Review: POWER OF SIX

The Power Of Six by Pittacus Lore
Book 2 of Lorien Legacies series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback

About The Power Of Six:

I’ve seen him on the news. Followed the stories about what happened in Ohio. John Smith, out there, on the run. To the world, he’s a mystery. But to me . . . he’s one of us.

Nine of us came here, but sometimes I wonder if time has changed us—if we all still believe in our mission. How can I know? There are six of us left. We’re hiding, blending in, avoiding contact with one another . . . but our Legacies are developing, and soon we’ll be equipped to fight. Is John Number Four, and is his appearance the sign I’ve been waiting for? And what about Number Five and Six? Could one of them be the raven-haired girl with the stormy eyes from my dreams? The girl with powers that are beyond anything I could ever imagine? The girl who may be strong enough to bring the six of us together?

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They tried to catch Number Four in Ohio—and failed.

I am Number Seven. One of six still alive.

And I'm ready to fight.

Source: Info in the About The Power Of Six was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13310805-the-power-of-six on 04/06/2012.

Review:

It took me a long time to get into this book. Convent politics is just not that riveting. So this book was a slow start. However it did pick up halfway through. It's action-packed and emotion-laden that leaves you breathless!! It might be a quicker read for readers more tolerant than me perhaps. But me, I gotta have breaks from the too stupid to live (TSTL) characters. But they are not all TSTL though. Six is beautiful and kick-ass! And most importantly, sensible!! Unfortunately she is only a side character, which is funny seeing that this book seems to be titled after her.

I didn't read the first book in this series, I watched the movie version instead. And this book picked up where the movie left off and I found that freaking cool! I was very happy to see what happened next to our heroes after the battle with the Mogadorians in the movie. They were pretty battered then and what happened to them afterwards was left hanging... Guess they were still battered in the book too.

The story is not that original. It's very similar to Superman. Alien baby lands on earth to grow up and have old alien enemies to fight on Earth instead of in their alien world. But this time around there isn't just one baby as in the case of Superman but a few more babies and a few more aliens. Okey, not very original. However, they did a good job with it in the I Am Number Four movie and John (the main protagonist) was not in spandex tights. I would still give the Lorien Legacies series kudos for the wonderful story that it is on it's own right even though it's not very original. And hopefully they will do a movie of this book (and do a good job of it too) like they did with book 1, I Am Number Four.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 2
Plot = 3

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Other Books In The Lorien Legacies series:


Thank you to Penguin for the review copy received.

FTC Disclosure:
This book was received for free from Penguin.

WW28: STEEL'S EDGE

WW28 book offering: Steel's Edge by Ilona Andrews

The scrawny slaver on the right of the dog handler swore and pulled a gun from his waistband.

These bad guys may not be very bright but they can wreck havoc just the same.

About Steel's Edge:

The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…

Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird. But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain. After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself. Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte’s life is turned upside down once again.

Richard is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan—and he’s on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird. So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them. The slavers’ operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive...

Source: Info in the About Steel's Edge was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12119496-steel-s-edge on 02/12/2012.

WW28
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Review: SCENT OF MAGIC

Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder
Book 2 of the Healer trilogy
Genre: fantasy
Format: large paperback

About Scent Of Magic:

Hunted, Killed—Survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avery of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avery is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avery will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avery is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.

Source: Info in the About Scent Of Magic was taken from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16082550-scent-of-magic on 14/12/12.

Review:

I've read this author's Yelena Zaltana trilogy and loved it! However I did not like the Opal Cowan trilogy. So this author has her ups and downs. But one thing remained consistent with her is the compellingness of her author's voice. No matter that the story has gone pear shaped or the character gone stupid, the book would still compel readers to continue reading until the very end. And I think that is where this author's strongest writing feature lies. The weakest is the plot build-up and at times the character development. In this book, the superb story telling quality is apparent. However, we also see a little bit of that character weakness. Additionally, Maria V. Snyder has now adopted the writing style where she goes back and forth between two threads which has the effect of breaking the continuity of the story and jarring me out of the "zone" and yanking me back to reality. And I have to reset my mind-set back to "reading mode" again and this made the pace quite slow. But despite the slower pace, I will still continue reading this series because of the wonderful world building that the world of Avry has! For one, it is simply beautiful! I really like the premise of sentient lilies! For another, Maria V. Snyder doesn't break her own rules. The magic and story line is consistent which I very much appreciated because I find authors who break their own magic rules really annoying! And another reason which makes me continue reading this series is because of the compellingness of the author's voice ... and let's keep our fingers crossed that this series would go more like the Yelena Zaltana way rather than the Opal Cowan way. At the end of it, I enjoyed this book and looking forward to reading the finale of this trilogy!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Plot = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 3

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Book Trailer:

Author Links:
Maria V. Snyder
Maria V. Snyder at Facebook

Other Links:
www.touchofpowerbooks.com
GoodReads
Mira at Facebook

Thank you to Mira Books for the review copy of Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder received.

Review: DARK HOLLOW

Dark Hollow by John Connolly
Read by Jeff Harding
Book 2 of Charlie Parker series
Genre: crime fiction
Format: paperback & unabridged audiobook

About Dark Hollow:

Internationally acclaimed author John Connolly thrilled readers with his debut bestseller, Every Dead Thing. Now he gives a new name to fear with this atmospheric, spine-tingling page-turner. DARK HOLLOW

Haunted by the murder of his wife and daughter, former New York police detective Charlie Parker retreats home to Scarborough, Maine, to rebuild his shattered life. But his return reawakens old ghosts, drawing him into the manhunt for the killer of yet another mother and child. The obvious suspect is the young woman's violent ex-husband. But there is another possibility -- a mythical killer who lurks deep in the dark hollow of Parker's own past, a figure that has haunt....

Source: Info in the About Dark Hollow was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/175243.Dark_Hollow on 17/09/2012.

Review:

It took a bit of perseverance at the start. The intro salvo of this book is a long prologue worth a chapter and a half of mishmash of unrelated events which won't make sense until later on in the book. It didn't make real sense so I couldn't get into it despite having read Book 1 and knowing that this author has a compelling voice... slooow start kinda book....

Being a visual reader, book covers play a significant role in my reading habit. I like the audio cover art as opposed to the paperback cover art. If I wasn't already a John Connolly fan, I would never buy the paperback. But even if I haven't read John Connolly yet, the audio cover art would have triggered my book buying radar. It's the mysticism with the gritty crime that draws me in. Just pure crime is not as much fun for me as the mystical crime that the audibook cover art implies. And the story telling quality IS compelling. To lure me into crime is not easy because I am a die-hard fantasy geek, so that tells you just how good the story telling quality must have been to make me a John Connolly fan. This book also reminded me why I am not a crime fiction fan though. I am a wuss, okey! I don't like gory killings. I am an escapist reader. I don't want to know about the state of the world or anything about the human nature. I want to escape reality. So gory murders is not the way to this reader's heart. And yes, this book is a gory crime fiction... But, if the story telling quality is masterful enough, I can be persuaded....

This book also reminded me why I like angsty heroes. Yeah, they are fun with the right story teller. Charlie makes mistakes. Just like the rest of us. But he is not too stupid to live like Sookie Stackhouse. Just human enough for a reader to make a solid connection with. I would rate the character development a 5 out of 5.

At the end of it, I enjoyed this book despite it being a gory crime fiction and would definitely be reading the next Charlie Parker book.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (14 hrs listening time)
Plot = 4
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Mr. Mailman: FALLING KINGDOMS

Hey! Looks like I get to start this year with lovely prize(s)!! Thank you to Tiffanie of Mostly YA Lit for hosting the December New Release Giveaway Hop! which made it possible for me to win Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes!

Couldn't wait to find it in my mail!! This wait is worth another Mr. Mailman feature!

About Mr. Mailman:

Mr. Mailman is a kind of "blog meme" started by Juju over at Tales Of Whimsy to feature books which one is anxiously waiting to arrive in the mail!

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Book 1 of the Falling Kingdoms series
Genre: high fantasy

About Falling Kingdoms:

In a land where magic has been forgotten but peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest is simmering. Three kingdoms grapple for power--brutally transforming their subjects' lives in the process. Amidst betrayals, bargains, and battles, four young people find their fates forever intertwined:

Cleo: A princess raised in luxury must embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of a magic long thought extinct.

Jonas: Enraged at injustice, a rebel lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country impoverished--and finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Lucia: A girl adopted at birth into a royal family discovers the truth about her past--and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Magnus: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, a firstborn son begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword...

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

Source: Info in the About Falling Kingdoms was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12954620-falling-kingdoms on 05/05/2012.

Happy New Year!!