Nice read, but not as focused on the subjects I'd have wanted.

Wow, I actually for once read a book for university cover to cover!

Though this book has everything you need for a English Linguistics basic module exam, I don't particularly like it.

First of all it's butt ugly. What were they thinking when they gave it a baby pink and baby blue cover? Is this supposed to represent English Linguistics as infantile?

Secondly, the layouter obviously never heard anything about readability. The text is way too small and too close to the spine of the book, making it sometimes painful to read this book. There also could have been more chapterisation in order to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

And thirdly, the pages are too thick.

My advice: get a better cover, make the pages thinner, the font bigger and find a new concept for the keywords at the side of the pages. Then I probably wouldn't have anything to complain.

Craving more Sandman? Why not Lucifer? It's a graphic novel with a similarly odd protagonist, telling similarly odd stories. And occasionally an Endless is mentioned...

Like Sandman, it's definitely not an easy read. There are many parallel narratives and it takes a while to get the hang of what's going on and how it all comes together in the end - so you'll likely find yourself re-reading a lot of pages.

I jumped on the hype train with this book, mainly because the premise sounded interesting - a dragon riding college? But I admit that this is the first ever "romance" book I've read, and I'm not sure what to make of that regarding this book. In my opinion, there wasn't really much romance in this book, but rather quite a lot of horniness. Which ironically is also what I liked least about this book (aside from its very militaristic nature). I think it could have been an infinitely better book without the main character constantly salivating over some guy, who no less is supposedly the son of someone who killed her brother? WTF??? I get that it serves to illustrate that not everything is black and white, but I found it cringe at times.

What I did like about the book is the worldbuilding (again, minus the militaristic nature). The dragons are pretty cool, as is the magic system of bonding to magical creatures. It's a very decent entry-level fantasy book, which is well written and mostly well-paced (but IMHO could also have been condensed in some aspects).

Does it live up to the hype? I don't think so. Will I still read book 2 and 3? Definitely.

A collection of short stories from the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, this has its highs and lows. I enjoyed some of the stories very much, especially those that were a bit closer to the main story, while a few of them were a bit too much out there. In particular, the stories of scythes being psychopaths didn't really do much for me, there was already more than enough of that in the main arc, plus, from the way scythes are presented in Book 1, I would have preferred to learn a bit more about *honorable* scythes.

Regardless it's a nice addition to the trilogy, and makes this whole universe deeper and more alive.

Finally, the conclusion to the Arc of a Scythe series. This book is, like all books in the series, extremely well written an a joy to read. I love how it uses "mystical" religious writings to establish its lore. And this is where it all comes together, and this universe becomes ever bigger.

I particularly enjoyed reading about how a seemingly ridiculous idea has grown into a full-fledged religion, including the most un-prophety prophet one could imagine. Even beyond the tonists, this book has so many interesting things that give you food for thought. The Thunderhead seems like a benevolent ChatGPT, and it makes one wonder if this is a future we're heading into - but I think ours will be much darker.

What could have been better was the pacing (again) - the story focuses a lot on some aspects of the story, but others, the ones you really want to know about, are few and far between.

I greatly enjoyed reading this series, as it evident from me having read this 600+ page book within two days.

What a strange ride. The first half of the book suffers a bit from pacing issues. Introducing new characters and spending a bit too much time of them instead of the main characters tended to get a bit too tedious for me.

Then halfway through the book, you're hit with a huge WTF moment, that makes you question the rules of this universe. But what are the rules in a post-mortality society anyway?

Spoiler

The return of Goddard was this WTF moment. He was supposed to be dead dead, and that was the highlight of book one. Bringing him back cheapens that... but in hindsight, also send a message about how you can seemingly never get rid of people like him. He's very much a Trump-like character, and there will always be insane, power-hungry people like him.

A lot of this book is also a setup for Book 3 (I assume), and the most interesting plot line is left open. Let's see how that ends.

I found this book in the public bookshelf on a Saturday morning. Usually the books in there are literal trash, and it's rare to find a good book in good condition, let alone in English. This one was such a find, the cover art was striking, and after reading the description, my interest was piqued. Dystopian is my thing.

Well, I read half the book by Sunday, and finished reading it in 5 days. Is it a *good* book? I think that's a matter of debate, it has a few flaws here and there, like the completely and utterly unnecessary romance, but that's just young adult fiction for you. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading it, it's an very interesting, very dystopian concept with an extra dash of the macabre.

This is a very interesting book, though perhaps a bit too verbose in places. I could easily have skipped the whole history of psychelics, as I was primarily interested in the neurological and psychological aspects.