Tolstoy has a unique style and the mixture of serial drama, the authors philosophising, and historical detail was a new format for me. I have to say I really enjoyed it for the most part, the serial drama was brilliant, 5 stars, the characters were all well written and they developed throughout. The historical information was interesting, and though sometimes dry definitely added to the enjoyment. The philosophising of the author I could have done without though, especially in the epilogue. It felt as though there was a lot of repetition in these parts, and most of it felt unnecessary given they are the conclusions you would draw yourself from the story. 

The character arc of Pierre, whom I found to be the protagonist, was marvelous. His introduction in the first chapter to his attitude plus 1000 pages in is so dramatic a shift you wouldn't believe it if you hadn't spent hours reading the story of his life. The dynamic of Natasha and Sophie was also very interesting to see, how it changes throughout their life was quite extreme. 

I knew very little about this period in Russia going in and was very entertained and gained knowledge at the same time.

Its a book you have to read if you're in any way a serious reader and a classic for a reason. 

Essentially a fairy tale turned into a novel with a modern setting, and a great read. Earlier this year I read the entire brothers grimm collection... Not sure why... But I can see where a lot of this book came from and it's brilliant to see a version of fairytales done this way. There were some twists and surprises throughout which were smoothly done, the technobabble side was accurate as well which was a big plus. The entire book felt believable as a result, I've read other fantasy before where the science side was just garbage but in this case they kept it as a fantasy situation in the real world with the whole thing still being believable. The final part...

where apollo says they lived happily ever after,and Emma said today,made me chuckle because they're clearly f****d having killed a man, and jointly being on the run from the police, she is still wanted for killing their child,it's not going to go well in court

. I'll look for more by the author in the future and thank you to @friendofgosig who gifted me this one

This is a great example of a book of this genre. It's very fast paced so easy to just pick up and plow through, great fun, and the premise is interesting. Not gone more than 3.5 because of a few minor factors, and some larger points. The hick language trope I always find a bit annoying to read even when it fits the world, if 90% of the dialogue is from characters with terrible grammar and 70% of the book is dialogue it's a little much for me. The premise is great, but leads to a few stretches of the imagination if not just plot holes. However! It's fun to read, I'll try to get the rest of the series, and in the world of young adult books I think it's pretty solid 

I've had this on my shelf a long time, and was reluctant to read it in case it didn't live up to my expectations. Sci fi is my faveourite genre and this being so highly rated I was expecting great things. Not only is this a great book, it's probably the best book I've ever read. It's incredibly well paced, putting this book down at work was a challenge, which I failed multiple times. The next Andy Weir book I read will have to be on vacation to avoid being fired. Like in the Martian the humour is spot on and the characters are exceptionally well written.

To manage to get the reader so emotionally invested in the survival of am alien spider and his home world is incredible.

I went into this with lofty expectations and it surpassed them, right now for me, this is the perfect book.

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2nd Read

After a year and a half, and 150 books, I decided to re-read this one. I've been saying it's my favorite book since I read it, at the time I'd only been reading a lot for a few months and only about 80 books, mainly sci-fi. Now I've got a lot more reading under my belt, expanded my reading to cover dozens of classics, fantasy, non-fiction and general novels how does it compare? It's still the best book I've read, and I pray the movie is at least half as good as the book. The writing itself is less complex or poetic when compared to a lot that I've read, and the structure / plot is simple, but those limitations have made the characters so easy to empathise with, to love, and to understand. It excels so much in that regard it still makes me feel more than any other book I've read.

This felt like a pretty standard heyer novel for the most part and as such was fun and easy to read. It's definitely not her best book but a decent Sunday read. As you read it becomes clear there're two possible endings and in my opinoin the wrong one was chosen.

the idea that a man and a woman could be lifelong friends without romance I found quite powerful in the heyer world, but it was blown to hell when they got together at the end

the book is a good read overall but lost some marks at the end. 

Having not been a fan of cloud atlas I was apprehensive of reading this book but was pleasantly surprised. The dream sequences add elements of fantastical magic to the book but ultimately this is a story of an orphan searching for family. The development of the main character and even the secondary characters is really well done. Never knowing where it was going the book takes a powerful, yet common, theme and presents out in a unique and entertaining way. This book has given me enough to want to read more of Mitchell's work and as such am very happy to have read it. 

In this book Woodward goes through the history of several famous ruins, focusing primarily on how they are kept and their impact on artists throughout history. He also goes into the proliferation of fake ruins in England and the concept of "picturesque" in the countryside. His opinoin on allowing ruins to have a balance with nature come up throughout the book but are some what at odds with conservation efforts. I found the book interesting as someone who's never read anything on the topic before but sometimes it could be a little dry. A couple of sections triggered am emotional response but overall the book was somewhat flat. I'm still happy to have read it but probably won't search out books on this topic in the future. 

Having established Banks in the first installment it feels the story for more focus in this one and it's a defenite improvement. I didn't anticipate the ending and the twists throughout the book are well done and avoid the big tropes. A nice simple detective story written well and I'll happily continue with the series. 

I got more invested in this than the first one and found the side characters funnier as well. The writing is super easy to read and the classic pratchett humour is spread throughout. I still find the characters a little flat and sometimes the plot is skittle contrived but overall its great fun and I'll continue my journey through the discworld with enthusiasm. 

As far as culture novels go its about average but the series is really good hence the 4 stars. The first half is quite slow and took a while to get into but the 2nd half is really good. The human story told in parallel to that of the sleeper service and the understanding of the excession is nice. There's more focus on the ships in this than a lot of the other culture series adding some more depth to the universe.