Not one of Al's better works
352159
Al DiMeola is no doubt one of my favorite musicians (regardless of instrument played). He is one of if not probably the best / most talented guitarist in the world. However, that said, this is not one of his better efforts. He should not venture too far into the "World Music" category. He is first and foremost a Jazz/Fusion Guitarist, and he should stick with what he does best.
3372041
Terry Brooks hit his stride a long time ago and has been limping along ever since. The early Shannara books were just plain awful Tolkien ripoffs, though the middle parts of the saga, notably Elfstones of Shannara, were actually quite good. But this post period is pathetic.
Admittedly, Brooks has moved away a little from stolen elves and dwarves and into new types of characters, but his writing is still very stilted and not all that engaging. There is an oily sheen to his work, a career made out of capitalizing on other people's ideas and pathfinding and movie tie-ins. This particular book is not hard to read, but I found it hard to like.
2642128
I've been a fan of Stephen White's for years. He's one of the authors whose work I have always looked forward to reading. But The Last Lie was a major disappointment. It needs another good edit or three. White explains what's going on in Alan's head, and his motivation for thinking, doing,and saying to such an extent it's distracting. Usually I've appreciated this in White's books, but in this book the talking about his thinking process is self-important, insulting to the reader's intelligence. As if White believes Alan's thoughts to be so esoteric and complex the average reader needs him to dumb them down. Give readers some credit! We've muddled through your past work without being talked down to. Just move the story along.

White also repeats information unnecessarily, in case his readers aren't bright enough to remember from chapter to chapter. I don't remember experiencing this in previous White books. Most annoying and worrisome of all, the voice of Dr. Gregory has become pedantic and pompous. I hope this isn't reflective of a shift in the voice of the author as well.

Everyone has a weak product now and then. I'll give him this one, but I'll check his next book one out of the library.
2083433
Jan Siegel is a wonderful, very poetic and visual author, and her technical skills in this book are at their usual level.  However, I was very disappointed in the story.
In the first two books of this trilogy, Siegel showed the reader something new each time.  I will agree that Prospero's Children is the best of these novels and The Dragon Charmer wasn't as good, but at least in The Dragon Charmer we got new, interesting characters such as Moonspittle and Kel, and fascinating pictures of different worlds--the Tree and Hades.
In the Witch Queen, however, the only major new character is Luc, and he is not very interesting--at least, he didn't seem that way to me.  Compared to his Atlantean counterpart, he's downright dull, and I didn't feel any sexual tension between him and Fern.  We also didn't get to see anything new in this book.  Essentially, it was just Fern in London and Morgus in Kent, both trying to figure out what the other was up to.  I kept thinking, Why don't you just get over there and find out and get this plot moving somewhere interesting?
The magic--the circle casting, the Tree, etc.--is basically what we've seen before.  Even more vexing, the characters from previous books that I liked weren't around that much, and when they did make an appearance, they didn't seem to do anything; it was as if they were present merely for decoration.
Finally, I did not like the ending.  It seemed more of a cop-out--on the part of the author AND Fern--than a closure.
Essentially, I feel this books lacks the level of creativity and thought that was found in such abundance in Prospero's Children, and less so in The Dragon Charmer.  Even if you do love Jan Siegel, I would recommend that you wait until it comes out in paperback, or get it from the library.
159568
I have to agree with most of the other reviewers here, this was not Randy Wayne White's finest work.  Even his early Randy Striker series, which he admits were not well written, are better reads than this book.

I've been a fan of White for years and have pre-ordered the last dozen books months before release.  Like the other books prior to this, I read this one the first night but, unlike the others, I was left feeling cheated, looking for the real book, characters and stories I had grown to love.  In this work, the characters are cardboard, I can't relate to any of them.  Even Doc Ford and the ever-present Tomlinson.  The writing is polished, it's just that there's not much of a story, a pretty basic description of the action and a lack of suspense found in earlier works.

Here's hoping White makes a comeback.
951136
Being a fan of John Hiatt's for 25+ years and owning all of his previous albums, I'm sorry to say this one is a major disappointment.  There is very little here to get excited about or to compare with ANY of his previous of his work. There are no stand out efforts, just a three piece band with some tired lyrics in a hurry to finish an album (3 days), and it shows.  If you're new to John Hiatt, invest in any of his earlier work starting with "Riding With the King"(1983) through "Little Head"(1997) and you can not go wrong.  If you are a John Hiatt fan, let your big head do the thinking and skip this one.
3348855
Not nearly as good as his other works. Think this is one of his earlier pieces. Save yourself for "Killing Pablo"rather...
1866364
It is difficult to diss an author's work. After all, they put hours of blood, sweat and tears into their novels--at least they should. Therefore I am hesitant to say a negative word about any creative work. However, when it comes to Moonlight Rises (Dick Moonlight), Vincent Zandri gives me little choice. This novel totally misses the mark.

This is boring, predictable and not in the least an enjoyable read. I found the novel so droll that I couldn't finish it. I hope that Mr. Zandri does better with his next work because this one is a non-starter.
4776917
I'm always an Al fan, but this one was released during his period where he felt the need to put out an album almost every year, so not all the songs are top quality.
1507818
I have read all the Gabriel Allon novels, keep them in my library, and pre-ordered this one, so obviously I have been a big fan.  This one doesn't make the cut.  If it was his first, it would be his last.  Gabriel Allon is definitely no longer cool, but rather is throughout the book described as old, slow, and physically unattractive.  The book ends with "author's note" which is a  polemic on Putin and Russians. That seems to be the point of the book.  No thanks.
339508
Lee Child's last book, Bad Luck and Trouble, was a true masterpiece, and having read all of his books, it was clear to me that his work was getting better and better with each addition.  Well, I have to say that this book did not follow the trend.  The plot was boring, something of a mix of Killing Floor and Echo Burning, and Reacher's uniqueness and charm didn't come through.  It was like this book was slapped together, or written by somebody else.  Also, while I don't always agree with Reacher's tactics, what he does at the end of this book is deplorable.
3175603
Regrettably this is the weakest of the 4 Adrien English Mysterious. It lacked the intrigue and suspense of his previous books. It seemed as the murder was more of a secondary plot (and not a good one) to the main plot that of Adrien's soap opera life or love life. It would probably been better if he just ignored the murder and wrote a book that focused just on Adrien's soap opera love life as it gets worked out.
There was no challenge I figured out the murderer and motive early on in the book and that has only happened once before with "The Da Vinci Code". Not to mention the characters seemed to be rehashed characters from a previous book. Read two or three scenes with Detective Alonzo and you see parallels to the first book with Detective Chan in both actions and words.
Personally I would hold off to see if their is a 5ith book then I would read this one just so you would not be lost. Otherwise I would say save your money.
I still love Josh Lanyon and will read anything he puts out but this one just missed the mark.
2335974
The recording quality on this disc is generally sub-par. On one track her voice bounces back and forth between the channels. She sounds like a human ping-pong ball!! I must admit that one thing colors my review and that is that I am not a big fan of show music. I prefer Brightman's more recent works, "Time To Say Goodbye" and "Eden". "La Luna" wasn't too bad, but some of the song selections were rather dull. Buy this one only if you are a huge ALW fan, because Sarah does much better on her other discs.
4431101
I have enjoyed John Birmingham in the past, this one, WITHOUT WARNING could not keep my interest.  The book has a huge premise, the United States is gone, shallowed my some haze event and all are dead and gone, but American assets are of course still all around the world. The book's story is huge and jumps from story line to story line but it never managed to hold my interest. Choose another book from tois author.
2835224
Compared to El Gordo, And Yet It Moves and Brotherhood of Good Explosions, this one is a miss.  A few tracks (such as Phree) come through and shine, but the rest is very much forgettable, if not down right "skip-able".  Still a fan of the artist.
823469
As other reviewers have noted, the book follow the computer game "Krondor: The Betrayal" fairly closely.  The structure that is acceptable in a computer game is not acceptable in a book.  The book follows a very predictable, repeated, buildup, climax, denoument that you normally see in an episodic video game.  I have read and enjoyed most of Raymond Feist's work, but this one was subpar and overall, not extremely interesting.  I only hope his next works are better, as he is truly one of my favorite authors.
4073997
Atlantic Starr are worthy of a better CD than this.  Most of the tracks here are the edited single versions.  Do yourself a favor and skip this one.  There are many more comilations by this group that will get you the full album versions of the tracks