Entertaining, but could have been better
580894
This game continues the AoE tradition with entertaining gameplay, but falls a bit short of my expectations for a new game.

What I liked:

-The new units require more strategy to use than in previous games. You have to have the right unit for the job.

-"Explorer" characters are a nice plus.

-I liked the pioneering peasants that can actually shoot, trade routes and trappers that bring you extra resources

What I did not like:

-The story was a bit cheesy, and flew through 150 years of history and endless geographical locations

-The graphics left a lot to be desired

-The lower-ranking characters still speak globbety-gook to you. "Hull-sahr" "Ahdilluous lookay!"
1009280
Did not meet expiation, writer could have done a better job
2202405
This is one of the most engaging titles I've seen in years.  I was looking forward to a clash of East v. West, of the legal v. the spiritual, all leavened by a large dash of humor.
Instead I found a entertaining, but  ultimately disappointing book.  The plot is sort of an Indian "Maltese  Falcon," only this time, "the stuff that dreams are made of"  is a statuette of the Hindu god Shiva.  Our hero, a London barrister  (smart! good-looking!), is off to India (where he grew up) to dig up leads,  and, eventually, romance.
The description of the Western guests and  Eastern hosts--all suspects!-- and the atmospheric hotel from which the  statuette was purportedly stolen is wonderful escapism. The guests parody  varying attitudes towards the East (variously appalled, shocked,  intoxicated, patrician):  Enjoy these characters and their sense-satiating  hotel with a long cool summertime drink.
But the plot, and most of the  characters, proceed without sufficient development or surprise to match the  promise of the earlier narrative.  And when it all ends (in a Perry  Mason-like long confessional), one wishes that the book had taken a  different, perhaps more whimsical direction.
Being a  short novel, it is  probably worth your time to read it, if only for an introduction to Rumer  Godden, and as an antidote to summer's gasoline-soaked barbeques and  blaring baseball games.
(I look forward to reading other books by this  renowned author.)
790359
Overall, I found Furious George to be, for the most part, a fun read, and I think you would  too...provided  you're the type of fan who would enjoy reading about a highly touted, highly successful NBA coach devoting much of his book to ranting and "going off" on the owners, GMs, and, of course, on several well-known, All-Star players he coached throughout his long career.

Karl does a decent job on keeping the book moving at a fast, fun pace for the reader, and he deserves credit for this. However, as much as I liked the one-sided (mostly negative) perspectives Karl provides, his perspectives after a while started to  read more like rants than insights; which, in turn, tended to weaken the book's entertainment value for me.

All in all, I found Furious George to be entertaining while reading it, but quickly forgettable shortly after finishing it.
3515099
This story has some interesting premises and ideas, but not as good as I had hoped. An entertaining read, but nothing great.
3084038
I'm not going to rehash the story line; this is a review, not a book report. You can get a full summary from Amazon's product page.

I've enjoyed many of Childs's books, but there have also been some that just didn't hit the mark. This one falls somewhere in between.

There are overtones of his early novel, "Relic", in that we have archeological aspects mixed with the supernatural. But whereas in "Relic" it was pulled off very entertainingly and with a great deal of dramatic tension, this novel just doesn't quite seem to fizz.

I found the archeological background material and thematic setup pretty entertaining; but then I'm kind of into that stuff. But as the story moved forward and there seemed to be an attempt to set up the idea of spiritual possession and mummy curses and things of that nature, it just seemed to fail for lack of thoughtful development. I'd grade this as a pretty detailed treatment of a novel in progress, one that still needs a lot of work.

I liked the characters, but again, they seemed to be kind of wasted here.

As a quick read by the pool or in a plane, where you're looking to kill time rather than  get enthralled in a full story line, this book would work pretty well.

So, on that basis, three stars.
3670557
The novel was an original idea and a creative premise, with some true entertainment value at times. Unfortunately, I didn't consider it nearly as funny as the author probably intended, and as some other reviewers enjoyed. Perhaps I am not as familiar with the two sets of Jameses as I needed to be in order to get inside jokes or whatever.

The fictional Elena Hite is the center of the story, bridging the easter and western twosomes with entanglements of various types. She is gorgeous, sexy and active, and an early feminist of some interest, but not developed enough to be compelling.

The novel got off to a bad start by a discussion of William James and masturbation that set the wrong tone and was unnecessary.
3879091
Event Horizon was reasonably entertaining, but I felt like they could have done so much more with it. Fishburne and Neill performed well enough, but not exceptionally. There was enough suspense to keep it interesting, but again, it wasn't exceptional. Basically, I guess I was more disappointed that the movie had so much potential, but just didn't live up to it.
617121
An entertaining read, but could have made the same impact without all of the strong language.
1356326
I was not overly thrilled with this book, it was fine, it was entertaining to a point, but I expected a lot more action or more of a thrill while reading it, instead tended to be a bit bored.

I felt that the plot was not nearly as exciting nor on the 'edge' as I had expected from reading a 'blip' about the book.  The actual 'escape' was rather unexciting compared to what I expected.

Throughout the book you will read parts about Eval Knieval .... as he tells part of his own story which makes more sense as you get further into the story.

All in all this book made me sad, I can't imagine living in such a way, it was interesting and many times I found myself truly wanting to yell at the adults in the story.

To me, the book really had potential, it just needed something more.
1955480
Interesting concept, but somewhat poor execution.
915111
I loved the first part of this book with its snarky humor. Ollie-O, parental playground gossip, Microsoft tidbits, Seattle-bashing, all conveyed in a brisk and entertaining style. I felt as though I knew Bernadette, quirky, misanthropic, and housebound, always quick with the one-liners.

Then I got past the workshopped section and the book lost its charm, though I persevered until the end. The lengthy Antarctica journey is interesting only in a travelogue kind of way, making me wonder if the author needed to write off an expensive cruise by working it into a novel. The book devotes pages to clueless shipmates, cold, and incessant seasickness, material that is not very compelling. And then it ends, right at the point where the author would have had to figure out some creative way to extricate everyone from the plotholes she'd dug for them.

But that did not bother me nearly as much as the lack of character consistency. Soon after the reader gets to know (and like) Bernadette, she morphs into someone else, someone a lot less appealing. Elgie, similarly, adjusts his personality to fit some comedic agenda, transitioning from lovable geek to TED star to snobby preppie to evil spouse to adoring and highly attuned parent. The only voice that doesn't waver is Bee's, but she serves primarily to reflect her parents and the rest of the cast. This kind of shape-shifting may work in a sitcom setting, but in a novel it leads to reader discomfort.

Semple is a skilled writer, and it is too bad she did not devote more energy to developing her material. What could have been an interesting and amusing commentary on a whole array of worthwhile topics -- for example, overcoming the challenges of being a brilliant misfit in a judgmental culture --  somehow deteriorated into an almost-slapsticky stew.
3633422
I almost gave this a two-star rating, instead of a three-star, just because the author has the talent to make this a much better book, but simply didn't do so. However, it kept my interest, and it was entertaining, and the sex scenes were mega-hot, so I decided it was only fair to judge the book on what it was, not on what it could have been. It could have been a five-star book, with some editing and a helpful beta reader or two. Instead, there were missing words, grammar and punctuation mistakes, and times where I, quite frankly, couldn't even figure out what the author meant. One particular incident involved a car involved in a crash. It had been driven fifteen minutes out of the 'pack,' which I guessed meant the territory the shifter pack lived in (why not just use the word 'territory?' It was confusing.). We're told that the 'pack' is huge, and the car is smashed up, and the h mentally notes that it was surprising it made it that far. Well, if the 'pack' was huge, it made it pretty far, right? Unless the crash happened right at the edge of the 'pack.' It's really not clear, and that kind of vague, unclarified, or even contrary information plagues the story. Then there was the whole manufactured emotional back-and-forth with the H and h, the whole, "I love him/her, but I can't tell him/her that, because there's no way s/he feels the same way!" Despite the fact that just a page or two before, the H or h would have said or acted in a way that explicitly showed that they had feelings for the other. Then there was the whole Beast/scarred H thing. The H used to be gorgeous, but , now, his face is hideously scarred, and he hides it from the h. There are several scenes where the author makes sure the reader knows the h can't see the H's face, even when there's a lamp on in the room, or they're in full daylight, but I let those go, because it was for the sake of plot. Then, when the h does see the H's face ***SPOILER ALERT" she's just like, "Oh, okay." She's shocked, but there's nothing like the horror we were led to expect. I guess the reader is supposed to chalk that up to the fact that they are fated to be mated or whatever, but the H is really cocky for someone, who has had his basic identity torn from him. Well, he's cocky and pathetic by turns, first thinking she won't want to kiss him, if she sees his face, then mentally commenting on her obvious physical desire for him in a really smug way. So, the whole build-up to The Big Reveal of his face, is really no big deal at all.

The thing is, all of the flaws, ALL OF THEM, could have been fixed with a little time and care. But, if the author doesn't care enough about her work to make sure that it's the best it could be, then why should I care enough to read it? Although I think this author could really write a fantastic story, it's obvious that she's not going to make the effort to do so, and I'm not going to make the effort to read another one of her books. Oh, and for freak's sake--learn how to write in past perfect tense! It's not that hard! Here's an example: I had harbored high hopes for this book, but the author had taken no pride in her work and had not put in the effort to make it a great story..
4791133
Music was good and story had potential but character development and pacing were lacking.  Overall, enjoyable entertainment but could have been better.
1672097
I found this book entertaining and a good read but found it lacking in some ways. Especially how it ended.
4521836
Overall I found this book entertaining.  My absolutely favorite parts were the hilarious, yet subtle, one-liners from Madam President (Dev).
However, I feel the authors had trouble keeping the book in the year 2020 and only remembered every now and then to remind the reader of this fact.  There was no reference made to the future for many, many pages, and then suddenly there would appear three or four comments in a row about some weird technology, or how President Clinton did this or that oh-so-long ago.  Not very consistent or convincing.  The other issue I found to be "not my favorite" was the constant reference to these characters as "the blonde", "the shorter woman", "the blue eyed woman" ...and so on.  It would have flowed much better if the authors had simply used their names. But, at the end, you definitly know who is short, tall, with blue eyes or gray eyes, the president or the biographer (or sometimes "writer"), and the blonde or the darker haired.
Other than those two major complaints, the book was interesting and enjoying.  I wouldn't read it again, but I'm glad it fed my addiction to cheesey lesbian romance novels for at least a week.  Thanks!
2372090
Alright, I must admit I did enjoy this movie. But I think it could have been better.
Imagine this:
A young, nubile blond girl in a skimpy bikini battles her reoccurring fear of drowning "to become one of the top surfers in the world".
Now replace:
"to become one of the top surfers in the world".
With this:
"only to be attacked by a huge shark, and her top falls off"
I think you will all agree that the movie would have been better off if Anne Marie had been attacked by a shark, or at the very least if the football guy had gotten VD.