Interesting origin story
352919
This is an interesting origin story. It is a nice throwback and definitely illustrates some pro-American 1940 themes. It is Kindle formatted too.
3253353
A very interesting introduction to Major Kusanagi and the origin of her team. We meet most of the characters of the Stand Alone Complex group before they joined Section 9, and get their back stories. Well done prequel to the Ghost in the Shell universe.
3386250
Green Hornet: Year One tells the origin story of how the Green Hornet met Kato. It's written by Matt Wagner with art by Aaron Campbell. The character of the Green Hornet has been around since the 1930s, but I don't know that much of the origin has been given. I know that Britt Reid is the heir to a newspaper, and that he fights crime alongside Kato as The Green Hornet, and that's about it.

Here we learn of Kato's upbringing in Japan and his time as a soldier during the horrific Nanking Massacre. We see Britt as a driftless wanderer who finds himself trapped in China and running into Kato. Together they make their way back to Chicago, hopefully in time for Britt to see his ailing father.

The action keeps flipping between the present and the past of the two heroes. In the present, they are fighting a corrupt gang as the newly formed duo. The writing is just fine by Matt Wagner and the story and art have a great sense of the period, but I found the constant flipping back and forth to be kind of distracting. At times, the time would shift back or forward for no apparent reason. Still a fun read, though.
2795902
Good start to a new series. Interesting take on ancient civilizations.
3249903
I enjoyed Nathan's origin story. I read the other reviews, and the basics of the story seem to be well reported. Nathan is an upstanding guy, better than most of us, and that's why he's chosen. I would have preferred a bit more character development, and a bit less episodic learning in the early chapters. I appreciate that Nathan doesn't have full understanding of what's just happened to him. It creates a nice tension when it comes to the free will decisions he will make as the story unfolds. Choices have consequences, and they aren't always happy. It gets four stars from me because I enjoyed myself, and I think you will too. I also appreciate how much room this character has for future stories.
1579219
I thought this story was a good introduction to a potential franchise character. A bit repetitive in places but it kept me hooked enough. I would recommend if you like murder mystery types.
3485947
I've been waiting for more background and updates on the current activities of the Nova Cats and the Spirit Cats, and this story elaborates on these factions with a fair amount of detail.  The story focuses on Kisho Nova Cat, a mystic that was introduced in "Sword of Sedition".  After throwing "Daughter of the Dragon" in the trash, where it belonged, this book was a pleasant surprise to me.  The author goes a little overboard on the inner turmoil content, pushing Kisho's behavior slightly beyond believable.  However, the story and action provided enough of a foundation to keep my interest.  Although not blatantly pornographic, like "Daughter", there is one subtle sex scene that spans chapter 7, so parents, be forewarned.  The author aparently also has permission to kill off a couple well-known characters from the MechWarrior miniatures universe.  I was very dissapointed in the pointless way they were eliminated.  I'm worriedly holding out hope that WizKids and their authors will reveal some actual purpose for these executions, other than to just eliminate factions in their game.

This book does a nice job of illustrating the nobility and pride of the Nova and Spirit Cats, while also exposing the conflicting nature of their eugenics program; the brutally harsh system that the Nova Cats have swathed in a semi-religious belief system.  Although not as good as Loren Coleman's books, or "Target of Opportunity", this is a good read, especially for those interested in the status of the Nova Cats and Spirit Cats.
1469687
The explanations at the beginning of the book helped a lot in understanding the script/story. A little difficult to keep characters straight as names are similar and that is probably due not being used to that culture.  Interesting, though.
812432
pretty good book - an interesting angle at the evolution of a character, only read the first of the series so far
1180727
Origin of the Species was a very interesting read and had a few twists in the story that I honestly didn't see coming. It was a great story and some of the random side comics were interesting as well.
2214988
This was an interesting origin story. The action was plentiful with some good scares and edge of the seat scenes.  The characters were very relatable. I thought the explanation for the plague was interesting with more detail given than in most other similar stories. The book was overall well-written with a few minor proofreading errors. I recommend this strongly to anyone who likes this genre.
3928199
Is quite interesting to read the background, even though you know what's going to happen to many of the characters. I also found the references to future players and the comments about the child warriors very interesting.
3811529
This prequel is an insightful introduction to some of the characters in The Gypsy Series.
This short book explains how Gypsy came to discover her psychic talents and how, over time, they evolved into manageable abilities.
I enjoyed reading the stories of the different psychic encounters Gypsy had, and gained some insight into how she copes with her 'gift', as well as how she copes with the skeptics.

One niggling problem for me was a lack of punctuation here and there and missing words, this was annoying in that it caused breaks in the continuity with wasted time rereading parts to get the gist of it. Overall this wasn't a major issue, but since this was a bought copy which has presumably been through a final edit, I found that a bit annoying...however I don't blame the author for this but rather the final editor and Would not let it put me off.
2503459
I liked this book but for being a new series there are a lot of similarities to the Brides of the Kindred books (to name a few: both series start out with three friends on Earth, healing your mate with your bodily fluids=blood Kindred, forming a psychic bond=just about any Kindred and his mate, and Count Creepy McGrabbyPants=Two).  Despite the similarities to the Kindred series, the author brings us a new universe and populates it with new and interesting races of people.  The La-ti-zal twist was a pleasant surprise.

The story was good, though it was a little slow in the beginning. It is also filled with pop culture references.  I am looking forward to see where this series will go.
2135190
I really enjoyed this book/short stories.  I think it was a great way to give a thorough introduction to the characters Theron and Taras.  I would recommend reading this before 61 ad.
296511
Not a bad read.  Had not read the previous books in the series, so was a little nervous that I would not be able to follow what was going on, but Reynolds does a good job of filling in the backstory as we get along into the story. It does seem that the author has his main characters change direction and attitudes in a very short timeframe in the story, and that problems that initially push the characters into certain directions seem to become less important as the author pushes the story in the right direction.

3.5 stars.
1249960
Interesting start to a what seems to be a fairly novel premise for a series, at least it's new to me.  An ultra secret group of "super-human" males who may or may not de descendants of gods or aliens.  A race of beings who were, for want of a better ,test tube babies.  Wow!  The few answers you receive about their history & origins inspire more questions, leading the reader to want to continue reading in this series.

I always enjoy stories which play up the "irresistible pull" between certain men & women and this tale had that kind of attraction between the lead character in spades!  However, there was one aspect of this fantasy that bothered me.  The male lead Zeus did something I don't think the strong female character would have easily forgiven... yet she let's it slide with little complaint, but ignores him for a long period over a minor incident which makes her jealous.  All in all though, I found myself liking the main characters and enjoyed the overall feeling of bigger conflicts to come and look forward to making time to read more in the series.