This author's politics are absolutely oozing out of every page right from the start. Stereotypes abound. I made it a few chapters in before I googled This author's politics are absolutely oozing out of every page right from the start. Stereotypes abound. I made it a few chapters in before I googled Chuck Wendig and, wow, dude is carrying around a lot of hate. There's always gonna be an audience for that kind of vitriol and opinion lecturing, (same as in One Second After) but it's not my bag....more
I believe that Rothfuss worked his muse to her death on the first book. In fact, if you told me Rothfuss died and one of his fans is finishing the serI believe that Rothfuss worked his muse to her death on the first book. In fact, if you told me Rothfuss died and one of his fans is finishing the series for him, I'd believe it. I'm certain the reason for the change in writing can be gleaned from his foreword, which mentions how much he listened to the requests and advice of his fans. As a result, much of book #2 in the series takes a HARD turn left from the creation of setting and advancement of plot and instead fiddles with the 'shipping of the characters - who fancies who, accidental touches, hearts beating like caged birds, desperate blushing, etc. The first novel was all about magic and the Arcanum, the secretive and brutal Chandrian, the re-emergence of an ancient evil. This novel is about heartache, witty repartee and looks across the room. Those things were present in the first novel, and I enjoyed them, but they completely take over the sequel - comprising about 60-70% of the material I'd say.
Oh, and things that are clever. My god, Patrick Rothfuss, you have absolutely EXHAUSTED your lifetime supply of the word "clever." Don't ever, ever, ever put that word to paper again. I don't know if it was supposed to be a running gag or what, but when you use the word three times in one paragraph to describe two different people and a move on a game board, that's your sign you have a problem.
It's possible the shift from epic fantasy to young adult romance was a shrewd business move - he may be selling more books this way and I'd be happy for him if he was, but it's not the kind of material I'd like to spend a lot of time on so I won't be finishing the series.
ETA: I confess I wrote this review before I had finished the book. I've gotta take it from 2 stars to one now. The author doesn't just switch to writing romance, he delves significantly into erotica as well - maybe a dozen or so awkward chapters of it. I got the very distinct impression that the author was spilling some personal fantasy material onto the page and using his readers as an audience. It was repellent. It was far worse than wrapping up the novel with a "gaijin learns martial arts", mighty-whitey trope, which also happens. I'm 44 years old and consider myself a prolific reader and I've never in my life seen such a turn in content and quality from one novel to it's sequel. I would have kept the first novel on my shelves for it's standalone content if it weren't for the fact that it ends with a cliffhanger....more
This is an absolutely awful, juvenile, amateur attempt at a zombie novel - quite possibly the worst I've ever read. I Thank god I didn't pay for this.
This is an absolutely awful, juvenile, amateur attempt at a zombie novel - quite possibly the worst I've ever read. I should have put it down when I read this line:
...reaches the fence but keeps trying to walk forward like a retarded kid.
Then I read this line:
He slams it back home and jerks the barrel back so there is one in the chamber
...and decided I'd keep reading for the laughs. I made quite a few more notations on my Kindle, but I won't bother to transcribe them all here. Suffice it to say that Mr. Long makes the grievous error of attempting to write about things like medicine and firearms without bothering to take the time to make even a cursory Google search to see what, for instance, Coumadin would do for a hemorrhagic stroke, or how a pistol is loaded.
Women in the novel are treated with levels of misogyny and chauvinism that I would expect from a hormone-addled and poorly raised high-school boy. Multiple chapters are written as a platform to describe sex and sadism fantasies and make no attempt to advance the plot.
In short, this book should have remained a private endeavor, locked in a drawer in a desk. I feel cheated to have spent my time on it; don't dare make the mistake of spending money on it....more
Juvenile, freshman, inept attempt at a zombie survival tale. The plot was alright if you're expecting little to begin with, but the delivery was absolJuvenile, freshman, inept attempt at a zombie survival tale. The plot was alright if you're expecting little to begin with, but the delivery was absolutely horrible. Zero character development, racial and cultural stereotypes, spelling and grammar errors, failed attempts at middle-school potty humor. Reading any excerpt available on Amazon or Google Books will be more than enough to warn you away from this book; this is what gives self-publishing a bad name.
Although on my waste-of-paper shelf, I actually got this for free on Kindle. It will be the first book I've ever deleted from my Kindle, but I don't think I'll bother to make an extra shelf for that......more
Started it, couldn't get past the first chapter, threw it in the trash. It was like bad Chuck Norris fanfic - so bad it couldn't even be enjoyed for iStarted it, couldn't get past the first chapter, threw it in the trash. It was like bad Chuck Norris fanfic - so bad it couldn't even be enjoyed for it's awfulness....more
I read this for the Apocalypse Whenever book group and ended up not liking it at all. I'll admit I have some prejudices that pushed me to that assessmI read this for the Apocalypse Whenever book group and ended up not liking it at all. I'll admit I have some prejudices that pushed me to that assessment:
1) I really hate it when I can hear an author's opinions or point of view coming out of the mouths of his or her characters; Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park, Laszlo Kreizler in The Alienist, etc. Laszlo even *looks* like Caleb Carr. I know that authors almost always use their characters to channel some of the authors own thoughts and opinions, but when the writer uses the character as a direct mouthpiece it just looks amateurish and vain. Grant does this so blatantly that I feel I can comfortably assume she is a single, geeky, female who doesn't get along with her parents but still lives with them, drinks lots of Coke, has frequent migraines, loves cats, has given up on sex, and wishes she could wear sunglasses all the time without looking odd. No offense meant to geeks - I'm one too.
2) I'd also assume that she writes and/or reads a lot of fanfic. That was the very first impression I had when I started reading this book and 500 pages later it hadn't changed. Again, no offense meant to those who enjoy reading or writing fanfic - if you like it, go for it - but I personally don't care for the stuff. It's almost always bush league (if that), written for a niche audience, and full of errors in style and editing. This book strikes me as the product of a fanfic writer who learned to structure a novel well enough to be published.
3) Plenty of style and editing errors show through, though. It was bad enough that half way through the novel I started dog-earing pages so I could return to reference. The characters of Governor Tate and presidential candidate Ryman are so one-dimensional as to be completely unbelievable. She may as well have had Tate throttling kittens and Ryman running a baby dolphin rescue organization (hint: one of those examples is not my invention). I'm not racking my brain over it but I really can't think of an instance where I've encountered two flatter characters.
4) She should fire Matt Branstad, "who was responsible for verifying the accuracy of my firearms design..." A lot of zombie fiction fans are also interested in survivalism and are gun enthusiasts, and when it came to weapon technology the details were only superficially touched upon. The computer technology details, on the other hand (which make up a large part of the book) seemed to be top notch, believable, and well researched. Of course I have no first-hand knowledge of that kind of stuff so I have no idea if it's accurate or not.
5) Tons of lame self-aggrandizing statements like, "He was a journalist after all and we're all incurably insane." *EYEROLL*
6) She has a strange preoccupation with handshakes, describing three different characters as having handshakes that are strong but not too strong. (pg 81, 235, 399)
7) She describes a VW Thing as having airbags which they were not built with. I suppose one could have been retrofitted but there's no mention of that detail. Furthermore, you can't be pinned by an airbag.
Anyways I'm starting to sound like I'm piling on. Despite being a big fan of zombie stories I won't be picking up the sequels in this trilogy.
eta: I'd logged around 400 books on Goodreads before creating the "waste-of-paper" shelf, just for this book....more
I got sent for temporary duty at a slow station the other day and found this book while I was there.
I suffer from a compulsion to finish reading just I got sent for temporary duty at a slow station the other day and found this book while I was there.
I suffer from a compulsion to finish reading just about any book I start, regardless of how bad it is. Once I've gotten 1/4 or 1/3 of the way in and discover that it's just not going to get any better, I can't simply put it down and leave it unfinished. It's a terrible handicap - I could be reading a different, more enjoyable book, or watching TV, or pouring hot sand into my eyes, but instead I force myself to push through to the end. And this book was really, really bad, and I love post-apocalypse stories. Let me give you an excerpt from the description:
Ben Raines and his rebel army begin an overland expedition to New York City - the armed citadel of the cannibalistic mutants known as the Night People. These half-human, half-hellborn offspring of nuclear fallout have sworn to kill Ben Raines and take over what is left of America.
The author makes quite a few freshman mistakes: he virtually never fleshes things out with details; he just says that someone is ugly, or something smells bad, or someone is scared rather than describing the sights and sounds to the reader. He uses cliches regularly: "blows that theory out of the water" or "blasts him to hell and back." I can't believe that crap made it past an editor. Johnstone apparently wrote the story with a map of New York City in front of him because he describes troop movements as "advancing the tanks up 81" or "setting up a command post in the Holland Tunnel" but he doesn't describe where those places are, or who is to the west of them or moving north of them, etc. So unless you also have a map of New York City in front of you, it's not really possible to know where characters are in relation to each other. Kind of important in a novel all about military actions in a city.
Anyways, I'm just scratching the surface of all the things that are terribly wrong with this book. I think the cover of the copy I found, printed in 1988 by Zebra Books, is quite adequate to make my point.
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