Good, but not really good...
352261
This is a nice product but I am having some issues with it right out of the box. There appears to be a display issue on my machine; (1GZ, G4, 2GB RAM, 23" Display, 10.3.1). The maps white out for no reason on the zoom...
Also the render speed is sloooow[...] I was really excited about this product. Lets hope they can bring it up to par.
3225048
This one kind of fell flat for me. It was good, but not great. I think a lot of it came down to Joe Hill overusing things like "they closed the door, and then it never opened again" at the end of many chapters. It's an interesting device, but it was so overused it got to be annoying.

The world of the story was interesting, and the plot was solid as well. The Dragonscale was a really creative idea, and it's clear he had a lot of fun playing around with it. The main thing that drops it down to 3 stars for me is that the characters are feel relatively flat. You can guess what they're going to do well ahead of time, and there are only a couple of major surprises.

Don't let me dissuade you though, this is a good book, and totally worth your time. I think 3-stars is buyable.
1023436
This CD is decent, but certainly not as mind-numbingly awesome as most of her work.  It almost seems forced and the song selection just didn't do it for me.
With that said, I must add that I absolutely love Sarah Brightman.  From the moment I first heard her, I had to own every single album she's ever done.  Yet, with this album, I was expecting so much more.  I wanted to be floored the way I was when I first listened To Dive, or Phantom, or pretty much any of her others.  But this just lacked the power and beauty I've come to expect from her, and left me searching the case to see if the real CD was in there.
It's not bad, but it's just not up to the level Sarah Brightman has given us in the past.  But, there's always next time... (and I will buy it).
3323266
I'd agree to those who mentioned that most of Mehdi's album are overrated. I just can't understand why most of the review rate his album at 5/5. 5/5 means perfect, and his album is nowhere near perfect. It's nice allright, good as a background & relaxation music, but not good enough to receive full stars. Most of the soundtracks are loopy and repeating the same thing over and over again. I would simply say his albums are lacking of originality. Moreover, more works need to be done on the quality of the audio recording & processing, as it simply sounds too synthetic and lacking of sound dynamic. Or maybe Mehdi's musics are intended to be played for background music in department stores so that the audio quality is not that important?
1098773
If there were increments, I would probably have dropped this to a 4.5-star review.  Since I can't, and I like to support good authors, 5-starts it is.  Characters were unique and reasonably well developed, settings were good, action was good.  The reason I only say the book is OK is because it was quite predictable.  There were no real surprises, no twist ending, no extra spicy sauce to make it more memorable.  It wasn't bad though... just not spectacular.  I should note that I listened to the audiobook, and the reader did a fine job of bringing the characters to life.

Things I liked: the laughing man... cool.  The Mowry warrior... not a commonly represented race, and I found that to be refreshing.  I'm a sucker for space opera, and this was a little bit that.  Not my all-time-favorite, but certainly better than the last two "sci-fi" audiobooks I listened to.
1657888
(Before I begin, I should note that the book I bought was an advanced/review copy; I assume it's basically the same as a normal one.)

This was a hard decision between three and four stars, because while this book was quite good at parts, at other times it got bogged down in details. Though the characters are pretty simple, the book is good at making you care about them, and the villain in particular is very easy to hate (in a good way). The romance between the two main characters is nice, if a bit too quick and easy.

There are a lot of twists, but while a lot of them are good (including who the villain is, which comes out about a third of the way through), a lot of them are just kind of pointless. Including (and stop here if you don't want spoilers)...everybody gets superpowers at the end. The people you didn't think had superpowers? They have them. The people who already had superpowers? Turns out they have more. This was pretty clever the first time, because it happened with a character you really didn't expect, but when virtually EVERYONE but the protagonist gets more and more abilities it just becomes boring (and weird, because aside from that first guy, the new powers barely affect the plot). Then there are things like the girl supposedly dying, but not, and it's dragged on for no real reason but melodrama, and there's lots of talk about how the superpowers work that's only occasionally significant...I get the feeling the author wants this to be a series, but if so, the end just has too much info-dumping to make way for sequels, and if there AREN'T supposed to be sequels, it's even worse.

Anyway, though most of this review was complaints, this book really was pretty good, at least for the first two acts, so check it out if you're interested.
3231238
...I couldn't justify giving it more than three stars.

I enjoyed several of the songs - catchy tunes with sophisticated percussion and lots of layered sounds reminding me here and there of OK GO, Dave Matthews, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or even Queen and Styx.  I particularly enjoyed the keyboard.  But after a few times through I found myself skipping several tracks.  As a personal opinion, I liked maybe 4 of the songs, would listen to 3, and found 3 to be not worth listening to.  Didn't love any of the songs.

Compare that to "Oh No" by OK GO which I would give 4 stars - I loved 3 songs, liked 4 and only found one or two I'd skip.

One weak point was in the lyrics.  Some songs, like 1985, are more polished, but others, like Raincoat, are repetitive and not well linked to the cadence of the music, which can be cool in rap but here makes the narrative disjointed.  Not to say that you should be formulaic but several of the songs seem to have several different choruses - each with an unrelated narrative.

The lead singer has a great voice but could use more variation and inflection and definitely more harmony.

This appears to be their first album - They show potential but I can't say I'd go out of my way to recommend this to anyone.....
1252413
On this album, Veruca Salt sounds kind of like Hole, but fails to be as good. I did enjoy some songs, like "Yeah Man," "Hellraiser" and "Disconnected." "Yeah Man"  and "Hellraiser" are fun songs, and "Disconnected" has  a great melody behind a continuous backbeat. Louise sounds pretty good on  the songs with the exception of "All Dressed Up." But it just  seems like something is missing to give a lot of these songs fire. For one  thing, it could have used fewer slow then rowdy-type styles. It also tends  to meld together, keeping things from staying fresh.
1670324
I enjoyed reading this book, but I'm not quite sure that it lives up to all of the hype it keeps getting. The story is well written, and keeps readers guessing right up to the last few chapters, but I can't help but feel slightly underwhelmed with the ending. Is as though you wait to have this sense of "OMG I didn't see that coming! What a great plot twist!", but instead it was more of a "Oh that's where they decided to go with this.  . . Ok then". I still give this book 4 stars, because it was an enjoyable read, but don't expect it to rock your world.
1858929
I had very high expectations for this album after hearing so much about it and being so impressed by Powerslave, and then after hearing The Trooper from a friend, I was convinced that this would be the best album ever.  However, I was quite wrong.  Many of the songs are too plain and lacking, some too slow, some just all-out boring.  However, there are some good spots on this album...
1. Where Eagles Dare: A great intro, but can't quite match up to Aces High.  Still a good, with a superb verse, but the whole song seems too similar.
Rating: B+
2. Revelations: One of my least favorite Iron Maiden songs, and the beginning is well, uh, it shows promises, but yet not.  Then the verse begins, and ugh, too slow and such.  The rest of song is just too bright and happy.
Rating: C-
3. Flight of Icarus: This song will take a while to get used to, as the verse is too plain.  But, the great chorus makes up for that, along with some good solos and the longest note ever held by Bruce at the final chorus.  Awesome chorus.
Rating: B
4. Die With Your Boots: Kicks off with a bang on the intro, and then a speedy bassline comes in to assist the sweet riff.  The song is overall good, a solid song, and the chorus is great too, but the pre-chorus can get a bit annoying.
Rating: B+
5. The Trooper: This is by far the best song on the album, and quite possibly the best Iron Maiden song ever. Just, wow.  The intro is superb and provides a great predecing to one of the best riffs ever.  It is so genious, I just can't describe it.  The verse is great and very fast and displays the perfect message.  This COULD have been my favorite song had Maiden just used the "Ooohhh" part as a break in the verse or pre-chorus, and threw in a good chorus.  Unfortuantely, I can only imagine.  Still an awesome song though.
Rating: A+
6. Still Life: Well, three good songs in a row.  I just love the beginning, and well, the whole song too.  The verse is the highlight with Bruce's eerie voice in this song providing a good setting for a good song.
Rating: B+
7. Quest For Fire: Now the album begins to decline.  The song is just WAY too plain and pointless, along with the horrid chorus.  Definitely not a very good song.
Rating: C
8. Sun and Steel: Better than Quest for Fire, but just way too similar to "quest" in the verse, with the similar style.  Come on, something different or something good!
Rating: C+
9. To Tame A Lad: The second in the Maiden epic songs, and maybe the worst one of the 80s, but still a good song, especially the long, yet very heavy part towards the middle.  But I just can't seem to get into the rest song as much.
Rating: B
I wouldn't reccomend starting with this album, as that belongs to Number of the Beast, either that or Somewhere In Time, one of those.
2672285
Mostly good listening... being a musician I felt some of the tunes choices could have been better after the strong opening tunes. Still, good listening.
4496418
I rate it 4 Stars because it is good,
but here's the good, the bad, and the ugly:

Characters are interesting enough, but not real memorable. Alice's daughter's development is inconsistent and unbelievable. Bohalian's development of the more masculine characters (Steven and the female prosecutor) are stronger, more interesting and more believable. His writing style changes with each character, which adds interest, but it seems to lose consistency.

Plot was good ~ it held my attention, but it didn't keep me up all night. It was suspenseful enough to hold my interest. Bohalian does a good, though rather obvious job of trying to lead the reader off track to conclude the usual suspects. For a while I was disappointed as I thought it predictable after I decided I KNEW 'who did it' (someone other than we are led to believe), but in the end I was wrong and pleasantly surprised :)
201712
Compared to others in the series, this one wasn't so good. I mean, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.
I have to say I really enjoyed the middle of the book, when the two main characters weren't actually together. James' life became interesting. But then they were back together..... I found Theo really immature and boring. James' anger issues were stupid and disappeared off stage....
I really feel like I have nothing more to say... I mean, the whole point of romance novels, in my opinion, is that they are character based stories. The plot are often just rediculas and don't hold up if you think about it too long. But the characters are what you come for (and the relationship between them). Often one or both of the characters are annoying or selfish or *insert bad character trait here*, but they grow as they get to know each other and become better characters as the story goes along.
Sadly, in the case of this book, these two characters actually get worse as the story continues.
Really, I am giving it 3 hearts for the pirates.
2387263
I love this album, but it's hard to explain why.  She doesn't have a great voice, the lyrics are not exactly profound (not on paper anyway) and the music isn't really smashing, but somehow the package works.
Mostly, I  think, it's her delivery, which can be achingly, smashingly personal and  never feels contrived or manipulative.  "shitloads of money" is a  case in point -- a song so honest it's almost brutal.  In fact, much of the  album is sort of upsetting.  I would never play it when I have friends  over...it's just too dark for that sort of thing.
Really it's more of an  album you want to listen with a whiskey and a mild case of depression.  OK,  I'm not making it sound very inviting...and I suppose a lot of people  wouldn't see the point of it at all.  But -- as these reviews make clear --  if you like it you're likely to REALLY like it.
4232164
But still good, better as background music that you listen to while you drive or when your on the computer typing or whatever.

 Its kind of hard to just sit down and listen to it, like you can with John's music. Because most of the music is fast paced and short, which makes since because its for a video game. So don't expect wonderfull masterpieces that are amazing to listen to, songs that are as big and dramatic as John would do. But more of short simple songs that are still fun to listen to.

  May God BE ABLE to bless you....... JOHN 3:16
  ............^^^^^..............
3329476
I enjoyed, but it was not one of my favorites...I was a little disappointed, but I did enjoy - it's just not as good as say, 11/22/63 or Duma Key - those were great!  I hope they keep coming.
2426014
I might be missing something here, but the game gets a bit dull.  I wasn't expecting great excitement here, but instead a good way to spend some time with my wife.  It is, after all, a 2-player game, but the "walk-through-the-forest" schtick loses a bit of its luster after a few games.  I find myself less and less inclined to suggest it when we're looking for something to play.  Part of me wonders if we need to be using the gathering sticks more feverishly, but even then I can't imagine a scenario where there's much excitement just because we're both gunning for the same mushrooms and using all of our resources to snatch them instead of cooking the lower values.

Amazon has been confusing in the 2-player game department, because every game seems to get stellar reviews.  If you have a local game store where they have free play nights (pre-opened games to play), you might want to vet this (and others) first.  As a frame of reference, I have enjoyed Lost Cities more insofar as re-playability.  All-in-all, it's a cute a fun game, but it might be a 50/50 shot whether or not it's your (and #2's) cup of tea.  Please remember, 3 stars is still "It's Okay."