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Steph (468 KP) rated The Wall of Storms (The Dandelion Dynasty #2) in Books

Jul 9, 2018

I am incredibly impressed with the amount of research that must have gone into this book, for politics, military strategy, engineering, physics, and more. That being said, to me the most important thing is characters and I think they fell a little short on this one. Parts of the plot were a little confusing and hard to follow as well. Jia's struggle for power/efforts to unite the throne seemed silly and it was difficult to see the political accumen involved. I was also surprised at how cold and calculating she became. The plot started off rather slow and seemed to end too soon with a lot happening far too quickly at the end. Ultimately this book read more like the first in a series with The Grace of Kings as a prequel. Nevertheless, I still admire the work that went into this book and the brilliance behind the ideas.

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David McK (3562 KP) rated The Cost of Victory (Crimson Worlds #2) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

The second novel in [a:Jay Allan|1024374|Jay Allan|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s 'Crimson Worlds' military sci-fi series, this (I felt) was a marked improvement over the previous entry; over [b:Marines|16050877|Marines (Crimson Worlds #1)|Jay Allan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348800025s/16050877.jpg|21833513].

A largwe part of the reason for that, I feel, is due to the increased scope: told in the more familiar third-person narrative than in the first person, with that decision wideningo ut the scope of what can be conveyed: no longer are we restricted solely to what impacts on the central character himself.

That's not to say this is perfect - certain sections did have me (virtually) rolling my eyes in disbelief, and required ever greater a suspension of disbelief than normal - but this was definitely a more enjoyable read than it's predecessor.

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David McK (3562 KP) rated T2: Rising Storm in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Following on from the end of <i>T2: Infiltrator</i>, this novel continues the story started in that novel. The infiltrator of the previous novel may have been destroyed, but she has left behind 2 clones who continue her work, while Sarah Connor recuperates in military hospital from the wounds she received destroying it.

For the first portion of the story, then, John is out on his own with Dieter von Rossbach, rather than working with his mother. This allows the character to grow and mature somewhat, while it also provides the opportunity to bring back some other faces from the film in the Sarah Connor portion of the story, most noticeably in Dr Silbermann (the psychiatrist from T1 and T2).

The novel also takes to opportunity to further explore the paradoxical timeline of the world, with one key scene in particular towards the end showing how Skynet became sentient.