Frustrating and scattered
926305
I'm pretty liberal, so I don't object to Taibbi's politics or disappointment with the system, but I still found myself powerfully frustrated with this book.  I saw him on "The Colbert Report" and found him delightful, and expected the same from the book.  He's insightful about the public-appearance apparatus behind politicians-- examples of Dean's behavior compared with Kucinich's were really interesting-- but mostly I felt the book to be a well-sourced diatribe.  Taibbi seems very angry (with good reason, granted), and I found it hard to slog through so many pages of his rants without any sign of hopefulness or direction.  The book was more like a blog of his campaign trail experiences than a fully structured book with a conclusion.  I'd rather watch him on Colbert again.
4107395
I hate to give 2 stars to this book as it does contain some useful material. I badly wanted to make a zombie game and was attracted instantly to this book because that's what it attempts to do. But here are the biggest problems:

1. First, downloading the book files gave me a headache as Packt website was quite buggy. I had forgotten my password, and instead of resetting it, it forced me to create a new account, but would not let me use my old email id. I had to get around by using a different email and download it.

2. There are many Unity books that mostly just ask you to "do this do that" without enough explanation - and this book is no exception. Unless you are experienced in Unity, you will likely get very confused with the amount of "organization" the initial chapters try to do, asking you to drag around assets into various folders. To make it worse, the book files don't exactly match what the chapters say. Right in the first chapter, you will be introduced to the messy set of folders all with the ugly PACKT_ prefix. Despite following the text to the last word, redoing the entire thing thrice after deleting everything, I still had inconsistencies between the book and my project. I was completely lost with multiple material folders, multiple places to look for the same things. I wish the author used a simpler organization that makes the reader feel like it is a game THEY are making with his guidance, than having to prefix every single thing with "packt" - it felt like I was sitting inside somebody's house as a guest and not my own.

3. Oh God, that chapter 3! Consider yourself lucky if you get past that nightmare. Things just don't work the way the author says and you will find yourself in deep mess quickly if you aren't familiar with Unity. My first person character was running around without his arms sticking out as they were supposed to -- and I was seeing the arms' shadow on the floor in one particular direction. Dear author, when you make a terrible mess of an early chapter like this, the most common human instinct would be to close it off and move on to another book, for the fear of not being able to get through any chapter that follows.

I have been scouring through many Unity books in the last few weeks and the most beginner friendly one I found so far is Sams Teach Yourself in 24 hours (2nd edition).  I am no in way associated with the authors or publisher - this is just my opinion after trying out various books.
4567720
Unfortunately, this is quite a frustrating book.  The author may be guilty of cramming one concept too many into her world building.  The AI personalities, which operate across several bodies, are a great idea nicely realized - reminiscent of Vernor Vinge's Tines, but - since they're AIs, perhaps more believable (however, you do have to believe that an AI can "possess" a human body).  When the "distributed person" at the center of the novel loses connectivity, you really feel it.  The passage of the book where Justice of Toren is attacked is superbly done.  It's the best thing about this book and earns the four stars.

But her single-sexed Radch only serve to confuse characterization.  Literally - I found it hard to keep who's who straight.  It may be that Breq is intended to be an unreliable narrator with respect to sex roles, I'm not clear on that, or it may be that Radch citizens *are* all female, but Radch in leadership roles *appear* male (because of how they behave) to others (a la (or should I say "au") Estraven in the Left Hand of Darkness).  Since Leckie basically does nothing with the all female empire concept, it's less of a concept - more of a conceit.

Some (many?) SF authors have problems with time, seeking to combine space-age technology with Middle Ages style lack of progress, and we see that weakness here. Breq/Toren's 2000 year lifespan seems pretty surprising for what is basically a piece of tech, and the reasons for Seivarden's 1000 year "ice nap" are somewhat unclear, as is her/his importance to the narrative.  Sure, it's a coincidence (as many reviewers have noted) that Breq meets her old (very old) comrade a the start of the book, but is it an important one?  Since Breq possesses quasi-superhero powers and is not averse (having lived 20 centuries) to playing the long game, it seems that Breq could have snagged an audience with the Emperor without the social cachet of her long lost acquaintance.  Perhaps Leckie is making a point about Breq's basic "programming", and her need to serve humans, but it's not a clear one.

When you think of what Le Guin did in Left Hand of Darkness with ONE IDEA, just one idea, which she used to craft a classic tale the like of which the world had never seen before, you see that this book could have been better and that the praise for it is overblown.  And if it seems unfair to compare this to a classic, remember this - I'm just comparing Hugo 1970 with Hugo 2014.  Hugos ain't what they used to be.
1507949
l really wanted to like this book but it was so scattered the pace was inconsistent and l kept trying to find the characters.
The exaggerations were the characters. The actual human  characters didn't exist.
 There was no real story line. It was just a mess of vignettes that tried to fill in for storytelling.  i am sorry to the writer, but the wit and humor just couldn't carry the ziz zag plotline.  Especially when the humor really wasn't funny, nor  did "jump the shark" stories about the new judges help us to figure out what was going on.

This book was so scattered l was really disappointed.
l had high hopes from the hype prior to its release. lt seemed like it was going to be a fun witty book but l found it to be not witty, not sarcastic, not ironic and especially NOT funny.  It wasn't  even a book which drags you in even though it is so crazy and nutty that it just makes you want to know more and more.
Don't  waste your money.
408327
I really thought I would like this book, given the NYT review of it, but about half way through, all I wanted was for this woman to get her "stuff" together or for the book to end.  I finished by skimming, rather than actually reading. Two things got tiresome:  her continual inability to center herself and the comment (over and over) that eating food together was what cemented her relationship with others.  I never did figure out why she was such an emotional mess, and the book never attempts to explain or explore what ails her.  Overall, I found this overstuffed with food and undernourished with insight.
2798404
I read somewhere that a poorly researched and edited manuscript leads to a distracted and frustrated reader, who then abandons the book. I felt this applied perfectly in this book's case. The premise and the plot are promising enough, but the writing style with its confusion of tenses and heavyhanded setup makes this book a chore even to a voracious reader such as myself. The awkward and blunt recitation of facts about Mont St Michel and its history does not make for a sufficient book research- the writing style itself and the dialogues also make a difference. The book ends with a cliffhanger, but even though I sort of want to know what happens next, I don't think I can bring myself to go through another book in this series. Two stars for the generally good plot and the premise, deducted stars for the reasons above.
2361465
Generally, I try to finish reading every book I start.  I really struggled to finish this one.  It was very disjointed, hopping back and forth in time so much I couldn't keep track of who was doing what when.  There were editing errors, where character names were flip flopped, and the ending was really puzzling.  I'm still not really sure which characters were the "bad guys."  This book was a waste of time and money.
4843151
This book is a mess.  In trying to build a complex world and plot it gets lost in itself. Certain characters are interesting, others annoying.  And facts and revelations are awkwardly dumped on the reader instead of revealed in a satisfying way.  Done with this series.
2718069
Overall, this book feels like a confusing, disjointed mess. I loved the mystery part of it, but that was really all.

At the beginning of this book you don't know whats going on and its hard to know how to feel about it and it kind of drags. The entire book kind of drags. I feel like it took so long to get anywhere, like nothing was happening. And I was just continually bored.

Callies affliction, graphomania, doesnt seem to be taken seriously by anyone, not even the adults. The Dean of the school treats her like shes crazy and that shes faking and that its not a serious condition. How is this possible? Wouldnt she have note from her doctor or from her therapist? Wouldnt her foster family have talked to the Dean?

Speaking of the graphomania, its an interesting condition to write about, but I have to admit that her attacks became really dull after a while. The writing was interesting and the flashbacks were interesting, I just don't think they were done well. I feel like the whole book suffers from not being done well.

Didnt like any of the characters in the book. Not one. And John did nothing but creep me out the entire book. There was just something off about him. I honestly kept waiting for him to be a part of all the bad things. I really thought he would be one of the bad guys too. He just gave off that vibe.

I did enjoy the mystery of the book, though even that I feel wasn't written well. Im a sucker for a good mystery though and I did want to know what happened.

I feel like Oblivion had a lot of potential, but it just fell short. I feel that its not worth the read.
4272559
Being a fan of Regency novels, I looked forward to reading this book.  I am sorry to say that it was a disappointment.  The sheer number of characters is overwhelming and they are not well-developed.  Many seem to have secrets or secret feelings and they begin a conversation, but never finish.  It is a source of frustration to this reader.  There are simply too many questions, too few answers and far too many characters.

Its likely that those who have read Book One will have less of a struggle with Book Two, which is just not a stand alone and feels incomplete.

Opinions expressed are my own and others seem to like the book much better.
2874765
Horrible grammar, innumerable spelling mistakes, apparently no editing, and a long expanse of rambling in the middle that makes you want to quit the book. The author has a hard time getting her thoughts and ideas onto the pages in an understandable storyline for the reader.  But, it holds promise if it were to be re-written and edited with a simplified  theme. The first book, Ember, was much better and I am sorry to be disappointed in its sequel.
301554
This book is all over the place.  It's as if the author didn't know if she wanted to make the book into fantasy or historical fiction so she chose both.  At times, this approach doesn't weave together well at all.  The description of the book gives the illusion that you're settling in for a dark folk/fairytale set deep in a Russian winter, but what you get is only half that and the other half doesn't mesh.  This novel seriously lacks cohesion.  It's like two or three mini novels being thrown together for different types of readers.  I doubt I will continue on with this series.
552970
I understand that this is the 26th installation in this particular universe (going by the count on Kenyon's website), but these books have become so incredibly complicated. I've read them all, but there are several characters I don't recognize at all, and many more with mates and children that I don't remember. Since there are so many characters presented in each new addition, I've completely lost sight of any character growth, and have legitimately forgotten what made many of them interesting to begin with.

This appears to be the introduction to an upcoming dragon trilogy. We've met family units before, so I don't get why this particular group has been broken down into a "set" so complicated that we must first be given an introduction. In places, it's difficult to distinguish if the scene is a flashback, or if the characters themselves have traveled through time. The concept of mate bonding seems to overcome all obstacles, because we all know sex fixes everything, right?

I really wish Kenyon would slow down, and put a little more thought into the layout of her newer books. I'd rather read one great book a year than be presented with three barely mediocre stories. There's too much repetition in story lines, and not enough legitimately thought out story.
1248594
I'd read a positive review of this book, I think in "Time" magazine.  So I put it on my request list at the local library and I just finished reading it.  I found it too disjointed, something many of the other reviewers here complain about, with good reason.  The author jumps around in time and location constantly.  It was difficult to follow the story line of each of the potential D.B. Cooper's.  I got rather bored, but continued to read it to see if the author does finally come to a conclusion about who D.B (or Dan) Cooper was or what actually happened to him.  One of the things that struck me is that the author never looked into any possible suspects who "disappeared" around that time....therefore lending credibility to the possibility that Cooper died that night.  I am sure there are several candidates that fit that description.  He starts with the assumption that Cooper made to the ground and out of the woods.  So he follows a lot of crack pots around, but actually reaches no conclusion.  I really think this book is too frustrating to read or recommend.
2539365
I had a really difficult time finishing this book -- I kept throwing it down in frustration ... but then I inevitably picked it up again to read more.

The frustration came from the frequent and glaring errors -- not simple typos but mistakes in usage (e.g., repeatedly using were instead of where, taught instead of taut, you're instead of your, feint instead of faint, notch instead of nock, etc). There were also frequent confusions between past and present tense, singular and plural, and possessive and plural forms, not to mention some of the craziest (and most indecipherable) sentence structures I've ever seen in print. All of this made it truly difficult to understand in some places.

However, as annoying and confusing as these mistakes were, I DID keep picking it up again -- a tribute to the author's storytelling ability. The story, an allegory set in a world of mythical creatures (centaurs, fauns, etc) revolves around a girl who's been stolen from her land, robbed of her memories, and used for evil purposes. She bravely determines to change her circumstance and sets off to rediscover her true heritage. The story is forward-moving and engaging, and the characters are nicely fleshed out. This is what kept me not only returning to the book, but ultimately reading all of the books in this series and the prequel series of novellas. (I would have given this book 5 stars if considering only the story; it was my incessant frustration that reduced it to a 3-star rating.)

This is a Christian allegory, which I know some people avoid. However, this series (so far) doesn't suffer from the preachy problem that plagues some allegories. Rather, the spiritual applications are truly integral to the story itself, helping the reader see spiritual concepts and principles from a new angle and, hopefully, to better appreciate them.

If you enjoy clean fantasy and don't find bad editing a problem, I'd strongly recommend this book. If you find the misuse of the English language annoying, you may want to pass it up. In that case, don't even read the sample, or you'll be hooked -- as I was. (In that case, try skimming -- it reduced my frustration level, at least.)
4580317
One of the most frustrating reading experiences ever!  Silly me... At first I thought... Is this a gimmick to show character thought.  However, after every page having multiple paragraphs starting mid-sentence, stray words in the middle of a paragraph and other partial thoughts scattered throughout, I came to the sad conclusion that this was seriously sloppy work.  I have enjoyed a previous book by this author, but this was so distracting and confusing that I gave up.  Annoyed and sad that I even made the effort.  Fix the editing and I will try this author again.
1258774
I hate to give this low of  rating, but this book is a complete mess. The most offending issue is that there are about 6 different point of views, swapping rapidly between them. This essentially broke up the main story between Laurel and Christen.

There were also multiple time skips that weren't handled well, and had me scratching my head at what happened between each skip.

Lastly, the characters were very, very flat. The characters just didn't feel alive. The only spark of personality I got from Laurel/Christen was pettiness and immaturity. I think this issue goes back to the whole 6 different point of view issues. If more time had been focused on one love story, instead of two, the characters could have been more fleshed out.

A pass for me.