Premise is sketchy, but the story is great
937574
The premise sounds terrible.  Zombies and Vampires sent by aliens?  Really?  I'm a fan of zombie books, but it seems a bit over the top.  Additionally, some of the characters are just a bit too perfect.  But somehow its a great read.  I read through this story in relatively short order, and finished book 2 a few days later and I'm working on his new series now.
4457728
Michael Shipman is a paranoid schizophrenic who discovers that some of the monsters in his delusions are real. Of the tensions that keep this story propelled, Michael's confusion over whether what he's seeing actually exists is probably the least interesting.

Supposedly this was one of Wells' trunk novels that he completely re-worked, and it definitely has that vibe. There are several different story ideas going on, each of which could be compelling on their own, but they're stitched together awkwardly because they live in different worlds. It's telling that book has a prologue in a completely different perspective than the rest of the book that objectively announces that this story will have some sort of supernatural element to it. Without that setup, the ending would feel completely artificial. But once Wells establishes the world, he has an awful lot of fun playing with it. Michael is not just an unreliable narrator, he's an unreliable narrator of fluid lucidity and increasing awareness of just how unreliable he is. But what makes Michael really, truly engaging is the way he deals with his own helplessness. He has no home, no job, a paralyzing fear of electronics, and he is literally crazy. How do you navigate the world when you're afraid of cars and cellphones? How far can you go when your only resource is force of will?

And that's really how this novel succeeds. Despite a plot that feels unnecessarily convoluted (faceless men and monster maggots and cultists and which-one-do-you-think-will-turn-out-to-be-Tyler-Durden?), Wells keeps you guessing and makes it all work through the strength of his protagonist. Like John Cleaver (of the I Am Not A Serial Killer books), Michael Shipman shouldn't be likable, but you root for him and engage with him despite his neuroses because he's passionate, well-intentioned, and facing incredible obstacles. In a world full of shlubby anti-heroes, Shipman is a breath of fresh air.

Despite its flaws, I was really drawn in by this book and continue to be a devoted Dan Wells fanboy.
4861191
The non-fiction account of a lost city in the Amazon seems like it could be so thrilling, but...could it really be? Sounds too good to be true? It probably is. This book is really two stories that are superbly intertwined. The first is the story of Percy Fawcett, a British explorer who plunged into the Amazon a century ago to find the lost city of Z. He never found it. A century later, a journalist who has never camped or hiked in extreme conditions decides he might try and finish the work of a great explorer. Right...that's a bit far-fetched. Even with GPS and satellite phones and modern medicine, the idea is ludicrous. But he kind of succeeds. In a sense. This might be too much of a spoiler, but if you're gullible enough to buy a book like this thinking that he really did discover a lost city, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I will say that there is a sense of what the lost city of Z might have actually been. So while the premise of the book might guarantee some disappointment among readers, Grann does a fantastic job of story-telling, in mixing his own experience with that of Fawcett. It's a great read.
3227722
The premise is trite by science fiction standards-aliens taking over people's brains, and the survivors scrambling to try to stop them.  But Heinlein takes this idea in a perfectly credible way.

A secret agency's members hear about space aliens supposedly landing in Iowa-a hoax, or not?  Not, as it turns out, and they are dangerous.  Two problems crop up-how to convince the President of this fact, and how to find out enough about the aliens, who manage to take over much of the central USA, to defeat them without wiping out a lot of innocent people. if possible.  Even with the aliens' presence and powers quickly and irrefutably proven, it takes time to convince both the government and the public of their danger-and even then, what to do with this enemy humanity knows little about?

The book is humorous in a way-people have to be nearly naked so that they can be seen not to have an alien attached to them, but the problem of trying to kill the aliens without killing millions of people is frightening, and indeed, many people have to be hurt and killed as a result of the aliens' actions.
113649
Great story idea, solid characters and plenty of room for the story to develop (more books). The writing is a little sketchy and not consistent to start with but seems the writer finds her rhythm after a few chapters.
1523437
The premise of Year Zero is ridiculous and delightful: Space aliens love our music, but they realize they can't pay the royalties for all the music they've pirated, so they're going to blow us up if a copyright treaty can't be worked out. It's a natural enough subject for the author, Rob Reid,once of Listen.com, forerunner of Rhapsody, to take up - he's well aware of the absurdities that emerge when you try to make money distributing music. That said, he takes it a little too personally, as with a description of Senator Fido, lapdog to the music industry, that is so unmistakably Orrin Hatch that instead of being clever, it seems a little angry. Also worth noting: In his acknowledgements, the author points out that an early editor sent it back with the suggestion that he put in a plot. He might have put in a little too much, or at least his stringing of things together to create the semblance of a plot is a bit wooden at times.

The place where this book suffers the most though is in the comparisons. Had it been left to others to notice similarities to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it might have been possible to appreciate the author riffing on the awfulness of the music industry-lawyer complex the way Douglas Adam's riffed on the suspect practices of the publishers of The Guide. But when you put the comparison front and center, you're left reading a Douglas Adams style book that just isn't quite Douglas Adams. For starters, Adams, a radio producer, knew how to write a story that seemed entirely episodic but where the plot emerged over time and you made sense of the world he'd created the same way we have to make sense of our own world. Reid didn't quite have what it took to let the plot emerge from episodes and you can feel where he's telling the story - pretty good - and the parts where he's trying to string it together - not so good.

I'm giving this four stars because as silly sci-fi goes, it ain't half bad. If you're looking for a funny book that follows in the tradition of H2G2, but also&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Red-Tape-War/dp/0812512820/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Red Tape War</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Mouse-that-Roared-A-Novel/dp/B000E1MTP4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Mouse that Roared: A Novel</a>&nbsp;and, to a lesser extent,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Stainless-Steel-Rat/dp/1857984986/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Stainless Steel Rat</a>&nbsp;(first person narrative about crazy happenings), this isn't a bad book for killing a few hours and having a few laughs. But if you're missing Douglas Adams, better dust off your copy of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Ultimate-Hitchhiker-s-Guide-to-the-Galaxy/dp/0345453743/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a>.
2006851
I agree that the writer is certainly a novice at writing and his grammer structure is not the best, but getting past that the story line is great. The thought thata possibility exists that something like could happen in today's world,(aids!) makes for a scarey feeling. I like the book and recommend it to readers. Remember, for every doer there are 1000 critics who can do other than be critical.
4856734
First Impressions: I loved the premise of this book and I was hoping for a good, fun and scary read. I never heard of the author before, and I was little bit concerned that the language would be a bit off because it was original printed in another language besides English a few years ago, and then translated. I don't have very good luck with translated novels, but I loved the idea behind this story so much that I thought I would give it a try. What can I say? I am a science fiction nerd.

First 50 Pages: Now, if you are planning on reading 172 Hours on the Moon, be warned that you are going to have to put some of your basic logic aside and just sit back and be entertained. There are some plot holes that don't quite make sense and some things aren't explained as they should be. There are also way too many people trying to narrate this book and I wish the author would have left the narration up to the three teens, but there are extras. On a good note, the book seems to be well-written and translated properly, which is such a huge plus.

Characters & Plot: This book has a nifty plot line, with NASA deciding that they want to go back to the moon for their own mysterious reasons, but they also need to have public support in order to do so. As a way to gain interest in their newly acquired ambitions, they run a sort of contest. Teens between the ages of 14-18 in good health are able to fill out an application and three teens will be accepted to go to the moon with the crew. NASA tells the public that they have an interest in nanotechnology and they are searching for a new mineral that will advance research and development from America. But, that isn't the real reason that they want to go back to the moon.

The three teens that are chosen are Mia, Midori, and Antoine. Mia is a girl obsessed with her punk rock band whose parents enter her into the contest and they treat her like a child. Midori is a Japanese teen who is into Harajuku and spends absurd amounts of money on her costumes, but she dreams of fame and living in New York. Poor Antoine is desperate to get back the girl who just dumped him, and he hopes that by entering the contest he will be able to win her back and get his life on track. When all of the teens reach the moon along with the shuttle's crew, nothing goes as planned and bad things begin to happen. Needless to say, there was a very good reason why NASA stopped going to the moon in the first place, but all of the people who were originally there have been kept silent over the years.

Final Thoughts: I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters because there was very little development and I never got to know any of them very well. This book wasn't scary at all either like I had hoped it would be. The plot was also slow and not much happened for more than half of the book. However, the ending of 172 Hours on the Moon is completely killer and awesome and so unexpected. It was worth reading the whole book just to be able to read how the story ends.

This book lacks in a few areas, but it does have a great entertainment value. If you are looking for a fun, science fiction novel that isn't deep in any way, I would suggest looking more into this one.
304317
People have been paying a lot of money to pick this story up on Ebay.  It's a fantastically original concept that, unfortunately doesn't quite live up to the hype (not that anything could).  The art is fine, surreal and spooky, but the story is reminiscent of Stephen King's X-Files episode: a wonderful, spooky start, but it can't sustain the pace.  It's worth reading, though - especially the very moving last page.
4854953
while the show takes a lot of liberties - like the ones some people mention, for instance - that's part of telling a good story. you choose to not focus on certain things so you can focus on others. this is such a story.
and while there's a lot of "well, they could have just done that!" or "how can they possibly look like that!" ... everything within the story IS within the realm of possibility. there are no gaping logic holes - stretches of the imagination, sure - but things MAKE SENSE. and that's much more than can be said for most of tv and movies.

And incidentally, people weren't walking around in rags and filth before washing machines were invented, you know. There isn't a single thing in my closet that I can't wash, dry, and iron without any electricity at all. so for those people who will always complain in shows like this that folks are too clean or too good looking... well, maybe you should use your imagination and creativity a little more instead of depending on appliances :)
3657020
The first half of the book is somewhat believable.  i loved that the setting was a farm because that took me back to my childhood- but the evil is so evil and the odd just ever so odd (except when he is not).  I found inconsistencies - the camera shot should have shown somebody that it did not if that person was the subject of the photo  The setting is great and the character development is great - the story a bit incongruous.
2960880
Not one of Troughton's best stories and certainly not Robert Holmes script, but it's still a pretty good story.  The pacing is great for the era, the first episode in particular moved at a very solid clip. The principals really do hold this story together with Zoe and the Doctor getting some fine moments, and Jamie spending half the story on his own and doing his own thing.

The story illustrates Jamie's strength of character. He's not  a "High Brain" and therefore irrelevant to the Krotons' schemes, but his own native intelligence carries far and makes him a foe.

The idea of the Krotons' scheme is actually both pretty clever and pretty stupid. On one hand, the idea of using learning machines to control a population and let them learn what's useful to and forbid them from learning anything else is a diabolical way to enslave a people for a thousand years. However, because the purpose of this is to get home, their scheme is a bit stupid because they need "High Brains" to operate their ship and get them home and from a natural selection standpoint, they're making it hard for that to happen. It's foolish but in a realistic way compared to real life dictators.

The design for the Krotons is not all that great and the limitations on their movements makes them  less then fearsome foe. There are few wooden performances among the guest cast. Still, it's an enjoyable and well-paced sci fi story.
1093569
The idea of the Field Theory of Everything (it explains the relationship of all physical laws, particularly those between relativity and quantum mechanics) is an amazing, but apparently a real, Holy Grail for physics.  The thought to fictionalize it is a wonderful story concept.  Only with the science, which is apparently, and I'm no expert, reasonably accurate, it must coalesce with a believable story-line.  The fictional tale of the hero David Swift and his adventure is ludicrous with concocted strange characters including the dope-addicted, prostitute daughter of a leading physicist and her autistic son, whom the author late in the book calls an "idiot" (interesting politically or socially incorrect verbiage)and a crazed, revengeful (on a senseless mission) Russian assasin are all much too far out for me.

The science and the threat the Field Theory presents, and it's a true historic tie to Einstein, are fascinating; someone else should have scripted the fictional part.  Read it for the intersting science and whiz past the rest of the story.
493157
The book could best be described, I suppose as a supernatural mystery. Jason Callahan is a private detective, and his first case (in this story, at least) involves someone selling baseball cards signed by the appropriate great player. The problem is, they were signed after the player died. OK, straightforward fraud, but when Jason confronts Benny, the seller, in the presence of Trina, who claims to be a psychic, Benny signs another card, claiming it is a ghost who is guiding his hands. The argument is, the signature is genuine as far as the player is concerned, but not the hand signing it. Now what? Jason is shown evidence that Trina is not a fraud, and in any case, Benny offers to fully refund if the person wishes. This is the prelude to a crime investigation. Who or what is responsible? Is it a person? Is it a ghost? The story is quite well-written, and it is original. My major criticism is that when Jason is given evidence he cannot refute, the next few scenes did not really gel with me.  When it comes to the crime, there are some seriously original parts there, which I admit I did not see coming, and more to the point, they are obvious, so there was some well-disguised writing.  The story is too slight for me, and there were plenty of opportunities to take this concept further. The author is apparently promising more, so, maybe some was saved up. The book is quite easy to read, and is quite entertaining. Good for a light vacation read.
4432860
The story started off as a 4 star, and slid down past a 3 star in the last third.

This book is a good fun read for the first half or so. It has a light, quirky, humorous, and fast-paced vibe, along with one of those fun initial how-can-this-be scenarios- a toyshop that disappears overnight and turns back into a grocery (this happens in the first chapter). A great set-up for a story. But the problem with such an outlandish set-up as this? The reason/solution for the situation must turn out to be plausible. Otherwise, the set-up seems incredibly contrived, simply to draw a reader into the story. In this case, the reason for the switcheroo is highly implausible, and the logistics for making it happen seem fairly nearly impossible. So, the whole set-up comes off as a cheap manipulation. :-(

The characters are fun. They each seem real (within the given story world), and consistently hit the note intended by the author. Much of the book seems effortlessly written (in a good way), percolating along in an enjoyable manner. But again, the ending is a letdown. The explanation of how the murder actually occurred, and who committed it, is a bit of an extended and garbled mess. Not at all clear and effortless as most of the story.

Read the book for the light and lively tone, but be prepared for an ending that doesn't live up to its early promise.
4818903
The premise of this novel--that cities are in some nebulous sense alive and literally have souls, which are embodied in human Oracles whose job it is to protect their city--is such a ludicrous, silly idea. And yet these two authors manage to make it a believable and engrossing read.

Like the previous two novels in this series, The Chamber of Ten never really goes where I want it to go--deeper into the crypts and the hidden nooks and crannies of Venice. It hints at these places, sort of dances around the edges, but never really goes in deep. It touches on them, but stays too close to the real world as Geena tries to figure out what's going on with Nico, chasing him across the city of Venice. I guess what I'm mean to say is, I really like this book, but it just doesn't have enough of a fantasy slant for my tastes. It's too "modern day." Sure, there are a lot of supernatural elements including the casting of spells and walking dead people, and those supernatural elements are crucial to the story. But at the same time, somehow those elements seem almost peripheral to the real story of two modern characters in a modern world trying to protect their love for one another.

But I still like the book. It's very well written and entertaining, and it keeps you hooked from the very beginning all the way to the end.
3886814
Fred, a seemingly average man is on his way to work one morning when he spots a tent in place of a haberdashery that had been there for years. He goes inside as if drawn on a leash, and witnesses an oddly captivating man give a speech about faith. After this performance the tent and the people in it disappear and he finds himself in the haberdashery. This is just the first in a series of weird occurrences that makes Fred consider his sanity and the reality of the world around him. I was left with the impression that this story would be from one of my favorite genres; magical realism, wherein everyday situations are interspersed with touched of the unreal and fanciful.

The writing could have been more engaging. The language is simple and direct, which is a good thing. Still, it came off as flat and was missing some prose-pep to make it really engaging to read. The author can be prone to "infodumps," or devoting long swathes of paragraphs to backstory and flashbacks that don't seem to provide anything that had much relevancy to the current story. It can be good to go into lots of detail about the histories of characters, but there are better ways, and sometimes less is more. It really slows down the story when new characters are introduced and, instead of finding a more organic way to get the reader antiquated there is instead a lot of background information all at once. There was a lot of passive writing, which naturally makes the prose have less of an impact.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The cover is awesome, the premise sounded really good and I liked some of the themes explored. The writing and pacing of the story is too much of a mixed bag to be ignored.