Elantris (Review)

Elantis is a city that was ran by gods, or at least those with significant power. Now, it is a shell of a city. All the gods and the new ones became corrupted with disease.

This sort of reminds me of a mix of the lost city of Atlantis and the diseased rakghoul you see in the lower cities when you play the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The writing is good, and the plot has tons of twists to where you really can't see where Mr. Sanderson plans on going next. The audio book is done quite well, and I'd suggest it as an alternative fantasy that is quite interesting.

Overall 4/5

Craig A. Price Jr.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Review)

An alien has been posing as a human on earth for 14 years. Someone is coming to destroy the earth. He gets a human friend of his drunk to tell him they don't have much time left. Together they go on quite the ridiculous adventure across the universe.

This is a great novel, especially if you like British/Slapstick humor. You will never look at a sperm whale the same way again. You will learn the answer to life, the universe and everything.

I listened to this novel narriated by the author and it is brilliant. I listened to it with my wife for the second time when she wanted a book for the road.

Overall, great sci-fi.

5/5 stars.

Craig A. Price Jr.

Alcatraz vs the evil Librians (Review)

A kid burns his foster parents house down just before his thirteenth birthday. He gets a package in the mail as inheritance from his parents. All that is in the box is a bag of sand. A crazy man comes to his house claiming to be his grandfather and says the need to hurry because the evil librarians have stolen his bag of sand.

This is one odd novel to read. It is absolutely ridiculous. Everything is backwards. Elevators and guns are primitive while stairs and swords are elegant and new age. It has a sand based magic that is transformed into glasses that you wear to have powers through them. For a child I find this novel highly entertaining and recommend it. There are a couple of clues that tie together well, some that I've guessed a bit ahead of time, but it is middle grade.

4.5/5 Stars.

Craig A. Price Jr.

Flowers for Algernon (Review)

A retard (please don't be offended this is the term used in this 50's novel) wants to be smart. He wanted to read so bad he found a school that will take him. Someone tells him the collage wants to pick someone to try to make smart. He really wants it to be him, he's always wanted to be smart.

This novel is absolutely amazing. The first I heard of this novel is from the show friends when Chandler and Joey get the big apartment. Chandler asked Joey if he ever read Flowers for Algernon.

Anyway this novel is done in first person as daily journal entrees. This author does an amazing job starting with a simple mind and gradually learning more and more. Will the experiment work? Read to find out!

Highly recommended 5/5 Stars.

Craig A. Price Jr.

The Fault in our Stars (Review)

A girl has cancer. She can't live forever. She knows that. She's accepted that. She doesn't want to hurt people when she's gone, and most of her social life is gone because of her breathing machine. Her mom still makes her go out to cancer groups. She meets a boy who's survived cancer and always puts a cigarette in his mouth during trying times. (Don't worry, he never lights it).

This novel will pull at your heartstrings. It is a touching story about living and dying with cancer and falling in love. It will make you swoon every time you hear the work "okay." The audiobook for this is excellent and definitely gives the character a distinct voice.

If you love this book I strongly suggest "Flowers for Algernon" as another to add to your collection.

5/5 stars.

Craig A. Price Jr.

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl (Review)

This novel is about a humanoid unicorn girl. Her horn has magic powers and she is found in an escape pod in space.

This is a fun/cute novel. I just finished listening to the audiobook today. The one thing I don't like about this author is how much she head jumps. Some of it is only partially fascinating or some that I don't care too much about. I feel in some cases less is more would work better for building suspense. Overall I would recommend for younger readers.

3.5/5 Stars.

Craig A. Price Jr.

Series Review: The Dresden Files

Synopsis:
Basically Harry Dresden is a professional wizard... living in Chicago.

I've listened to all of these books on audio. The greatest part of that - they're all done by James Marsters. If you're unaware of who that is, then shame on you. He played Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel. He's a great actor, but wow - he sure is a great book reader. I can see him playing the perfect Harry Dresden if they ever make a movie, or a better TV Series. Yeah, okay so we'd totally have to fix how he looks. The novel "Ghost Story" was recorded by someone different, but was still done very well. (I would totally go back and re-listen to it if James came back for it though.)

These are all done in first person, in sort of like a journal format.

One thing a lot of people don't know. All of the books have two words. The first word has the same number of letters as the second word. With one exception.

Book 1: Storm Front
Harry Dresden goes after an amateur magician.
4/5 Stars

You instantly get into the characters, Harry's personality is great, and so is Karrin Murphy.

Book 2: Fool Moon
Basically this novel sets Harry against what appear to be werewolves, and is pretty epic.
4/5 Stars

Book 3: Grave Peril
Harry Dresden against Red Court Vampires. (Yes there are plenty of different courts, white, black, etc, all have different specialties.) And it never hurts to have a Knight of the Cross fighting alongside you.
4/5 Stars

Book 4: Summer Knight
Harry Dresden helps out the fae after the death of the Summer Knight. Pretty epic going against faeries/fairies.
4/5 Stars

Book 5: Death Masks
Harry is out to find a shroud for the church. While he is doing that, he is challenged to end the war of the White Council (Wizards) against the Red Court (Vampires) by a duel.
4/5 Stars

Book 6: Blood Rites
So poor Harry Dresden, the notorious wizard, is forced to work on a porn set to see why people keep ending up dead.
5/5 Stars.

Book 7: Dead Beat
Harry has to find the Word of Kemmler, a powerful necromancer that died several times many years ago. This one is full of zombies, and of course who doesn't want to ride on an undead T-REX?
4/5 Stars

Book 8: Proven Guilty
Harry gets to investigate the murders at Spattercon, a horror movie convention, where the murderers happen to appear just like the horror movie murders. He also finds someone that could have talent with magic.
5/5 Stars

Book 9: White Night
Harry investigates the murders of persons talented with magic. Yup, someone is killing people that can use magic.
4/5 Stars

Book 10: Small Favor
The winter queen asks Harry to watch over a crime lord, and he soon discovers everybody is after a little girl that has all of the written knowledge.
4/5 Stars

Book 11: Turn Coat
A Warden named Morgan (he despises Harry because of the dark magic he once used) shows up wounded at Harry's door. He begs Harry for help, there is a traitor in the White Council (Wizard Council), and everyone thinks it's him.
5/5 Stars - Excellent

Book 12: Changes
This book is where everything changes. Harry finds out he has a daughter, and she is in mortal danger. How far would you go?
5/5 Stars

Book 13: Ghost Story
Harry Dresden is dead. What better fun can a dead wizard have than to haunt the living? Except there is a lot at Stake if he can get them to believe him.
5/5 Stars

Book 14: Cold Days
Harry Dresden is the new Winter Knight, and he must ask the talking skull how it is possible to kill an immortal, only the earth is at stake.
4/5 Stars

Book 15: Skin Game
Harry Dresden is forced to ally with one of the fallen, and a mortal enemy of his. All he has to help the man do is rob a vault of Hades.
5/5 Stars.

Overall, this series is great. If you love dry and sarcastic humor with an element of Urban Fantasy, this series is great. It has had some criticism because the writing seems to have a distinct pattern. A standard climb with action, fall into chaos, and pull a miracle at the end. Even with that style of writing, the characters and story are excellent. And he gives something to those special critics in "Changes" (The only title without two words of the same length). I hope you give the series a go, and as I said, the audiobooks are excellent!

Entire Series: 4.5/5 Stars

Craig A. Price Jr.