Overall I really liked this book. It had a nice old time fantasy feel to it while still being modern. In the beginning you are left wondering who is good and bad, but as the story progresses you get a better feel for the motives and personalities of the characters. I was afraid at the start it was going to be one of the new-agy dark fantasy books where everyone is bad and you have to plot through terrible character after terrible character. That isn't to say the characters don't have flaws, they do, it's just that you can still agree with and see them as real characters. I've read some stuff recently that was just terrible with every character being a piece of crap who I wanted to die.

Another thing I liked is the two ways characters develop in the book. First is your standard character ark where they change as the book goes on. The other is an ark, but one which comes from us learning more about the character. They don't actually change, instead as we learn about them they seem to change in our minds while staying the same person.

I've never been a fan of any fantasy that includes black powder, but this book has officially changed my stance. I really enjoyed this and the magic system in it. The powder mages are really interesting and I really like how the magic system works. I'm on to the next book and looking forward to continuing on with the characters and story.

I also am a big fan of the reader, nothing bad to say about his interpretation of the characters and it is a really enjoyable listen.

I had some moments where I questioned the book, but overall I was wrong and the author was right. This isn't something I can say very often, most the time once an author leaves me behind I'm done with the book or series. There were a few points where I had a hard time with my suspension of disbelief. Unlike other books I've read this only lasted for a few pages then all was set right again.

As I said in the review of the previous book, I really like the magic system, this is only more true after the second book. Now we're getting little twists on existing magic and learning more about previously unknown magic. More questions were answered, but now there is a whole passel of new questions I want to know the answers to. The author has also really made me hate some of the characters, and I really want to know what happens to them now. I miss an old fashion bad guy I can really dislike, this book has that and it is a breath of fresh air.

The narrator Christian Rodska has grown on me more and more. He is a bit slow so I speed him up, but overall his gruff voice seems to really fit the book and it's characters.

I liked this book more than I thought I would. After enjoying Graham Hancock on Rogan a few times I decided to give one of his books a go. This really surprised me. I am not a non-fiction reader but this flowed and kept me interested from beginning to end.

It starts out with a lot of interesting early American pre-Columbus history and archeology. I can't express how much I enjoy Hancock's fresh logical take on early peoples and their histories. Some of the genetics he goes over which was recently published was mind boggling. It just makes sense. As an additional perk I learned about some Ojibwe genetics which I hadn't been updated on since my Early American's class in college.

My mind is still blown by the Amazonian civilizations and how advanced they might have been. This book has opened up a lot of doors in my mind for things I never knew could have existed, and connections I wouldn't have thought possible between the Americas and other civilizations. If you like anything dealing with early human history this book is 100% for you.

Graham reads the book as well and does an excellent job as one would expect. Books like this are always better when the author reads them, and this is no exception.

I ended up liking it and moved on to the second book in the series. If truth be told I finished this one a while ago, and this is just a housekeeping review to get it off of my reading shelf. It is a nice light urban fantasy though, nothing too deep, just a light fun read. The narrator really grew on me too. If you ever want a quick urban fantasy read, this is a good choice.

This series really pulled me in. For those who like John Ringo this is spot on his style and everything you could want in a Ringo book. The characters are so unique, and to those who say too unbelievable...well don't listen to them. I don't really have anything bad to say except that I'd like to see the end tied up more if this is the last book following this character group. I know the other two books in the series follow Tom Smith, but I don't know if they will eventually tie into the first four books. If so I'm more than happy, if not I'm just normal happy.

I've started the 5th book, The Valley of Shadows, and I'll admit it is harder to get into since it covers a lot of stuff already covered in book 1, but I'm fully expecting it to pick up like every Ringo book does. If you like bad ass Ringo military books then this is a great read. I don't like the whole Zombie genre but this is done very well and I really enjoyed it.

There isn't much to say about this book. If you have ever read one single Sanderson book than you already know this will be good and you should go read Skyward then Starsight. I really liked the complete change of scenery and completely different type of plot. Once the book hooked me it really hooked me. I ran through this in under a day.

It is an amazingly good book in every way except for the ending, but that is my personal preference. Sanderson juggles a lot of different series, and with how this book ends it will be rough waiting for the next one. I would be a lot happier if there was more known at the end, but anyone who hasn't read it yet will understand afterwards.

This is a top recommended book for sure, if you haven't read this series what are you waiting for? Even with being upset at the ending, it is well worth a read. Sadly this just gives more fuel to those who wait for a series to be completed to start book 1.

A nice light comical book with really interesting characters. This was my first Yahtzee Croshaw book, and I like his satire on the politically correct world we live in, all the more so since he did it with aliens. There were some points where the book seemed to drag in the middle, but the characters kept me listening. I didn't see the twist coming at the end either and that just added to my enjoyment. It is easy to make a book heavy with satire without a decent plot, but this does both. A solid read if you want something light, comical, and you aren't one of the social justice warriors he makes fun of.

I really wanted to like this book. I've been on a kick lately of apocalyptic rebuilding books. This was billed as that, but it really isn't...not even a little bit. I still don't know why I finished it, normally it takes a lot to get me to stop a book part way through. This brought me to that point multiple times but I forced myself to push through it. A lot of that issue was the pacing and the overly long writing. This could have easily been edited down to 2/3 of what it was, that without even really trying. There is just so much nothing happening helped along by main characters who are required by the plot to act stupid. All it does is stretch the book way beyond what it should be. I'm normally one who enjoys a novel in this length, but this one really felt like it was longer than it already was.

So the elephant in the room...yeah that was intentional.

You cannot escape the relentless whoke shouting in your face in every chapter. I don't even agree or disagree with all the politics in this book, but it is over the top and completely unnecessary. in a way this was done very smart. The story is based in a good idea but poorly executed. To make up for this he is heavy handed with left wing ideals. His fans who follow him on social media have already been culled to exclude anyone who doesn't already agree with his political ideals. This then ensures he has a large following of people who agree with him politically. Then in something like wanderers he can just put in all the major talking points and people will love the book because it reaffirms what they believe. My guess is a lot of people who really enjoyed this aren't basing it on the plot, pacing, characters or lack of any part, but rather on the politics which is the true cornerstone of this book.

Wendig's politics are not hidden, he doesn't hide them anywhere. It is completely another matter to call everyone who lives in the middle of the United States a bigoted hateful racist white supremacist. It is quite literally as if he did a google search for a red blue map of the United States. Then wrote scenes to take place in these states where every person in said scenes was a gun waving redneck white supremacist. This is my first and last book I'll ever read of his, this shouting in my face in every chapter is not what I find enjoyable in a book. I'm also not mindless enough to like a book just because he says some things I agree with. If you are very left of center and want to read something you can get titillated over then this is definitely the book for you.

The plot and general idea isn't a bad one, it is just so poorly done and so riddled with the bigoted useless politics of the author. The whole book speaks to the straw man that every conservative is a racist, and everyone liberal is an angel. As is the nature of a straw man, once it is built it is very easy to knock over. The thing he doesn't realize. He is doing the exact same thing himself. He groups all those he finds to be wrong in one character type in the book and paints them as evil bad people simply because they disagree with him. This is exactly what makes the "evil republicans" in the book evil. Something tells me that would fall on deaf ears though.

Aside from the unnecessary politics, there are all sorts of things that are just never answered in the book. Major points of the plot that just are ignored, or things that are shoved into the book to fill a gap. It doesn't seem to matter if they fit or not.

love interest that is random, forced, and out of the blue.

mastermind programmer who made the worlds smartest quantum computer AI, but she doesn't actually seem to know anything about programming.

the worlds smartest computer that can only answer in yes and no? This quite literally makes none of the sense.

if the thing controlling all of this has selected the people for a reason why isn't it interested in keeping them from being killed?

Why wasn't it a bigger deal when the doctors realized the people couldn't be cut or poked with a needle? That is a pretty damn big revelation which the smartest doctors in the land just shrug about and ignore.

why do people blow up, this was never answered and it makes no sense. It is a clumsy way of forcing the plot to work.

A lot of words that tell a story that could have taken up 2/3 of the length, maybe even less.

The scene at the golden bears bridge doesn't do anything for the plot. It is quite pointless. we already know there are bad "republicans" trying to kill everyone blah blah.

most people who die in the book are just being killed because they can be. It doesn't serve the plot to kill them. It just makes the author untrustworthy.

Where did all these white supremacists come from? Sure they exist, but this book makes you think there are millions and millions of them. Of course all in the middle of the country.

Horrible gun research. People don't only take head shots, revolvers actually do function the same as a semi-automatic, it gets old.

An ending that is just nonsense.

things I learned from the book.

ALL cops evil and bad.

ALL military evil and bad.

ALL people in the mid-west evil, racist, and bad.

ALL religion evil and bad.

ALL republicans are super evil and bad.

ALL gun owners are evil and bad.

Overall I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't even get behind a single character. It was a really good idea, but it was ruined by the clear motivation to push the politics of the author. Whether you agree with all of it, some of it, or none of it; I still feel it is completely unnecessary. It is the only crutch to hold this book up for readers who agree with the author's world view. It really should be titled Whoke Ramblings.

I wanted to give this 2 stars just because the idea was so interesting. Then I finished the book and realized I was wrong. The book is just bad, really nothing else to say. It's just bad, the ending is the straw that broke the camel's back.

This book really gets right into it, No slow build up necessary. Right from page one you are in action with a pirate attack, and it doesn't seem to slow down. The main character Brad is recovered on the edge of death, and wakes up with most of his memory lost. From there we learn who he is while he does the same.

I do enjoy how we aren't given any info dumps to wade through. Everything we need to know about the world is given in little bits as the story progresses. Not enough authors do this, Glynn Stewart does a great job. This book really has a western feel to it, and I really enjoy that. Some books are deep and meaningful, more often than not they sacrifice the story to accomplish that. Above anything I just like a good story, this is a good story. Some things are unlikely, but that doesn't matter to me if it is consistent like it is here.

It can get a bit repetitive with Brad "letting a little bit of his anger show", but overall it is nice to have a main character deal with an internal conflict, and use it to their advantage instead of falling victim to it at every turn. It gives him a nice bit of attitude when it is necessary.

Some of the dialog is a bit forced, but other than that this is a nice light military science fiction book. It isn't the best I've read, but I'm always a sucker for stories like this. Someone who loses it all and rebuilds from scratch into something meaningful. More than anything it is a good story without any extra crap forced on the readers. I wish more authors would let their politics and social opinions take a back seat to telling a good story.

God these books are just so damn good. The first two in the series start out simple enough with just slight hints at the main story line. Then with the third you are introduced to it fully. Now in the fourth it is in full effect and action is non stop.

The storylines are simple and yet complex. Overall it is just really well done. It is also nice to see Damien let go and really let his magic fly outside of a space battle. You never really get the full amount of his power until this book and it is great. It is also a nice change to have most of the book take place planet side instead of on a ship.

At the end we are not really given much in the way of answers for the series plot. We learn a lot through the book, but what we learn isn't really resolved. I would have liked to have more at the end, but since there are still two more books I can't be too upset.

Overall this is the best book in the series. I seem to think that at the end of every book. I just hope that pattern holed's for the last books in the series. This is a solid read either way.