Reviews and Comments

The story of a man - Eddie - who dies in a tragic accident in an amusement park after leading a seemingly meaningless life. In the afterlife he'll meet five people who will help him understand the meaning of his life.

This turned out to be an entertaining book, easy to read and it's actually deeper than what I expected - Keeping in mind that my expectations were very low - That being said, I think the author tends to be a little sentimental in the way the story develops and the characters are not as well developed as I would have liked.

Overall this book doesn't say anything new but it provides a good start point to reflect on the inevitable truth of death and the way we walk towards it.

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La historia de un hombre - Eddie - que muere en un trágico accidente en un parque de diversiones después de llevar una vida aparentemente sin sentido. En la otra vida se reunirá cinco personas que le ayudarán a comprender el significado de su vida.

Este resultó ser un libro entretenido, fácil de leer y en realidad es más profunda de lo que esperaba - Teniendo en cuenta que mis expectativas eran muy bajas - Dicho esto, creo que el autor tiende a ser un poco sentimental en la forma en que desarrolla la historia y los personajes no están tan desarrollados como me hubiera gustado.

En general, el libro no dice nada nuevo, pero es un buen punto de partida para reflexionar sobre la inevitable verdad de la muerte y nuestra forma de caminar hacia ella.

I received this book as a Christmas present from one of my sisters. She assumed that since LOTR is my favorite book, I should love this one; she was neither right nor wrong: I didn't hate the book, but still I didn't love it: hence the 3 stars.

The book is the first part of a series called "A song of fire and ice" and it tells the story of realm that is about to be torn apart by a civil war. This book is the tale of the beginning of the war and it starts to tell the previous story on the realm.

Each chapter is told in the 3rd person from the perspective of a different character. I liked this approach since it provides a deeper insight to the way each faction sees the events on the book. This also provides a realistic approach to fantasy, all characters have defects and some malice. There are some chapters that are really appealing because the perspective provided of a specific fact is torn and twisted and the characters are nicely developed.

Now, there are some other chapters that I didn't like at all, specifically of those characters that are way too plain, I'm sorry to say that most of those characters are the feminine ones.

Another aspect of the book that I found unappealing was the use and abuse of sex scenes, rapes and a misogynist approach to the world in general, I understand that most people believes that the middle ages were an age of darkness and abuse and, I believe, that's what the author was trying to represent - I really hope I'm wrong and that's not the case.

To summarize this is an entertaining book and I will read the rest of the series to see if this gets better.