While the writing is good from a technical viewpoint
584330
While the writing is good from a technical viewpoint, I really did not care for this book. The struggles with the hawk finally got to be too much for me and I decided to not finish the book - even though I knew there was a possibility for something more positive as time went on.
4232835
I will start off by saying that I did not dislike the writing. The author does a good job creating his world with visuals, action and through the eyes of the character. The concept behind the book is also interesting, and the lesson learned is ALSO good. So, why give it 3 stars?

The beginning of the book does a great job capturing interest. Everything, except Mark, stops just as he is about to be killed by a bus. At this point, Mark is stunned and predictably wants to know what is going on, so he investigates. He finds that, while he can interact with inanimate objects and move them, as soon as he throws something (or whatever), it freezes in mid air. This also includes a really mind bending thought that even the rays of light are frozen, so when Mark opens his curtains, it does not illuminate the room.
However, the more the book continues, the more it leaves this concept behind. Instead of investigating how or why it happened as a first thought/motive, he decides to go shopping. Literally the entire middle of the book is about Mark shopping, bathing and traveling. The details were, I thought, completely over the top. Using half a page explaining how Mark is going to have to buy a new backpack to carry things in because obviously a back pack is not big enough to do much with.
Anyway, the last 20 or 30 percent of the book is at least interesting, but has nothing to do with the concept of time stopping. Instead, Mark attempts to right a wrong between a married couple (who, I may add, are complete strangers to him). This unfolds into a sort of mystery/conspiracy, but only as Mark reads it on paper. This also produces nothing about the story, and ends quite abruptly. So does the book. Literally within about 3 or 4 sentences, the book suddenly ends. But I do want to add that it is a good ending, and we learn something from it.
However, I think he book would have been a lot more effective and a lot more compelling if it were a short story or a novella (between 60-100 pages). Honestly, I think it could have kept his shopping trips to a minimum detail, and he should have investigated why time stopped, or at least tried to retrace his steps around the bus.

In the end, there were a lot of good elements about the story, the book was well written, and I don't feel like I wasted my time. I just think the author could have given us the same story, with the same lesson, in close to half the pages. I give it a solid 3 stars.
515875
What was written was written well.  The problem is that I would have liked to know more about the dispute with Glenn Curtis,  how they figured out how to build a propeller, how they figured out the shape of the wing, etc.  Instead, the author, probably because he had access to diaries and other records, went into the minutiae of their everyday life.  This was especially the case after they succeeded in learning to fly, and nothing much was going on.
1639266
WAY TOO TECHNICAL FOR THE LAY PERSON. BUT WELL WRITTEN!!
4006650
I appreciate the challenge of trying to write an accessible history of humankind, covering over 100,000 years of history. The beginning of the book is quite good, referencing contemporary archeological findings. It presents challenging ideas that can make one uncomfortable. I give the author credit for doing that. That's why I gave the book three stars, when I might otherwise have given it two. I enjoy being challenged.

As he gets closer to the modern age, however, we start to see a mix of facts and his personal opinions. Not only this, but he seems to view everything through the lens of his own biases, and can't be bothered to look at alternative interpretations with any degree of seriousness. I've seen really well-written challenges to religious ideas, or to ideas of human rights. Harari's read like a high school student (maybe college freshman) who's going through a nihilistic phase.

The beginning is good. There is strong potential to a project of this nature, but it isn't realized. The result is something that it certainly won't hurt to read, but there are far better uses of your time.
2270394
The writing is very average. They used to few words to cover a great man and a broad perspective. I found the book interesting but at the same time misleading.
1357652
Mr. Rose goes into some detail about technology's embedment in various things in our lives, at least circa 2014 and possibly a few years hence. He is a good writer and I wish him well. I am a designer and this kind of writing is lost on me. I think it's the kind of prognostication that will likely sound dated by 2020, with few of the "enchanted objects" envisioned, being worth much (well, except their stock, when first launched I guess).
1828887
I'm torn about the rating for this book.  On one hand, the writing is great as is the editing with very few errors in the ARC copy.  It's hard for me to rate a book high when it deals with objectifying women.  The toxic environment in Lawrence & Associates cultivates sex on demand by the owner and upper executives.  Not only sex with them, but with clients, in groups, and wherever and however the (men) say.  There is an underlying romance between the billionaire owner and the newly hired sexual plaything.  Or, is it more than just sex?  That's the question that sometimes gets lost in this misogynistic world.

So, I gave this book 4 stars strictly based on the author's writing ability and the incredible sex scenes.  Too bad the women need to perform or lose their job.  This is particularly sad to note in view of the "Me Too" movement in the world right now.

I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
604440
The writer has an interesting style.  I like the way he breaks down the chapters into subsections and uses lots of illustrations.  He shares some good statistics and recommendations.  But he tends to accentuate differences for emphasis.  I am not convinced that every observation is valid, but enough of them make sense that I plan on sharing the book with several people.
1468469
Some great writing. Some not so great. When a friend voiced dissatisfaction with the writing, I shared that it read like the fist hundred pages were written by an assistant. It did get better and turned out to be an enjoyable read.
2211967
The Atlantis Gene is author A.G.Riddles first novel. As first novels go, it contains pretty good writing and the underlying science fiction has a fascinating reach into biblical accounts, historical events and extraterrestrial supposition; familiar ground with a few new twists.

With that said, I am not a fan of novels (books) that have a beginning, and end with to be continued. It is especially vexing after slogging through 489 pages to be left without a definitive end to the story if not the saga in general. While the novel held a certain amount of interest and intrigue, it was not enough for me to slog through another volume.

In short the story line introduces the reader to a sect of humans that have evolved to a position of world domination by nefarious designs; most notably by force executed as part of a world security organization. This sect is, however, divided by moral differences which lead to an internal conflict concerning the future direction of the world order. From this point onward, the novel is a maze of contradictionsnone of the people are who they represent themselves to be and the quest that drives them is lodged in an extraterrestrial discovery. It is this discovery that precipitates the moral conflict and the future of the world (enter book II).

In the final analysis, the novel was pretty goodending notwithstanding. Had the work been decidedly concluded I would rate it much higher. The remaining subject matter of the continuing work does not interest me enough that I could anticipate reading anything further. There are no doubt fans that appreciate a continuing saga and for those I certainly would recommend this work; for the others I say it is probably up to you to decide, you may come away feeling much the same as I.
1527146
The story is interesting from a historical perspective, but the writing is not great.
93235
very interesting subject material, but the writing itself isn't super engaging.
3153986
This book is well written and should be used by those wishing to understand a good example of technical communication in prose form. The author combines several complicated and tedious subjects, in a way that engages the reader.
488427
A large portion of the book is dedicated to the history, design, and evolution of the PC.  While it seems well written and is interesting, it is not particularly important to the topic of the book which is PC-based instrumentation and control.  A little less than half the book (chapters 8-13) seems to be dedicated to the topic and is not as detailed as the first half the book which is not really on topic.
1660529
I have mixed feelings about this book.  Some of the plot holes will probably be filled in with future books in the series, which I am unlikely to purchase.  The writing is first-rate. The pacing is excellent;  the best part is the interesting and intelligent characters.  The dialog is snappy and smart; it keeps your interest throughout.  That said, I don't understand the plot; I don't know if it is a "Christian Novel", though I suspect it may be.  I also don't know if it is supposed to take place in the future of mankind , or in our feudal, possibly renaissance, past.  Or  it may take place in a  parallel universe, altogether.  I do know that there are vast amounts of symbolism,  that I don't get.  It is similar to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with human beings instead of other unwordly creatures that may or may not join the humans  in future novels.  There is a power struggle for the future of mankind .  Some vague puppet masters are manipulating circumstances, for the purpose of observing mankind's reactions and testing hypothesis.  My best guess as to the purpose of the various settlements is that they will turn out to be a microcosm of mankind's cultural differences and norms, being part of a giant experiment being conducted by a higher being, which will eventually determine man's "fitness" to continue populating the earth.  To not understand the plot after a fairly lengthy book is not very satisfying.  If you choose this book, just know that you are in for a  many-book saga, if you are to "get it."  I am convinced that the writer has a plan, going forward, (the writing is too good and tight for there not to be one (I hope).  What this book is about, will require a commitment,  I just don't think I'm quite ready to make.  How's that for an ambivalent review?  Ambivalent is exactly how I feel about this book
3497778
On the positive side, Landon does a thorough job of exploring and presenting different ways to effectively write long sentences. But that's pretty much where the positive ends, and I have several major problems with this course:

1. I strongly disagree with Landon's premise that a focus on sentences is the key to efffective writing. In fact, I think he has it altogether backwards. It seems to me that any decent writer will first think about the overall messages of a document, will next work on structuring the document (chapters, sections, paragraphs, etc.), and will finally work on construction of sentences as the last step. And I think that good readers will approach reading the same way (distilling out ideas and arguments, not specific phrasings).

2. I also disagree with Landon's premise that longer sentences are generally to be preferred. The writing which I consider effective has a balanced mix of shorter and longer sentences. And I think that longer sentences are generally out of place in business and technical writing, so Landon fails to recognize that ideal sentence length depends on context, and his advice is often bad advice outside the context of writing fiction.

3. Landon doesn't seem to realize that the period at the end of the sentence is meant to give the reader the opportunity to pause and absorb what has been written to that point. Creating longer cumulative sentences by heaping on more and more content can put too much demand on the reader, to the point of being counterproductive. The richness that Landon seeks can often be achieved by using shorter sentences which flow well from one to the next. You don't have to do it all in one sentence -- ever heard of something called a paragraph?

4. The course is simply too long. Landon gives too many examples, has too much repetition, and spends too much time on ideas which are fairly obvious. In many cases, the content of two or three or even four lectures could easily have been combined into one lecture. Landon overexplains to an extent which makes the course very tedious, and I was in pain by around Lecture 8.

5. Given that writing is essentially an art (not a science), I find Landon's approach much too technical, with excessive use of arcane terminology. He has a gift for taking the fun out of writing. And I just don't see the need for all of this analysis -- do the best writers really take this sort of highly technical approach? I doubt it. I think the key to becoming a better writer is noticing and emulating the good writing of others, combined with lots of deliberate practice. Writing teachers may need to come up with this stuff to have something to 'teach', but that doesn't mean it's something students should 'learn'.

Landon begins to address some of my objections in the last two lectures, but it's a case of too little, too late. Moreover, the course should have been 12 lectures rather than 24, so a longer course isn't what was needed.

Considering all of these objections, I can give this course only 2 stars, and I can recommend it only to the (probably small) fraction of people who want to spend a lot of time looking (too) closely at different ways of writing long sentences. For everyone else, I think Landon's advice could be more harmful than helpful.