The end is near... War Kids 4, please!
347121
I was totally excited for this book because is the third in the War Kids series. The second one, Survive The Day, left me desperately wanting more.

So, remembering the previous books, I think that they both had more mystery than this one. HOWEVER, in this book I found more action and war parts, which is great because it fits perfectly with the storyline.

The characters evolved and madured, and I think that the war brought out the best and worst of them.

Now, you know what happens with wars... and som parts were really touching.

But now my mind is totally stuck with Purenet. I don't know how War Kids is going to end and how this ending will fit with the story of Purenet.

So, thanks H.J. Lawson for giving me this book, but also for playing tricks with my mind with those shocking endings :)

-I recieved a free book from the author but this fact didn't influence the review-
3998054
You better read this...it's already on its way and we are not going to be happy with the ending. It is almost too late!
2578535
Call of Duty 4 is probably the best modern FPS I have ever played. The campagin is a very detailed story that almost spells out the end of the world. You start out as "Soap", a British SAS soldier. Your first mission is to storm a cargoship by the cover of dark during a strong storm. Your team repels down from a helicoptor and storms the command deck. You kill all enemies and go down a flight of stairs and onto the main deck. You then advance into the cargo hold of the ship, take out more terrorists, and find the "package". You don't get to secure the package however, because the enemy sends 2 Migs to sink the ship. The ship is hit and you have to run off of it and jump onto the helicoptor.
  The campagin progresses as you covering a Russian assualt on Russian rebels using a sniper rifle. You then break into a house and use night-vision to rescue a spy that was arrested. After that mission you switch to an American marine in Iraq. You go on several missions from storming buildings in search of a terrorist named Al Assad, to defending a broken down tank, to having a massive urban shootout. Your final mission in Iraq is helping a pinned down squad in the center of Al Assad's capital city. As you, your squad, and the soldiers you rescued are airlifted out of the area, a large nuclear device explodes. That is the end of your days as a marine.
  The campagin heats up as you go fifteen years into the past as a British sniper to snipe a nuclear weapons dealer. You shoot him, and then try to carry your wounded partner out of a deserted Ukraine town. This part of the game is very hard.
  After you go back to present day, you go on a mission to arrest the weapons dealer's son. You get him to surrender, but he pulls out a handgun and kills himself.
  The weapon's dealer, who somehow survived the sniper shot, tells the SAS and USMC (who are working together in a top secret mission.)that they need to leave Russia, or he will launch nuclear warheads at the US. US and SAS forces move in to take out the Russian launch site where the missiles will be launced from, but they don't get there in time. Two warheads launch and start heading towards the US. You then have to break into a nuclear bunker. This is a very hard mission, because the enemy is usually only a few feet from you, and grenades are flying everywhere.
  After you disarm the missiles, your team tries to escape by driving out of the area. As you cross a bridge, a helicopter blows up the bridge. You are wounded, and you see the Russian arms dealer come onto the remains of the bridge and start shooting your teammates. Your team leader throws you a pistol. You use the pistol to take out the arms dealer.
  If you watch all of the credits, you get to unlock a bonus mission. The bonus mission is very fun and intense. You have to storm AIR FORCE ONE and free the President from Russian terrorists who are seeking revenge.
  Call of Duty 4 also has incredible graphics. The explosions and backgrounds look really cool. The audio is very impressive as well.
  WARNING! Call of Duty 4 does deserve it's M rating. I don't know why it has strong language written on the box, because the worst word in the game is "oh s***!" The game does have some blood in it when you shoot enemies, but there is no gore in the game. The game does have some extreme violence in it. Almost every second of the game you are killing terrorsits. The action never stops. During the sniping misson and the silo mission, the terrorists send war dogs after you. It is very hard to see you shoot the dogs and watch them die. If the dogs jump on you, you have to strangle them to death.
  All in all, Call of Duty 4 is a great game. Other then the violence and blood, it is a very good FPS.

Graphics  A++
Sound  A
Gameplay  A+
Intensity- High
Violence-  extreme
language-  mild
blood-  moderate
Rating-  Appropriate
Recomendation- Only buy if you are a die hard FPS fan and can take hardcore action and some killing of animals.
2477869
One note before I start this review...
Have you noticed that the covers for the Ranger's Apprentice series has changed? I have been collecting the series in USA paperback editions with the covers not containing the metal-shield-banner (by Cliff Nielsen), with the artwork of John Blackford not enlarged. These new covers are now demanding more attention, when they are already getting enough from widespread fans around the world and I must say that I'm not very fond of them. Nevertheless, on with the review...

Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia (or also known as The Oakleaf Bearer's) is about the continuations of Halt/Horace hunting down and rescuing Will and Evalyn. It also continues the plot of the Skandians and the beloved (although not very hug-a-ble) Erik. But when they are all finally reunited, Halt reports that he shall a small group of Temujai (a dangerous race of mounted warriors, reminding us vividly of Genghis Khan's and his Mongolian army) invading the lands of Skandia.
Halt convinces Erik that they need to think up a plan besides rushing at the enemy head-on, and Halt becomes the key figure to Skandias' only hope. But while the Skandians prepare to face a great enemy, other forces, within and without, are working against them.
I' am very relieved that John Flanagan has provided us with a re-boost of electricity since the last installment of his, The Icebound Land, was a bit dull of action. This book could had easily ended the series on a happy note... oh, I wasn't suppose to tell you that. But, anyway, be prepared for a lot of hardcore action (although not graphical, since this series is for young adults/kiddies), a bit of fowl language and on-the-edge-of-your-seat-drama! This novel really ties-up some loose ends and leaves us feeling happily content. So if you haven't picked-up The Battle for Skandia, make sure you do so because this is one series you can't afford to miss!
1722448
... which is probably why the good ol' 4-6 year old kids might have some trouble with the button pushing and combo attacks. Just a thought there.

I found the game to be good- you get to play the Fantastic Four and use all of their abilities. It is pretty much what I expected from a video game born from a movie title, you know? I didn't find the camera angles to be an issue and I really enjoyed the level where 'Mr. Flame-On' flew through the volcano. It's entertaining fun for children who are old enough to enjoy chaining together combos instead and a little complexity in battle instead of just one note smashing combat with a multitude of character/costume choices (aka Marvel Ultimate Alliance- it's got a really cool intro screen and it's a shame that's what Activision decided to blow their budget on that one CG sequence and nothing else in the game is of that quality.). I have played Fantastic Four ROTSS and I know plenty of families that have enjoyed it as well- and it's been far from confusing for them. Be aware of the game ratings, folks, and know what you want your children playing- many times the enjoyment a person takes away from the game comes from their own personal bias and preferences and does not indicate a horrible gaming experience for someone else or their family.

Cheers~
2310599
A fitting, though unwanted, end to a great series!  This installment finally addresses the U.S. response to The Event, as well as some of the worldwide fallout in the presence of a weakened U.S.  After the opening of the first book in the series, I expected more "Big Picture" information, but I happily enjoyed the narrower focus on Alex Fletcher and his family.  Konkoly does very well with his characters and their development, creating realistic personas and dialogue.  Alex, his family and friends are all people that could very easily live on your street or in your neighborhood.  I am encouraged by the volume of Kindle World activity around this series because I don't know if I'm ready to walk away from "The Perseid Collapse" realm, yet.  Konkoly has done a good job of tying up the loose ends from his storyline, but there is plenty of room for other authors to create compelling stories.  I sincerely hope that I will be able to see this series at a movie theater in the near future - the story, its characters and its action would work well as movies.  Ultimately, I am a big fan of Konkoly and anxiously await each of his novels.  This book delivers and demonstrates why so many other authors want to hop into the world he created.  Great job, Steve!
4573169
Man, what crap passes off as publishable in this age.  Now there will be 6 year olds playing the knock out game.  At least it is in written form so it won't be have too much of an effect.
2949375
A part 7 is definitely needed to wrap up. I do 't want to spoil it for anyone, but the last event needs to have more after it. Need more MaeDella and Charlie!
1933442
Although I did enjoy the book , it might be time end the series and bring about some reunions with the characters.  They have been through so much it would be nice to see an end to the empire or at least a defeated and bring the main characters to a positive solution with a strong family reunion.
2907296
Great book to finish out the series. Some of the interim books seemed to stretch out the series, and grasped a little for story line. This book has a lot of enjoyable action, some gripping realities of war, then really wrapped things up well (as much as I can say without spoilers). Probably my second favorite book in the series, right behind the first (Tomorrow, When the War Began).
3198518
does anyone have this later afterschool special on tape?? i can't wait for the last season to come out on dvd!!

email me: jensay27@hotmail.com
2346515
*Spoilers*
So, if you have read the first 3 stories, as the ZA came about, all the fighting in the middle east brought everyone together and effectively ended THAT war.  Moving forward to this book, they are now in the good old US of A and surprise surprise (sarcasm), Americans working together is not the case.  Sure, there are the typical "take advantage of the weak and scared" crowd, but this book introduces the higher powers that are warring amongst themselves, whether or not for the greater good still remains to be seen, but not surprising, people in power do not have the best interests of Americans or humans in mind or action.  New, important characters are introduced to make this much more that just the ZA introduced in the normal ways (if this is your genre of choice) and I will be immediately reading the 5th installment to see what happens next.  Who do you trust, will people be able to keep their promises to others, and will they find a cure?
837894
This is a brilliant idea for a Wii game!  I only wish there were more in the "Real Heroes" series, if it is a series.  Once you get the hang of looking in one direction (with your wiimote) while moving in another direction (with the nunchuk joystick), the game is a breeze!  There are about eight or so main missions, each broken up into smaller sections, and they are all quite clever and fun (although we've only played on Easy setting so far - not sure how hard the other two settings are).  There are only two sections of the game that frustrated us.  One is set in a science research lab, and the room gets so dark and full of debris that you can't figure out how to maneuver through the maze of rubble to get to safety, although when we tried again the next night it seemed embarassingly easy.  The next-to-last mission has a tough section where you have to keep three streams of fire away from an oil tanker all at the same time.  Once you finally do get past it and get stuck at the next obstacle (a gas leak), there was no "save checkpoint" after the tanker, so you keep having to re-do the oil tanker part over and over and over again until you get to the next checkpoint, then you're clear.  (An extra save point right after the tanker would've been great.)

One of the best things about the game is that it's the next-to-last level that is hardest, while the very last level is absolutely the most fun - an amusement park on fire, including a trip through a haunted house! - which is a nice reward.

But the very, very best thing about the game is how educational it is.  For one thing, there are fire safety tips on the load screens between missions - great talking points to share with your kids as they (or you!) play.  But even the in-game play itself can be educational.  For example, in the frustrating lab mission above, when we couldn't figure out which way to go (because we'd never been in that lab before), we talked about how real firefighters have that problem: they've never been in the building before, so they, too, can get lost.  And at parts of the game, your hose can't reach any further, or your fire extinguisher goes empty, and what do you do?  Real firefighters have to confront that possibility as well!

During one particularly long mission that just kept going and going, our kids asked what do firefighters do when they're in the middle of fighting a fire and have to go to the bathroom?  Hmm, not sure about that one!

The game can really be played "casually" - taking your time fighting the fire in each section - but the rockin' music just gets you pumped up to save the day as quick as you can!  Without a doubt one of the most fun Wii games we've ever bought.  You'll never take firefighters for granted after playing this!  Wow!
1804255
I love this show.  I was super upset when it was cancelled after 4 seasons.  I am now waiting for the blu ray of the Peacekeeper Wars.
282838
I'm irritated it ended!!!  Just as the scene I'd been waiting for started to happen!  Please, Diana, write fast!  I enjoyed book eight
just as much as the others, though I did think there was a wee bit too much about the battles.  I'm sure there are men reading the
books, but I'm equally sure most readers are women, who already know war is confusing, unpredictable and horrid.
391384
WWll  Necessary to fight. too bad it isn't our last !
390190
Better, with the added conflict between the cats and wolves.  Before they retreat entirely to civilization, I think they should be a fight between the wolves and the military, with the wolves winning!  Not so much action that brings too much attention, but just a good mini fight, to show that the military is not all powerful!  Thanks again.  brigittenrich@aol.com