Reviews and Comments

Even better than the first! I really like the characters. In fact, I think that I enjoyed the book so much because the audiobook narrator did such a fantastic job. Thankfully, not many people at my local library listen to audiobooks, so I can usually get popular ones quite quickly.

I would have enjoyed the first book in the series more had I not figured out what the ending was going to be 20% in. The second book was even better. I'm really enjoying the series and can't wait to read book #3. I'm taking a bit of a break to read the Silkworm by J.K. Rowling (writing under alias Robert Galbraith), which seems to be a very similar style book (with a similar hero) in my mind.

5 stars for the book itself. 3 stars for the audiobook version. All of the voice actors (who are pretty much all big names) phoned it in and sounded as if they were just reading from a script. Yes, they were reading from a script, but actors are supposed to make the roles come to life. The lame acting in the audiobook version was extremely distracting, but the book itself was excellent.

I didn't care about any of the characters. There was not a single decent human being anywhere in the book. In fact, they were all so unlikable that I actually enjoyed when bad things happened to them. I don't think that this was the author's intention.

I've read worse books, though, so it gets three stars from me.

What a fascinating page out of spy history! I hope that the real story gets made into a movie at some point, not the garbage that was already very loosely made from this book.

Wow, I am so glad I read this book. I have always recommended Lucifer's Hammer to people looking for a good, relatively realistic post-apocalyptic novel. Alas, Babylon is just as good, if not better. I had never heard of this book or the author until I started researching the best apocalypse novels (I had an itch that only they could scratch). This novel is widely considered to be the best of its kind. I agree.

Boring. I hate the way it was written.

This is a strange book. John Scalzi is a strange author, too, so it all works out. Scalzi is tremendously popular, but he's sort of like the Dan Brown of science fiction: he doesn't try to impress anybody with his writing style, but goes straight for accessibility. Fuzzy Nation is an extremely enjoyable ride. However, as soon as you realize that Scalzi uses "said" after nearly every spoken sentence, it will become annoying. It is really an obstacle to fully enjoying any of Scalzi's books. Even so, all of his stuff is quite fun. The outcome of the story was never in doubt and it is primarily a courtroom sci-fi drama (yes, it's strange!), but I would easily recommend it to somebody who wants some light reading.

I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Wil Wheaton, by the way.

I will buy every Joseph Boyden book that he releases. They are all that good. It is hard to put my finger on exactly why his writing is so mesmerizing. Here are some thoughts: the characters are generally all quite realistic, the stories are believable (and don't follow the traditional "hero falls in love, hero fights bad guy, bad guy almost wins, hero emerges victorious" format of so many other books), the use of multiple perspectives which alternate with each chapter... what else? I think that Joseph Boyden has some of that "je ne sais quoi" that a reader doesn't encounter very often. I am crossing my fingers that The Orenda, his latest book, wins Canada Reads 2014 and Joseph Boyden becomes a household name in Canada. His writing is really that special and he deserves to be recognized as one of the best, unique, magical authors alive today.

If you are unsure where to start with Boyden, do not start with Through Black Spruce. If anything, you must read Three Day Road before this one, as it is a sequel of sorts. The Orenda is fantastic and can be enjoyed before or after these two. Born With a Tooth can similarly be read before or after the others.

Three Day Road joins Boyden's latest, The Orenda, in my top five or so favorite books that I have ever read. Boyden is incredibly talented. He just has a way of drawing the reader into the book's world. I could clearly see the characters, the war-torn First World War setting, and the events unfolding as if before my eyes. Boyden is excellent at providing real, flawed people and believable situations. His books do not follow the typical formula of most other literature: there will be no twist at the end, no defeating some villain, no happily wrapped-up situation. Instead, his books provide a series of slices in time that take the reader on a journey. His books are all relatively easy to read, since the reader is continuously faced with the thoughts and statements of the characters instead of a traditional narrator, so there is no room for flashy, over-the-top prose. The books are liberally sprinkled with violence, but it is very important to note that the violence is not there to shock the reader, as is often the case. Instead, the violence is an often (always?) unwanted part of the world in which the characters live. In this book, the raw, disturbing violence of the First World War is clearly presented to the reader. Boyden is not afraid to show the reality of terrible situations to his readers and glorifies absolutely nothing.

I really hope that Boyden's The Orenda wins Canada Reads 2014 and that he becomes what he deserves to be: a Classic Canadian author.