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Genuinely better than the first!

One of my chief criticisms of the first installment was the complete lack of pacing and sense of time. I don't know if Collins improved on that front or I just accepted it and moved on.

The characters are really engaging (though the whole Gale/Peeta thing feels a bit too much like a Edward/Jacob relationship). The effects of violence in the society are really felt by the characters and the turmoil of the characters comes across better than most attempts in young adult fiction.

This is the sort of series that if you've made it through the first book, you'll want to see how it ends. The second book doesn't disappoint in that respect.

Entertaining? Yes. Was I expecting more? Yes.

So I'm a bit late to this series, but I wanted to read it before seeing the movie. If you are looking for a good "vacation" read, this will definitely satisfy.

However, I had one fundamental issue/nitpick/complaint about this book: It reads like one long run-on sentence. Seriously! There is absolutely no pacing and no sense of time. Apparently the actual "Game" itself lasted weeks! But there is zero sense of that time passing when you read it. I imagine Katniss as the narrator telling this story in complete monotone and never once stopping for breath.

Glad I finally got around to read it, but sincerely wished it was better.

Fairly entertaining, too short and shallow.

I'm afraid it doesn't hold up to Westerfeld's Uglies. It felt like the novel equivalent of a TV episode rather than a movie. It's fairly entertaining, but I wish he had taken more time with the characters. It really is just a plot rendition with no development.

It was good enough that I'll finish out the series in the hopes that more of the back story is revealed and not just more action scene constructs.

My kind of techno thriller.

The latest from Diane Duane opens up a new world set about five years in the future and follows the technological exploits of a rich MMORPG creator, the system he has created and the people who want to tear it down.

This first installment doesn't lend itself to a concise summary and definitely feels like Duane is establishing her characters for what will hopefully be a fantastic series.

At first, I was a little put off by all the descriptions of the benefits of the rich and famous, but thankfully Duane has made the protagonist (Dev Logan) very down to earth and likable. I'm really not sure where Duane is going to take this world, but I'm going to eagerly await the second installment.

This is the first of Jacqueline Carey's books that I've read (though I have her Kushiel's Dart series in the queue) and I must say I throughly enjoyed it! A straight forward adventure with good characters grounded in a fascinating and rather realistic backdrop.

The protagonist Loup may seem flat but that is really intentional and I still found her engaging and extremely likable. Think of this as a semi-fantastical version of Million Dollar Baby but without the twisting social commentary at the end.

A highly entertaining and recommended read.

Ugh! I really, really wanted to like this book. I thought the concept was interesting, but the execution was absolutely atrocious. Editing!! There are two main plot threads that Fisher attempts to intertwine and effectively ruins both. None of the characters are allowed to build because she allows no time to pass before abrasively cutting to the other thread. The plot is one where you'll at least want to finish it to see what happens, but be prepared for a very unsatisfactory ending that was obviously tailor made for a sequel or perhaps a trilogy.

I'm undecided if I'll continue the series... while I'm curious to see how the worlds evolve, my fear is that it will leave me disappointed.

Think the Matrix trilogy but without the excellent opening installment.

Unfortunately, this instalment felt like an action sequel without much of the literary meat that the first and to a lesser extent the second instalments had. Tally Youngblood is once again transformed and manipulated and Westerfeld once again expands the curtain covering the world a bit more. However, by this point this is the third time we have been through this character development arc, and Tally has become a less empathetic character. Though given her forced transformations at this point, there isn't much humanity left, which may have been one of Westerfeld's points, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I still tore through the book quickly and Westerfeld does a good job of pulling the reader along despite shallowness of the characters at this point. I'm just a little disappointed that it didn't have the punch and commentary of the first book in the series.

Diane Duane has done it again. An incredibly well crafted story in the universe she has crafted and evolved over nine fantastic books. For any fan of the series, this is a must read. Anyone new, I highly recommend starting from the first installment.

The painstaking descriptions of the Mars environment really makes everything real - as if this could really be happening and we are oblivious to it. The plot development is a bit like A Wizard's Dilemma and A Wizard Alone where Kit and Nita are separated for much of the book. I happen to like the stories where they are together a bit more, but I felt the separation was well done and not as forced or contrived as it was in the earlier two books.

Bottom line: I loved it. Duane's series continues to be one of my all time favorites!