Compelling storyline, not well written.
346486
I'm going to start by saying that I enjoyed the first book in this series, despite the trite writing style. A lot of the sentence construction and phrasing were, well, kind of juvenile and contrived. But, it was free, of reasonable length, and I'm a huge fan of zombie apocalypse books. But this second book, while telling a compelling story, is less than 100 pages, and, in my opinion, overpriced at $2.99 for a short novella-type book. $0.99 is more like what I'd be willing to pay. So many of the situations that the protagonists are in seem somewhat contrived. I mean, I find myself wondering how Dean will manage to drop/lose his gun this time whenever an encounter with the zombies begins. While the overall story is a good one, the writing style annoys me, and I'm through paying almost $3.00 for such a short book (chapter is more like it?) in this series. If it were priced more reasonably, I would continue with the series.
2295852
Not badly written, but difficult to follow the storyline and get deep into the book.  I had some difficulty buying into the 'book within a book' format for this story.

Initially, at the beginning, I was intrigued by the quirkiness of the whole idea for the story; but as I read further in the book, it seemed to bog down into details in which I had little interest.
4875520
The description of this book pulled me right in. Ultimately, the story was an interesting take on the stories of Saul, David, Solomon, Michal, and all the associated players, but the writing (translation? editing?) was distractingly bad. The first section was particularly stilted and shallow, making the main character unlikable and flat; it was difficult to feel any connection to him or to understand the motivation in his activities and choices. There was not much depth to any of the characters, actually, so their decisions and reactions sometimes seemed to come out of nowhere. Verb tenses switched back and forth within single sentences as well as within paragraphs. The writing seemed...fractured.

Had the author given more depth to her characters, this could have been a really good book.
1336671
The storyline is interesting but the disjointed writing made it hard to read.  I will not be looking for more of this story which is a shame as the plot is good enough. Sorry but I do not recomend.
3299831
This series has a compelling storyline, with an original idea. That being said, the writing is awful. It's clear that it was not proof read at all. There are a few blatant spelling errors, including the dreaded your/you're mistake. The author overuses the word "motioned" and 95% of the time uses it inappropriately. On occasion, a completely wrong word is used. For example, "cohesive", when the author clearly meant, "coherent". The story is told first person from alternating characters, who for some reason, all sound the same. Frankly, I've read better written fanfictions. But if you can tolerate the bad writing for an otherwise good story, then it's worth the read. To a point.
3792080
Beautiful story but not very well written: syntax isn't very good so the story doesn't flow as well as it could.
2961412
The story was not well written. It was confusing and motivation was unclear for major portions of the plot.
1235152
Compelling story but the author loses her way around the plot 3/4 way through. Not impressed with the writer's story telling skills and grammatical errors.
1758969
The storyline of this book has such great promise, with potentially profound insight into gender roles. The plot and characters could be spectacular. Except for one thing, the writing just is not that good. The timeline is jumbled together; characters and events are poorly described. The writing lacks any natural flow. The book would be much more successful if effort were put into the quality of writing to properly support the clever premise.
4829589
This was a compelling story. It reminded me of one of my favorites, The Death of Ivan Ilych. It was entertaining, and I'm glad I read it. I honestly believe this book will help me avoid wasting time in future relationships with guys like Nate.

3 things irritated me about this book:

1. The main character. What a dick.

2. The excessive use of adverbs and adjectives that nobody ever says out loud. Then again, I live in Atlanta, so maybe people here just aren't blessed with fancy vocabularies. I prefer stories that are written in a voice that I can trust and believe would come from a real human being. This was just too contrived at times, and at other times, spot on with the thoughts that go on inside the main character's "sensitive" male mind.

3. This is a great story, but it could have been much more universal if it weren't so focused on literary politics. When Waldman wrote this story, she obviously wasn't trying to write a bestseller that would appeal to the average American book consumer. This book is written for special people, intellectually gifted people.
39776
The story itself is compelling and emotional in content, as well as a fairly quick read, but the writing style seemed undeveloped to me.  So many sentences and paragraphs run together.  The conversations between the characters run together.  I wanted to finish this book, but I found this writing style to be wearing.  I don't know if this is Michelle's approach in writing all her books, or if it was just her approach in The Master of My Soul.
3281157
Storyline is pretty good. The book is flawed by constant mixing of tenses. Poor grammar draws the reader out of the story. I'm also bothered by the main premise:  that if today's military were faced with being transported back in time they would've owed allegiance and obedience to the military and governmental forces of the past. I think their only duty would be retrace their steps and seek return to present day. Also too much reference to personal attractions by main characters...seems forced.
2747320
I loved the storyline of this book and how the three tales seemed so utterly independent at first, but ended as an intricately entangled, rather cohesive whole (mirroring the story's underlying quantum mechanical themes.)

However, the writing style was a bit rough for me and I found myself often being confused by the opaque descriptions (this was my first McDonald book; perhaps I need to get used to it).  This was especially apparent in the beginning of each section, often making me disoriented as to where the character was and what he or she was doing.
Also, the arbitrary use of Brazilian Portuguese confounded.  Some words were written in English, others in Portuguese even though they are readily translatable.  Luckily, McDonald provides a glossary of Brazilian terms, but I found it difficult to flip to the back of the book constantly to understand what each term meant.

Had it not been for the writing style issues, Brasyl would have easily gotten 5 stars.  If you can handle McDonalds bumpy ride, then the food for thought he provides is quite tasty.
910841
This book had a really interesting storyline throughout the book...but outside of that there wasn't much working for it.  The writing was often unclear, the plot didn't progress in a way that you could follow well, and there were tangents that didn't flow into the storyline.  Overall, would not recommend.
2612157
The story idea is compelling, but the writing does not measure up.  It really feels like a children's book or a book for people learning English with the simplicity of the writing.  It might be the author's first book.  However, the writing does improve by the end.
1077454
While I feel the storyline a compelling one that needs to be told, I felt the writing somewhat "syrupy."  Anita Hemmings is a pioneer and a woman to be admired.  Young women today can't fathom the role of women before their time, much less a black woman.
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.