first, a proper synopsis since mine won't cut it this time

The city is winched along tracks through a devastated land full of hostile tribes. Rails must be freshly laid ahead of the city and carefully removed in its wake. Rivers and mountains present nearly insurmountable challenges to the ingenuity of the city’s engineers. But if the city does not move, it will fall farther and farther behind the “optimum” into the crushing gravitational field that has transformed life on Earth. The only alternative to progress is death.

The secret directorate that governs the city makes sure that its inhabitants know nothing of this. Raised in common in crèches, nurtured on synthetic food, prevented above all from venturing outside the closed circuit of the city, they are carefully sheltered from the dire necessities that have come to define human existence. And yet the city is in crisis. The people are growing restive, the population is dwindling, and the rulers know that, for all their efforts, slowly but surely the city is slipping ever farther behind the optimum.

• I discovered this while voting for [The Verge Book Club December 2012 selection][1] which was almost a year ago. It lost in the polls, but I found the premise to be interesting even though these types of far out sci-fi/fantasy are not my thing. I added it to my reading list and now here I am, almost a year later.

• I liked the pace of book, but I found the characters to be uninteresting. Further on in the book, the perspective changes to a female protagonist which I liked better. She seemed more interesting at that point. Unfortunalty, the perspective change only happens about 3/4ths of the way in.

• when the cause of the perception distortion is explained, I found the explanation to be lackluster. I can suspend disbeleif up to a certain point. The holes in the physics explanation are so big that you can drive a city through them (pun intended)

• the guild system and how the children get drafted into the system is interesting, but the overall narrative is boring

• the way people who live in the city measure time by distance travelled was unique. I liked that

• there is a subtle social narrative of how you shouldn't do this or that which I guess was supposed to make the reader question those feelings and reflect on them. Let's just say that didn't occur for me because I wasn't attached to the characters.

• the book was just meh. Nothing special, not sure why this is considered a classic

I like the premise of the book

the story takes place in a ruined and toxic landscape where a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a mysterious and controlling civilization that is full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.

and this is actually series of five short books that make up a standard series

I find stories that are based underground fascinating

the setting of the book reminds me of Metro 2033 games. The images that I construct in my head resemble a dark and dreary silo that is inhabited by people who beleive they are one of the last people in the world.

fans of Dystopia will like this book

Good character and plot development that move along at a good pace. You won't get bored.

I look forward to reading the next books in the series called Shift, which is actually a prequel. Based on a quick scan of the reviews, it gets even better.

Hugh Howey is now among my "to watch" authors which means I will most likely check out and read most of his other books

I won't be surprised if this turns into a movie one day

I don't want to say anything else besides that you should probably read this.

I like the premise of the book

blind girl gets implant from Japanese researcher in hopes of curing her blindness

she gets to see the internet as a unexpected side-effect

I'm not satisfied with the explanation of how she gained her web sight abilities

book has educational bits of knowledge scattered everywhere, and I like it

good character development. Characters are three dimensional making you feel for them

the story provokes you to think about human pattern recognition and perception

there are three seperate plot lines that are opened up and you can tell they will eventually meet in books two and three

its about time I read a book where the science and the future are plausible and not far out

I am looking forward to reading the next two book in this trilogy

Update: May 29th, 2012. I read the whole trilogy but I forgot to review them in a timely fashion and therefore there will be no reviews of the second and third books. They are very good reads for sci-fi fans. If you read the first book and enjoyed it, I think you will enjoy the series, especially the third book. I must say, the end was quite good and memorable.

The stories are interesting

I love the Halo series BTW

The Halo Novels and universe is so large yet so interesting and with the mixing plot lines going on at different times (if you know what I mean)

Some stories are better than others

most stories are pretty good despite having different authors

A couple of stories I found unintresting

I wish there were more!

The story is interesting

I personally found the Navy SEAL training part also interesting. Though i'm sure others won't like it too much

When he was describing his training experiences, I was surprised how often he used the skills he learned from selection, let alone training. When you go through selection, the trainers are trying to put you through hell not simply for entertainment and testing purposes, but because you will need all that endurance, skill and determination in combat.

You can tell this guy is politcally conservative (bashing the liberal media here and there, but I don't blame him)

though, I still thinks he exagerates a few things about the media, but in large part, I agree with him

Lutrell is full of himself. But who wouldn't be? He is a damn SEAL, the best of the best (or so they say...)

easy read. I read it in two sittings

he is not the best writer. He skips around and you lose track of what he talking about until he continues on (or maybe its just me)

while he is describing their (the SEAL teams advance), it gives an idea of how rough Afghani terrain really is.

May the fallen heroes of Operation Redwing and their downed rescue team RIP.

like I said, writing isn't the best

This is the third book in the Camel Club series

FYI, I read the other two Camel Club books before this one a long time ago. You probably wont find the review here.

Baldacci is a good writer

I love these types of action

thriller

drama books

I like how it continues from the events of The Collectors, the second book in the series

I was shocked when Milton died. I never saw that coming.

I must say this is the best one in the series so far. But I didn't read the other two yet. Ill get to those pretty soon.

most thriller writers often stretch thing to the point where thing become unbelievable. Baldacci limits that in this book. Almost everything that happens is believable.

So I actually discovered this book while browsing the books section at Costco. I read a few pages and laughed. I promptly put the book down and made a mental note to read it later so that I don't look like a crazy person in public

Grumpy old man says the funniest shit

the guy uses expletives alot. Not for people who are allergic to humor and laughter

there are a few stories where the dad shows his softer side, so he doesn't seem like a complete asshole.

warning: lots of crude humor

easy to read. I read it in about two hours

this is a story of a guy who gives his account of how shit the fan @ Lehman Bros leading up to the the economic crisis

don't expect an economics lesson, it tells the personal story of Lawrence G. McDonald and how he got into Lehman and what happened while he was there. From what I read elsewhere, McDonald was a pretty junior level employee, and he had limited exposure to a lot of the leadership.

Book lacks a big picture view of why Lehman went down, but it does offer insights of people the author was directly working with and what went down in his eyes.

The first part of the book is irrelevant to what was wrong with Lehman. He talks about himself and how he got himself to Lehman Bros.

book was damn interesting. I always had a vague idea of how Wall Street firms worked, but this book really shed some light for me.

it's interesting that many (smart) people knew that real estate bubble was bound to burst

as back as 2004/2005

the story emphasized that the leadership was a key factor that led to the demise of Lehman Bros.

in fact, the corporate leaders had their heads stuck so far up their own asses they couldn't see the bubble was about to burst when it was glaringly obvious to anyone who can add 1+1.

not only were they oblivious to financial Armageddon, they made the situation worse by going on shopping sprees which pretty much guaranteed that Lehman could not be saved.

I can't shake the feeling that the author is whitewashing some of the actions of his colleagues.

the book doesn't suggest this, but I have a feeling this was orchestrated somehow. The amount of incompetence and stupidity required to let things get this bad (inside Lehman) is hard to believe.

its worth a read for anyone who is interested in finance or the economic collapse in general

please note, I have absolutely no experience or detailed knowledge of how Wall Street works.

Now get this, the premise of the book is very cool

The western powers (read, the U.S) needs oil and they have almost run out of their own supplies

The solution? Steal someone else's oil of course! So they make these "sub-tugs" which pretty much are super miniaturized submarine oil platforms which gets oil from the well under water, without the need to surface.

they essentially steal oil from the eastern powers (soviets)

Problem is, the Soviets are onto their game. They have successfully sabotaged 20/20 sub-tugs. Sub crews are also highly prone to suicide and crazyness

Navy psych sent under-cover to investigate

result? thrilling story of how Navy psych calculates his moves and interacts with the sub crew while trying to find out who is the saboteur

I was really surprised of how fitting and relevant the plot is compared to today, considering the fact the the book was written during in the 1950's during the Cold War

downsides; some parts are boring. Herbert spends to much going into detail of how some of the sub works (knobs, levers, etc)

no fear! The story picks up again pretty quickly

interesting mix of psychology, religion, drama, thriller and mystery

I liked it

I like space based sci-fi stories, that are based in some future reality

good action

somewhat predictable because the author gives you hints about what is going to happen next

good mix of action, drama and character development

I don't get why she didn't die. Maybe I missed or forgot something?

Anthony Beevor is a talented writer, the book is easy to read yet dense and very informative (in a good way).

Each page is dripping with information describing the battlefields from a lone soldier's point of view and from the point of view of a commander

The book gives you are real sense of the brutality of war, especially from the Russians

You don't need to be a historian to understand what is going on, Beevor explains the situations and circumstances very well

Never knew Stalin and Hitler were paranoid to the extent described in the book, especially Hitler

This book should be used in schools to highlight the desperation and reality of war. It should be mandatory reading in WWII history.

So I decided to read this after hearing a lot of people say that this book was really good. I am a fan of apocalyptic stories so what can I not like?

Wait, I actually listened to the audiobook version, I didn't "read" it

Anyway, I thought the book wasn't as good as everyone made it sound

It's not so much the writing as it is the content, the book is pretty boring

Father and son go do this, walk there, scavenge here, sleep upstairs. There are about two or three events in the book that were suspenseful and exciting

In those two or three events where everything got interesting, I couldn't stop listening (remember, I listened to the audiobook)

those parts were really good, but otherwise the book was boring

The descriptive writing was actually pretty good

but I don't see why this is particularly good compared to other post-apocalyptic stories