I got 99 problems but this SAGA ain't one
590160
First of all, all you one star haters chill. This set will be great. ILM and Lucas rock! So, here are your choices:
1) Buy the set
2) Don't by the set
Now onto the national debt crisis...
518283
Archer has a decent premise for a story then lets either greed or a publisher totally destroy it.

Nothing really original but a decent period epic.

We hear the story of little Harry Clifton from his perspective, then repeated by his mother, then repeated by his father, THEN repeated by his wise old adviser turning 100 pages into 250.

This should be one 600-700 page book which is magically going to turn into 5@350.  I guess if we decide to add in the perspective of the family dog we can turn it into 6.

What a shame..... And no I won't be finishing it.
1169307
This series goes right over my head. I don't consider myself a genius but I'm pretty sure I'm not an idiot. The writing talks down to me like it's written by a higher power that I'm unable to completely understand. Personally it's not something I want to spend a lot of time figuring out. I have to concentrate too hard for it to be entertaining. I read for entertainment...or maybe I am an idiot. Either way it's not my style.
1607858
I did not get what all these great reviews are about. Of course it could be because of Walter Simonsons style of writing and art. I am not a big fan of either. I wanted this book for so long because I liked Jack Kirbys artwork and his New Gods. I enjoyed over the years various stories that included them. These are not it. Each story/issue is a new Danger to end all life yet the stories are usually wrapped up pretty quickly and neatly. For example, (spoiler) there is a being that escapes the Source Wall. (I do not recall this ever happening before). Great, I thought. Here is a being the size of a solar system who can give our antihero a challenge. No. He goes down pretty easily. And what is the thing with deal with the Newsboys? Was Simonson trying to fill pages? I did not like Simonsons Thor run and I guess it continues here. I know there are a lot of people who love Simonson but I am not one of them.
4013469
I was waiting for this book since I started reading the saga. But it wasn't worth it.
The story is boring and it's like there's not enough pages to close the story of every character. Totally disappointed
4595343
Somewhat entertaining but I don't care enough to buy the rest of the series
4869432
While I liked the story I'm not a fan of this start and then stop story style. You can't get into one story because it's over too quick. I really didn't like the unresolved main issue that just continues to get pasted to the next character with no resolve in sight. I can see this story being passed along indefinitely which I really don't like. Overall ok storyline disappointing story web. I refuse to keep buying short stories with no end in sight. The next six stories should be released in a bundle or its just not worth continuing.
4089543
I just want to read a story.  This was all over the place and it left a lot of things unanswered for me.
290424
I am now at page 590 in a 720 page book.  Absolutely nothing of relevance has happened.  Similar to the 2nd book, I'm guessing the last 50 pages will be a crazy and implausible 'wrap up'.  Instead of focusing on how verity regains his throne, how they thwart the red ships or how they dispose of regal, the only thing that happens is we get to read about how fitz travels literally from buck to past the mountains.  Nothing really happens along the way either.  Fitz travels on a road little more than a trail, he gets tired, goes to sleep, starts skilling toward molly and burrich although he doesn't want to and then wakes up again to drink some elfbark tea.  Rinse and repeat for 600 pages, literally.  I see no adequate way for Hobb to 'finish' up this book in the next 130 pages considering her rambling writing style.  I find myself thinking "oh no he's going to sleep again" and shaking my head almost every other chapter.

Fitz gets captured like three times and three times he 'manages' to escape.  I felt like i was watching an episode of the original Batman on television!

It's amazing how one can write 600 pages and have nothing happen at all.  I understand character development but this is beyond reasonable when it's 99% that and 1% story/plot.  I also found myself thinking aloud "i don't want to read this anymore" many times throughout the meanderings in this book.  I'm not exaggerating, nothing happens in the 600 pages I've read.

Not to mention the number of plot holes I've encountered.  It's baffling.

I really regret reading this series.  For example, Molly encounters old men who recognize her as the bastard's woman, yet Regal can still not find her!  Okay!

It started off decent with the first book.  It was a good intro and I was excited to start the 2nd book.  After 500 pages in that book with nothing happening, i started to get an idea of about the 3rd.  But by then it was too late to stop reading the series.

Hobb's writing style is at times rather annoying too.  Whenever the characters ask a question with a negative particle, she insists on switching the subject with the negative ala "Can not you.." or "Should not you.."  Then she switches back to regular American dialogue.  She isnt' consistent with it either.  It's awkward at best.  Each and every single female character has to be sassy and always try to take charge.  God forbid she portrays a female that's not 'equal' to men or appears weak!  Her villains are laughable.

We know nothing of more of the red ships or Regal, or the forged ones by 500 pages into the third book than we did 50 pages into book one.  It's astounding how she can concentrate so much on Fitz, who never really grows anyway, and leave all the other characters to a single dimensional fate.  Regal is the embodiment of evil and that's good enough for you!

I really want to stop reading this book even now at 600 pages into it because I know the ending is going to be terrible, yet I am compelled to finish it because I've invested so much time into it...

Read this book at your own risk!
730527
I'm obviously not the only one angered by the trilogy that wasn't.  Any entertainment I was getting out of the series was totally erased when I got to the end of book 3 and realized I'd been had. By the time book 4 finally comes around I hope I will have forgotten the whole aggravating experience.  I'm done.
911763
started out okay but number 4&5 were way wrong & didn't fit the story.....
2130250
This was a good story in the saga but started connecting too many dots in one story.  The romance between Quinn and Blay seemed to take a back seat to everyone else's drama.  But the stories it introduces might provide awesome books in the future.
4059381
This book has to be one of the greatest sagas ever told, the story of a woman who is arrested and tried for a crime she might not have committed. I think it's a story we should all hear.

I'm going to give it one star anyway because I just stubbed my toe really hard and damn it, I blame this book.
2399033
There were a lot of words devoted to character development, but at the end the characters were still a little one dimensional. I know there are to be some sequels but here a lot of lose ends left. This seemed merely a long setup for what will follow. Time travel is the problem here. There was talk of urgency to complete the quest but then none taken nor any penalty for not acting quickly.
4251970
I''m rounding up about half a star here.

Every book in the Anniversary Day Saga is necessary to the whole, in my view. That said, this was not one of my favorites of that saga or of the Retrieval Artist series -- both of which, on the whole, I firmly recommend.

(There's also at least one continuity error, concerning the reaction of one character's child to preceding events.)
2435116
The first thing I'll say is, at least Daniel Handler got all of the series out along with 1 companion book in a lot less time than JK brought us the Harry sagas.

Ok, all in all this is a 3 star effort in my opinion, no more as it flags here and there and has readership problems, no less because the good bits are thankfully brilliant.

The saga of newly orphaned Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny Baudelaire as they get placed with one Count Orlaf who does nothing but try to gain their inheritance from the first moment, is an uppy downy affair. It starts off funny - for all ages, adults too - but then about half way through the series it becomes repetitive and unfunny. Then nearer the end, some serious issues are dealt with and, albeit unwittingly perhaps, the target readerships jumps from tots to pre-teens. Ok, JK did something similar too, but it is a bit too much of an assumption to expect all generations of readers to mature over the time taken to read all of the series. If that seems confusing, then just imagine a 7 or 8 year old with all 13 books ready to read. I don't think all parents would be happy for that 8 year old to read the later books - just my opinion of course.

There is still much to delight in though; blown up trivialities such as a full-blown debate on who is going in what car; the many 'Yes, I am' , No, you're not' arguments among the Count's henchmen are funny. And, as Mr Handler has made the authorship of the series part of the story, this thankfully gives him license to sort of break the rules and indulge in author jokes, ramblings, reminiscences, yearnings etc etc, you will love these parts. There is also very weak shades of Harry Potter as it becomes obvious to the central characters that life ain't rosy and it may become necessary to do something bad but for the perceived greater good.

But, Mr Handler should have done better with this, even taking into account the many tongue in cheek warnings / advice to put the Series of Unfortunate Events down and read something nicer.
1082162
It is kinda hard to rate  a book when there are 25 stories, there were a couple that were slow and boaring