Genre Fiction Books - Page 5

Angels & Demons

Dan Brown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2202 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

More 'action-packed' than Da Vinci Code, but.... 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I took this book as a loan from a well-meaning fellow reader...after explaining that I had read Da Vinci Code, and while I enjoyed the premise, the history, and the basic 'story', Dan Brown's writing style left me flat.....I have found nothing to change that opinion, really, with having read Angels and Demons.

The story here is even more fast-paced and thrilling than Da Vinci Code...another secret ancient brotherhood (such as the Priory of Sion), a religious cover-up (the famed Illuminati, centuries long opponents of the Catholic Church) and a trail of bodies leading to a long-sought after prize by Harvard Professor of Symbology, Robert Langdon.

With so many other reviews of this book, I won't outline the plot in any greater detail, but will instead focus on strengths and weaknesses, in my opinion.

Strengths: Again, this is more action packed and faster paced than Da Vinci Code......and to me a better story. Not that I have anything against a fictional story that purports to reveal a 'hidden bloodline' of Jesus Christ, like so many others, but this story, to me, was grounded more in actual documented history than Da Vinci Code was. And for all his knowledge and cleverness, Robert Langdon, in this book, seemed a bit more of an 'everyman' caught up in a terrible plot...and truly seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a side note, though, having read this book now, you'd think that by the time Da Vinci Code took place, Langdon would have learned his lesson about getting caught up in such situations.

Weaknesses: Maybe I've forgotten more recent history, but did cell phones EVER have a 'dial tone?' That particular detail just about deterred me from reading any further than the first 100 pages of the book....as far as I'm aware no cell phone ever had a 'dial tone'. If I am wrong about this, I owe Mr. Brown an apology, but....if not, it's glaring errors like this that turn me off to a book, typically, no matter how interesting the subject matter might be. I also found yet again a very 'pedestrian' style of writing here....too many chapters that start out setting a scene such as 'The Secret Vatican Archives are located at the far end of....' This sort of 'dumbed down' writing is exactly what normally deters me from reading modern-day thrillers....I prefer to use my imagination a bit more, and also to read authors who spend a bit more time incorporating details such as the location of the Secret Vatican Archives into their story in such a way that it doesn't read like a tour book. Suffice to say I like to read authors who use their own imagination to make me use mine when I read their works.

Nonetheless, if Dan Brown ever gets around to releasing 'The Solomon Key,' (rumored to be another Robert Langdon novel) I will, more than likely, read it. Despite my criticism of his writing style, and some glaring errors in storytelling, I must say that (in Mr. Brown's favor)he does choose some very interesting topics to write about. Although I prefer the 'modern thrillers' written by Steve Berry if I do choose to read a book from this genre, Dan Brown at least does have a fertile imagination.

Editorial Review:

An ancient secret brotherhood.
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
An unthinkable target.

World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth...the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.

People of the Book

Geraldine Brooks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 149 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not Good Enough for Readers of the Book 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book is a good story, full of everything I like: history and mystery, religion and bravery, and a good dose of female heroism. But the chapters read unevenly, with fast-paced and engaging passages followed by leaden and clichéd portrayals, especially the chapter devoted to the Jewish Partisans fighting under Tito and the absolutely ridiculously written chapter set in turn of the century Vienna (the dialog alone, both the interior words of the narrator and the words he exchanges with others, had me hooting in disbelief).

Not that any of Brooks' writing is entirely free of clichés or hackneyed phrasing and pacing. Her writing is suitable to the telling of a story but not for sketching a genuine moment in time or expressing an original vision of the past. She does not open anything up to her readers that is particularly new or beautifully acute and accurate. Nor is Brooks much good at character development: her figures tend to be just that, figures meant to represent a certain type of person or a certain place in time. Even her narrator is a flat and unbelievable structure (common to best sellers) and the narrator's mother and recently discovered father, even worse. Everything is in superlatives: uber-successful surgeon, famous and fabulous artist, most determined restorer of books with a PhD from Harvard (of course) willing to spend months and months learning how to make parchment (or grind berries or whatever), and yet the world's meanest mom (and youngest chair of the neurosurgery department) gives her not one damn iota of respect. Etc., etc. Subtlety is not one of Brooks' virtues: she likes to slam us over the head with her characters and the situations they find themselves in.

But Brooks is a fine historian and she gathers together a lot of good facts; she is a good story teller, capable of wrapping those acts in a drapery of fun and froth, or blood and gore. I would guess that the best chapters -- the ones most true and moving and fresh -- are based on her favorite, if not best, areas of research. She herself admits it is hard to tell again the story of Jewish persecution under the Nazis and she does not do a good job of it. In contrast, the initial chapter set in Sarajevo in 1996 was very real and alive, and I loved the chapter set in Seville in 1480 (although should not the setting have been Granada? That is were the Emir lived, and I believe Brooks is referring to the beautiful Alhambra which is in Granada and not in Seville, as the place where the slave girl is sent to paint the Emir's lover). Despite the gaff in location, that chapter was rendered with a lighter touch, and a richer emotional range (if we ignore the rape scene and the totally unbelievable lesbian interlude) than any of the other historical chapters. In addition, the heroine of that chapter actually seemed like a living and breathing person, not some Madame Tussaud wax figure.

Brooks' book has a good story. I wish she could have trusted all of us more to tell the story without telling us what we should think; I wish she could have given us more complex and real characters we could have identified with and cheered on; and I wish she had offered a fresh and meaningful observation into why we should not be burning books, but reading them. Her main characters profess to love books -- to be People of the Book -- but we never find out why.

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Editorial Review:

The “complex and moving”(The New Yorker) novel by Pulitzer Prize–winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called “a tour de force”by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century S pain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Jeff Lindsay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 243 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Forget the book - Just watch the show. 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I'm a huge fan of Dexter the TV show, so when I found out that it was an adaptation of a novel, I really didn't think I could go wrong by checking it out. Turns out that I could most definitely go wrong.

The interior monologue in the show that makes Dexter come across as sweet, despite the fact that according to all societal standards he's a monster, just doesn't come through on the page. Instead, it's more a battle for the reader to keep going as the words keep piling up and the same messages about Dexter's "hunger" seem to repeat over and over again.

Now, please believe me when I tell you that it is RARE for me to ever advocate a video representation of any kind over a book. 99.9% of the time I believe that a book will be better than a movie or show. Unfortunately, Darking Dreaming Dexter represents the other .1% - The story should have gone straight to script.

Honestly, the only reason I even gave this 2 stars is because of Showtime's success in transforming it into a very entertaining and provocative series. So, as I said in my title (and may never say again in my life), forget the book and tune in on Sunday nights at 9!

Editorial Review:

The Basis for a New Showtime® Original Series Starring Michael C. Hall

Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He’s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened–of himself or some other fiend.

Betrayed (House of Night, Book 2)

P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I have to agree with Deidre(the 1st review on this page) 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I recently became interested in the Vampire novel genre after reading Twilight. Since reading it i have read several other vampire series, including this one. Sadly this one is at the bottom of my recommendation list for other to read. The first few books from this series were very promising, which made me read all of them that are released but i was very disappointed afterward. I did not feel as close to the characters as i wanted to, or become attached, at all. They definitely lacked personality, the authors were annoyingly repetitive and i felt as though there were many loose ends in the novels. I found myself asking questions about the story and characters that were given no answers. If you want to read a great story based on vampires, i would look elsewhere before reading House of Night.

Editorial Review:

Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night.  She’s come to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her, and is getting a handle on being the new Leader of the Dark Daughters. Best of all, Zoey finally feels like she belongs--like she really fits in. She actually has a boyfriend…or two. Then the unthinkable happens: Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey’s old life, she begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night, and Zoey must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world.

Halo: The Cole Protocol

Tobias S. Buckell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems. Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble--and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar . . . yet somehow survived. News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best---an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality . . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path.

Outlander

Diana Gabaldon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1371 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great fun literary couple 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have read and reread this book several times and I love it everytime. Great major characters and interesting minor characters make this story fun and you get drawn into the time frame of the story. If you read the first couple of chapters and you are bored just keep reading get into it.

Editorial Review:

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

You Can Heal Your Life

Louise L. Hay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 294 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Must have 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Anyone can benefit from this book. It's message challenges you to take control of your own life and healing on all levels. On one level, it's a beginner's course in positive thinking; on another level, it's also an advanced course teaching you how to use your thoughts and affirmations to change all areas of your life. The as more than mere empty words or repeated by rote sentences. It clarifies how and why these affirmations work and how t make them work in your life. Louise hay leads my example and this book is a testament to her life and her success. A spiritual leader who authentically walks her talk

Michelle 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book. I highly recommend it. I have read it several times.

Love this Book, Great Affirmations 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Louise Hays books are very positive and uplifting. I love the affirmations in this book. I do believe that the mind's beliefs can manifest in the body. Whether or not it manifests from these certain beliefs into these certain parts of the body I am not sure. In any case the "gift edition" of the book is beautiful and it reminds me to be positive, believe that I am valuable, and helps me identify my beliefs which gives me the opportunity to change the one's I want to change.

Editorial Review:

Louise explains how limiting beliefs and ideas are often the cause of illness, and how you can change your thinking...and improve the quality of your life.

Living Dead in Dallas (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 2)

Charlaine Harris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 168 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

~*Living Dead In Dallas*~ 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I loved this book! It was just as awesome as the first one. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Sookie is constantly finding herself in trouble ever since she fell in love with Bill. Their adventures have kept me up at night so I can find out what happens next.

Don't touch this 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you expect to get from this book what you got from the TrueBlood series, you are up for a big disappointment. I am lacking words to describe how bad the book was. There was no depth, no anticipation, when reading this book I felt as if I was watching some horrible soap opera. Sookie: kept on arguing with Bill, breaking up with him and getting back together; every 5 pages she had the best sex of her life, every 4 pages she got beaten up and mentioned how strong she was, I guess to justify more beating; got aroused by at least 4 characters.

After reading this book, somehow, I feel that I wont enjoy the show that much anymore.

Editorial Review:

The second Sookie Stackhouse novel from the New York Times bestselling author—and the basis for the HBO series True Blood.

For years, Charlaine Harris has delighted fans with her mystery series featuring small-town waitress-turned- paranormal sleuth Sookie Stackhouse. Now, Ace is pleased to republish her second novel in the series in hardcover. In this book, Sookie is pursued by a very sexy vampire—and a very deadly monster. With HBO and Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, launching an all-new series, True Blood, based on the Southern Vampire novels, the demand for Charlaine Harris and Sookie Stackhouse is going to be bigger than ever.

The Unforgiven (Leisure Western)

Alan Lemay

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Dark City: A Novel (Vol 1)

Frank Lauria (Adapter), Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer, Alex Proyas

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 499 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A hidden gem 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A brilliant movie made even better in Blu-Ray. A great Sci-fi story with wonderful performances by Rufus Sewell, William Hurt and Keifer Sutherland. Highly recommended.

A FILM OF COMPLEX ENIGMAS? ODDLY: YES!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In all of the reviews, someone must have made the connexion; but for those just now looking to buy this film in the Blu-ray edition, I should say a word or two.
First: the picture quality is excellent. The pictures look much more solid; and the sound is fantastic. If you have even a portion of the equipment, you can get much out of this movie. The "much" they provide.
But is it complex? Is the storyline a visionary enigma which baffles the viewer? Is there something deeper that we do not see?

The answer, I believe, is a surprising: Yes!!

On the surface, one seems to be filled in fairly quickly about what is going on. Eventually all is revealed; and revealed with a special-effects extravaganza flourish!
But the viewer of this film, is indeed misled into believing it is about a man who awakens in a bathtub; confused, dazed and thinking himself a killer. A killer soon being chased by unusual figures dressed in black. From there, the story mainly "seems" to revolve around this man, with Kiefer Sutherland ultimately providing some of the answers we need. Though not all.
The reality, though, is that the movie does not revolve around the gentlemen in the bathtub. The true center, and answer, to the enigmatic movie lies in none other than the occasionally seen: Kiefer Sutherland!

What does it all mean? Well, you figure it out for yourself. But I shall give you the beginning to the final answer to this movie. The name of Kiefer Sutherland is: Daniel P. Schreber.
There is your clue; and there is the Key to this movie and what it ultimately means.
I believe this movie should be given a second subtitle of: "Memoirs Of My Nervous Illness".

Once you make the true connexion--(and this has to be more than a coincindence!)--then rewatch "Dark City" with a fresh awe. An awe that few modern movies of any genre supply.

IN CHRIST JESUS: THE LIVING TRUTH: THE LIVING GOD INCARNATE!!!

Braithwaite :)

Editorial Review:

John Murdoch is accused of murder and believed to be mentally disturbed, but he is the only salvation from the violent killings that are happening, as long as he can remain alive. Original. Movie tie-in."