review It boils down to one word - GREED. Greed on the part of the publishers, greed that books cannot be stand alone novels anymore. Or even just a single b
review One word...meh.Not great. Not disapointing. Just meh.The story was rushed, jumped around, and lacked some semi serious plot points. But none of that r
One word...meh.Not great. Not disapointing. Just meh.The story was rushed, jumped around, and lacked some semi serious plot points. But none of that really bothered me.What bothered me the most you ask???Why in the hell does Annabelle look like a BOY??? No seriously she does...(and dammit I can't find a close up of her online. Grrr)Find a copy and just look at Annabelle. I swear if she had been Aphrodite's daughter, and not Athena's her mother would disowned her. ...more
review This book suffers from the same problems that the first volume suffered from. Namely the art - even though this volume was drawn by a different artist
This book suffers from the same problems that the first volume suffered from. Namely the art - even though this volume was drawn by a different artist. While it is beautiful in a single frame it fails at coherently portraying a story from frame to frame as it is so ethereal, undefined, and foggy. It is often hard to determine what actions are taking place, and even after reading 2 volumes I am still unsure as to what Hatter really looks like. The plot in this volume also jumps around and is hard to follow. Nothing quite meshes like it should. For instance he ends up in the American south practically wooing some debutant (even though the books let readers know he has someone back in Wonderland). Then all of a sudden he is in a mental institute with an imagination vampire. The books make him seem like the never ceasing, always serious, undeterred hero, but this one makes him seem sloppy, unfocused, and unsure as to what he should be doing. This I guess is an example of the madness that is settling into his mind, but it seemed more out of character than should be. Finally, I find it hard to believe that even though 5 years has passed since he has last seen Alyss that he wouldn't be able to tell immediately whether or not someone was Alyss. He begins by chasing a story of a glowing girl to some faith healing type of revival event. Once he finds her he has to ask her if she is indeed Alyss, and verifies her identity by looking for a birthmark. He lived with the royal family in the palace, saw this child every day of her life growing up as a bodyguard. He should be able to tell if someone is or is not Alyss. All in all I won't be reading the next installment when it comes out later this year, and frankly am glad I got these volumes from the library instead of purchasing them. Oh well, I gave it a shot. Not all stories translate well into graphic novels I guess. ...more
review Listening to the audiobook on this one and really enjoying the man's voice who is doing the reading. They added in lots of effects for the different c
Listening to the audiobook on this one and really enjoying the man's voice who is doing the reading. They added in lots of effects for the different characters which is fun, and makes it really easy to distinguish who is speaking. Well this book was certainly not as good as the first book. It wasn't bad, just a bit disappointing. The entire time I was reading I was like what are these people thinking? Why can't they just talk to one another, be a bit honest. If they would they would have so many less problems.The writing is very visually driven. The landscapes, weapons, etc are extremely vivid and well described, but it also means whenever something necessary to the plot occurs there is a major shift in the writing. It almost reads like a screenplay. You are going along getting all these wonderful descriptions, then its dialog-dialog-dialog, then back to descriptions. And the segways are not often subtle.Also, I am not all that interested in the characters. For instance, this book gave major insight into the character of Hatter Madigan, but instead of endearing him to me I was more annoyed at what led to the situation. Furthermore, I don't even have much of an interest in the main characters. Alyss is very much 'the Queen'. In the first book she was interesting with her conflicting internal emotions. Was she a child, a Queen, a rebel, or a simple Earth girl? This book she is a Queen and nothing else. They try to hint at that else with her feeling for Dodge but they didn't seem very genuine. She was basically as stiff as a bored. Even Redd who was so awesome in the first book seems more boring this book. It's almost as if she went a bit soft in this book.I will definitely read the 3rd book in the trilogy to determine what happens from this giant mess Beddor has created in their world, but I am not sure I will be impressed. ...more
review I think my qualm with this book is that it reads like a screenplay. The plot seems extremely disjointed and jumpy. There just isn't much continuity an
I think my qualm with this book is that it reads like a screenplay. The plot seems extremely disjointed and jumpy. There just isn't much continuity and no smooth segways. Furthermore, the entire books is written like a description. Only the bare essentials are given and done so in the most boring language. During action scenes it seems as if every sentence begins with the name of a character and a physical description of their movements, yet with no imagery or feeling. Overall the result is you have a story with no heart.This screenplay like approach also affects the characters too. They are wooden and stuck in their original cliche's with no allowance for growth. They never surprise the reader or even each other it seems. And if they do surprise another character with their actions it still fails to impress the reader because it seems like most of the major decisions made and actions completed are naive and flat out stupid. There were several times when I though Alyss should have died due to her naivete. Overall I am glad I got a HEA for the series as a whole but reading this was more of a chore than fun. I felt I had to finish it, but didn't necessarily want to. Who knows, maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe others will like it better. ...more
num ratings 143,651
num ratings 414,971
review It boils down to one word - GREED. Greed on the part of the publishers, greed that books cannot be stand alone novels anymore. Or even just a single b
review One word...meh.Not great. Not disapointing. Just meh.The story was rushed, jumped around, and lacked some semi serious plot points. But none of that r
One word...meh.Not great. Not disapointing. Just meh.The story was rushed, jumped around, and lacked some semi serious plot points. But none of that really bothered me.What bothered me the most you ask???Why in the hell does Annabelle look like a BOY??? No seriously she does...(and dammit I can't find a close up of her online. Grrr)Find a copy and just look at Annabelle. I swear if she had been Aphrodite's daughter, and not Athena's her mother would disowned her. ...more
review This book suffers from the same problems that the first volume suffered from. Namely the art - even though this volume was drawn by a different artist
This book suffers from the same problems that the first volume suffered from. Namely the art - even though this volume was drawn by a different artist. While it is beautiful in a single frame it fails at coherently portraying a story from frame to frame as it is so ethereal, undefined, and foggy. It is often hard to determine what actions are taking place, and even after reading 2 volumes I am still unsure as to what Hatter really looks like. The plot in this volume also jumps around and is hard to follow. Nothing quite meshes like it should. For instance he ends up in the American south practically wooing some debutant (even though the books let readers know he has someone back in Wonderland). Then all of a sudden he is in a mental institute with an imagination vampire. The books make him seem like the never ceasing, always serious, undeterred hero, but this one makes him seem sloppy, unfocused, and unsure as to what he should be doing. This I guess is an example of the madness that is settling into his mind, but it seemed more out of character than should be. Finally, I find it hard to believe that even though 5 years has passed since he has last seen Alyss that he wouldn't be able to tell immediately whether or not someone was Alyss. He begins by chasing a story of a glowing girl to some faith healing type of revival event. Once he finds her he has to ask her if she is indeed Alyss, and verifies her identity by looking for a birthmark. He lived with the royal family in the palace, saw this child every day of her life growing up as a bodyguard. He should be able to tell if someone is or is not Alyss. All in all I won't be reading the next installment when it comes out later this year, and frankly am glad I got these volumes from the library instead of purchasing them. Oh well, I gave it a shot. Not all stories translate well into graphic novels I guess. ...more
review Listening to the audiobook on this one and really enjoying the man's voice who is doing the reading. They added in lots of effects for the different c
Listening to the audiobook on this one and really enjoying the man's voice who is doing the reading. They added in lots of effects for the different characters whi
ch is fun, and makes it really easy to distinguish who is speaking. Well this book was certainly not as good as the first book. It wasn't bad, just a bit disappointing. The entire time I was reading I was like what are these people thinking? Why can't they just talk to one another, be a bit honest. If they would they would have so many less problems.The writing is very visually driven. The landscapes, weapons, etc are extremely vivid and well described, but it also means whenever something necessary to the plot occurs there is a major shift in the writing. It almost reads like a screenplay. You are going along getting all these wonderful descriptions, then its dialog-dialog-dialog, then back to descriptions. And the segways are not often subtle.Also, I am not all that interested in the characters. For instance, this book gave major insight into the character of Hatter Madigan, but instead of endearing him to me I was more annoyed at what led to the situation. Furthermore, I don't even have much of an interest in the main characters. Alyss is very much 'the Queen'. In the first book she was interesting with her conflicting internal emotions. Was she a child, a Queen, a rebel, or a simple Earth girl? This book she is a Queen and nothing else. They try to hint at that else with her feeling for Dodge but they didn't seem very genuine. She was basically as stiff as a bored. Even Redd who was so awesome in the first book seems more boring this book. It's almost as if she went a bit soft in this book.I will definitely read the 3rd book in the trilogy to determine what happens from this giant mess Beddor has created in their world, but I am not sure I will be impressed. ...more
review I think my qualm with this book is that it reads like a screenplay. The plot seems extremely disjointed and jumpy. There just isn't much continuity an
I think my qualm with this book is that it reads like a screenplay. The plot seems extremely disjointed and jumpy. There just isn't much continuity and no smooth segways. Furthermore, the entire books is written like a description. Only the bare essentials are given and done so in the most boring language. During action scenes it seems as if every sentence begins with the name of a character and a physical description of their movements, yet with no imagery or feeling. Overall the result is you have a story with no heart.This screenplay like approach also affects the characters too. They are wooden and stuck in their original cliche's with no allowance for growth. They never surprise the reader or even each other it seems. And if they do surprise another character with their actions it still fails to impress the reader because it seems like most of the major decisions made and actions completed are naive and flat out stupid. There were several times when I though Alyss should have died due to her naivete. Overall I am glad I got a HEA for the series as a whole but reading this was more of a chore than fun. I felt I had to finish it, but didn't necessarily want to. Who knows, maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe others will like it better. ...more
num ratings 143,651
num ratings 414,971