User Profile

Blurb said, "If you liked Station Eleven, you'll like this". I think that was spot on.

Not to say it is the same story retold, but the same kind of story. Near future dystopia, when the polar regions have completely melted and sea levels have risen 80m (260ft), flooding New York city. All the standing water has become poisonous with chemical run off, etc

After another massive hurricane, a young teen girl, her older sister, father and friend must make it safely out of the city to a place Upstate

I wasn't sure what I'd get from this, based on the particular blurb I read, but I was expecting a so-so read made more interesting to me personally as former teacher

Instead I got a series of linked vignettes that touched the life and soul of a group of people all tied together via a high school teaching staff.

This book is all character development, and it goes deep. You really know and care about these people.

Jennifer Mathieu goes on my authors to read more of list

The early chapters - under Kraiklyn - were fun, action-packed adventure. It gradually slowed.

I thought Banks did a great job mixing the different characters thoughts together to keep the pace going at the end, but still could have been cut down a bit. Didn't really have any great morale message or anything like that

I didn't finish, even though everything I read was really good.

It's a very long book that needed to stay tighter to its storyline to keep things moving along a but more, but had so many digressions. Perhaps a better author like leGuin would have found a more "show me, don't tell me" way of working those into the main story

Veris must go into the magical woods from where no one returns - for a second time - to rescue the two lost children of the Tyrant

Monsters, trickery & contests - she must face them all down and never make a mistake, or be trapped forever

A little Verne, "The Matrix" and Gibson, all rolled together in a story I read straight through

Best thing I've read in quite a while

Light-hearted, feel-good fantasy. Like some others have mentioned, the first few chapters were a little slow to get going but then it really took off

My first time reading Sepúlveda - this is a short novel with wonderful character development & description of the Amazon of Ecuador, with a not very subtle environmental message underneath

Greatly enjoyed and will read his other works!

I absolutely loved Isaka's "The Mantis" from the same series, and this book was no disappointment either.

A bit lighter, a LOT more chaotic, but once again a terse page turner. I was disgusted by the bad guys, I was rooting for the hapless hero, and I loved how a bunch of seemingly unrelated people and stories all tied together in the end!

The narrator is a North Vietnamese mole in the South Vietnamese army who later becomes a refugee in the United States

Sympathetic to the bravery of his adversaries that he has infiltrated; neither fully comfortable as a Vietnamese or European through his father; committed to his communist ideologies but privately preferring the relative comforts of California... he struggles to understand where he fits in, and what he believes

Nguyen is quite open about the ugly undersides of everyone involved in the "American War", as it was called in Viet Nam. There is a lot of heavy sarcasm on these pages, but don't be misled that this is a "funny" book

There's really no way to add spoilers to this one - the description blurb tells you most of what actually happens in the story.

But it doesn't explain the near-perfect build up of confusion from the two main characters as they try to make sense of what is happening around them, the outdoorsmanship they display that isn't full of author mistakes, and the timed blending of back story about how they became the best friends we see now as they navigate their crisis together

There are so many things I liked about the writing, aside from the story itself.

The main character, Lila, is realistic in the decisions and issues she faces and how she handles them.

The characters are believable and well-developed.

The story is about Indians living in India - but it doesn't let the "exotic location" take over. No purple prose or irrelevant detail. The story stays sharp and focused.

All of this pulls a long-ish novel (448pp) along at a steady pace and never lets you grow bored with the story.

An amazing first novel!

Think Leonard Elmore novels, or "The Mexican"

Fast-paced, believable, interesting characters, good twists.

Great rainy day read