A Major Letdown, Considering the Sourch
588020
The third time may be a charm, but when it comes to NuMetal bands often times the second time is a disaster. The second album that is. So many times we get a great debut by a band with a great sound, only to either have the band fall off the face of the earth never to be heard from again (Sinch, 3rd Strike) or have their follow up album so polluted by the poison of a record company it's simply unlistenable (as was the case with Crossfade and Shinedown).

So when I found out one of my favorite bands - 10 Years - was releasing a follow up to 1995's `The Autumn Effect' (A simply AWESOME album, BTW. Go buy it) I was understandably nervous. But after hearing `Division' I was relieved... kind of.

10 Years is pretty unique and their sound on `The Autumn Effect' was somewhere just between A Perfect Circle and the normal NuMetal sound. For `Division' they seem to have taken a few steps away from APC and more toward the `norm' and I for one am not at all happy about it.

Yes this disk has half dozen legitimate songs worth listening to - basically the first half of the CD - before it deteriorates quickly to crap. Literally, after track 6 only one of the remaining 7 songs doesn't belong in the toilet (All Your Lies). But like I said, there are a couple of gems.

Actions & Motives and Beautiful are both solid songs, if lacking in imagination. 11 AM is a catchy song even if the lyrics are a bit on the thin side. The two songs that shine the brightest are Just Can't Win and Russian Roulette - both of which harkens back to `The Autumn Effect' and remind me why I fell in love with this band in the first place.

All in all a solid album, I guess, but still very disappointing. Only if it's because I was expecting better from these guys. I mean honestly, if Shinedown or Crossfade had released this album we'd be triumphantly championing their return to NuMetal relevance. But they didn't, 10 Years did, and this is quite a fall from `The Autumn Effect.'
1800635
To say that this book is a disappointment is a huge understatement. If you're looking for information on Jaxon's condition and how it affects the Buells' lives on a daily basis, you will be sorely disappointed. I started this book thinking that it would provide a more intimate account of Jaxon's daily life - what kind of therapies he receives, what medications are helping him, abilities, possible future treatments, etc. - but none of this is covered. It almost seems like the Buells hide information for fear that they'll lose their many admirers.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but instead of being inspired, I feel as if the Buells wrote this book simply for the money and nothing more.
362830
I really wanted what this book promised, what it held out to me in the "search inside" feature - but the deficiencies in style, content, and format are severe enough to warrant a serious warning against purchasing this book, or at the very least, this edition.

The text is written like new-age spiritual guidance lit - there are gaps in logic everywhere, and every argument is based off of a story instead of a fact. Providing some acuity on a color or its psychological effects would be what I would expect from a book that costs as much as a textbook, instead, the reader is put in the mood for the upcoming chapter with descriptions of color that read like horoscopes. Reds are divided up into "Powerful, lusty, and defiant reds," & "Anxious, angry, and romantic reds." Why not start off with cool reds and warm reds? Because you're being sold on the words, not on the colors, and not on some sort of proof.

Which leads me to the fact that there are 28 stills from films in this 243 page book. To reiterate: 243 page book on visual storytelling, 28 examples. Oh, there are some nice pictures of road signs and various other stock photos, and - no joke - some paintings the author's students made. 12 of those inside. They're kind of nice. But they are nothing more than a cheap magician's misdirection - these students come up again and again as proof that people "see" a color a certain way. Yeah, red's "anger" or "passion." I don't need a book, or someone else's experience to tell me this - I bump my head, or rub my eyes, and I see red. I want to be told how red communicates anger and passion to an audience. Simply stating that it does so is not providing me with a fact, it's providing a tautology.

Now let's look past the medium and to the message: as long as we take the emotional cues we're told to, we have a little interesting analysis underscored with flecks of color theory, but this is in fact still a problem - the text ought to be centered around the color theory; instead, the sections read like some films were screened, the author wrote down a couple obvious ideas, then filed them by color - and missed the best films and points entirely. Where is Kieslowski's COLORS trilogy? Three top-shelf films, each based around a color, ignored. Talking about the color orange in "The Godfather?" How about, I don't know, mentioning the ORANGES present when main characters are killed? No sir. How about a chapter for black, and a chapter for white? Not technically colors, sure, but we use them as and/or with colors. A lot.

If you're really considering purchasing this book, try very hard to find it at a library first. Or look up a color on wikipedia. If you're set on spending money, buy a color wheel, or simply look further for color theory.

I'm going to donate my copy to the library.
219084
I suspect most people bought this book just because it is about Dischord and the DC scene, and we like the idea of a cool looking book format about the scene.  But this book is, overall, a letdown.

Like the author himself, this book is a bit of a bore that seems to glorify certain things without driving a sense of vitality at all.  The details can be cool but often times are tedious and painful to read.  Let's face it-- no one from outside the scene would find this book tolerable at all.

I am not going to debate what bands were/weren't included.  I just found the book to be long and, ultimately, slightly a downer.  Disappointing.  Steal it from a friend then give it back-- you'll see.
2278711
After a very good debut (Hinderers) and a superb sophomore release (Concealers), I was super-stoked to download new Daath material. I was expecting something downright kick-ass. Instead, I have been listening to Daath over and over wondering where the originality and mack-daddy riffage went. Sure, the talent is there. The punch is there. But where is the catchy fat-ass riffage? Where is the meat that separates them from the cheese? Where is the signature sound that made the first two releases practically classics? They were onto something with those first two releases. This release is on the bottom of the pile. I am hope they pull it together for their next release. For those of you that are not familiar with Daath, do yourself a huge favor and absolutely buy Hinderers and Concealers...forget about this one.
2236364
As a folklorist and writer with a taste for the darker side of storytelling, I am always anxious to discover a new book and possible new information. Imagine my excitement to find this book.

Then, imagine my disappointment as I read it. After a few pages, the stand-up comic routine became wearisome and after a few more pages, it became utterly intolerable. I tried pushing on, to no avail. I even tried skipping to other sections, also fruitless.

In nearly every section he thumbed his nose at the people that ever told or listened to these stories or visited these sites. It also became very apparent, very quickly, that he had an equally low opinion of anyone who would buy his book. Being a person who has some personal connections with at least a few of these places, I can also say that his class clown approach to his subject is insulting to say the least.

I am most disappointed in this because if he had not been so heavy with that tactic, it had the potential to be darkly humorous, slightly ironic and very enjoyable book that could be appreciated by both skeptic and purveyors of the macabre as well.
1992852
This was a disappointment. I'm a Wolfe fanatic and the author of a comprehensive webpage devoted to Wolfe, of as enormous size as Wolfe himself (see [...] ), but compared to the masterpiece published only a year earlier than _The League_, I mean the very first Wolfe novel, _Fer-de-Lance_ (1934) -- compared to that first novel _The League_ is a "wash-out", to use Archie's term: tedious, overlong, and trite. I agree with the assessment of a previous Amazon reviewer (of August 1999).
In _Fer-de-Lance_, it didn't really matter that the characters were all-new, created from scratch. You could feel the excitement of their being created, or having just been created, in Stout's prose; it was more careful and less unnecessarily verbose than in _The League_. Wolfe himself says in _The League_ that the art of writing is to leave out as much as possible without detriment to the substance: well, if _The League_ had only been 100 pages long instead of 200, it might have been entertaining!
Wolfe talks too much, and Archie describes and theorizes and worries and rejoices too much in this novel. Inspector Cramer appears for the first time in this book, but he's not really himself yet. He smokes a pipe (!) instead of chewing an unlit cigar to tatters. Neither does he talk or otherwise behave like the later Cramer we love to hate. There's no red leather chair in the office yet, neither are yellow chairs there. No one-way glass panel at the door.
As to the mystery angle in this book (a weak point in all of Rex Stout's books): the solution to the murder(s) is disappointing and can be guessed with many pages left to go. Hardly any suspense, certainly not to be compared with the likes of Agatha Christie. But, I've never cared for the mystery angle in Stout; it's the humorous interaction between Wolfe and Archie that makes Stout unique: Wolfe's and Archie's visions of life and the world. Neither Wolfe nor Archie are at their best in _The League_; the supporting cast (victims and suspects) are, equally, not nearly as interestingly portrayed as in _Fer-de-Lance_. _Fer-de-Lance_ is also much funnier to read; _The League_ leads us to smile, at most, every now and then -- but don't expect any Goodwinian belly-laughs.
For the best in Wolfe and Archie, therefore, instead of _The League_ turn to masterpieces like _Fer-de-Lance_, _The Silent Speaker_, _In the Best Families_, _Too Many Cooks_, and _Plot It Yourself_.
3264546
Prepped for this by watching the trailers again and again. I was even crazy enough to get a state of the art quadcore rig last month just to play this, I was that excited about it. However, after I bought it, the game proved a disappointment, and I got a refund by cutting my losses quickly enough (you get a refund within 24 hours of install).

*Technical issues galore: Square-edged rivers; my main character's face kept changing colors from bad Jersey Shore suntan to a pasty white; characters kept switching my gender and race. At some point, it got so ridiculous I started making a Youtube video, but figured it wasn't worth my time.

*The interface was clunky. Whoever designed it has little experience with gaming interfaces for keyboard and mouse, or little respect for them. 2/3 of my battles were spent wrestling with the controls rather than concentrating on the gaming. Tried it with console...and tactical camera was still a sorry affair.

*The story line and writing are pancake flat. I loved the historical background but the script read like some OTT fan-fict. Where's the wit and humor and gray moral philosophical choices gone? Fight, kill, fetch...mindless action spliced with beautiful explosions.

*I liked the soundtrack. It was the best part of the game for me.

In short, I desperately wanted to like this game, but the first twelve hours told me it wasn't worth $70 and further commitment of my life. Sadly, I won't be returning to this series. What a pity.
96756
I Love Judas Priest, They are my favorite band, not just Metal band of all time.  That said, I was disappointed by this download.  There are a couple of worthy tracks on it (Namely the Title Track and Speed of sound, but even the southern-rock sounding till the day I die isn't bad), but it is NOT anything like a JP Album.

  I guess I should be pleased that it isn't Priest with a different backup Band, but I truly wonder where Rob was going with the concept.  Its just poorly written, weak material with mediocre execution.  The 1st half seems like a feeble attempt at appeasement of metal fans, while the last half of the album is almost entirely Metal-done-ballads with a strange twist. I wanted to love it, I wanted to even like it, I've listened to at about 30 times on several different systems and in different environments, but its just not good.  What I found myself doing was listening to 2 or 3 tracks of the whole, and going back to my priest discography, which I have all of.  If you want some decent, but mindless metal tunes, Made of Metal and Speed of Sound are OK.

Pros:
- Rob Halford is singing.
- Has a couple of simplistic metal tunes on it.
- Cover art is cool, but uninspired.

Cons:
- The Material is very weak (The songs are internally inconsistent, and few if any fit any discernible "Theme" or "Idea".  Contrast Nostradamus.)
- The Musical Scoring is poor (Like the writing, the musical execution is neither consistent nor pointed.)
- The Technical and Mixing is amateurish (The songs are not even in volume, the Vocals_vs_guitar_vs_bass_vs_Drums Mixing is poor and wavers throughout, and all of it sounds quite thin).
- The entire album ends up a confusing HUH? for metal fans, and painful train-wreck for most any true Judas Priest or Halford Fan.

In Closing... what can I say?  Rob is back with Priest, and things sound better (though still much thinner sounding than old priest).  I struggled mightily to find a point to the material.  I even mulled over that it may not have a point, and just be a collection of Ideas and 2nd passes that never made it into another piece.  If that's the case, then I would say that there was a good reason for their previous absence.  I awarded it 3 Stars, 2 of which are because it's by Rob Halford, and one because of the couple of acceptable tracks on it.  There are only a few bands in the world that "Got it right the 1st time", Judas Priest was one of them in my opinion, Rob Halford's voice is legend in metal Circles, and it is wasted on this album.  I would honestly rather listen to Rob sing old priest songs the the shower whilst gargling than most of these tracks.
2289697
I was really quite hopeful when I picked up this book. I had recently finished The Forgotten Soldier for the second time, and was curious to get more information on a subject neither widely pursued in main stream  literature, nor highly desired. What ever. At any rate, I was quite  disappointed. And, I was disappointed because Herr Von Luck is completely  without humility, and he is simply not a very interesting person. With many  novels, both fiction, and non, within the genre of war, one eventually  grows at least a small amount of sympathy for the people involved, real or  not. Somehow, Hans seems to drain every once of compassion one might feel  for him throughout the course of his work. Perhaps it is due to Hans' lack  of writing prowess. Perhaps much is lost in the translation. I don't know.  What I did get out of the book is that Hans Von Luck was an officer, and  paraded around quite a bit stowing away a wine collection, and other riches  of vanquished peoples. How can you feel any thing for the guy. Why should  we care what happens to him, when he leaves the indelible impression that  he doesn't care about any one else but him self. There is almost no human  story here. Rather, one mans account of what happened to him while the rest  of the world was busy killing each other. How about something with a little  substance?
1327816
I think I had high expectations going into this book, and I was let down immensely. The topic is very important, but the execution was poor. I was confused, bored, and irritated with this book. The thing that really set me in a bad mood was all the names thrown out there and not really knowing who they are, but they obviously didn't serve importance when they don't show up again or if they do it was just like "Oh, let me go back to the part he mentioned that name and see what this connection is" and then still be confused. Oprah, you let me down on this one. :/
4488974
Even with the shortcomings of the first book in this series, I was looking forward to reading HTO II. I wasn't expecting a literary epic, but I figured at the very least Id enjoy a fun read. I was terribly disappointed. This book was riddled with every clich I would have enjoyed as a testosterone fueled, adventure seeking teenage boy. But I had other problems with this read as well.

If I recall correctly, their journey from Houston to the ranch was retold through narrative no less than three times. I can understand doing this once for the benefit of those who had not read the first book. But anything more than once is just word count filler and fluff.

I struggled with POV several times; especially in the beginning. There were a few times when POV changed from one paragraph to the next. And one time, we went from Bishops POV to an omniscient POV; again, from one paragraph to the next. The super long chapters in this 217 page book made this even more confusing to me.

The editing was sloppy at best. There were a handful of typos which should have been caught. Im also trying to figure out who Mata Tari is. I think the writer meant, Mata Hari.

The annoying comical banter from book one between Bishop and Terri continues in book two. Its not that couples don't talk this way, but it seems that thats the only way these two communicate with one another; 24/7. And in the rare times when they do communicate in a serious manner needed to move the storyline forward, the dialogue and character actions are rife with soap opera worthy clichs.

I also thought this book was going to be about The Independents; a rogue, but powerful group of patriots that have organized in opposition to a wounded government trying to regain control. Nope. This book was about gold, and how Bishop deals with a Columbian drug lord whose wife and child were kidnapped by Mexican drug lords. Bishop is caught in the middle of this drama and has to deal with this throughout the book. The Independents are mentioned only sporadically here and there, and its only towards the end of the book that their storyline is addressed in any significant way.

One issue that I had and has nothing to do with the book or its author was; my 2 day guaranteed delivery turned out to be 4 days  an Amazon/UPS issue. Secondly, the font and the amount of words crammed into a single page were difficult to read. This may be a, blind as a bat issue, or a cost issue for the author. Sorry, I still like the feel of a real book and physically turning a page  no ebooks for me. Regardless, my two star rating is based solely on what I read.

I am now on the fence about buying and reading book III.
4061433
The Real Origin of the Species: Twelve New and Compelling Reasons to Believe That God Exists is a BookCrash release from a small indie publishers group. They gave me a copy for my unbiased review. This is a subject in which I am really interested (wrote a book on it). Sorry to say its a real disappointment. The design level of the book is barely competent [note the underlined Real in the Times Roman title].

Snide for heathen, basic stuff for believers
Oscar has a sarcastic manner (meant to be humorous, Im sure) toward non-believers. I found myself offended for their sake. No one deserves that level of belittlement. I was in the evolutionist camp from public school in the fifties, through several decades as a hard-core believer, and only came to my senses a few years back. This book would have irritated me then also. (It still does, but I imagine you guessed that.)

My assumption is that Mr. Daniels has a following who love his teachings and that this will do fairly well for him. But its a pretty thin writing style and a very short booka couple hours to read or less.

His compelling reasons are solid
I certainly do not remember twelve of them, but the arguments are good and I agree with his reasoning. The book feels more like a transcribed recording of a teaching. He claims his audience is believers looking for arguments to share with people they hope to lead to the Lord (or to at least straighten out their theology). For that type of readership, this book will work fairly well. So, I don't hate it, love the general subject, and can recommend it as long as you are aware of the issues just mentioned. If my issues don't bother you, youll like the book.
507567
I confess, I was extremely disappointed in this book, especially considering its relatively high price.

I'm not sure exactly who the book is aimed at. There is very little helpful content at all.

The first 26 pages ...which sounds like a lot, but isn't, considering the format, consist of a few figure drawings plus a few notes about body and facial proportion, a short, generic section on art materials and techniques, a basic colour chart, etc. Nothing specific to the topic of drawing the costumed figure, at least nothing specific enough to be any use; there is nothing here to help the would-be artist achieve a finished result. Then follow 3 pages of PhotoShop instruction, or rather an extremely lightweight overview as to what PhotoShop can do.

Then comes the body of the book. This chooses various periods, such as "Cavalier 1620-1660," "Restoration 1660-1680," "Baroque 1680-1715" then gives a half-page of overview, including one or two sketches of things like a hat, a pair of shoes, maybe a dress or two, one large black and white drawing on the facing page. Only six full costumes (3 male, 3 female) for a relatively modern era covering a 100-year time span?

The closer we get to our own times, the less satisfactory this pitiful 'overview' becomes. For example, the female 1940s page drawings include 2 shoes, two hats, two hairstyles, one small drawing of a coat and one large drawing of a woman in a two-piece suit. That's it for the entire decade!

These costumes are nearly all designed for the wealthy classes, virtually nothing of everyday wear for ordinary folk. Giving the reader only one detailed example per period is extremely unsatisfactory. There really isn't any reason to buy this book that I know of. There isn't enough art instruction included to make an artist, and there certainly aren't enough costume examples to satisfy someone interested in either period costume illustration OR theatrical costuming.

If this had been a children's book (which it rather resembles, once you get into it) which only cost a couple of pounds, I wouldn't be complaining. However, I wouldn't have ordered it either. For this price, I expected a lot more.

I sure wish I'd read previous reviews before ordering it!
4565095
As someone who has personally been researching this period and location for some time, I was quite disappointed to find so many inaccuracies in this book. I could list them, but frankly, what is the point? If the authors are interested in knowing what they are they can contact me. The writing in this book leaves a lot to be desired - the point of view not only changes often, it changes within a single paragraph more often than not. Hundreds of commas have been left out of this book. Perhaps they were trying to save on the  cost of ink? There are some classic typos scattered throughout - the word "leant" is spelled in various ways, and people who should have been "faring well" are, sadly, "fairing well" instead. Also, I am still wondering where they got the idea that the Nazi logo had a double-headed eagle on it. My research has not yet turned this up!  But the worst thing about this book was that I could not really follow a lot of the action. An awful lot of things were going on; none of them were adequately described; several of them seemed preposterous; I did not see the connection between/among these things. The one positive thing I can say about this book (other than the fact that, at least, it was in English) is that it has convinced me that the barriers to getting a first novel published are clearly nowhere NEAR as high as is commonly thought, at least in the UK. As an aspiring novelist myself, I must say this has cheered me up enormously. I'm thinking of submitting my book in the UK instead of here in the States due to this. So, all in all, not a total loss.
1292126
As a homeschooling mom, I have read reviews for this book and seen it in Cathy Duffy's recommended book lists before, so I had reasonable expectations.
But as far as the book itself goes, I have barely waded into it, and have already been disappointed by the lack of Truth (yes, Capital T) and accuracy. I just flipped to Chapter 49, "The End of the World" and was so disappointed to read "they were so poor and miserable and unhappy here that they were anxious to go to heaven, where they would be fine and lovely if they had been good here. They were particularly food and did everything they could to earn a place for themselves in heaven when this old world should end."
Ephesians 2:8-9 comes to mind. We cannot earn our way to heaven. Going to heaven is only achieved by accepting God's grace through his Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sin. It's not able to be earned.
So... I haven't read a whole lot yet, but I'm not even certain how much I want to. I do not expect every historical text to be written from a Biblical worldview. I understand as a parent, I have the responsibility to determine what is read, and what isn't, as well as when to talk about what we read if it differs from what we believe. But this isn't even history...
The other aspect of the book is that it's of poor quality. The cover looks like it was run through a copy machine... Just poor printing. And the inside pages (all of them) are a light print and not crisp, either).
I have had a lot of great homeschooling curriculum, but thus far, I'm very unimpressed with this book.
2406973
I was disappointed with this book, perhaps more so because Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were so good. This feeling of being let down started to creep in about three quarters of the way into the book. The plot  lines were neatly converging, the suspense steadily building, I could  hardly wait to finish the book to see how things would be resolved. So what  happens? The seemingly intractable problems of discovering Jane's origin,  travelling faster than light, taming an (intelligent?) killer virus and  preventing xenocide where solved in a few pages by sitting in box, closing  one's eyes and making a wish! Oh, come on, gimme a break. And then to  completely go off at an unnecessary tangent (I haven't yet read the fourth  book...), Card decides it would be nice to clone Peter and Valentine.
OSC  is not very good when it comes to technical details and hard science, this  is clearly evidenced by his theory of "Outside". His strength  lies in telling stories that revolve about interpersonal relationships and  individual motivation, which is why Ender's Game & Speaker were  superior novels.
I will read Children of the Mind with trepidation.