Dandeliongirl Reads Again

This is one of a handful of books that I attribute to my love of fantasy books and reading in general. I stole it off of my father's book shelf when I was younger and read it many times. I did try to find the sequels to it back then, but that was pre-internet so it was next to impossible. I recently reorganized my bookshelf and found this book, remembered how much I had loved it and how hard I had tried to find the sequels, went on amazon, ordered both sequels and started to read this one. It did not disappoint. It is still a wonderfully written, well thought out, exciting adventure. It's a lovely and interesting take on the basic story of girl from "our world" gets transported into another world, with princes, horses, a princess in a tower and an evil queen and falls in with a group of adventurers. I can't wait to start the next one. 

Not really my cup of tea. I had heard so many good things about this series and had high hopes for it but I really just found it dull and predictable. I may try the next book just to see if it gets any better, but probably not. 

Such a fun read! The short story is that this guy started writing a fictional 8th season of Next Generation on Twitter and ended up putting together a book. A great read for any Next Generation fan. 

Definitely not my favorite Terry Pratchett book, but still a fun read. I loved that it was a story about one of my favorite Dickens' characters, I always thought Dodger deserved his own book! The story was great, as were the characters. Its not as out there or quirky as the Discworld books I have read but still had that Pratchett feel. It was a little hard to follow at times, but not that bad, and that may just be due to the fact I listened to on audio book while driving in the car and may have missed things here and there. 

While the story is adorable and so very star trek, what really won me over was the illustration. In a very Norman Rockwell style the artwork is so classic Christmas book that it takes a second to realize that, nope, that is a Klingon in that picture. A great twist on the average Christmas story book that will now become one of my holiday traditions. 

Loved this book. I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago and this is my first chance to sit and write about it. The characters and story were great, it kept me interested the entire time. It was a really nice new take on the Peter Pan story. My favorite part is that it is told in first person by Tinkerbell whose unique view of what was happening made the story all the more interesting. I was left, maybe, a bit dissatisfied by the ending, but I'm not sure, part of me loved it and thought it was perfect and part of me didn't. All in all a nice, quick, sweet read that reminds you of what first love (and first heartbreak) are all about. 

I tried, I really did, but I couldn't get past the first chapter...the book is written in the first person but the person telling the story seemed so disinterested in what he's witnessing that I couldn't get interested either. Maybe, someday, I'll give it another try, but I have sworn to myself I will never sit through another book simply because I feel the need to finish it, if I am not enjoying it then I will just move on. I mean, maybe it does get better, but the description of the book advertised it as something interesting and fun and this was just droll at best. 

I loved this book. My only complaint really is that there were sections that were a bit slow or got a bit too involved in the details of a conversation/description of the area etc and it lagged a bit but I loved the overall story. Eventually I even started to enjoy  the long, drawn out conversations and descriptions. It took me a really long time to get through it because If I hit a slower part I kind of lost interest and would not come back to it for a while, but I was always so happy when I did come back to it, like meeting up again with old friends. 

I cared about the characters, though sometimes I felt it had a few too many to care about, I cared about each and every one of them. Despite the sheer numbers of characters to keep track of and some name similarities that got confusing (Orik, Orrin, Orim..... for example) every character felt like they belonged. 

Since it was the ending of a series, I think the author did a great job of tying up all the loose ends and not leaving anything hanging. Almost too perfectly, like a no man left behind kind of thing where every detail was accounted for. 

In the end, I am sad that after taking such a long time to get through these books (the middle two were especially slow I felt) that I won't be in that world anymore. The author did a beautiful job transporting the reader to his world and his people and I kind of feel like something is missing now that I won't be going back everyday.

On a side note, I listened to the audio books for these and the guy who read them is AMAZING! I started listening to them when I went back to school 3 years ago and I will be graduating at the end of this semester. I feel like Eragon and Saphira have been my constant companions on my 45 minute commute to school for the last three years and it was fitting that I finished the series just as I'm finishing up at school. 

Well...OK, It was just OK. I read Cline's Ready Player One and am madly in love with it so I had very high expectations for this book. The characters were OK, the basic story was actually pretty interesting but the overuse of nostalgic popular culture type references was not to my liking. It felt like he was trying too hard to incorporate the things that made Ready Player One so popular into a book that didn't really need it. Also, his attempt to incorporate these things actually made the book seem like he was just copying ideas from a few different sources and squishing them together which made it very predictable. The book had a very "it's been done before" feel to it. I wanted to love this book so badly I think my opinion is a bit skewed because it didn't hold up to my expectations, so to be fair my low rating may partially be the result of disappointment, It's not a bad book, I did enjoy parts of it and I do think the story was cleverly developed, it just didn't suck me into the world at all, I'd say feel free to give it a chance but don't expect too much. 

Well, I guess I didn't hate this book as much as most people. I think this was because I had read a lot of reviews beforehand and kind of knew what to expect. Was the book an unnecessary piece to the overall green rider story? Probably. Was it a bit strange that Britain went steam punk on us? Definitely. But, because I had been forewarned I was able to read the book for what it was, a separate piece of work. Yes, some of the things that happened will have an effect on future books but for the most part this was a stand alone interim book while Britain figured out how to continue with the "real" series.

One major problem I had was the thing was just to damn long! 700 or so pages for a book not really connected to the series was a bit much. 

I did like that the connections of the characters from both "worlds" as it may be. I enjoyed the story. I had trouble remembering who some characters are since it had been so long since I read the previous book in the series, but again, since this was more of a stand alone than anything, it didn't matter that much. 

All in all, I can fully understand people's hatred of this book, but I found it an enjoyable, if semi-pointless, read. 

When I was younger and even into my early twenties I loved to read. I would devour anything and everything I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I had less and less time to read. When I realized I was, including audio books in the car on the way to school or work, down to reading a few books a year, I was appalled.

I am a full time college student that works part time at two different jobs. The stress has been getting to me and I want to start reading again as a way to relax and get away from the world for awhile. I grew up in Narnia and Hogwarts. I spent afternoons in Pern and nights in Valdemar. I fought alongside the Three Musketeers, Journeyed to the Center of the Earth and walked across a Bridge to Terabithia. I dreamed I was Christy in Cutter Gap. I wished I could be Winnie and find my own family of Tucks in the woods.

I read some of my books so many times the covers fell off. The librarians knew my name and exactly what books to recommend when they saw me walk in.

I hate that I lost that. That I grew up and became an adult and lost the magic of books. I am here to find it again.