Jim E's reads for 2014-DONE! Let's go for 75

[Jim]

51. Game of Thrones

I really enjoyed this book. I'm generally not a fan of fantasy but this one was good. I had finally decided to join the bandwagon and watch the TV show. About half way through the first season, I figured I might actually like the book more. I figured the book would have more detail. I watched some of the special features with the author who said the TV show would show his version of the book. After reading the book, I can say that the show is very faithful to the novel. There are a few minor differences (children are older, some lines of dialogue are in different settings, etc). The TV show did actually add a few more scenes of the minor characters to develop them more (Peter, Theon, Renly). I am especially enjoying Tyrion. He is a clever, fun character.

[Jim]

52. Zombie Fallout 2: A Plague Upon Your Family

This book was good. Mike continues to be entertaining even if he does have some random asides in the middle of the action. The only thing I disliked about this book was the ending. I don't care for cliffhanger endings, especially if they fail to resolved the conflict initiated in the book. The entire book built towards a huge climatic battle but it wasn't resolved well and you were uncertain as to what happened. I didn't care for that. The author would have been better served to clearly resolve the conflict in this book to build towards the bigger climax with Eliza later.



Spoiler:

I also didn't like the addition of vampires. Zombies is enough. We don't need vampires.

[Jim]

53. The 100

Includes spoilers:

I have actually read this book before back when I was in elementary school. It was called Lord of the Flies. Apparently, this book was made into a TV show shortly after it was released (obviously in conjunction). As such, it reads like a bad teenage melodrama. In short, it has the ridiculous teenage love triangle(s). The plot is poorly fleshed out and there is a lot of detail not explained. The book is told from the POV of 4 narrators and uses extensive use of flashbacks. Nearly every chapter starts in the current and flashes back to a year or 10 years previous to provide backstory on the characters. This is done to the detriment of actually maintaining a progressive story flow. The flashbacks are occasionally done in the middle of "current" action sequences. As you learn more about the characters, you learn how petty and hypocritical they are. Clarke blames Wells for the death of her parents however she had no problem mercy murdering her own friend. I guess causing death is acceptable as long as you plunge the needle yourself. The book is heavy of stupid romance (not that romance is stupid, just that the romance in this book is stupid) and fails to get into the whole fact you have 100 untrained, uneducated teenagers with limited supplies crashlanded in a forest. Somehow they survive. I guess it is because one guy knows how to hunt and one deer can feed a 100 people for several days. My uncle used to hunt deer, I don't recall us getting enough meat to feed us for that long. And for the record, I'm pretty sure arrows are carried in a quiver, not a sling. The characters are so unsympathetic, one of the main characters, Wells, actually jeopardized the lives of several thousand people in order to try and save his one true love, that he got sentenced to death in the first place. "Hey honey, I'll make up for getting you killed by killing everyone else instead". I am so glad I got this book from the library and didn't pay for it. I don't think I'll be checking out the TV show either.

[Jim]

54. Clash of Kings

Includes Spoilers:

I really enjoyed the book though at times found myself skimming the narrative because there is so much of it. For instance, during Daenys time in the priest's house, I kinda drifted and got bored a bit. I think there could be a bit more explanation of certain things. For instance, what happened after Renly's death, did Stannis and Theon really die? I'm guessing Stannis is but it was a bit confusing, especially since it all happened off-screen. I think the TV show does a bit better job with this since it adds some extra scenes that are not in the book to explain background/motivation for characters that are not one of the primary narrators in the book. Since most of the book is told from the perspective of a Stark plus Davos and Theon, you don't get an idea for what is going on other places or with other characters. I thoroughly enjoy Tyrion's character. I really wish he would just kill Joffrey. If Stannis is really dead, I'm curious as to what will happen with the rest of his army and the priestess. It became clear what happened with Renly's army.

[Jim]

55. Revenge of Seven

Includes spoilers:

this was an extremely quick read. It is fast paced and has a fair amount of action. It does a good job of advancing the plot towards what I assume is a final concluding book. It is a bit misleading though. The book is titled the Revenge of Seven (Marina). In the previous books since she had been introducted, Marina was one of several narrators in the book. However, she is not a narrator in this one, which is bizarre given the title. Instead, she is replaced as a narrator by Ella. Presumably since Ella is separated from the group and Marina spends her time with Six. Six serves as one narrator detailing her group, John doing his group, and then Ella alone. Additionally, Seven never gets any revenge. Considering the title, it would suggest that Seven gets some sort of revenge on either Five or the Mogs. She gets neither. It was a bit disappointing. Other than that I really enjoyed the book.

[Jim]

56. Star Wars: Jedi Healer

It was good. Slightly humorous but nothing special. I'm not a huge clone wars era fan and this didn't have any of the "famous" characters but Den and I-Five were entertaining. Nothing special but not bad.

[Jim]

57. Lorien Legacies: Lost Files (#1-3)

This book was pretty good. The stories moved at a very quick pace. Six's story was interesting as you get more of her backstory as to understand how she became the way she is. Nine's story was interesting because he normally isn't used as a narrator in the other books. This is the only time you get to see his Cepan. The last story, fallen legacies, should more aptly be called Adam's story as it focus more on him than it does on numbers 1-3. The story follows Adam's involvement in the death of the first 3 legacies. You don't really get to know either number 2 or 3. You get a bit more with number 1. Really, you learn more about Adam and why he eventually rebels against the rest of the Mogs. I would have liked to learn more directly about the three fallen legacies rather than a neat little story that ties them all together through one individual.

[Jim]

58. The Fear

The book was interesting but the series has been a little bit annoying. The biggest factor is that the books are written out of order. Essentially, the correct order is The Enemy, The Fear, then The Dead. (2, 3, 1). This book takes place after book 2 but a few days before book 1 and then overlaps it a bit. This makes reading the books a challenge because the characters from the first book basically disappear for the next two. A couple of characters make minor appearances in this book but those are mostly cameos. It doesn't make for very clean story telling.

[Jim]

59. Ruins

It was okay. It resolved most of the conflict issues from the previous two books. Wrapped up the loose ends. Got a little bit strange at points. Nothing spectacular but not bad.

[Alison]

Jim I'm on the same place you are in the Game of Thrones series. I also think Stannis died. So you're not the only one! I think I've heard something happens to Joffery in book 3. I need to read it.

[Jim]

60. 39 Clues: Flashpoint

I suppose this was a decent end to the current series. It was fun though a bit childish in the writing sometimes and a little inconsistent with the characters. It certainly stretched the bounds of plausibility several times but was a good, quick read.

[Jim]

61. Scan

I listened to the audiobook of this story. It was interesting though not exceptional. It left a lot of things unexplained. It was clearly meant to be the first book in a series and, as such, left a lot of unanswered questions. It ended with a bit of a cliffhanger. The main character is a bit of a teenage MacGiver but at least the author provides a decent backstory as to why a 16 year old has such exceptional applied chemistry skills. About an average book.

[Jim]

62. Star Wars: A New Dawn

I suppose this served as a decent introduction to the new rebels cartoon series. I haven't watched the cartoon yet to see how closely the characters are represented. I guess this book was okay but not great. Even though it is the first of the official canon books, it doesn't impact any of the previously written books. I think that is because all the books coming out now are placed before the end of ROTJ because they need to see what Abrams does with Force Awakened to see how the rest of the EU is affected. I don't see any impact on pre-ROTJ novels.

[Jim]

63. Civil War

This book was pretty good. It made me want to read the comic book series. Glancing through the comics at the store, I found that they actually had more information in parts than what was in the novel. The novel did a good job of explaining more of the thoughts that were going on with the characters and exploring their motivations and feelings better than what can be grasped in a comic. However, I don't feel the author did a very good job of capturing the action scenes depicted in the comic. He did a poor job of elaborating on the action compared to what can be shown in a few panels of a comic. For instance, the Black Widow's battles with Daredevil are pretty much all described the same in a few sentences (basically they just ran around over poles and walls a lot). He did okay with the main battles but not the secondary battles depicted in the background. I think it was a wasted opportunity. I think the book suffered from poor editing in that manner. Otherwise, I think they would have caught the error in Captain America, after getting beat down by Iron Man, asking for a Midol (does Cap have PMS now or was that meant to be a Motrin?) The story and plot was pretty good though I think the book could have done a better job of tying the entire story together. I think there were events that happened in cross-over comics that explained things better that were not incorporated into the novel (i.e. the Black Panther's role..his appearance seemed kinda random and you get the impression more was going on there). The book is an extremely quick read. I finished it in a day and wasn't reading all day, just in spurts. I'd be interested to see how they make this the plot of the next Captain America movie, especially since the studios can't use the FF, Spider-Man, or the X-men because their properties are owned by other studios than the Avengers.

[Jim]

64. Lorien Legacies #4-6 (Secret Histories)

This book was interesting. It is a good supplement to the main stories. I listened to the audiobook version. The guy reading the first and third stories was not very good. Something about his cadence as he read was very awkward to listen to. He was very halting in his delivery. The first story (Search for Sam) is a bit misleading. It is a continuation of the short story, The Fallen Legacies, that follows Adam's adventures. This explains what happens after the death of #3 in Africa. It does explain what happened to Malcolm Goode but the search for Sam is only about the last 10th of the story. The third story, Forgotten Ones, continues Adam's adventures after the rescue of Sam and explains where the rest of the Cymera come from. The second story, Last Days of Lorien, focuses on Sandor and explains how he becomes Nine's Cepan and how the invasion/fall of Lorien takes place. All in all, the stories are good supporting information for the main series, either filling in the gaps or taking place simultaneous to the main story line. I think Adam's stories could easily fit into the main narrative, especially since it is told from multiple perspectives anyway.

[Jim]

65. Castaways

I listened to the audiobook version. It was an okay book. It was fastpaced and reasonably interesting. It took an interesting premise but I don't think he did as much with the plot as he could have. He started out with a few good plot points but then abandoned them in preference for gore and slaughter. Some of the character actions are a little bizarre (Stefan) and a lot of the deaths occur "off camera". I would clasify it as a typical horror novel. Good but not great.

[Jim]

66. The Blood of Olympus

This was an enjoyable conclusion to the series. Some gripes I had about the book is Riordan had a tendency to start new chapters in the middle of some sort of action and then had to backtrack to explain what had happened. He also tended to skip some action sequences and then referred back to them without having shown them. The other thing I don't like about these books are while the main characters are teenagers, it is not a young adult novel but more a children's novel. There is nothing wrong with that but the book has many scenes, dialogue, and sequences that are extremely childish. It is a bad combination of teenage angst and heroic battles with 6 year old humor. It doesn't mesh well and is extremely distracting. Riordan really needs to figure out who his audience is. Is it 6 to 10 year olds or is is 12-17 year olds. He goes back and forth between serious life challenges and fart jokes. It is extremely inconsistent. Additionally, it translates really badly to film. I've seen both of the Percy Jackson films and because there is so much childish stuff in the plot (i.e. stuff that might entertain a 6 year old) that stuff doesn't come across well on film or is inconsistent with the rest of the storyline. I think you can still write books for children without being childish.

[Jim]

67. Four

If you are a fan of Four, then these books are pretty good for you. If you are not a fan of Four, they are okay. The four stories together basically provide the back history of Four from the time he decides to join Dauntless to about the middle of the events in Divergent. The stories themselves don't have much of a climax or maybe they are anticlimatic because you already know everything that is going to happen. You know Tobias will join Dauntless; you know he will make it through initiation; you know he will turn down being a Dauntless leader to work in the control room. There isn't really anything gained. The final of the four stories mirrors a lot of the events from Divergent just from Four's POV. If you have the hots for Four, I guess this can be interesting but if you aren't a teenage girl, seeing things from Four's horny POV doesn't really add much to the story. Ooooh, Four has the hots for Tris...duh. With the collected stories, you also get 3 "additional" scenes. Again, these are all scenes from Divergent, just from Four's POV. Nothing special unless you are a card carrying member of the Four Fan Club.

[Jim]

68. Blue Moon Rising

I listened to the graphic audio version of this book. It was interesting and different from a typical audiobook. First, it had a full cast of actors doing the reading. Second, since they essentially acted out the book, there were no character statement notations (i.e. he said, she replyed). You had to recognize the characters voices to know who was who. For the major characters, that became easier but with some of the secondary characters, it became a challenge. As for the book itself, it is what I would consider "hack" writing. It is pretty typical of a lot of themed fantasy books I've read (stuff like the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, etc series). It was interesting but not especially well written. With the performance approach, it was sometimes difficult to follow things because you just heard sound effects for a battle and not always narration. I did like the graphic audio format and will check out some other books. I'm not so sure I would continue this series though.

[Jim]

69. Walking Dead, Book Ten

This series was pretty crazy. It picks up right after the events with Glenn and gets interesting quick. It is very action packed. I was a bit disappointed because I thought it would include a resolution to things with Negen but apparently that hasn't occured yet (within these issues). Negen is a very interesting character. He is a true sociopath. Whereas Rick has a tendency to go off half cocked without thinking his plans through, Negen is very methodical and calculated in his actions. There is a part of him that seems "honorable" or at least that there are some good intentions but he executes them in a very violent, evil way. Can't wait to see how things are resolved with him.

[Jim]

70. Marvel's Civil War (comics)

This review includes most of the entire Civil War marvel titles. The main series itself was pretty interesting if a little truncated. It will be interesting to see how this is made into the next Captain America movie given the characters involved that marvel studios doesn't have a license on anymore (FF, spidey). I found a few differences between this and the novelation. In the novel, Peter Parker is said to have not seen MJ in like a year, since their "not" wedding. However, in the comics, they are married and she is an integral part of his storyline.

The Frontline series was cool as it explained why Tony Stark did what he did. Spider-Man's arcs were interesting. Thunderbolts seemed like you only got a snapshot and didn't fit into the overall arc, same with Runaways/Young Avengers. The Deadpool parts of X-men universe were pretty funny but the X-men storyline didn't seem to fit well.

[Jim]

71. Avengers vs X-men: It's Coming

This series was okay but it was a random collection of issues in support of the upcoming Avengers Vs X-men series and was kinda scattered and not a coherent collection. It jumped around to different groups and characters. without some background in the current titles, this leaves a reader wondering what is going on. There are about 8 issues collected and they support each other but do not tell a continuous story.