Eye-shuh

Eye-shuh is now following Amanda Quick's reviews

Eye-shuh rated a book 4 of 5 stars

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
by Mindy Kaling

read in June, 2012

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I really enjoyed this book! To be honest, this is what I had wished I had gotten out of Olivia Munn's book. I love Olivia Munn but dear god her book was a terrible, unfunny, poorly written mess of a tl;dr blog post.

Mindy Kaling takes this sort of inf...more

Eye-shuh rated a book 4 of 5 stars

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
by Seth Grahame-Smith

read in June, 2012

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This was a fun read! I honestly wasn't expecting much out of it, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I have no idea how well the author did with mixing real historical fact with vampires, but it felt like he did a great job, so someone with...more

Eye-shuh rated a book 2 of 5 stars

Pretty
by Jillian Lauren (Goodreads Author)

read in May, 2012

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Eh...it was OK. It was interesting. There is a lot of unnecessary repetitiveness that makes me think that either the author mistakenly thought that would be good to add to the experience of the book basically being the main character's train of thoug...more

Eye-shuh made a comment on Courtney Marshall's review of Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, #8)

"I haven't picked up the books yet! I am definitely going to grab at least the first one my next paycheck. Now I'm very intrigued to see how much they...more "

Eye-shuh rated a book 2 of 5 stars

Borderlands: The Fallen
by John Shirley

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I am a pretty huge Borderlands fan. In fact, I would go so far to say Borderlands is my all time favorite video game. So, when I saw that a book had come out I had no choice but to pick it up! Unfortunately, I more or less had to force myself to get...more I am a pretty huge Borderlands fan. In fact, I would go so far to say Borderlands is my all time favorite video game. So, when I saw that a book had come out I had no choice but to pick it up! Unfortunately, I more or less had to force myself to get through it. Borderlands: The Fallen is an extremely disappointing look into the Borderlands universe.

From the cover and the description one can be led to assume, as I was, that the book has the potential to perhaps be the first of four going into the history of our mysterious Vault Hunters. That was not the case. The book barely looks at Roland's history and is not even about him. At all. The story revolves around a family who gets in over their heads looking for some rumored new alien technology that isn't Eridian. The whole thing ends up feeling like a long fanfiction story where the author decided to insert himself in a corny fashion into the world and "play" with his favorite character from the game.

Not that I can assume the author of this book even played the game. The way he writes about the various Pandora inhabitants it comes off like he was provided a list of people, creatures, and places from the world so that he could write this book without actually having to play Borderlands. It was especially distracting when he messed something up, like for example, having a Badass Psycho speak when in the game they just sort of grunt madly at you. Yes, it bothered me. Yes, I am in love with Borderlands and I don't care if that seems like a small mistake. The whole book is riddled with small mistakes that make you wince as you read them. At one point the author accidentally puts a character's name in a scene that he's not actually in.

The dialogue of this book is painful. I mean, really really painful. It's hard to read. The author throws around the one-liners from the game wildly throughout the story as if to say "Look look! Look nerds! It's about your video game! See? See how they say the same things!" Roland has little to no personality, which more or less goes for the majority of the characters in the book. They all fall pretty flat and all the enemies sound the same. I had to grit my teeth to get through any long conversations.

Also, here's the thing, grim things happen in Borderlands and Pandora is clearly not a place you want to vacation. However, the video game gives you this fun dark humor throughout the whole thing that the book completely abandons. If the author attempted humor at some point, I never saw it. His story is extremely grim and barely entertaining. It does not even remotely come close to the same feel you get from the game.

Then you have to endure the ending, which turns out to be a Star Trek ending - the humans have to prove themselves worthy to a mysterious superior being who is too vague to have much real motive for anything and to save the author from having to be creative with the alien creature. (Note: That is not a criticism of Star Trek. I love Star Trek. I just think the author was using a Star Trek ending because he couldn't think of anything interesting on his own. Works great for hour long Star Trek episodes, works pretty horribly for this kind of novel.)

There is a small amount of good to combat all this glaring bad. The scenery of Pandora is written beautifully. I really felt like I was on the planet's surface every time he described the surroundings. I also loved getting a little bit of depth to why Pandora is the way it is. The author sadly doesn't take much time to go into these details, but what he shells out is very interesting and makes me wish I could know more about the world.

Unfortunately, the good does not quite balance the bad. I would love to give this at least an OK/Average rating, but I just can't quite do it.

If you are a huge Borderlands fan like me, I mean, completely obsessive about the game, then you might like to pick this up. However, it currently costs $10 which is way too expensive for what you get. Wait until it goes on sale on Amazon and pick it up for less.(less)

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The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)
by Patrick Rothfuss (Goodreads Author)

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Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)
by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)

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The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

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Eye-shuh has challenged herself to read 24 books in the 2012 Reading Challenge

She has read 8 books toward her goal of 24 books.

8 of 24 (33%)

Create your own 2012 Reading Challenge »

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Eye-shuh is now following Amanda Quick's reviews
Mar 04, 2013 10:17am · like
Eye-shuh rated a book 4 of 5 stars Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling read in June, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book! To be honest, this is what I had wished I had gotten out of Olivia Munn's book. I love Olivia Munn but dear god her book was a terrible, unfunny, poorly written mess of a tl;dr blog post. Mindy Kaling takes this sort of inf...more
Jun 16, 2012 09:03am · see review
Eye-shuh rated a book 4 of 5 stars Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith read in June, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This was a fun read! I honestly wasn't expecting much out of it, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I have no idea how well the author did with mixing real historical fact with vampires, but it felt like he did a great job, so someone with...more
Jun 13, 2012 01:31pm · see review
Eye-shuh rated a book 2 of 5 stars Pretty by Jillian Lauren (Goodreads Author) read in May, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Eh...it was OK. It was interesting. There is a lot of unnecessary repetitiveness that makes me think that either the author mistakenly thought that would be good to add to the experience of the book basically being the main character's train of thoug...more
May 30, 2012 01:41pm · see review
Eye-shuh made a comment on Courtney Marshall's review of Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, #8) "I haven't picked up the books yet! I am definitely going to grab at least the first one my next paycheck. Now I'm very intrigued to see how much they...more "
Mar 23, 2012 07:11am · see review
Eye-shuh rated a book 2 of 5 stars Borderlands: The Fallen by John Shirley	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I am a pretty huge Borderlands fan. In fact, I would go so far to say Borderlands is my all time favorite video game. So, when I saw that a book had come out I had no choice but to pick it up! Unfortunately, I more or less had to force myself to get...more
Feb 24, 2012 07:05am · see review
Eye-shuh is currently reading The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2) by Patrick Rothfuss (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 09, 2012 10:37am
Eye-shuh wants to read Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1) by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 09, 2012 10:37am
Eye-shuh wants to read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 09, 2012 10:35am
Eye-shuh has challenged herself to read 24 books in the 2012 Reading Challenge She has read 8 books toward her goal of 24 books. 8 of 24 (33%) Create your own 2012 Reading Challenge »
Feb 09, 2012 10:31am · like · view books

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