Challenge: 50 Books discussion

I read/listened to over 50 books in 2011 but that included several that I had read before. This year I want to complete 50 titles that are completely new.

Completed my first book of the year.

1. Dead City (Joe McKinney) ***

Second book down. Variant by Robinson Wells.

3. TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow.

This was a decent book. It wasn't overly original and I found several phrases that seem to have come straight out of other books or movies without referencing the original source (such as a character from 1912 making a comment that "resistance was futile", a direct reference to the Borg from Star Trek the next generation). It was entertaining. Some people may have trouble following it since it keeps justing around in time (it's about time travel) including different characters acting concurrently in different points of time. Overall it was a enjoyable read.

4. TimeRiders: Day of the Predator.

This book was decent. It continued to follow the time travelling teens while providing more insight into the creation/history of time travel. Overall, I think it would be more plausible if the heroes of the book were adults as opposed to 13-18 year olds but understanding this is a YA novel, its expected the heroes be younger. it makes it a bit harder to believe. There are a few problems with continuity in this novel regarding time paradoxs (such as mentioned in Back to the Future- can you meet your past/future self without causing a massive time paradox, destroying the universe in the process). For instance, if someone created time travel, and someone else went back in time to kill the creator as a youngster and you went forward in time to save the creator, what would happen to you if the creator was killed before he created time travel. The book would suggest that only events that happened after the fact would be changed but ignores the fact that even though you travelled forward in time from the past, you still used a time machine that shouldn't have been created because the guy that created it is now dead, therefore, how did you get there and what happens to you now? I think the book is more of a popcorn read as opposed to really questioning anything scientific.

5. The Sorceress. .

This book was okay. I enjoyed the first two books in the series more. This is the third book in a 6 book series. At this point, I kinda feel like the author could have done the story in 2 or 3 books because this one mostly drug a lot. There was a lot of build-up for a big battle towards the end of the book that never materialized, apparently being held off till the later novels. I understand the author wants to address specific issues in each of the books, but at this point, the novel doesn't really stand by itself as its own story. Its more like a big chapter of a larger story rather than its own book. For instance, the Harry Potter series was one continuous story, but each book had its own focus and could stand by itself (own conclusion/climax, etc). This one doesn't feel that way. It doesn't get me excited about reading the next book since I know there are 3 more left and the story will continue to drag till the final book.

6. Darth Plagueis . It was a very interesting book though I think it may have been more appropriate to title it Darth Sidious as it deals more with him than Plagueis. The book has very little action compared to most Star Wars novels (really, just one action scene near the beginning) so if you enjoy action, it may not be fulfilled here. Also, it deals heavily with how midi-chlorians function and their role in Darth Plagueis's pursuit of immortallity. The most interesting aspect of the book is that basically provides the backstory for virtually every major event that happened in Episodes 1-3 including the supporting stories such as Darth Maul: Saboteur and Cloak of Deception. By the end of the book, you'll understand all the machinations that had been in place for decades that ended with the climax of Revenge of the Sith.

7. The Mark .

I beginning to enjoy these books less and less with each I read and begin to feel as if the authors are really novices who don't know how to write well. The things that bother me is that, outside of the names, it is difficult to tell the characters apart because they all start to sound the same and talk the same. The characters are given descriptions presenting them with different backgrounds and personalities, but their dialogue is interchangable. This goes for the majority of tribulation force characters and also for the GC characters. The CG leadership is supposed to be educated, experienced people but their dialogue comes across like children. Maybe its the intent of the author to make the villians sound immature but it doesn't support realism. Another annoying factor of these books is the consistent switch to reading Ben-Judah's cyber sermon notes. While it is done within the context of the story, each time it stops the story cold and seems more like the author is preaching to the reader as opposed to advancing the plot. Finally, with this book, the plot drags a bit too much. There is extensive build-up and foreshadowing for the climax of the book but then the climax is given less than 20 pages of the book and is done mostly as an afterthought. It is also done as a cliffhanger which I felt was unnecessary and would have been better if that piece of the plot could have been completed within this novel so the next one could move on to the next series of events rather than rehashing the same material.

8. the Zombie Autopsies.

9. The boy in the striped pajamas.

This is a very interesting book. I had just watched the movie a few nights before and my wife had this leftover from a book club read awhile back so I decided to read the book too. In a nutshell, the book is about a young German boy, Bruno, whose father is the commandant at Auschwitz. Bruno befriends another young boy, Schmul, that wears striped pajamas and lives on the other side of the fence near his home. The ending may shock, upset, or disturb you. Watching the movie and reading the book, the thing that irritated me the most was the blind eye that the local citizens turned towards what was being done in their backyard.

There is a great episode in the HBO series "Band of Brothers" where the unit comes across one the first concentration camps liberated at the end of WWII. The camp is located in Germany near a local town that had essentially ignored the atrocities going on nearby. The leader of the US Army unit decided to use every able bodied man and woman from the nearby village to bury the deceased and clean up the camp so that they could no longer act as if it wasn't there. It is baffling that genocide can be going on a few miles away from your home and people would ignore it and refuse to stand against it.

10. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace.

This book had me split. It is a pretty decent story with a reasonably creative plot and is well written. The story moves along quickly without a lot of dull moments. The story is about a teengager, Alex, who is tossed into a new prison for young adults called the Furnace, a huge prison built into a giant crevice in the earth. The prison was commissioned just for teenagers after the Summer of Slaughter in which tons of street gangs killed a large number of people somewhere in England in the near future (they are on the 7th Indiana Jones movie). The book is part of a series titled Escape from Furnace so I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying the plot involves Alex's and his friends attempt to escape. There are lots of other nasty things going on in the prison in the meantime.
The part that had me split is the ending. You already know the book is about escape and the book ends in the middle of it. I found that really annoying. I've read lots of books that are part of a series but usually each book covers a specific part of the overall arc with its own beginning, middle, and climax. A good book will complete it's individual arc while contributing to the overall story. This book didn't. I felt it stopped in the middle of the climax which was unfullfilling and annoying. Imagine reading Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and the book ends in the middle of the battle for Helm's Deep as opposed to after it. It felt like a marketing gimmick to get you to purchase the second book by not resolving the story. Additionally, the book is only about 270 pages along so I think it would have been better to simply add the second book to it and make a more complete story, at least concluding one phase.

I've been having that same problem with books lately. Even though I know it's a series, I do expect the main arc of the book I'm reading to have some kind of resolution before the next book. All too often in the last few years I get a book where it just meanders to the end and nothing is resolved. I find it frustrating.

James wrote: "10. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace.

This book had me split. It is a pretty decent story with a reasonably creative plot and is well written. The story moves along..."

I was talking to one of my students I coach for Science Olympiad earlier today and saw he had the second book in the series in his backpack. He said that it at least finished the first story arc without ending in the middle of a new one for the second story. I'm early in the second book, so hopefully it will conclude the story.

11. The Hunger Games

This is probably the best book I've read so far this year. I found the story to be unique and interesting (though I think this story has been ripped off by a few movies such as the Condemned). I found the writing to be enjoyable and the story progressed at a good pace without getting bogged down. The biggest way I know I enjoyed the book is when I found myself daydreams putting myself in the world the author created. If I find myself wanting to be part of the storyline, I'm trusting I really liked the book.

The only "dislike" is I would have liked to have read more about what happened in the Cornicopia at the beginning of the games and what happened to Thresh. I understand the book is told from Katniss's point of view and she wasn't present so it doesn't fit but I would have liked to have the details regardless. I'm going to go straight into the next few books. Reading the synopsis, I already know Katniss somehow ends up back in the Hunger Games a second time but hope the book still have a fresh storyline and doesn't just seem like a repeat of the first book.

12. Solitary: Escape From Furnace #2

This book is okay but not especially fantastic. It needs to be read back to back with the first book (Lockdown) since I don't feel Lockdown really completed a full story arc and combined, this provides a better conclusion. I still ends with a cliffhanger but it either feels like a more natural stopping point or, more likely, I just figured the author would pull the same crap of stopping the story in the middle of the action without resolving everything.

The book does have good pacing and is mildly engaging. I don't find myself rooting for the "hero" Alex though. Maybe its because he's a criminal in prison trying to escape but he's still a "bad guy", its just the prison guards/warden are worse. It does provide more explanation and back story on the prison and what's really going on.

13. The Essential Star Wars Atlas

This book was okay. The information about the relevant planets in the galaxy as well as the combined history was really interesting. The maps are useful if you are a mega-star wars fan since it helps place events in perspective. I also thought the character artwork was spectacular (I wish the comics had this artist).

On a negative side, the political history of the galaxy at the beginning was repetitive with several events being detailed and referenced 5 or 6 times. Also, the minor coverage of lesser known planets in larger systems became a bit boring and unbearable. Finally, I wonder if the writers have studied astronomy at all. I don't know a lot about astronomy but would think that a planets diameter would have some bearing on the planets length of day. I would suspect that a larger planet would have to be rotating at a greater speed in order to have the same number of hours in a day as a smaller planet. Presumably this greater speed would also result in a stronger gravitational pull. Otherwise, if travelling at the same rate, the larger planet should have a longer day. This does not appear to be the case for different planets in the Star Wars galaxy as size has no bearing on length of standard day.

Overall, a good book if a bit boring in some sections. A must for hard core star wars fans.

14. Catching Fire

This book was pretty good. It wasn't quite as good as the first but I think that is in part because it rehashes a lot of the same territory. The author at least moves quickly through the duplicate scenes rather than dwelling on them a second time. I am definately interested in getting to the finale now. Because of where this one ends, it doesn't appear the third will be covering old territory but branching out on its own now.

15. Dead of Night.

This book was decent. It is more of a typical zombie novel and was not anything spectacular. I greatly prefer Maberry's young adult zombie novels (Rot and Ruin; Dust and Decay) to this one. The young adult ones focus more on character development with zombies serving more as a background feature than the main topic. With this one, the zombies were more central and the emphasis seemed to be more on gore than character development. You never build any particular emphathy for the main characters. I also didn't enjoy that a lot of the "how it happened" was explained a little to clearly and easily in the form of a interview with a reporter. That made things a little to clean. If you are looking for a book with lots of gore and violence, this is a good book. If you want something that goes a bit deeper and concludes the story (which this one did not), skip it.

16. Mockingjay.

I enjoyed this book more than the second but felt the first book was the best of the series. Unfortunately I read some discussion boards about this book and a few people had posted the spoilers so I knew a few things that were coming like the deaths of certain characters. I like the premise of these books but as they kept going it started to seem a bit like "haven't we already done this". I was a little disappointed that Katniss goes from being a strong-willed, tough character to a complete basketcase as the series progresses. If you add up the time in the third book, she actually spends more time drugged and mentally unstable than actually doing anything. Overall a good series and good book but it didn't end with the strongest writing.

17. Vector Prime.

This isn't generally my favorite book of the series but it does do a decent job of setting up what will be coming in the future books. I was always glad they finally killed off one of the core characters with the start of this series because then you never knew what would happen next and if your favorite would survive. It added more tension and realism to the series. I also liked how, for once, they had to deal with a problem on a galactic scale as opposed to the "crisis of the month in whatever small sector" each of the previous books in the timeline had been developing.

this was actually a repeat so I shouldn't count it against my total. We'll see how my final numbers turn out.

18. Star Wars Character Encyclopedia.

This was an enjoyable accessory book. The best part about it is putting names to faces of characters. One annoying bit is that it focused a bit much on the prequels and not the original series. It didn't include several characters such as the cantina characters (other than Ponda Baba and Dr. Evazan) or some in Jabba's palace (Nikto, Ephant Mon, etc). It also included the characters played by George Lucas and his kids (which I didn't like) which apparently also had a role in the Clone Wars cartoons as well. Some of the individual notes on different characters read more like conceptual artist guidance for character development as opposed to anything particularly informative. This included stuff like Vicerory Gunray's facial expression and Lyn Me's hand placement. It also does not include anything from the Expanded Universe so characters like Mara Jade and the Solo kids are not present. The essential guide to characters is better for characters from the books.

19. The Last Lie

This book was okay. I originally started reading Stephen White's books because they were set in Boulder, CO. I lived in Boulder for several years and enjoyed the familiarity with many of the places that appeared in his books. This book is the 18th Alan Gregory novel. I think it is time to "retire" the Alan Gregory character. Alan is starting to get annoying and I he's getting boring. The books starring Alan haven't been especially great either. White's last book, The Siege, that starred Alan's friend Sam Purdy as the main character was good. Recently, most of White's books that have starred side or new characters and placed Alan as a background or subordinate character have been better than the ones with Alan in the lead. The book starts with a prologue that provides a hint as to what the main crime and focus of the novel will be, then doesn't address it again for over 100 pages. Everything in between is just filler. Second, Alan rarely accomplishes anything on his own and for the majority of this book, he does nothing except sit around and learn about the alleged crime from other people who are directly involved. Alan eventually becomes directly involved towards the last 100 pages and somehow becomes in control of the events because everyone else has been telling him the full story which no one else has.

Another way in that Alan is getting annoying is demonstrated by a conversation with his cop friend Sam. Sam has knowledge of the case while Alan has even more knowledge from separate sources. They are having dinner and Alan is trying to get Sam to divulge information about the case, which Sam will not do directly. Instead, Sam tells Alan a parable of a similar (real life) case as a way to tell Alan what is going on, without actually talking about the investigation. Alan is either too stupid to get the comparison, or is really good at acting stupid. Its as if Alan cannot figure out that Sam is quietly telling him what Alan needs to know without violating the investigation. Alan instead pushes Sam to tell him blantantly what is going on because Alan can't take a hint. It is really annoying.

I never like books where the main character is not an active participant in the story instead hearing everything second hand from the actual participants (or third hand in some cases). I think Alan Gregory has ran his course and White needs to develop a new primary protagonist. White can create engaging characters and develop page-turning stories, I just think Gregory shouldn't be in the lead anymore.

20. Star Wars: Dark Tide 1: Onslaught (NJO #2)

This is a good book and good set-up for the NJO series. I like the emphasis on Corran Horn but am beginning to realize just how whiny Jacen was back then. The battle sequence at the end is a bit hard to follow but was fine. Jaina is one of my favorite Jedi and I like her certainty and sureness compared to Jacen's wishy-washiness. It was interesting reading about the time before the Jedi Council was reformed. With the Legacy of the Force/Fate of the Jedi series and the prequels, I forgot there was a time when Luke just trained the jedi and let them free to do whatever they wanted. It is interesting to see how far Kyp has come since the beginning of this series to FOTJ.

21. The Litigators.

This was a pretty decent book. It moved along with good pacing and was reminded me of some of my favorite Grisham novels (Partner, Runaway Jury). there wasn't anything special about this book but it was enjoyable to read.

22. Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi- Apocalypse.

I think this has to do with the entire series but was noticable in this book is there is a lot of action/information skipped that requires you to catch up. **spoiler coming**
For instance, the 8th book ended with Abeloth taking over the guise of the Head of State, the Sith taking control of the Jedi Temple, and the Jedi leaving Coruscant. The 9th book starts off a month later in the middle of the reinsertion of Jedi into Coruscant for a surprise attack. I understand that you wouldn't necessarily want the 9th book to start right where the 8th left off but the way it was written, it was a bit confusing as to what had happened in the interim. Another example had to do with several of the battle sequences in the Jedi temple such as Ben's capture and Valin/Jysella's escape. You are left with them entiring the computer core and then nothing. The next time they appear, it's several days later, Ben is held hostage and Valin/Jysella are outside the temple. Denning did a poor job of going back and covering how this happened and leaves the reader wondering about what took place in the gap period. Not every minute of the action needs to be covered in narrative but a good summary, such as those in the Harry Potter books where Rowling summarizes what happens during the months where nothing is really going on before picking up the story again, would be better than almost skipping it entirely.

Speaking of Rowling, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it was a bit awkward to read a Harry Potter specific reference in a Star Wars book. On at least two occasions, Ben or Han uses the curse of calling someone a Mugwump (as in Albus Dumbledore is described as 'Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards'). That didn't feel quite right to have that reference in there and completely killed the story and pacing for me when it first happened.

I can say that the book was action packed from beginning to end but some of the battle sequences weren't always clearly described. Combined with the skipping action, that made things a little hard to follow. Overall, the book and series were fine. There were a few things that were left unresolved which I think was done just to set up future story arcs. I'm a little disappointed in Vestra since I had high hopes for her. There were several instances where it made you think that a major character was going to die and I wanted to read on to find out if this was the next Chewbacca.

23. Jedi Path.

This was a pretty good book. It consolidates a lot of the different Jedi information but does so in a more concise form than something like the Jedi vs Sith oversize book. It is written from the approach that it is a manual for younger jedi (initiates) to give them a guide on how things will work in the future and options they have as they advance. Examples are the Padawan selection process, alternatives if not selected, and career options in the Jedi corps once they become Jedi Knights/Masters. The most unique aspect of this book is that this is meant to be a copy found by Luke Skywalker that had been handed down from Master to Apprentice and was held by several different individuals during their time as a Padawan. Each of the owners then adds their own hand written commentary throughout the manual. It starts with an elder Yoda followed by Dooku's master (Theran), then Dooku, Qui-Gon Ginn, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ashoka, then gets into the hands of Darth Sidious and finally Luke. Supposedly this was theirs during their time as a Padawan and were teenagers. My one "dislike" is that not all the voices of each writer did not seem consist with comments of a teenager. Theran comments are representative as are Anakins (around episode 2 time frame) and Ashoka (though she dwells on being in a war too much). Obi-Wan's comments vary between what you might expect of pre-Episode 1 to older musings. Qui-Gon's comments seem more like the Qui-Gon from Episode 1 rather than a teenager and the same goes for Dooku, who's comments seem more adult and in the voice of his movie character rather than a younger version. Sidious's comments are more gloating which is curious since I can't foresee him wanting anyone to read his musings about the jedi. Luke's comments fit with his character around the time just before the New Jedi Order. Overall, it was interesting and fun to read.

24. The Remnants Series

This review is actually for the entire series. My son had been pestering me for a few years to read this because its his favorite book series. I finally agreed I would read the 14 Remnants books if he would read the 3 Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy books.

Overall, I didn't care for this series. There were too many things about the plot that had me wonder if the author really thought things out or was just typing without thinking. For instance, when they learn about the Rock and decide to send the shuttle into space, NASA/US govt makes no attempt to send people that are actually prepared for some sort of space journey. They don't send people skilled in biology, botany, medicine, survival skills, etc. Instead they send whomever could bribe there way on because of influence or potential for leaking the truth. Then the shuttle is just sent off with no destination, limited supplies, and no plan. There were also a few unreasonable acts such as Jobs/Mo'Steel hanging on to the outside of the shuttle as it launches through space at high speed. I'm not a aerospace engineer/doctor, but I think that might destroy a body being bounced against a shuttle at a few thousand miles an hour even in low gravity.

Once the remnants arrive on mother, the intent of having adults survive seems simply to be to have them die so the writer doesn't have to kill off the kids. Mother, the ship that takes in the remnants 500 years post-launch, also doesn't make a lot of sense. Her "human" environments, especially initially, are poorly described making them hard to visualize. Its also a bit annoying that the ship can simply create anything they want out of thin air, thus meaning the kids don't have to develop any practical skills because everything they want (food, shelter, water, movieplexs) are nicely provided for them. Yago and 2Face's personalities quickly become trying and you simply want both of them to die.

Around the 8th book, I think the author started getting lazy or bored. A one point she kills what has been a significant character and does so off screen. You feel as if the writer wanted to get rid of the character but didn't want to make an effort to come up with a plot moment to do so. The ending feel the same way. the ending felt like a message from the author saying, "I'm done writing this series, they all live happily ever after, the end."

When I first read the Gone series (written by the author's husband), I tried to convince my son to read it. He said it sound just like the remnants and he didn't want to read it. Having read all of the remnants and the first 4 Gone series books, I can say that the Gone series is a much better thought out and written series than Remnants.

25. Star Wars: New Jedi Order- Dark Tide- Ruin

This book was good and I enjoyed getting into the development of the Vong. It also makes the introduction of Jagged Fel. Its been awhile since I've read the NJO so it is enjoyable to be refreshed at how the characters were and how they've become. I'm a little irritated that there is no consistency in the villains yet in this series. Its one character in the first book, then a completely different group of leadership for books 2-3, and then someone else in book 4.

26. 39 Clues- Cahills vs. Vespers: Dead of Night

This book was okay. I'm not caring for the darker turn that Dan is taking in this series. It still keeps a bit of suspense as to who the bad guys are (AJT, Vesper 1, Amy's boyfriend, etc). Sometimes the plot moments are a bit too implasible, especially most anything regarding Jonah. Its a good set of books though and you can learn some history in the process.

27. Ashes

This book was good. It had good pacing and an interesting premise to initiate the "zombie" apocalypse. I was a little annoyed at some of the decisions in the book, such as leaving the ranger station. They seemed better off staying at the station (fully stocked with wood, food, water, and shelter) for the winter, then making an attempt somewhere else what things might have stabilized more. The biggest thing that annoyed me was the ending. I know that are parts of trilogies like to leave you hanging a little bit, but the book should at least complete its own internal story arc. This book didn't do that. It stopped in the middle of the story arc and left you hanging. That seems like a marketing gimmick to get you to buy the next book as opposed to good story telling. For comparison, the Hunger Games is part of a trilogy. The first book leaves you wanting more and knowing the story can continue. However, the book completes its internal story arc for that book while advancing the overarching story arc of the trilogy. Imagine if Star Wars left off at the beginning of the death star attack and you didn't find out what happened until Empire Strikes Back. That is poor story telling.

28. Desecration.
I didn't care for this book. The bad writing of the series is starting to get annoying. All of the "bad guy" characters in Nicolie's inner circle sound the same. They also all sound like children, or are being written by children. It makes the conversations less believable. I also fail to understand Buck's value and why he always has to be in the center of things. He has no special skill set that aids the Tribulation Force, but he is always sent on these special missions, apparently just so the writer can have someone at the scene to report on it. The writer is also about as subtle as a brick and telegraphs everything that is coming. I'll finish the series but I think I'm done actually enjoying it.

29. Fear
This was a pretty good book. The nicest thing was actually finding out what was going on outside the dome. Abigail's changes were a bit interesting and seemed a little out of the blue but when I remember back to how the previous one ended, I suppose it makes sense. I can't wait for the series to finish off. The last book has a lot of potential.

30. Star Wars: Shadow Games

This book was decent. It was billed as a Star Wars "thriller" but the tone wasn't that much different than a lot of other star wars books. For instance, the star wars horror novels had a definitely different feel to them whereas this didn't. It was hard to follow at times because of all the unfamiliar character names. It was nice that at least Han Solo was in it to provide some continuity to the rest of the galaxy. It was a good book but nothing spectacular.

31. Battle Royale

This book has been billed as a Japanese Hunger Games even though it came nearly 10 years earlier. There are some similarities between the two, such as a group of teenagers thrown into an arena by an evil government to kill each other till there is one survivor but the commonalities at that point end. For starters, Battle Royale has a much larger cast, 42 students. It may have been the Japanese names, but they were hard to follow and keep track of. Additionally, in the Hunger Games, you see everything only through the eyes of Katniss. While there are 24 tributes, you don't see all of them die because you only see what Katniss does. In BR, the author shows every death. Frequently, a character will show up only for one chapter so they can die. It feels more like a movie than a novel. In the front of BR, there is a page that lists the 21 boys and 21 girls in the arena by student number (1-21 for each). As the characters show up in the book, except for certain main characters, the author references their student number, like Shiriko Yamamoto (Male Student 13), so you could actually use the list at the front as a scorecard for who is left. At the end of each chapter, he provides a recap just in case you forgot, a little note that says 21 Students Remaining, or 8 Students Remaining. The deaths are also heavily gun related and feel like one of John Woo's chinese action films (i.e. The Killer). You also don't have the depth of character development that you have in the Hunger Games and thus, it is very hard to connect with the 2 main characters. It was also annoying that practically every girl had a thing for the main male character and he was oblivous to all of them. Overall, a decent book but not nearly as good as the Hunger Games in plot and character development.

32. The Dead.

This was a reasonably good book that provided a good backstory and start to how the events in the Enemy came about. It introduced several of the characters (like David King) that would appear in The Enemy but they were supporting characters and not the main cast. You did get an idea of how they ended up where they did. I had trouble remembering all the details of The Enemy so I can't remember if more of the main characters in this one showed up in the "second" book. It was a quick read and fun.

33. World War Z:

Easily one of the best zombie books I've read. I love the way the story is told. It isn't through the view of one person or set of people but through a colloboration of interviews throughout the various phases of the zombie war, from patient zero to taking back the planet from the dead. The approach is unique and makes for a great read. While you may not be able to connect with any one character, you are able to get the 30,000 foot view of what happened from day 1 without having a contrived Forrest Gump type story where one man is everywhere throughout the history of events. A definite must for any zombie fan. Hopefully the forthcoming movie is half as good.

34. Star Wars: (New Jedi Order) Hero's Trial

I enjoyed this book. It focused on Han Solo and his adventures and Han is usually a fun character to follow when he is written well like in this book. I also enjoyed Droma. He is fun to read and listen to, I wish he would have stuck around longer. It was interesting re-reading this and the parts involving Vergere given everything that happens in FOTJ and LOTF.

35. Zombie Survival Guide:

This is a great book. I really enjoyed reading it and it had lots of practical advice. If only more movies followed the rules in here, they might be more entertaining. I was recently in a course teaching people to be instructors and my 20 minute lecture was how to survive the zombie apocalypse based on the guidance in this book. I actually disagreed with the author on a few points. First, I think a bow and arrow can be a good weapon if you are already trained in it. It can provide a silent kill at a distance. Also, you can recover your ammo if used appropriately. try that with bullets. Additionally, when everyone else is raiding the local sporting goods store of guns and bullets, the archery supplies will go untouched. I also disagree about how great the Katana sword is. I think a lot of his justification is on how cool a katana sword is. However, if you are not trained on how to fight with a sword, you're more dangerous to yourself than zombies. A machete is a better choice. It's practical and multi-functional. Plus, any idiot can use a machete. Overall, a great book.

36. Eleventh Plague

The book was okay but not anything special. It was a quick read (3.5 hours) but there was nothing particularly unique or engaging about the storyline or the characters. the author did a good job writing dialogue for teenage boys. The book is short and I think the story could have been developed a bit more. A decent, quick read but nothing special. Nothing that makes it stand out from the dozens of other post-apocalyptic novels out there.

37. The Remnant (Left Behind Series).

I'm really beginning to get tired of this series. At this point, I'm only reading them in order to finish the series because I've already committed so much time to get to this point, I might as well finish the last two. The writing in these books is average at best and substandard most of the time. The dialogue is annoying and unrealistic and, at times, difficult to follow. there is a whole conversation between Leah, Hannah, and Rick that is nearly impossible to follow as to who is talking. Also, the characters frequently include comments in their dialogue that people just would not say. People don't generally go through the attempts to make sure they have all the bases covered when speaking to each other (such as including all possible options in a list of things, i.e. religious types). Also, the authors also demonstrate their lack of knowledge about certain topics. For instance, apparently the military has stopped using military terminology and started using police and trucker jargon(i.e. 10-4). Another annoying feature of this book is that for 267 pages, the book gives minute by minute detail of about 5 different groups activities, then all of a sudden, they decide to jump ahead 5 months. Another 100 pages later, they jump ahead another 5 months. They spend half the book covering the time period of about 2 days in excessive detail and then jump over the course of a year in less than half that. Not to mention, a lot of the time when they cut to scenes including certain characters, there seems to be no value added. Its just a scene to show what that person is doing without really advancing the storyline. Furthermore, too often the characters make exceedingly stupid decisions just so they can be at the scene of an event to report on it personnally (such as Mac, Albie, and them going to watch the false prophet outside of Petra). There was no rationale reason for those three to fly a copter to the scene to watch the events other than for them to be able to "eyewitness" it for everyone else. Mac, who has been going through the entire series making rationale, tactical decisions, is suddenly overcome with stupidity to go fly into the enemies lair just so he can be on scene. It is really sad because there is a lot to be learned and gained from reading these books, but the hack writing makes it difficult to enjoy them.

38. The Maze Runner.

This was a very good book. It had a very interesting premise and is one of the better distopian YA novels I've read in awhile. While it is not as good as the Hunger Games, it was still an enjoyable read. I am definately interested in reading the next two books in the series. I do like how the author provides a hint as to what is going on but does not provide too much or too little detail. The epilogue is nice as it hints to some of the "truth" and I think sets up the next book as well. One negative item is there may be some inconsistency with the dialogue. At the beginning of the book, Newt frequently talks as if he is British, such as using the phrases "bloody" and "good that". However, as the book progresses, those phrases start getting used by other characters, Thomas/Minho, when they weren't before. Whether that has to do with other characters adopting the gladers speaking styles, as Thomas mentioned he was already doing so, or from inconsistency on the part of the author, I don't know. I do know it was noticeable and pulled me out of the book to consider the mechanics of the writing. Still, one of the better dystopian YA novels I've read this year, probably second to the Hunger Games series.

39. Star Wars: Force Unleashed

This book was a bit of a disappointment. It's based on a video game and i haven't played the game. The biggest things I didn't like about this book is the connections that it had to the rebellion's initiation. I didn't feel appropriate and felt out of place. The book was written decent but never really got me going. Took me a long time to finish when I'm capable of reading an entire good book in a single day. I won't be jumping in to the sequel anytime soon but I'm curious how that will play out considering the ending of this one.

40. Death Sentenance (Escape from Furnace 3)

This book was okay. The first 100 pages or so were a bit annoying because the main character, Alex, spends most of the time incoherent and dreaming as he undergoes surgery. Since the story is told from his point of view, his ramblings get annoying quick since there is little progress in the plot. His conversion could have been cut down quite a bit. The book improves once the surgery is complete but a lot of the rest of the book is a little too convienent to be realistic. It was a quick read. Compared to the other books, especially the first, this book at least completed an entire story arc rather than stopping in the middle of one.

41. Fugitives (Escape from Furnace 4).

I think this is the best of the Furnace series so far. As indicated by the title, Alex and his pals are fugitives from Furnace and have finally made it out after 3 books. The series becomes more interesting as characters are expanded beyond the confines of the prison. Additionally, you now have antagonists different from the nameless blacksuits and wheezers as well as interesting supporting characters from the public. You also start learning more about Alfred Furnace's overall plans and how things came to be and what his intent for the future is. I think this provides a good set-up for the final smackdown in the last book. I'm a little disappointed with the "path" Alex's character is taking and don't see how he is going to recover so I'm interested in seeing how things conclude for him.

42. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

This book was okay but was actually a disappointment. the premise was pretty interesting, Lincoln hunting vampires, but it was executed in a poor manner. The book starts with a modern day author receiving 11 "lost" journals of Lincoln's from the time he was 12 up till his death. The author is commissioned to write a biography of Lincoln based on the journals. The rest of the book is written as an actual biography, weaving the vampire hunting into real historical events. However, the biography format does not do it for me. I think it would have been better served as a narrative as opposed to a biography. Some might compare it to the oral history of World War Z. But in WWZ, the author makes every attempt to make himself invisible and let the characters tell the story without his input. Vampire hunter is completely different. The author does not try to hide himself, instead offering his own commentary on Lincoln's thoughts and feelings. The author is telling the story with frequent usage of passages from LIncoln's journals and letters. Additionally, every time he quotes a passage, the author makes it clear by saying something like, "as detailed in a journal entry on March 12, 1835". The book jumps back and forth between the quotes and author "narrative". I listened to the audiobook which probably served better to show the changes because the reader changed voices. Overall, I think it would have been better as a continuous narrative as opposed to a biography. This may be one instance where the movie provides a better format than the book.

I agree - listened to this one as well. Very nicely narrated, but I didn't think injecting vampires into an otherwise dry biography, even through the device of a modern author exploring journals, worked as well as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I didn't see the movie, but it seems like it would be better than the book. Thanks for the review.

43. The Hunt

This was a pretty good book. I originally saw the book in the book store and added a note on my phone to get it later. When it came out at the library, I picked it up but didn't re-read the synopsis about the book. As such, I was not aware (or had forgotten) that this book was about vampires. I usually don't read a lot of vampire novels preferring zombie novels. However, this one was pretty good. Gene makes for an interesting character as a human living in a world of vampires. There is one enjoyable paragraph in the book where Gene's character theorizes on some of the misconceptions Hepers (real humans) would have about People (vampires) if they were to study them. The paragraph is a direct slam on Twilight as well as a few other vampire series. I laughed outloud when I read that because it was so blatant but true. The book maintained a good story and good pacing throughout. My biggest dislike, and it's not so much specific to this book as to a lot of what I've been reading, is that it is part of a trilogy. I'm getting a little tired of not getting a full story out of a book. This book, unlike some others (Furnance Series), concludes its individual story arc adequately if not totally fulfilling. I'm just getting tired of books ending with a cliffhanger (Ashes, Variant, Furnace Series, Maze Runner, etc) rather than concluding a story arc within a book but doing so that you know more can be written that will be separate and self-contained to each book while adding to the overall story but not be a continuation of the current story. For example, the Harry Potter series, each book has a self contained story arc (Tri-Wizard tournament) that is resolved within that book. But it still advances the overall series arc without ending each book with a cliffhanger or a "to be continued" logo on the last page. Several mystery novels (Temperance Brennan, Alex Cross, Women's Murder Club, etc) tend to good at this compared to a lot of YA books I've read this year.

44. Unraveling.
This book was okay. I was interesting without being spectacular. For anyone that has ever watched the TV show Roswell, several parts of this book, especially the beginning, are going to seem very familiar. The author does an adequate job of intermingling her teenage girl angst with some science fiction but the Sci Fi part of the story shows up late and is never fully developed. One note: while advertised as young adult, this book has a fair amount of profanity. I know teens may swear but depending on your stance on the issue, you should be aware of that going in. Also of note, for me personally, is that while the ending does leave open the possibility of a continuation of the story, it does not end in a cliffhanger. It resolves the story inititiated in the book whereas several others I've read recently fail to do that. I'm also not sure about the author's scientific background. Some of the more technical aspects of the book had me wondering if the author had any scientific background or if she just heard a couple things and decided those would be cool to include without researching the possibility or reality behind them. For instance, the characters spend a bit of time researching a radioactive virus. In most cases, radiation will kill a virus because they don't tend to be particularly resistent to extremes like that. A spore-forming bacteria is usually resistant to radiation, extreme temperatures, and chemicals, but viruses are weaker in that regard. It made me think the author just heard some "cool" or "scary" terms and decided to put them together regardless of whether they made sense or not. For anyone with any background in the subject, that pulls you out of the book as you start questioning the possibility of the scenario as opposed to being immersed in the narrative.

James wrote: "42. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [bookcover:Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter]

This book was okay but was actually a disappointment. the premise was pretty interesting, Lincoln hunting vampires..."

I was wrong. The movie was worse than the book. It is strange because the author wrote the screenplay. It seems like the director was like, "I really like the concept for you book, now go write a completely different story using the same idea." Whereas the book tried to remain somewhat historically accurate, the movie didn't care at all. It completely changed Henry's personality and removed/added characters at whim and changed virtually every event in the book. The book wasn't the greatest, but it told the story in a way about 10 times better than the movie.

45. Partials

This was a pretty good book. The book starts with a far amount of action before becoming heavily techinical during the middle stage of the book. It finishes with a good climax. While clearly part of a series, it does a good job of resolving the plot point initiated at the beginning of the book regarding a possible cure for the virus that wiped out virtually all humans. By the end, you know if there is one or is not one. The set-up for the second book is clearly for a separate plot that is part of the overall arc. I like how the author did not leave you hanging as to whether a cure would be found or not but provided an answer allowing the second book to address other hinted at but unresolved parts of the storyline.