Gideva's final book was a letdown
342610
More like 2.5 stars.  Just like millions of other readers I've been waiting for a year and a half to read the finale of Gideon and Eva's story and it was a let down. Sylvia is a talented writer but this book was just weird the last 1/3.  Four book long story lines dropped with little to no resolution, a major one thrown in haphazardly near the end and overall it just didn't have the grand conclusion I was looking for.  Ugh I love Gideva but this was just a disappointment.  Even the love scenes weren't that good.  The only positive was Lucky.
3848663
I have to admit: I was disappointed in this book.

I was absolutely grabbed by the opening chapter; the monologue by the villain was just plain awesome as he discussed his level of intelligence compared to the rest of life in the universe. But after the first half, things just got...old. It seemed like it just faded. I kinda got the sense that the author had this grand story mapped out and then realized that he told all of it in 150 pages, when he knew he needed about 100 more, so he just kept right on typing.

It's really disappointing after such promise.
55484
I could not wait to read the final book in the series and was very disappointed.  The book lacked development and a serious plot.  I don't understand why all of the authors of late have been writing books with part 2 and 3 as it seems they are not spending time to develop a full plot.
3431122
The last book in the series had a good ending. The series itself was filled with a lot more sadness than other books I''ve read by the same author. I hesitate to recommend them for that reason.
4720113
I really enjoyed the first two books in the series, but this final book fell flat.  I was hoping for a clean or even surprisingly wrap up, but was disappointed.  The finale fell flat.  :(
510151
I have been with this series from the beginning and I've put years into this series....and honestly I'm so disappointed in Susan Ee's writing. I absolutely loved the first two books! But this book had an ending that to me felt like the author copped out and gave the audience what they wanted without caring about the finished product. I have so many unanswered questions about Raffe and Penryn's relationship, and the world as a whole. I had hoped that Ee would have given an explanation about how Raffe and Penryn would continue their relationship and whether or not the angels' leader had given the message to destroy the world. I'm saddened by the ending to such an exemplary literary piece.
2733487
after waiting for months for this to be completed, i was just really disappointed in this last book. it just seemed like something was lacking.
4879548
I began reading the Zion Legacy Series over a decade ago. The Jerusalem Chronicles series that followed was even more powerful. I believe these stories honored God's Word even though they were works of fiction. This book was the conclusion to those preceding series. I found this book disappointing. It lacks both in quality and depth that wonderful story weaving and the wordsmith skill of the earlier books.
3104228
Coming on the heels of three fabulous predecessors, Clea is a rather disappointing final chapter to Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Where the first three novels (Justine, Balthazar and Mountolive) presented an interesting and ever-widening storyline involving a growing set of interrelated characters, Clea has no real major developments to add, and that hurts the narrative interest quotient.

The book's narrator, Darley, who also narrated Justine and parts of Balthazar before disappearing almost completely in Mountolive, does take up here with Clea, a fairly minor character in the previous three books, but their relationship provides no fireworks since it is pretty uncontroversial. Neither is betraying anyone. Next to the dramatic tension of previous relationships (Darley/Justine, Nessim/Melissa, Mountolive/Leila, Pursewarden/Justine, etc.), this is very small beer indeed.

The big reveal is the incestuous relationship between Pursewarden and his sister Liza, already hinted at in Mountolive, but it's a minor development since Pursewarden is dead at the start of this book. More damaging is that some of the most fascinating characters from the first three books (Justine, Nessim, Mountolive) are almost totally absent here, and nothing really takes their place. Instead, Durrell turns here to a number of extended passages of raw philosophizing through clumsily rendered monologues or letters from various (dead) characters like Pursewarden. This is rarely a good move in a novel and it isn't here. These passages stop whatever narrative flow there is in its tracks.

Durrell's prose is still first rate and the portrait he presents of Alexandria during the Second World War years has its fascinations, but this is really a disappointing end to what had been a fantastic novel series.
1064952
I would like to begin by saying I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the entire "Clan" series.  That was up until "Shelters of Stone".  I was almost entirely let down by this book due to the fact that I waited almost 6 years to read the next saga in Ayla's life.  The book seemed to lacked the heart and soul of the other books, especially "Valley of Horses".  I felt like she almost didn't know what to write about and all the characters and description, including Jondalar,Wolf, the horses, and even the food that had been such a big part of the previous 3 books, were forgotten about and she was trying to build and/or change Ayla into almost another character.  I did enjoy the ending and I was starting to get into it.  Maybe the next book will be better; here's to hoping for the next 6 years!!
431302
So disappointing!  Karon ends a wonderful series with a book introducing about a hundreds new characters and spends little or no time on the characters I have come to love.  The resolution of many story lines that spanned several (if not all) the books were flat and felt like an after thought - like the obligitory endings were only included so that readers couldn't claim we were let down.  Well it didn't work.  I feel very let down by this conclusion to what was an amazing series.
4578209
As with Night Child, Cate Tiernan's final book was a flop. You can really get into this book about Clio and Thais finding out what they want to do with their life, but when it comes to the end.... I felt that Tiernan was just ready to wrap everything up yet leave questions in case she felt like writing a fifth book...which the fourth is suppose to be the final...
1138467
It was easy to get caught up in the excitement that the sixth and final book in the Earth's Children series was finally coming out. However, almost right from the beginning, the book disappoints. Once again, there is the endless repetition of titles and the Mother's Song, the endless descriptions of hunting, tool making, the scenery, and riding. While these were present in past books, there wasn't a lot going on in this book to add anything. Characters on a whole seem weaker. The title comes from a journey Ayla makes as part of her training as a Zeladoni and it gets old fast. The big dramatic moment in the book ends up just feeling "ehh". Once again, I was ultimately disappointed in Jondalar.

The return of several past characters towards the end of the book was a pleasant surprise. However, it's not enough to get over the dragging descriptions of caves and ceremonies and with the ending just rather...happening..., I was incredibly disappointed in this book. I wish I had waited a week to see the reviews rather than pre-ordering it. If you're a completist and must finish the series, see if your library has a copy.
890222
*Spoilers*
I love giffin's other books immensely, but I was markedly disappointed with this one for a few reasons (Note, there are spoilers. If not interested in spoiling the story, the first sentence of each paragraph sums up my general feelings).

Firstly, this book varied greatly in structure from all of giffin's other books, whos structure I very much appreciated and was drawn to personally. I feel like life is about the occurrence monumental events, whether tragic, amazing, miraculous, scandalous, etc., and what you do after they occur, how you deal with them. This is how her other novels are written; dex and rachel sleep together in the first chapter, ben tells claudia he wants children in the first chapter, whats-her-name's daughter shows up on her doorstep in the first chapter, etc., and the rest of the story deals with the consequences and reactions to the choice made thereafter. I feel like this is analagous to life; the build up to these things happening would not be particularly relevant, except in hindsight, because who knows when monumental things are going to happen? The One and Only did not follow this structural style, and, to me, the book is to the poorer for it

Secondly, I feel like the book lacked focus overall. Like I mentioned above, in her other books, giffin spells out the central conflict immediately. With this story, I found myself having read halfway through the book and still wondering what the story was about. Was it about this family and family friend dealing with the death of a matriarch? Was it about Shea deciding to step outside of the Walker community she knew and loved for the first time in her life? Was it about Shea's relationship with Ryan and how her mother and best friend wanted it more than she did? Was it about an NCAA investigation? Or was it about Shea's relationship with the coach? There were too many storylines going on at the same time to really get a sense of what the book was about. I feel like the story was more a chronicle of Shea's every day life than it was about any one thing in particular. And for that matter, what did Lucy's pregnancy have to do with the story? And what about Astrid and Brownwyn?

Thirdly, the ending was rather abrupt and unfinished. I feel like because of the lack of focus and multiple storylines going on at once, it was easy to leave some of the storylines hanging, and thats precisely what happened. What ever came of the investigation? Did Shea and her mother repair their relationship? Did she go for the job in New York? Why or why not?

I feel like there could have been an entire story written about one of any number of these storylines. I feel like the Coach/Shea thing could have been an entire story in and of itself ( for the record, this entire angle made me very uncomfortable. It had nothing to do with the respective ages, but more to do with the fact that this man had been a paternal figure to her like forever and her best friend's dad on top of that. Any time they became reasonably intimate I had to put down the book and stop reading for a minute. I caught myself covering my mouth and saying "gross!" aloud on more than one occasion). I feel like it could have started the night she went to the bar and left her credit card and the coach came and picked her up. If they would have had an intimate moment then, the remainder of the book could have been them deciding what their feelings meant and what to do about them (kind of Something Borrowed-eque, but the best friend's dad angle would have added another element). It could have included the Ryan relationship too as an alternative, another conflict for our main character.

 I mean, this is just me going on a tangent here at this, but the long and the short of it is that this was not a stylistic giffin novel and may end up disappointing those looking to find that.
4217160
It's disappointing for me that this was the last Discworld book I ever read, and now that will always be true.  I very much enjoyed the first three "Science of Discworld" books, but this one felt disorganized.  And we can't blame that on Pratchett's illness; the best parts are very definitely the Discworld-set linking stories that he wrote.  The worst parts at the parts his two collaborators wrote, which is very sad because I loved their work in the other three.  Some chapters seem to ramble on far too long, while others are downright preachy, which is sometimes rather startling given the emphasis put on objective, rational thought right from the start.  And sad to say, but it contains a number of outright falsehoods.  I will mention just one of them here: they discuss roses as an example of a species bred by humans to a point that it is no longer beneficial for the plant.  (Although, honestly, I'd argue that's a matter of perspective -- you need what they dismissively call "human-centered thinking" to regard human meddling as special, and not part of nature.  So there is also an example of how much sloppier this one is.)

The passage goes on to claim that roses cannot breed sexually any more, because in our pursuit of more petals, we have converted their sepals, stamens, and anthers into petals.  Without stamens and anthers, of course, they cannot reproduce.  Which should make one ask: so where do new rose varieties come from, if they can only be bred by cuttings?  But they do not ask this.  Nor, apparently, have they ever actually looked at a rose.  The sepals are there, plainly visible.  The stamens and anthers are harder to see, buried as they are inside the mass of petals of a hybrid tea rose (which is what most non-gardeners think of as a rose these days).  But roses that you buy to give to your loved ones are really just buds.  They haven't opened up all the way.  Without good care, off the bush they will die before they can open up all the way and reveal their tender innards.  So I can excuse them not knowing that they do in fact have normal plant parts.  I cannot, however, excuse them being smug about a truly bizarre belief about roses, attempting to prove some sort of a point with something that is blatantly false.

I've grown hybrid tea roses.  Leave the buds on, and they'll open up, the bees will visit them, and they will set fruit.  They are *absolutely* capable of breeding on their own.  The reason they are propagated by cuttings is for consistency.  The offspring of a Double Delight and a wild rose will not look very much like either parent.  If you want a Double Delight rose, you need to grow it from a cutting; all varietal roses are clones.  Propagation from cutting was not developed to overcome the problem of a sterile plant.  It was developed for far more aesthetic reasons.

This is also true of grapes, apples, peaches, oranges, and many more fruiting plants.  If you buy a young Honeycrisp apple tree to put in your yard, know that it was not grown from a seed.  It was grown from a cutting, and in a very real sense, is the exact same tree as every other Honeycrisp.  It is propagated exactly the same way as the rose, but it would be much harder to believe it had been rendered sterile, since the whole point of a fruit tree is fruit.

And that's just one example of the things that bothered me about this book.  I did enjoy the bits set in Discworld, for the most part.  But the science parts were disorganized, not always accurate, and sometimes rambled on unnecessarily.  It would've benefitted from another pass by the editor, I think.  Which makes me wonder if perhaps that was Pratchett's role, and that's why this one is the worst of the four?
4866749
I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but this one - not so much. It almost felt like it had been written by someone else under JHB's name.

The relationship between Tera and Tucker did not have the emotional complexity and nuance that is a hallmark of JHB's writing. In fact Tera's character was especially clichd.

It drove me NUTS that the name of the Senator's older son changed in this book. His name was not Connor in Book 1 or 2!  Really poor form.

I also found it amusing that a good ol' Southern boy referred to condoms as "rubbers". That's not what we usually call them on this side of the pond - and not what the guys called them in books 1& 2. (Yes, I did a search).

Disappointing end to a great series.
4213777
I had really high hopes for this book. I honestly could not put it down but at the same time I felt really let down by the end of the book. I finished it earlier today and I'm typing this still thinking, What happened? Why did it end this way?

Anyway, let me start with the protagonist. She is anti-hero. She is driven but selfish, and has a very grandiose opinion of her part in the hierarchy of life. When faced with the realization that she is not The Chosen One, she goes into self-hate and this was painful for me to read. I wanted her to pull out of it, because she did have a destiny --- just not the one she envisioned. However, she couldn't get past it and it dogged her all the way to the end.

The world building is great. I felt like I was in the forest, smelling the muck and the monsoon. And I was fascinated by the strata of "people": the Canopy where the thirteen gods dwelled and protected the Canopians; the Understoryans who wanted to overthrow these gods; the Floor whose people we never meet, probably because it's hard to exist where the sun did not penetrate and monsters live. This is the shining glory of this book.

The plot and storyline kept me in suspense until the heroine's character "growth" started to make my eyes roll. I really just wanted her to snap out of it.

Other characters did have development, like her friend and fellow Gardener Oos. Aoun, not so much. She came to the Garden with him as children, and he became her sexual fascination in a one sided lust/love. I am still confused about the ending in terms of her relationship with him.

Also, the ending felt like a video montage of seventeen years that passed after the climax. I don't want to give it away. I just think it was an interesting device, and I don't think all loose threads were tied. For example, the reason for the Understoryans wanting to overthrow the new gods were never fully explained. What is wrong with the old gods? This is the backbone of their society and its never explained.

Do I recommend it? Gosh that's hard to answer. I really like the world building, and Dyer can certainly write a great narrative. She's not afraid to write about sex. It's just so hard to relate to the protagonist, and again the loose threads. If you pick it up, do let me know what you think.