Complex Book, Well Written
587866
I found this to be a thoroughly fascinating and informative read. We all want to get rich quickly and trading is one way to do it but there are so many pitfalls in this very complex area. This book helps to untangle all the do's and don'ts. The author obviously knows a tremendous amount about his field and writes about it in straightforward way that keeps it simple but gives you all the help, advice and tips you'll ever need to aid you in making money and being successful with Day Trading.
4061596
This is a very complex book. When trying to repeat the events of the storyline back to myself, I found that I was leaving many things out. It is filled with philanthropists, tyrants, murderers, good-hearted souls, and the most cynical and twisted characters I have ever come about.  After all said and done, it ends in tragedy. After all that Dina Dalal, Maneck Kolah, and Ishvar and Omprakash Darji have suffered, they discover that their lives have been nothing more than a paradox, in the sense that they have failed to accomplish what they - strived for their entire lives.  Or is it a tragedy? Somehow, the four main characters' lives are intertwined, like the quilt of time. However, this quilt finished beautifully. It lacks the odd shapes that do not fit together and the materials that just do not match, as Maneck had described life. It is true, that they all faced many injustices, but in the end, were they all unhappy? Some were, some weren't. The important thing was that at one point or another, they were all there for each other. And that is what counts in life. No matter how bad things get, if you have someone to lean on, you won't fall down. I found that this novel lacked a steady plot line. Instead, this novel is simply a stream of small obstacles, as one chapter is called. Maybe this is just the style of Mistry's writing. He wrote the novel beautifully, I was so wrapped up in the text. However, individuals considering this novel should be aware that it needs to be interpreted at a higher degree of thinking. At first, I was terribly upset with the ending. But the more I thought about it, the more I understood why things worked out the way they did. And sometimes, that's just the way life goes. It is not always fair. It came as a surprise, some of the things these characters ended up encountering as their final destination. Some were predictable. However, all in all, the author leaves you amazed with his tale of how awful one's life can really be. And just when you think that they have suffered enough, another snowball is thrown in their faces. But these characters don't feel what we would feel if we were put in their positions. The people they love forever surround them, and these characters know the meaning of being there when it counts. That is really the moral of the story, to be there for your loved ones, for your family, no matter what. The characters that survived were the ones who had family. Not even a strong sense of family, but just some one to care. That is what helps us get through the sticky situations in life.
2159691
Immunology is fiendishly complex.  Davis has made that complexity accessible by telling stories about the scientists' lives and their struggles to explain the immune system.  The facts are embedded in the stories.  If you have no background, you will still have to work at it a bit.  But you will be well rewarded by learning something about how our immune system works and how science really works.  It is an insider's tale.  You will learn about the insane hours and unreasonable persistence required to produce new scientific insight.  You will learn some immunology.  I want to emphasize the word some.  This is not an immunology textbook.  It is a story of scientific discovery in the discipline of immunology.  Davis warns in the introduction that he has left out major parts of immunology in order to make a coherent and more readable book.  I think he succeeds admirably.  I finished the book in three days, fitting the reading around my other duties.  I didn't want to put the book down.

It is also obvious from the introduction and text that Davis took the time to interview as many of the immunology researchers as possible.  So his stories have a lot of telling details.  It really adds to the book.  If you read about Davis in this page, you might think he would be a stiff, brilliant science geek as a physicist turned immunologist.  He is not.  He is obviously concerned with the feelings and humanity of the people he talked to.  It comes through in his story telling.

I have read a lot of popular science on everything from biology to cosmogony and have found a wide range of writing skills among  the authors.  One of my beefs about some books is that some authors seem to ramble off topic or just get unnecessarily wordy.  Davis does not write that way.  He clearly had two goals.  One was to write about the process of science and the second was to tell how our understanding of immunology has developed over a half century.  He does both with exceptional clarity and his fascinating stories.  And he does not stray off topic.  I look forward to more books by Davis as he has become one of my favorite science authors.
1270601
The author uses words like epitrachil, verecund, and monition, and they are just too complex for the average reader--sort of pushing them away. The descriptions of the world and the political system can be a bit complex and hard to follow, and yet there's very little given about the characters themselves.
The paragraphs are WAY too long for me to easily read, and the book tends to be very wordy. It's focused a lot on the political situation, but without giving much background on the politics. The names are complex and hard to keep track of, with so many characters introduced that it takes a few minutes to shift between stories.
There is A LOT of information packed into short sentences, and the author sort of "hints" at information without actually explaining them.
Fight scenes are VERY weak, with a lot of "tell" and not as much show.
Now for the positive!
I found it a lot like R. Scott Bakker's "Prince of Nothing" series in terms of the complex political systems, the sort of distant characters, and the overarching story line. With a professional editor to help shepherd the story along, it could be nearly as good.
The world is immense and very complete, and though description is lacking in some places, you definitely get a feel for it as you read.
The characters are fascinating, though it can be a bit hard to identify with them. You get the POV of a lot of different characters, and you see the world though a number of eyes--a good thing in this case!
The various story lines are threaded together quite well, and the political intrigues and machinations are laid out neatly by the author. There is a lot of detail that cannot be found in other books, making it a pretty great read.
As long as you're not a grammar/punctuation Nazi like myself, most of the typos and mistakes will be hardly noticeable as you are sucked into the world built by Daniel Casey.
1694956
Complex read, bigger book than I thought. I may get through it in a year or so. Learning lots.
2953827
Well written, entertaining and informative on a complex topic.
2447617
A wonderful book full of complex characters. This book provides a lot insight into the lost or homeless fragments of our society. We are much more complex than many think, and this book captures the rich and complex world that some homeless or outcast Americans live in. The writing is rich and detailed, the story strong and the characters deep and believable.
2546490
First, I want to give a disclaimer - this book has some material that is not suited for younger readers in my opinion. I won't go into every single detail, but language and some disturbing scenes and topics are depicted within this book. With that said, the Characters in this book are developed nicely as you dive into the complexity that makes them who they are. I personally would NOT recommend this book to any young readers at all or to anyone that gets offended at some language or fairly descriptive explanation of certain scenes such as pagan rituals or graphic violence whether implied or direct.

This fairly dark book is kind of along the lines of the Left Behind books if you will. An end times book that covers a lot of fallen (sinful) people where some encounter the Lord and follow him. You really do feel the darkness in people in this book.

I'm a little torn about giving it too good of a review, mostly because of the adult nature of some portions of the book such as drug use, some foul language, graphic descriptions of some pagan rituals and violence to name a few. These adult nature portions are "committed" by the characters that fall on the non-Christian side of the story line, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't throw out a strong caution to readers on this.

One of the things that I wished the author did a little more of was to explain how some of the events came to pass in a little more detail. For example, one of the main characters rose to power, but I don't feel like the author explained how this happened as well as it could have been explained. It kind of just happened in a few steps over time and the reader is partially left to assume the path was logical and potentially plausible. To be honest, if the author would have spent a little more time diving more in-depth into the details to the multiple progressive events in the main characters lives, it would have really rounded out this book quite well.

The book is left with an open ending as you really don't hear what happens with a couple of the main characters. I am assuming that this is intended to be the first in a series of books possibly. Will I read the next book in a potential series about these characters? To be completely honest, I am not sure. I think if it weren't for the mature content and language that really isn't necessary, I would be interested as the characters were developed very nicely apart from some of those quick jumps and assumptions about events being legitimate and believable.

On the back cover of the book, it reads "You will laugh, cry, and cling to the edge of your seat as you follow this thrilling, international adventure, and epic battle between the ultimate good set against the ultimate evil.". Well, I can't say that I laughed or cried when reading this novel. It does have some thrill factor for sure, but I'm not sure I would say that I was clinging to the edge of my seat. However, I did want to continue to the end of the book to find out what happens with the characters.

This book is self-published and there were a few times where I felt it could have been edited a little better.

Ireceived a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my unbiased review and all opinions are my own.
4195995
this one was a tough rating for me.  I eventually gave it a four for the fact that it kept me reading for 500 plus pages and for its ending,  which left me extremely moved and saddened.  But I was close to dropping it to a three for its many flaws (one of which being that it was 500 plus pages).  So fair warning, I think you'll be more than happy if you finish it and reach the powerful ending, but don't be surprised if you don't finish it, or get there a bit annoyed.
  The plot basically a love story between normal Clare, whom we see from ages six to eighty and her husband the main character, who is unstuck in time and moves freely back and forth between his present, his past (mostly) and his future (rarely), arriving sometimes in familiar places and sometimes not and always arriving naked.  The structure, as one might expect, is complex, with constant shifts in time and also many conversations which do the same, as Henry speaks with people who know sometimes more of his present/future than he does.  Beside shifting in time, the book also shifts perspective, moving from Clare to Henry and back.  While the structure is complex, however, it is seldom confusing, as the book moves inexorably forward in the reader's mind, despite the many "sidetrips".  Don't mistake "not confusing", though, with "easy".  This is not a book to pay secondary attention to while watching television and is probably best digested in as few sittings as possible so as to retain the many plot references to past and present.  Overall, it is a stimulating, smooth ride.
  Clare is a strong character and one whom we get to see develop from a young child to a mature woman. Her voice is consistent and likable despite the time changes and her parts were often my favorites.  Henry is a more complex character, and the reader may find some shifting attitudes toward him.  The author is unafraid to make him unlikable in places and he is at times strangely removed for being the focus of several hundred pages.  He isn't as sharply defined as Clare and sometimes when he is, it is too much through broad statements rather than revealing action.  By the end, though, he has grown enough on you so that what happens has a strong impact.
  Side characters are unfortunately all too quickly sketched and sometimes seem to be more plot devices than full characters.  This is true of almost all of them I found and while a few have some rich potential, their lack of development of it is all the more annoying.  the book seemed overly long to me, with the author crossing the line here and there between reinforcement of theme/character and repetition.  I  think it would have been a more compelling read 100-150 pages shorter, or if some of those 500 pages had been rebalanced a bit to fill in some of the other characters beside Clare and Henry.  I could also have done without the graphic sex/discussions, not from any prudish point of view but because they just seemed utterly out of place and at times out of character.  In other words, they pulled me out of the book rather than along with it.
  Even with some problems with character and plot and some triteness, by the last quarter, the book picked up and became compelling both in terms of plot and emotions, and the last few sections are, as I've said,truly moving and well-worth the journey to get there.
  In the end, I'd recommend the book pretty highly and tell people not to feel bad about skimming here and there (I know, I know, but you all know you've done it yourselves :)
1640315
I just finished reading this one for a class.  It is a very complex novel that I think would benefit from multiple readings.  The novel is extremely discriptive and tells the story of two women from different parts of the world and how their paths ultimately cross.  Brand's prose is intricately woven with a combination of confusion, wonder, and anger that emminates through fresh use of voice and perception.  The book illustrates the impact of the imperialism and the slave-trade in the Carribean and takes place in both the islands and Ontario.  I recomend this one but caution that it is a book that takes effort to really get into it.
2080299
What started out as a simple journey for a little girl in The Golden Compass grew to a more complex plot and theme in The Subtle Knife and finally in this book, expands to a universal crisis resting in the hands of a few main characters.  Each character is so complex, that the terms "evil" and "good" cannot be assigned, the thoughts and emotions are realistic and the motives are expressed well.  Perhaps the most amazing element of this book is Pullman's ability to intertwine at first seemingly unrelated ideas and plot developments.  For example, Lyra's destiny at first glance does not seem to make any sense, but as the prophecy reveals it self truthful, the reader is awed at the author's ability.  Definately a keeper.
86077
I really enjoyed this book.  The characters are very complex and  there were many surprises.
680463
This is quite a strange book, there are god like beings, alternate universes, people who talk to animals, and plenty of plot twists, I would consider it to be Science Fiction because of the subject matter.
I found the story to be a very immersive read, there are lots of things going on, and it is a very complex story.
The ending was a bit on the soft side considering how high energy and violent the rest of the book was, but still a good read and worth
reading more than once.

Recommended
2590316
Because of the Sun is a complex novel about family, dissociation, and toxic relationships. Told primarily from the POV of Dani, a girl who has had an abusive upbringing thanks to a mother who seemed to hate her, it tells the story of a girl who doesn't feel like she has a place in the world. Before you jump to "ah, another angst novel", it is to be noted that this is a character who has dissociated from the world and whose favorite way of getting numb is getting a sunstroke on a semi-regular basis. The book doesn't shy from displaying toxic parenting, whether it is the one from Dani's mother, or from Dani's grandfather to his two daughters: the theme is to connect two people who were hurting the same, in this case, Dani and her aunt Shelley. There is also a lot of symbolism going on, with the bear and the constant hallucinations and dreams - it was past my bedtime when I was reading it, so forgive me for not going deep into it. But the fact is that it detracts from the main storyline a lot - it is written well when it comes to being in the mind of the character, but it suffers from an imbalance when it comes to progressing the story. The romance, too, seemed superfluous, and I felt it was there for the sake of it. Overall, I would recommend this book if you love emotional stories about family and healing.
3902482
Very complicated and interesting book,full of enormous historical detail
3596507
The best word to describe this book is complex. Our main character is distraught after 9/11 and enlists in the Army. He is on a mission to save the world. Through his experiences in Iraq, he struggles to grasp the world around him and come to terms with his past. It is like he is haunted. This is all part of the desperate need that he has to save the world.

I have never been in the military, but I can't help but feel that the story told is wrought with reality even though it ties in a little sci fi and psychology. The language may be a little "graphic" for some as it contains its fair share of profanity, but I found it to be more gripping and raw than overused.

I would definitely recommend this book for one that likes a challenging and complex book. It will make you think about actions and consequences, as well as how our experiences shape ourselves and the world around us.
4718670
Well written, complex and good story.  Good character development.  It flows well and is in many areas hard to put down.  The format of short chapters gives natural breaks which is nice in a long book.