interesting but forced
586413
It was a decent movie. Kutcher made an almost believable Jobs. Some of the monologues felt forced, and several of the scenes seemed staged to make a particular point. On the whole, though, it made for an interesting story.
243504
Interesting but sometimes too drawn out with the kids doings.  Slow reading to get to some of the more interesting parts.
894976
I love books set in exotic locations, with archeological artifacts and plenty of action. The historical villain being the hero was intriguing. The immortality of this character compared with those of his loved ones was interesting, although seems to be done quite a bit lately. But the antagonist of this story was too over the top. He was evil for the sake of evil, there seemed no rational motivation for the depth of his hatred. The characters were interesting, the adventures interesting, but for some reason I had to push myself through this set of books. Overall a decent read, but not as compelling as I would hope.
851775
i enjoyed exploring some interesting topics but had to (in some of the week's topics) struggle to read past the blatant bias and agenda that is very present.  Also, some of the historical inaccuracies actually limit the books during some topics which pull you into a direction based on a biased view of the historical record.  All of that one would expect of a publication such as The New York Times, but it does disappoint none-the-less.  It just wasn't needed but was inserted.
1739421
Interesting, but a bit weird. Excessive violence.
1434686
There is a good story here about getting along during Italy's Fascist days, but the protracted discussions of the motivations of the protagonist slow the story down.  It would have been a more pleasant read to me if the author had set up the character and introduced us to his personality just as he did it, but then backed off the psychologizing let his life unwind without constantly reminding us that every decision he made somehow conformed to the psychological mold set for him by the author.
1378533
I did enjoy this book, found it to be a compelling story, but had several frustrations:

 The first chapter was overwritten, but it leveled out with some great prose thereafter.
 How old was the feral girl?  Didnt find out for many chapters.
 What era was it? Didnt find out until some technology was used several chapters in (it felt like the 20s or 30s and felt that way all the way through. Thats partly my own sheltered upbringing; hard to believe people live like that today).
 What ethnicity were the main characters? Black, white, something else? Never could tell.
 Some actions were so over-the-top it was crazy and seemed out of character.

Despite these issues, I was drawn through the story. I do feel a historical setting would have made some of the confusion go away. Im guessing the concern was that human trafficking is a problem now, but it was also a problem back then, just not as publicized.

Dont get me wrong; this was professionally written, it just needed an equally professional editor to catch these issues.
528982
I love these types of stories, yet I wasn't able to stay with this one, the characters seemed forced and the story line was crowded by to much author research.
4576289
I liked this book for the most part, but am docking this one star only because I felt that some of the verbiage could have been "dumbed down" a little so that we civilians could understand it as well. I am not sure if the author was trying to be "overly-sophisticated" on purpose -- but much of the material felt forced at times and came off as slightly condescending. While I found the overall tone a tad annoying at times, I DID still get a lot out of it. There were however a few chapters where I got to the end and still felt like I was drawing a blank for whatever reason, so perhaps the chapter summaries could have been stronger.
3885063
I love historical fiction and found the premise behind this book compelling enough to want to read it. The plot was easy enough to follow: an exiled queen befriends a recently freed slave (once a prince in his own country) and the two secretly marry and have a child together. This part of the story was interesting and compelling enough to make me want to read on, but the long religious dissertations and never-ending references to upcoming war and the complexities of European politics at the time often left me confused and bored. A geneology chart and a short explanation of the time's politics at the beginning of the book would have been extremely helpful. In addition, the author seems to have a strong preference to elaborate details and conversations with huge, fancy words. I can't imagine that these people would actually use them in daily conversations and it only added to the tediousness of trying to get through the story. Simpler wording and language would have made for an easier and more pleasant read and would not have taken anything away from the storyline.

This book was immediately sold to a used bookstore when I finished it. I would have loved to continue on reading the rest of the trilogy, but don't have the time to be so taxed in my reading efforts.
4266320
This story starts off very well containing interesting characters that generate sympathy and a plot that isn't obvious despite the usual end of the world, military virus and vampire devices.  Unfortunately, it seems that the author found himself with a big story that wasn't quite right so he kept adding characters and more plot devices (the divine, lost colonies, sole surviving soldiers looking for redemption, etc.) trying to come up with a good combination.  He never quite gets there.  This is a decent novel, enjoyable and distracting but no more.  The author certainly gave it a good effort.
4113587
The subject itself was quite fascinating given how it was based on real events and the possibility of how it may or may not have played itself out. However I found the main character just too much of everything. It is almost as if the desire for him to be a mix of several different characters with an ability to solve any problem, be as obnoxious as he wanted to be, actually ends up completely detracting from the individual, to the degree that I managed to achieve no 'bond' with him at all.
Whilst this is one of, as I understand, several novels featuring the main character, I do not think I would want to necessarily encounter him again.
3760478
The fantasy concept was interesting but the plot came to various conclusions far too early and picked up anew in other directions so that the way the plot ebbed and flowed became somewhat unsatisfying. I would urge the author to work more on the technique of tension and reversal so that tension that has been created is not relieved too early.
3562038
The story was interesting enough, but the extremely short chapters that alternated between 2011 and the 15th century made the novel's flow choppy and at times frustrating.  The Kindle version did try to define some of the foreign terms, but not all of them.  Perhaps it was the translation or the conversion to digital, but there was a lot of redundancy in the descriptions - really I thought I'd gag if one more reference to his "Glaucous blue eyes" was made. I also felt like I was reading an essay by one of my students who overuse the thesaurus in an attempt to sound more interesting . This was a distraction from the plot.
This is the story of 2 couples whose lives and love story parallel each other on Cyprus separated by 500 years. There is an implied connection between all of the characters, but it is left to the reader to piece it together. The author does give lots of historical information and ties up the loose ends for the Renaissance storyline, leaving enough of a hint of how the modern story could end that satisfies. I do think that the modern characters could have been developed a little more. but I found that the 15th century plot line was more interesting.
4098360
Interesting story, but it drug on unnecessarily. Writing style is exhausting on the reader - excessively long sentences. I found myself bored and tired of the book, but the story was interesting enough to get me to sludge through until I finished.  I know this book has received critical acclaim, but the writing itself is subpar.
4221276
The author touches some rally exciting topics but the writing is some times tiring to follow. In and case, the book is a good read.
1911996
The book is indeed a masterpiece and the story is good, but it can be monotonous at times.  There's too much sex in the book for my taste (nearly every 20 pages!), and the author presents an overly pessimistic view of humanity, as most of the characters are driven by sex, food, and egocentrism.  It was an interesting read, but I wouldn't read it again.