I loved this book and the two before it. I am intrigued by those who gave this less than five stars. I do not comprehend you. How can anyone get more I loved this book and the two before it. I am intrigued by those who gave this less than five stars. I do not comprehend you. How can anyone get more than ten pages into this book and not realize they will either love this or hate it? This is the kind of writing that you have to know this, very early. And if you realize you are going to hate it, why do you keep reading to the end enough to give it less than five stars? I laughed and marveled at the hilarious interweaving of Hodgman's mad-cap mind....more
Having finished THE HUNGER GAMES and THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION soon before this book, I was pleased to find a recent young adult sci-fi story that is Having finished THE HUNGER GAMES and THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION soon before this book, I was pleased to find a recent young adult sci-fi story that is actually well written. There is art to this, real craft, whereas the other aforementioned books and HARRY POTTER and Stephanie Meyer's works are terribly written. What I liked most about the "what if" is that the author actually spent time showing how this what-if might actually work. I almost believe it. Also, the what-if is integral to the story. The only part I did not like? Finding out I have to read more than another book to get to the finish of the story....more
I add this to the list of books that include THE HUNGER GAMES, a list of books that is made up of good concepts that are just amateurishly executed. NI add this to the list of books that include THE HUNGER GAMES, a list of books that is made up of good concepts that are just amateurishly executed. Nancy Farmer needs a writer to pull these (somewhat) intriguing concepts together. This was like a thrown together script, hodge-podge, part summary, part story, with characters dropped and picked up like rag dolls. There are clones. There is drug-running. There is a family empire. There are hover-cars. It reads like a stew of misplaced ingredients--all good ingredients, but not really put together well. This book has no pace, no artfulness, and no real power. How this won tons of awards, I have no idea. Oh wait. Yes, I do. It is all politics and who the author knows and how powerful the agent or publisher is. Great ideas. I can see why the pitch sold. Dull use of good ideas. The only saving grace is that this is one and done. This could have been stretched to an awful "trilogy" like THE HUNGER GAMES. Mercifully, it is over in one book....more
If you owned and loved a Commodore PET, VIC-20, C64, or Amiga, you have to read this book. That is all there is to it. It is the only comprehensive teIf you owned and loved a Commodore PET, VIC-20, C64, or Amiga, you have to read this book. That is all there is to it. It is the only comprehensive technical and business history of the company. The writing could be somewhat better. The author repeats himself and occasionally tells things in a strange not-quite-chronological order, but that's okay because you can tell he did his homework--many interviews with various people give multiple sides to the stories and he gets all the technical details right. If you loved your 64 and know what a Trash-80 is, you MUST read this book!...more