A bit repetitive, but otherwise totally up to HH standards
584705
OK, since I like to finish on a good note, let's start with the not great part. It borrows some stuff from previous seasons and makes it all look new. So, now that we've spent an appropriate amount of time on the not glorious part,(which is 1 sentence max ;D)let's go to what I liked.

They have added humorous new sketches, hilarious touches to the ones that were original, and added a bunch of new actors, but maybe not that last one. It also keeps up the consistency of the ones before.

I say keep it up, but please dump the repetition.
3091765
I have been rereading these lately, in order - I've read all but the most recent two previously. During my re-reading I've been a bit disappointed with a lot of the early books, finding them a little repetitive and cookie cutter. This one stands out amongst the rereads so far.

There are a few loose ends - the thing with Roarke and the warrant drives me nuts, because its really unbelievable (does she not think someone would notice at some point?) - but they are minor.

This one has a more creative plotline than some of the earlier novels, which helps a lot. Perhaps more importantly she avoids the cookie cutter feel of the earlier books - for example, we aren't dealing with a serial killer here. Perhaps most importantly, she deviates her ending from the ending of most of the other early novels, which are largely the same - thank God! Likewise, it was nice to see Eve developing a little as a character and starting to see some shades of grey amongst the black and white.

Also importantly, she avoids the repetitiveness of the earlier books. While we do touch on Roarke and Eve's backgrounds etc., she doesn't harp on them here the way some of the earlier books do. I think probably at this point she started to realize very few people would be reading this as their first In Death book and that faithful readers might get sick of the same material being repeated over and over again. Likewise, she seems to back off on the sex at least a little bit, which is also refreshing to me.

Overall much better than some of the other early efforts in the series. I'd definitely recommend to any fan of the series.
2222819
I was so happy to see this book had been released.  Here's my breakdown:

The pros:
* Offered as a kindleunlimited
* Fast paced story
* I love that the Haeden was a virgin and how devoted and reliant on the heroine he became
* Great steam factor

The cons:
* I must admit, all the characters in this series are starting to feel a bit too similar.  The human women and alien men both.  The personalities and characteristics all seem to blend together.
* The same thing goes for the plot............each book in this series seems to follow the same format.

Overall, even with the cons, I still adore this series and will gladly read any other installments published.
4744245
I really like the Reality Dysfunction, and I'm glad I read it. It's unnecessarily long though, which is my only real criticism. The universe building is great, the characters are mostly great, and the threat they are dealing with is compelling. It does at times feel like Hamilton was writing with a thesaurus in one hand though, there are a lot of extremely rarely used adjectives throughout the book. I am now plowing through book 2 of the Nights Dawn trilogy, hoping it all wraps up somewhere pleasing.
3017836
I have just about every game Halo has put out, and most of the books as well.  Though the earlier editions are some of my favorites , like Ghosts of Onyx, this is a solid read staying true to what makes Halo great.  The books expands upon the background of Buck and his fire team, which is welcome.  Buck is, in my opinion, one of the best characters in Halo.  He's very likeable, mainly because of Nathan Fillion's voice acting from the game.  The entire time reading Buck's lines I could hear his voice in my head.

This book is well written.  You won't be hard pressed to follow the dialogue and understand what people are saying.  However, the timeline does jump around a bit, which might get confusing between reads, if you're picking up after a couple of days.

If you played Halo 3 ODST, definitely pick this up.  You get to find out the characters backstory and there are a few surprises as the story progresses, regarding what happens to the characters.  Mostly, this is Buck's story and you get better insight into who he is, why he acts the way he does, and how he ended up as a Spartan IV in Halo 5.
1788647
The only comment I have about this cd is the repetitiveness of the tracks.  There are 3 primary tracks that are longer than the rest, and all the ones in between seem to take portions of these longer tracks and add only slight variations.  So, you'll have one epic score with four lesser scores that sound almost exactly like the first.
3324911
While some commenters have (correctly) complained about how the book is basically an HBS advertisement, I still think the book is worth checking out. The stories of the founders are engaging, and coupling the narrative chapters with their corresponding rules chapters made for interesting and engaging reading.

The audiobook's roundtable discussion at the end of it was absolutely worth the listen.
2960527
There are six books in Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" series:

- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 1: Emergence,"

- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 2: Expansion,"

- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 1: Consolidation,"

- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 2: Conflict,"

- "The Naked God - Part 1: Flight," and

- "The Naked God - Part 2: Faith."

Be warned: you CANNOT read these books individually. They are, essentially, chapters in one whopping great book. If you like the first book, then you'll have to read the other five books in order. There's no tie-up of any sort between any of the books. The publisher just broke the story up because it totals over 3,000 pages. If you pick up a book before you've read all the previous books (in order), put it down. It won't mean anything to you. Since these books are entirely dependent on each other, I'm writing this review on the series as a whole, not on the individual books.

This is one of the greatest science fiction sagas written. It ranks up there with David Brin's "Uplift Saga." It is literally a story of good vs evil and shows some of the potential (and pitfalls) of the human race. Over the years, I've read the whole series five times, and I still love it. I really only have two gripes with the book. First, and this is unavoidable in what Hamilton is doing, the evil in the series is definitely, graphically evil. This is not a book where the villain twists his mustache and laughs "nyah hah hah" as he forecloses on the orphanage or ties the heroine to the railroad tracks. The writing is fairly graphic in a lot of places. After five readings, this gets a bit wearing. My second gripe is one which somewhat limits the audience of the series (even more so than the evilness presented, and it's why I've given the series four stars instead of five): there's too much sex and the writing about it is too graphic. This is a problem with all of Hamilton's books, but it seems more prevalent in this series. Because of this, I wouldn't recommend the book for your children to read. But, as long as you're aware of that, I highly recommend the series and give it 4 stars out of five.
56242
The best part of "Last One Down" is the characters.  I haven't read any of the authors' other Sharyn Howard books, but it's clear that the continuing personal stories are a good reason to read the entire series.  However the plot twists in this one were minor variations on the standard "We're all marooned here and one of us is a killer" plot done decades ago in Agatha Christie's "10 Little Indians" and many times since.  It's a good plot, worth repeating with new variations, but I found these plot turns to be easy to anticipate.

And despite my praise of the characters, some of the dialog was both repetitive and unnecessary - surely we readers can figure out the obvious comparisons between Sharyn and Nick's relationship with Ernie's problems without all the 'teasing' comments?

I don't think I want to spend 20% of my small Kindle budget on another from this series - but I WILL check to see if my local library system has any.
1140290
It's HPL, so there is nothing that really needs to be said if you are already a fan.  I own all the stories in one form or another in various compilations, but it is nice to have them all in one setting.
4835740
I consider myself a die-hard Glass Hammer fan. I own 13 (practically all) of their albums and I have enjoyed every incarnation of the group. I try to be supportive of everything they do, because they have earned it.

Perilous is a really solid album. It sounds a bit like If and Cor Cordium, but with a few nice little additions here and there, such as the Adonia String Trio, an excellent Latin choir part, and some classical guitar virtuosity by Alan (and others). But after listening to this album about 8 times, I have to admit that there are certain parts of certain songs that don't quite work for me. More often than not, the problem is with the vocals. No, it's not Jon Davison's fault. In fact, it's no one person's fault. I just think the group, collectively, could have put a little more creativity, or "flavor", into some of the vocal melodies. I get the impression that the music and lyrics were worked on separately, so at times (approximately 1/4 of the time) there is some awkwardness in the way they come together. But maybe that's just me. Furthermore, I tend to prefer vocals slightly lower in the mix, so that I can concentrate on the music more easily. These compositions are nearly flawless, and as you would expect from GH, they are performed flawlessly.

Overall, I like Perilous a lot. In my experience, it sounds best on long walks very early on a cold morning. But unlike some other GH albums, I don't find myself drawn back to it over and over with seemingly endless enjoyment. If I had to rank all their albums, I doubt this would be near the top of the list. So even as a die-hard fan, I feel like I can't give it the full 5 stars. Sorry.
4237430
I impatiently await every installment to the Horus Heresy series and I feel this is a worthy addition.  This tale kind of rest on the short stories "Face of Treachery" and "Ravens Flight" but I'm sure that people who bother to read these books would already be familiar with them.  I admit I did enjoy it as much as "The First Heretic", "Fulgrim" and "Thousand Sons" (which I would have given 6 stars!) but I have been pretty much enjoying every HH book that has come out (including the much hated "Descent of Angels".  Well done Gavn Thorpe!
1572562
Bravo for all the originality and adventure, but a bit more selectivity would have paid off handsomely.  A little more than half of these original compositions are worth hearing repeatedly, and some are very good indeed.  Some of them can hardly be tolerated more than once.  Hahn's playing of this complex stuff is excellent, but not all the "music" deserves the quality of the treatment she gives it.  Recording is very good but not the best.

Try before you buy, unless you are completely enthralled by either HH or by modern instrumental scrapings and caterwauls.
2403891
If you like this series, I think you will enjoy this one.  It pretty much followed the direction the author hinted at in the previous books with the H realizing the h is his mate, but not wanting to pursue her for a couple of reasons. There was a ton of action in this one, and I really liked the way the h was able to handle herself in these situations.  I think it would have been a 5 star read for me if the h would have made the H work for it--just a little--after the way he hurt her.  I'm all for "fated mates" and I REALLY need my HEA, but a little "I'm sorry, I've been a jerk" from the H after getting a cold shoulder (for longer than 5 minutes) would have really made the book for me.  I did enjoy the interaction win the secondary characters we met throughout the series.  It's ok as a standalone, but the reader really benefits from reading the previous books to fully get the story.  Nice set up for the next installment.
3524395
I've been a Kenyon fan since the early days of the Dark Hunters. I love her characters, the worlds they live in. their personalities, their backstories and the way they develop, but like the DH series the books are getting a bit redundant. They all center around a HUGELY badass hero, broken on the inside, who can only be reformed or saved by the too-beautiful-for-words heroine with a heart of gold. They have to overcome some serious emotional and physical/social obstacles before they can be together, but they always live happily ever after. Born of Fury was a little overwritten, way too much detail about inconsequential things (building layouts, clothing, battle tactics, etc.), and repetitive in places, but I still want to read the whole series to find out what happens to each of the characters.
1336628
Perhaps fearing that they've overstepped their bounds the HPLHS explicitly apologizes for "taking liberties" with their source material. They needn't have bothered. Their first stab at a (mostly) original story is an unqualified success that they should be proud of, not apologizing for.

Besides being a fantastic, entertaining story in its own right it rewards longtime listeners and Lovecraft fans with loads of references to past episodes and even a couple of inside jokes. If you've enjoyed previous installments of Dark Adventure Radio Theater, particularly "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" or "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" you really need to pick this one up. Well done HPLHS!
4722265
This game is really either a high 4-star or low 5-star, because it is so close to absolute greatness, yet has a few frustrating flaws.

Being the premier rebooted iteration of the iconic heroine, it's understandable about how some of the gameplay and mechanics are a bit rough around the edges: Her movements occasionally float or don't obey the controller. Difficulty shifts awkwardly. The story moves unevenly in strange climaxes. The puzzles are all a bit on the easy side.

But everything else is simply superb: Cool heroine, lush graphics, exciting and varied action, engaging leveling system, variety of villains and challenges, fun weaponry, suspenseful and mysterious mood. The game even mixes in some surprisingly gruesome kills, a small detail which adds to the fun.

Certainly this game is something of an "Uncharted" knockoff, but then again "Uncharted" was actually a "Tomb Raider" ripoff, so now the circle is complete. The sequel to this game may well approach the polished perfection of "Uncharted," but this first "origin" adventure is plenty great already.