A nice concept, but not well executed...
589954
For me this product really misses the mark.  The book looks like an old fashioned address book with lettered tabs.  For each letter of the alphabet, there is room to review 6 books.  So you may review only six books that start with the letter T and just as many (six) books that start with the letter X -- does that make much sense?  Each page contains an area to list the following information: title, date read, author, nationality, first edition, publisher, year, quotes, original language, awards, notes, opinion and rating.  The sections for quotes and opinion are the largest but still too small for me to really fill in as much as I would like.  There is no way to add pages in any section as this is a bound book.  The book is the size of a standard paperback novel -- so just not large enough to write anything of substance.  If this product were an application for my Blackberry or an iphone, I think I would love it.  I'd have a list with me that would remind me of authors I liked anytime I walked into a book store. I'd have more space and the option to review as many items under each letter of the alphabet as I liked and I could include books that I would like to read or received as recommendations from others.  The quality of the product for the price is fine, but I couldn't recommend it.
696662
This book introduces many fascinating concepts but does not develop them successfully.  The use of expletives and supernatural gore in ways that don't contribute to the story betrays a tendency to emphasize shock value rather than engaging characters and cohesive plots, and it's often difficult to follow the storyline through the excessive and confusing description.  Lots of potential, but not recommended.
746893
I heard so much hype about this book, I really wanted to like it. And the concept is interesting- that the USA is a totalitarian state, with control of the populace based on a fear of love, which has been labeled a disease that kills and disrupts society. Not a believable concept, but an interesting one.

The problem, for me, is the characters. I LOVED the way Oliver juxtaposed Lena and Hanna, and the development of their friendship. To me, that was the most real aspect of the book. The rest of it seemed underdeveloped, rushed, and flat. Alex was clearly less a character and more a tool. Lena's own actions and decisions made little sense, given her upbringing. And the unresolved questions about the few characters I actually liked were bothersome.

In total, this is a shallow but quick read, and good if you just want a YA romance without having to think or believe too much.
94633
I really like the idea for this book -- I liked it when Neil Gaiman first used it in the Sandman comic (as referenced in other reviews). But this is just not well done.  And I think it's the author's background in TV that hurts it.  He's used to writing for visual communication and having characters talk in exposition -- that's how it's done in screenwriting. But as a novel, it simply doesn't work very well.  The plot "twist" as such is so screamingly obvious that I kept hoping that it was an obvious red herring, but no such luck.

I am very glad that I got this from the library -- if I'd paid for it, I'd be very, very disappointed.
2632758
*** some plot synopsis follows, but I will try to avoid spoilers***

 This was not a terrible novel, but I couldn't bring myself to give it more than 3 stars. The concept sounds great. Anita Blake is an animator, meaning that she can raise the dead as zombies. Animators are somewhat impervious to the mind-clouding abilities of vampires, so Anita is also a vampire slayer. Vampires, however, have recently come into the public eye and have become legal citizens, so killing them is murder unless one has a warrant. This means that Anita must suffer their existance and sometimes work with (or, even, occasionally for) the vampires of the city. This is a really interesting beginning.

 The problem is that this is about all you get in this installment. All of this is explained in the first couple chapters and you get almost no other analysis of the situation for the rest of the book.

 My biggest problem with the book is how much is unexplained. We never really find out how Anita became an animator, how her power works, why she should be immune to vampire's powers, how she knows her friends, who half the people in the novel are, why Anita has the religious persuasion that she does, and what the heck a "mark" is anyway. I assume that the author is trying to begin the series in media res, but the end result is that I find it difficult to care about these characters who have been dropped in my metaphorical lap. In particular, one person who is in peril and another who plays the Judas role fall completely flat with me (the peril and the betrayal happen in the first few pages and it's really hard to care about characters who have had only a few lines of dialogue so far).

 Many of the plot elements seem to spring forth at random with very little internal logic, and to me they didn't seem to come together convincingly by the conclusion. In short this has the feel of a first novel. Some of the writing is clumsy, some of the grammar poor, and some of the similes over used (every time anyone notices the heat they "melt").

 That said, the experience was not completely unenjoyable. It felt to me much like listening to a good joke told by a poor joke teller. The timing may be a little off, the delivery may be a little awkward, but sometimes you can tell how good the joke would be if told right and you laugh anyway. Ms. Hamilton's writing may be somewhat amateurish in this outing, but the concepts of her story are good enough that you occasionally glimpse a brilliant story through the misplaced words.

 I'll give the next couple a chance, because if she improves her technique this series could be dynamite.
4567720
Unfortunately, this is quite a frustrating book.  The author may be guilty of cramming one concept too many into her world building.  The AI personalities, which operate across several bodies, are a great idea nicely realized - reminiscent of Vernor Vinge's Tines, but - since they're AIs, perhaps more believable (however, you do have to believe that an AI can "possess" a human body).  When the "distributed person" at the center of the novel loses connectivity, you really feel it.  The passage of the book where Justice of Toren is attacked is superbly done.  It's the best thing about this book and earns the four stars.

But her single-sexed Radch only serve to confuse characterization.  Literally - I found it hard to keep who's who straight.  It may be that Breq is intended to be an unreliable narrator with respect to sex roles, I'm not clear on that, or it may be that Radch citizens *are* all female, but Radch in leadership roles *appear* male (because of how they behave) to others (a la (or should I say "au") Estraven in the Left Hand of Darkness).  Since Leckie basically does nothing with the all female empire concept, it's less of a concept - more of a conceit.

Some (many?) SF authors have problems with time, seeking to combine space-age technology with Middle Ages style lack of progress, and we see that weakness here. Breq/Toren's 2000 year lifespan seems pretty surprising for what is basically a piece of tech, and the reasons for Seivarden's 1000 year "ice nap" are somewhat unclear, as is her/his importance to the narrative.  Sure, it's a coincidence (as many reviewers have noted) that Breq meets her old (very old) comrade a the start of the book, but is it an important one?  Since Breq possesses quasi-superhero powers and is not averse (having lived 20 centuries) to playing the long game, it seems that Breq could have snagged an audience with the Emperor without the social cachet of her long lost acquaintance.  Perhaps Leckie is making a point about Breq's basic "programming", and her need to serve humans, but it's not a clear one.

When you think of what Le Guin did in Left Hand of Darkness with ONE IDEA, just one idea, which she used to craft a classic tale the like of which the world had never seen before, you see that this book could have been better and that the praise for it is overblown.  And if it seems unfair to compare this to a classic, remember this - I'm just comparing Hugo 1970 with Hugo 2014.  Hugos ain't what they used to be.
2780752
The opening scenes pulled me in, the poor editing kicked me out. I wanted badly to fall in love with the hero & heroine of this novel... but the characters were inconsistent and confusing (and far too many of them!). I loved the idea of Tandie flipping back & forth between "times", but flipping back and forth between her thoughts & the thoughts of Alice (the girl whose spirit she follows back in time) took away from the flow of those scenes.

Also, the relationship developed oddly between Tandie & Eric; they went from flirty to a hot steamy sex scene & proclaiming their undying forever love... inconsistent with their characters as well as believability.

The editing was likely done by a newbie editor - frustrating to read through grammar errors and repetitive use of words.

All that, and I couldn't give Hacienda Moon less than three stars, as the idea and story base were VERY creative and have the bones for great writing. I will watch for more as this author develops (and finds an editor with some experience)... there is good potential here!
2768582
This sounded like a very cool book, so I took a chance on some unknown creators. Unfortunately, it didn't pay off.

The basic concept of the book is that the West family are catalysts for change - usually negative, by their own accounting - and because a West removed himself from the testing site of the first atomic weapon, it failed, the US never developed atomic weaponry and World War II has been raging for seventy years as a result.

As I said, a cool concept, but one created by writers who were not prepared for the enormity of such an undertaking. The result is a discombobulated story that breezes back and forth through various points in history and a present day that is virtually indistinguishable from the 1940s, while trying to connect the West family to myriad historical figures (include an utterly unnecessary scene with Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and Henry David Thoreau playing darts in a bar that seemed like nothing more than page-filler) in a sometimes-natural, sometimes-ham-handed fashion. The book is almost entirely talking heads and moves along  at a snail's pace with little to lend itself in the way of entertainment to the casual reader. You'd have to be very invested in the creators or hardcore into history to find this exciting as there's not so much a cohesive story as a collection of very-loosely-connected vignettes about famous people/places going on here. Even the mystery that tries to tie all these different pieces together is too little to really make it gel.

The art is capable, but only on the level of talented amateur. The line artist is actually a very decent penciler, but his inking is uneven and sloppy, with dark blotches showing in places where he went too heavy and occasionally overly-thick lines that pull the eye in directions it was not meant to. The colorist did a decent job covering many of these sore spots, but not enough to completely hide them. You can clearly see the poor inking in the three uncolored, "deleted scene" pages. If a separate, more capable, inker had worked over the penciler's line art, it would have improved this immensely.

Overall, I honestly cannot recommend this book. Great ideas, but poor execution, from the writers and not enough experience (or maybe effort) from the artist combined to create a book that wasn't quite ready for public consumption.
4886975
On the plus side, the concept of the novel is great. On top of that, the author definitely knows how to turn a clever phrase. A few of his lines had me bursting out laughing. For me though, there were also weak points. Too much of the story was devoted to a sub-plot whose relevance to the overall story was never very clear. Also, some characters were well-defined but others, most notably the prophets (or are they gods?) were overly bland and basically interchangeable (with the minor, superficial exception of Krishna). I don't think it's fair to criticize the book on theological grounds - that would be missing the point. So I'm more than happy to allow the author more fudging than fleshing out of doctrinal & philosophical differences among the religions & their teachers. But purely on the level of character depiction I found the prophets disappointingly weak & generic. Finally, towards the end the whole thing became kind of preachy.

It's a tough trick to strike a good balance between off beat humor and serious social & religious criticism in a single work. In the end, I felt like Oliver Benjamin gave it a good effort but didn't quite manage to pull it off.
798131
While I found this novel engaging, and hard to put down, there were many problems with the piece itself. One of the main criticisms that can be heard about this book is the lack of characterization. The protagonist is  woefully under-defined. I almost felt as if his ecotopian lover was more  interesting than he was. As well, many of the protagonist's friends in the  novel are without development. Second, everything in the novel fell in to  place far too easily. Everything bordered on a pleasant fantasy, instead of  something that could actually happen.  The idea is intriguing, and this  novel certainly could be seen as a manifesto for a 'stable-state', the lack  of realism turned me off. And finally, I was dissapointed in the climax and  resolution of the work. I knew by about half-way through the book the exact  outcome of the ending. All in all though, it was interesting. I would  recommend it as a good read, but not without criticisms.
4443647
3.5 stars. I had high hopes for this book since I prefer reading contemporary Christian romance; the concept sounded good and the cover draws you in. But this book disappointed me. There were a number of aspects the author did right: spunky identifiable heroine, brooding, wounded man, feisty senior citizens, the way the relationship between Kate and Matt was realistic and evolved slowly, the way she tried to draw him out of his shell...but there were too many things that bothered me. I thought it all over a few days before writing this, so please know this review is not "off the cuff." The writing was fine but with perhaps a few too many short, choppy and disjointed sentences (and questionable placement and use of too many adverbs). I'm thrilled Bethany House has put out a contemporary romance, but very surprised with some of the things in this book; it's to the point where it might turn off some of its regular readers (like me) in order to reach a more mass appeal. Poker playing for money (no matter how little or much), yoga, a Halloween observation, designer name-dropping and crass thoughts and expressions didn't endear me to the characters, realistic or not. More than that, the emphasis on raging hormones and Matt's hotness quotient was completely overkill. Every single woman--no matter how old or young, married or single--commented on how hot he was. That's not realistic. I admire Kate for wanting to help out two senior citizens on the road to love, but I didn't like how the woman insisted the man look a certain way (even to wearing a certain brand of shirt) before she'd go out with him. And perhaps most of all, why on earth did Kate accept a date with a leering guy who obviously had little or no faith and was so sleazy? If you guessed because he was fine looking, you've got the idea. I lost a good deal of respect for her at that point. Sure, it made Matt jealous. And sure he's rich and has a high-powered, ultra expensive car in the garage. Even in one of the requisite scenes at the end, it's mentioned how a guy friend of Kate's back home once had the "hots" for her. This book was simply too formulaic in many respects and with the old cat-and-mouse game (he loves me, he loves me not, I'm not worthy of him/her). I don't want a Harlequin romance, I want a Christian romance. Mention of faith was there, but I was offput by the other worldly factors, bottom line. I'll be more careful next time I see one of this author's books although I'm sure this will be a wildly popular hit. ADDENDUM: I do not appreciate being singled out (along with other reviewers with less than stellar ratings for this specific book) by a blogger who belittled my conservative Christian opinions expressed in this review. The reason for his ranting in the first place was to discuss the "controversy" caused by this book, but his ridicule was grossly unfair and unwarranted.
730917
While the premise behind the book is fascinating and could have made for a great read, when the whole thing pans out, all I can say is, "Huh?"

First of all, the book seemed a bit hard to follow at first, jumping around, and it made it hard to keep track of the characters.  Second, I found the characters to be inconsistent.  Especially Dennis.  Is he power hungry?  Greedy?  Humanitarian?  Insane?  All of the above?  He is seemingly all of these, one at a time, depending on where in the book you are.  The other characters are also highly unbalanced, though Dennis takes the cake.  Also, what happens in the book is often so far-fetched as to be distracting.

I made it through the whole book but I had to read it a little at a time.  While it kept me mildly entertained, I would not have chosen to read this book if I knew then what I know now.
3123752
This is great in concept, and it sort of works, but as a ring it leaves something to be desired.

First, as a tiny sundial, you're not going to get pinpoint time accuracy . . . this is obvious enough.  But it's really quite difficult to use, as well.  The latitude lines provide a sense of where to try to aim it when holding it upright but these are unmarked and iffy.  I've found it best to try to put the item on a slender string in-between lines and then maybe, after a minute, you can get a decent estimate of the time, if you hold it just so.

Second, as a ring, I hate it.  The thickness isn't bad, but the sizing is a little overstated (it is smaller than you think!), and the ring's edges are virtually unfinished.  In a word, this puppy is sharp.  I was trying to keep it on my pinky in lieu of the ring finger and it scuffed multiple plastic items and damaged the fabric of my pants pocket.  I therefore cannot do anything with it until I can try to figure out the mechanics of rounding those corners a little better without ruining the ring.

I still like it, but technically it is barely passable as a ring or a sundial, which are the only two things it is doing.  But I still like it.
305076
An interesting concept, but it is bogged down by a lot of unnecessary or ill-timed exposition. It's clear that the author heavily researched this subject, and the story could have been good, but sadly the execution dragged this book down.
3956251
i wanted to love this book .. and i kind of do, but it just has so many flaws. it's a little frustrating because it's so CLOSE to amazing, but it skitters around the most interesting issues, and it makes some deeply implausible leaps (not the ones you can let go because it's part of the reading fantasy deal, but the ones that don't make sense within the presumptions of the novel.  like, really, these machines just became sentient by hanging around people talking philosophy?)
Philip Pullman could have done something amazing with these ideas ... i can't help suspecting walton just doesn't have the intellectual chops to do them justice.
Le Guin could have brought out the darker side of the utopian vision - and without being so heavy-handed.
diana wynne jones wrote a better adventure in tale of time city
even jo walton herself did a better job portraying the gods as people in rebirth of pan.
that said, it was worth it, and a lot better than the slick stuff (less flawed, but also not really interesting) alternatives out there. and i'm still holding out hope for the sequel!
3480441
Overall, the idea behind the book was good. A Soulmate Imperative that brings people together, an interesting kind of magic, and a underlying plot of intrigue in the corportate world.

The idea is good, but sadly Ms Macela could not follow through.

To be honest, I was only able to get to page 130 after repeated stopping and starting before I had to put the book down for good. I started disliking the characters from the start, and that ruined the story for me, pulling me out of what was happening again and again. One of my biggest problems was with the dialogue. No one says things like "that sounds exceedingly plausible" in normal everyday conversation. I could not find it in myself to believe that this supposedly everyday, average woman with some magical talent had the vocabulary of a university professor. Also, characters would too often launch into a conveniently placed explanation of what was happening that, sometimes by other character's own admission, was not the norm for them. The deviations from personality in an attempt to explain things ruined what little interest I had left in the characters.

Aside from the overly formal, stilted conversation I found it hard to see the chemistry between Bent and Daria. It could easily have been there and my dislike of the story colored by perception of it, but to me all the chemistry I noticed was them both rubbing their chests a lot at the same time, and Daria showing a complete lack of inhibitions and rational thinking when it came to having sex with Bent, when normally she is supposed to be a "logical and rational" woman.

I felt that the plot itself needed work as well. The corporate intrigue would normally have fascinated me, but I felt that it fell flat. The characters weren't responding to the problem in a way to make me think it was serious. I was told by the author it was important and big, but the characters couldn't make me believe it. The set up of the problem failed to engage me, and from there I felt that Ms Macela couldn't recover.

Once the subplot was taken away, the only other issue was the Soulmate Imperative, which meant Daria and Bent climbing into bed together. At the time I threw down the story they had only reached the heavy groping stage, but I found it easy to predict what would happen if I had continued to read. Amazing sex, the issue of Bent not having magical powers, some third party (most likely the corportate intrigue evil person) causing issues, and Daria saving the day through some act of amazing, unexpected power. Or something like that.

All in all, I found it to be a standard romance plot that fell flat. The characters were too one dimensional and I could not believe that they were in any way real people. The dialogue was forced, and sounded like the author had gone through with a thesarus in an attempt to make the characters seem more intelligent. The storyline was predictable, and all in all completely unengaging.

If you really feel the need to read this book, don't waste your money. Borrow from the library, where at least you won't be upset when you realize what a waste of money it was.
231259
It's pretty rare that I'll get 80% into a book, and still be asking myself whether it's even worth finishing, but this is one of those cases. I give it 2 stars for an interesting and promising premise, but unfortunately, the execution leaves much to be desired. My overall impression is of a first draft that the author just went ahead and published as is.  The characters, while interesting, are all cardboard cutouts, with no depth whatsoever. The situations are predictable, and while I generally enjoy 'wonderdog' characters, this one is just too much of a deus ex machina to be believable.  Author Steven King speaks about people approaching him with some variation of: "I have a great idea for a book - how about you write it, and we split the proceeds?" Server Down struck me as someone's great idea for a book, but there was no talent, craft, skill, or patience to turn it into anything resembling literature.