Weirdly, I think I already read some parts/chapters of this book in previous Erma Bombeck books I've read. I cannot confirm, of course, because I don't have time to look for my older books. Although I have never been married, I still enjoyed this book. Nevermind that this was written when I was only getting the hang of reading (lol) and a lot of these things happened before I was even born, I still had to laugh and chuckle a lot. Love her dry sense of humor.
As much as I love Robin Sloan, I can't figure this one out. I was just lost half of the time when I was reading this. I get the artificial intelligence sidekick and thought it was kind of cute but ... what was the point of all of this I couldn't explain. Maybe I should read this again ... one of these days.
I spent half of the time getting annoyed at Alina. If on the first book I couldn't decide whether I liked the main character or not, in this book I've decided I don't like her at all. Would I still read the last book? Yes. The story telling is very good. I like the story enough, I just couldn't warm up to a character who pities herself from the very beginning. I guess it's the same as every other orphan-savior character. The only difference is she's a girl. She has hormones. I therefore conclude she has an excuse.
I liked Nikolai, I liked Mal better here than the first book, I liked Tamar and Tolya ... other than that, I can't say much. Maybe ill write a better review next time. Or not.
This is like reading the Bible except I didn't find the Bible (at least the parts that I've read) dragging.
It's a bit disturbing for a children's book, isn't it? I mean, a girl willingly strayed from her mother to go to a pilgrimage with an angel to see the Child-Christ in the manger ... and the angel let that happen why? Actually, the girl ran after the lamb because she wanted to stroke its soft fleece and she told the angel that and the angel just said, hey whatever you're coming with us. Dear angel, what very important part did that little girl play in the birth of Jesus Christ for you to have her tag along and not just return her to her mother like how you saved the drowning guy somewhere in the story? In the Bible, parents were known to be told to sacrifice their children to prove their faith to God (at least the petty, vindictive, old testament god) but at least they know what will happen to their child if their child disappears. Elisabet's mother was tormented for 50 years not knowing what happened to her little girl. Okay, let's not blame the angel because towards the end it was said she was abducted by people during the war ... yes let's make this a political thing as if it's not confusing to begin with. And then in the end the book still implied that the pilgrimage was what really happened so ... yeah. Psychological roller coaster? Anyone?
Is this a book I'd read to children? Eesh.
I guess the hardest part to writing fantasy is introducing the new world you created? Despite the non-complicated prose and simple language, I had a slow start reading this because I couldn't follow the rankings and description of ... mostly everything. Of course, it could just be my slow brain, heh. It was easy once I got through the introductions.
I loved the fast-paced story, most of all. I thought it didn't drag at all. I haven't decided if I like the main character yet but I like the story enough to read it. I'm not sure this should be under YA, too. Maybe just fantasy romance. I think it's a bit too twisted and ... romancey (I totally invented that word) for young adults but, oh well. There's a lot of fantasy, love triangle trilogies out but I like how the main character is sort of in love with the antagonist. However, I think part of its charm is lost for me because I already know the ending; someone accidentally told me because she thought I was done (she's evil, I know); but I'd still read it.
This is a 3.5 at most.
I have a very vivid imagination so I wasn't very happy reading how Mausami "had opened like a flower" while giving birth. Now that we got that out of the way can I just say OMFG this book is too long. Granted I've read longer books but OMG everytime I thought "THIS IS IT! This is the last page" there's still another chapter. This happened maybe 6 times I didn't know if I'd laugh or cry.
I try not to read reviews and anything about books except the blurb because I don't like expecting things so it came as a surprise that vampires brought us the apocalypse and not zombies. I mean, seriously, if zombies can't even run or climb and just groan like they do in most movies, how stupid can mankind be for our population to be wiped out just like that?
So yeah, I liked this book. Maybe I even loved it because I want to finish reading the others I have in line just so I could get to the second book. Why three stars then? I feel like this should've been two books not because it was too long but because when I got to the part where the virus already ruled the world I had to stop and get used to the shift in narration and character which actually happened a couple times. I instantly liked the first 30% whereas the rest of it had to grow on me and it took a while to do that. If you could get past that then good for you.
I think any book trying to give its two-cents on religion, sexuality, racism and people getting immersed in virtual reality in the age of the almighty internet is very ambitious. This is one of those books although it was disguised in a SUPER AWESOME scifi, virtual reality game/treasure hunt and it.SUCKED.ME.IN.
The book's hype came from the use of 80s pop culture which was the same reason I was hesitant to read it. For a non-gamer 90's kid, this wasn't very appealing. I thought I might have problems relating to whatever was "in" in the 80s. I was born early-mid 80s but I was too busy running around in diapers and later on trying to learn how to spell my name that I didn't bother with TV or anything else until the 90s. I know of Monty Python, the game Joust, the album 2112 etc but I didn't watch/play/listen to them over 4 dozen times to be able to memorize the words ... okay maybe I played Joust one too many times but you get the drift. Surprisingly, I loved this book. I think it helped that I chose to get the audiobook instead of getting it on print. The book might be very descriptive but that worked for me too. It's the only way I (again, a 90s, non gamer kid) can understand what everything was all about. The author took his time and painstakingly described each game's rules and how you played it as well as the scenes and lyrics of songs. The little facts about the game developers, the musician, etc also didn't hurt. I think it made up for me not knowing every detail of what was popular then.
This is one book I would absolutely LOVE to see on the big screen … provided Hollywood doesn't mess it up. I could do without the cheesy love thing dialogue at the end of the book, though. Spoiler, I know but that was already a given, right? In the love interest regard, this book got predictable.
