millimeter-wave radar, ambient-sound processing.  A fission-powered, gatling "rail-gun".  There's no shortage of such examples, and they're certainly fun to read about; though they're typically not fully fleshed out or justified in the reader's mind.  The tech factor isn't as sophisticated as I'd like (coming from a Computer Science background).  There are a few utterly ridiculous examples of future technology (such as the Metaverse representation of Rife's information network as a bunch of big colorful blocks with connections between them), but all in all it's enough to keep the interest of the average techie if he's willing to set aside reality.
Bad Parts.  Put simply, this book just isn't well written.  I'm admittedly no English guru, and I typically criticise a book more on its content than its structure, probably because I'm not familiar enough with good structure.  But if someone like me can say that a book wasn't well written, that's probably bad.  It completely lacked any sense of flow.  It's almost as if he had this story in his head and just regurgitated it onto the page (like a movie script, as some reviewers have pointed out).  The whole religious subtext was well researched, but then very sloppily (though imaginatively) laid out.  I was particularly disappointed in the end when I expected many of these creative subelements of the story to come together and tie up, and they were just severed.
This shouldn't throw you off from reading Neal Stephenson.  I'm in the middle of reading his (much more recent) book "Cryptonomicon", and it seems the complete opposite of "Snow Crash".  It's much more mature, much better thought out, and with less flash.  Honestly that makes it a little boring.  I'd love him to find a happy center between these two extremes, but until then I recommend William Gibson.
13590
This book, or at least, its premise, seemed so promising, but as an avid mystery reader I did not find that it delivered on any of those promises. While not actually bad or anything that defied credulity, the plot still manages to become simplistic because the author relies more on coincidence than brain work on her detective's behalf.

On that note, Lavender and Woods have the faint whiff of cardboard about them, though perhaps they were fleshed out more fully in the first book - which I have not read. But they were very much generic detectives, or rather, generic Holmes & Watson knockoffs, and there was nothing even vaguely unique about him or what I hesitate to call his methods.

I found myself growing increasingly annoyed as it played out, not only because of the irritating nature of many side characters plucked straight from the Book Of Cliches (don't get me started on how gratingly banal her "mobs" are), but because unbeknownst to this reader, a romance was also part and parcel with the book. I found myself skipping over the scenes with Magdalena, who is herself a caricature, because I simply do not care to have my mysteries with a side order of romantic angst. It's an annoying trend in historical mysteries lately, that just when the plot picks up, out of the blue will come a chapter devoted to the detective's love interest, and the story veers off into soap opera territory from thenceforth.

Inevitably, that is what forced me to give up on this, even though I hate leaving books unfinished.
1209603
Implausible plots are sort of a given for these kinds of novels, but this is just too far disconnected to make it even remotely believable.  A two day coup to save the world from nuclear destruction and it winds up only being a sub-plot?  The real plot is Fortuna's efforts to kill Andreas.  The coup itself is the most unbelievable part of the novel. Combine the plot problems with the B-novel descriptions of Andreas (how many times can we say "heavily muscled"?) and it adds up to a cheap beach novel, I'm afraid.  I will say Coes has lots of potential, but he needs to read Daniel Silva's novels for how to create plots and realistic heroes who don't come across as Marvel comic figures.  Brad Thor could use a dose of Silva as well, Flynn a little less so.
1541769
On the plus side, as a space program enthusiast I found the premise interesting, and I can see this translating into a decent movie script. But the problems with this novel are numerous. Dr. Milman may be a terrific toxicologist, but he should probably stick to professional journals because he's no novelist.

1. The people in this book are not realistic. For one thing, they don't talk like actual people. The dialog, and there is a lot of it, is often unnatural, sometimes clichd, and at times just ridiculous. The actions of the astronauts and NASA personnel are clearly the product of the author's imagination and not believable at all. One contrived plot point is the ISS commander who insists on wearing designer high-heeled shoes while in orbit. Come on.

2. The author's writing style needs quite a bit of work. Repetitive phrasing and sentence construction becomes bothersome very early on. Countless sentences begin with participial phrases, to the point of distraction. Long proper names for things are used far too often. The phrase "the International Space Station" is used 216 times.

3. For a novel that's set largely in space, the author gets many of the basic details wrong. How can characters be described as walking through the space station, shifting their weight from one foot to the other, pacing back and forth, sitting down in two chairs that are supposedly on board? From a storytelling point of view, it may be convenient to have the ISS "in range only five to six times a day and for a maximum of ten minutes," but this is another example of the preposterous details the author invents. The inconvenient truth is that ground controllers are in near constant contact with the crew. Later, when it suits the story, the space station is revealed to have secret cameras positioned throughout it, able to be activated remotely from the ground. Ridiculous. Even the basic premise that ground controllers would allow a spacecraft with a seriously sick astronaut on board to dock with the ISS is preposterous. The author could have overcome this hurdle by having the Soyuz on a "fast track" rendezvous, but he has them continue for two days. (Surprisingly, he uses the "fast track" option later when it is convenient for the story.) Dr. Milman has, in fact, researched many things for this book, but he lost me completely when he stated that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on February 20, 1962. That's a whopper of a mistake.

The idea of an astronaut with a fatal illness occupying the ISS is an interesting one, and sabotage is a worthwhile idea to explore. But this book reads like an early draft in need of much work and was somewhat hard to get through. It was certainly worth 99 cents for the Kindle version, but I wish I had a dollar for every time I had to read the phrase "International Space Station."
918730
When I started reading this book, I thought I'd put my hands on a young adult novel by mistake. Then I got to the graphic torture scene, and decided I hadn't. I can't imagine what audience the author had in mind here. It's too brutal for youngsters, but the characters and plot are so simplistic that they haven't a chance of holding an older reader's serious attention for more than about ten exasperated minutes. I kept reading, in hope of improvement somewhere along the way. My mistake.

The characters are so one-dimensional that they supply a lot of unintended humor. The hero, Wyl, is all good. King Celimus is all evil. He spent his childhood torturing small animals, and now he's spending his adolescence attempting to ravish virgins. And having people beheaded over lunch. The Queen of the neighboring realm, whom Wyl has fallen in love with, is good but easily confused, which leads to a ridiculous ending. The Mountain King is good, but has a really evil advisor, who gets him to do bad things from time to time. Though one would hope that a good person might fire an advisor who suggested cannibalism as a desirable dietary alternative. Just an idea.

Here's a short thought experiment, so you'll see what I mean about the simplistic plot (major spoiler here): suppose you learned recently that if you get killed, your soul goes into someone else's body, and that person dies instead. Suppose that you then find yourself ALONE with the Really Evil King. What might you do? The obvious possibility doesn't even occur to dim-witted Wyl, dooming us to several more volumes of this thing when the story could have ended on page 222 of book 1. I have a strong feeling that Wyl is going to end up in the Evil King's body sooner or later (probably later) anyway.

This novel utterly lacks nuance and believability. You want to like the good characters, but it's just too much of a chore. Save yourself a headache and give this series a pass.
3947365
This book is a very quick read, and sometimes that's what we readers want.  The idea behind this story is good, and the things it tries to teach are valid, but I'm sorry, the plot was quite unbelievable.  To me it didn't seem realistic at all, and that detracted from what could have been.  How much tragedy does one family have to face?  How much coincidence is believable?  All questions that come up while reading this book.  I don't buy that a seventeen year-old? can make this kind of life decision.  I also don't buy that a fifteen year old would make the kind of decision that this boy does at the end.
1118059
This book was recommended to me through a relatively non-religious coworker.  I was able to get 2/3 through this book before setting it down in something akin to disgust.

**SPOILERS**

I can sort of understand why this book is considered to be "not bad", though certainly not "fantastic!". While the premise of the series (cyclically connecting books) seems promising, the actual writing is written in a very simplistic style. I found Dekker's technique to be very campy - something I might expect a third or fourth grader to read, but not most fellow adults.

When I first began reading the section of the story involving "The Great Romance", I found myself laughing non-stop. Honestly, I thought that he would wake up, at first fall for the girl and think she was a friend/romantic interest, but then see through her silly little facade and the lies of the whole village.

This was not the case. Instead he fell for it, and ended up pursuing her in some childish fashion involving make-believe rescue missions of this damsel-in-distress. Yes, that's right - in a fiction book, two characters play pretend (not "Road to Terabithia" make-believe or any sort of it's-real-but-only-behind-the-wardrobe/looking glass but bonafide "I'm pointing to an empty sky at the non-existent horror there! Get behind me! I'll save you!" nonsense) which is supposed to be, I think, "falling in love".

Not only this, but characters end up eating fruit and laughing insanely, the type where you can't stop yourself in the least, as if on some sort of drug trip. There's also a supposed representation of Jesus/God as a little kid, who's basically this crazy little imp who also madly laughs, as well as saying variations of, "Love me! I love you! Love me! I love you!" (no, I'm not kidding, I swear) and avoiding answering questions with supposedly wise but vague metaphors.

If this were the extent of the book, and it's more than reason enough to avoid it, I could roll my eyes and walk away. But the fact that this is one world, and that the other is so much more...._it makes so much more sense_. Not because it's set in this world, but because it's just better. Better written, better thought out, better accepted as a story. And then the book lurches from this to the other world, and it leaves one feeling ill from the sickening jolt of it.

While I am not a Christian, I have read what is actually _good_ Christian fiction. The kinds of books in which, while reading, one doesn't have to hold their breath and cross their eyes in order to accept the story for what it is. Book series such as The Sight by David Clement-Davies or The Chronicles of Narnia or Karen Hancock's Legends of the Guardian King series. Just...not this tripe. If you must read it, go to a Barnes & Noble, buy a coffee, and read it in one sitting. Don't waste your money.
1233968
Paul and Gina Bradley are wealthy and successful.  The only thing they lack is a child to love.  The Bradleys adopt abandoned twin girls, Rachel and Angela, who were left in an orphanage.  The happy parents hope that their family will now be complete. "Crimson Rain" begins calmly enough.  The Bradley family is settling in and all is well for a while, until one night, five-year-old Angela is found standing over the prone form of her sister with a knife in her hands.  Rachel survives the attack, but Angela is sent back to the orphanage.

Years pass, and Rachel is now sixteen.  Angela's departure has cast a pall over the Bradley family.  Paul and Gina's marriage is faltering and Rachel is an unhappy young woman, prone to feelings of guilt and depression.  Then, a series of bizarre events seem to indicate that the past is coming back to haunt this family. "Crimson Rain" is a pulp novel that is serviceable if you are waiting in an airport terminal.  However, the characters are shallow, the prose is purple, and the plot is extremely far-fetched and melodramatic.  Parts of the book are tasteless and sordid.  I do not recommended "Crimson Rain" for anything but a quick and forgettable way to pass some time.
4662504
John Stossel has, again, come out with a book that is simplistic in many aspects; both the writing and the arguments. If you enjoy television type sound bites and simplistic reading and logic, by all means buy the book. If, however, you enjoy logical arguments, or good writing, stay away from this book.

In addition to sloppy arguments, he again falls into the trap that he did in his first book. He quotes sources, but he condenses quotes and doesn't give attribution to his sources. That pretty well guarantees that you won't be able to see where he got his quotes, and in which context he got them.

He makes some good arguments and some terrible ones. His problem seems to be that he thinks he is a libertarian, when in fact, I don't think he knows exactly what he believes in. He does have an agenda, which seems to be against government and lawyers and very pro business (as well as pro John Stossel).
2977717
The author has created scenarios that are unrealistic. Cops don't work like that. They depend on methodical police work. Ex-Mafia don't come to cops like that. Very ordinary
1564750
This is book two in a series and I was ho-hum when I purchased it based on the first novel, and more hum than ho when I finished it, so I won't be buying the concluding book.

My main beef is that the characters are unduly limited because the Bubble World that Werbeloff creates is strangely constrained. And the constraints felt as artificial as the environment they inhabit. Kage, in particular, is so impossibly implausible that he/she is really annoying. Borderline incompetent does not cover it as he stumbles through crime scenes in a fog of self-centered importance that I found terribly mundane but I suspect was meant to be revelatory with regards insights into gender politics.

The police are equally incompetent and self-obsessed, and pretty much all I could think was "Who's making all this Bubble tech happen?" Because most of the characters have agendas and such overt limitations that I could not imagine any of them actually delivering tangible outcomes of any meaning.

And our organ thief, Daniel, is as inept as Kage is incompetent, a blunt instrument in a supremely high-tech world, he would stand out so dramatically as to be lit up in fluorescent neon with every step he makes.

I **think** that "Defragmenting Daniel" is supposed to be shocking in some fashion. I'm just not sure in what fashion, because if there is allegory or analogy somewhere in here, than I am massively missing the point.
1531704
I found this book way too simplistic and too based in the author's obvious political agenda and view.  Parts of it were just too unbelievable - such as practically imbecile aliens piloting a space ship and humans who can make light year leaps in learning alien technology.