We have a thread for movie reviews why not one for book reviews now?

The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore: Forgotten Realms Series - 3/5

I read this trilogy on the reccomendation of a friend who is in love with the main character.

First let's start with the good things about this story: it's unique in terms of it's setting in the underdark (underground home of the drow and other creatures) and the author is very good at making the reader familiar with this new setting, and the ways of its people. Character development was done very well. You get to see into each of the characters, their motives, their personalities quite well. The main focus of this book is the developing character of the protagonist, Drizzt Do'Urden and his soul searching journey being different to all the other drow in terms of having a conscience. I did like the character of the astral panther though.

This brings me to the less appealing aspects of the story: Firstly, the whole idea is too rigid. The drow population seems to be wholly evil and drizzt, is one lone drow who is wholly good and moral and is disgusted with his counterparts. It's just not dynamic enough for me. Secondly, it got boring in parts. Namely, the bit where he exiles himself to live alone in the wilds of the underdark. The main thing that annoyed me about his character is that he is just too emotional, he cries a lot. It's really not befitting of a man and is just very sissy. And come on, not killing any living creature except for monsters? Even though said people can be annoying and "evil"? If it does happen he just cries! Every damn time! I don't think things should be so rigid. Most of all, the story didn't grip me like the Dragonlance series did. None of the characters portrayed so far have even remotely engaged my sympathy and heart strings as some of the characters in other books i have read.

I gave it a 3 because it was well written and the plot was ok.

Final verdict: Strictly ok, not as good as it's cracked up to be

Well since many of us like to read I figured I'd give this topic a bump by reviewing The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks...incidentally this is the same review I posted on amazon.com but too lazy to type a new review

So the Sword of Shannara: 3/5 stars

This is the first Terry Brooks/Shannara book that I have read and I would say the book is strictly ok. I did not really find the first half engrossing and agree with a lot of people that have mention the similarities to LOTR. The similarities are very distracting if you know about the LOTR plot. Also, one other important minus point is that sometimes I found myself skipping ahead a paragraph or so, to just not read the long description of scenery to get to the point where something actually happens. I hardly ever do that if I really like a book/think it's excellent. Basically I had moments when I was thinking "get on with it already".

In terms of plus points, despite the above I found that the book does get better. I did get engrossed in the plot later on and wanted to find out about whether Shea was successful and when he wound finally find the Sword. I liked the sections with the two thieves and how the rock troll was more intelligent than he seemed.

As for characters, Allanon is irritating and I only found him tolerable when his character seemed more human as opposed to just being easily angered and not that nice. Some of the characters did seem to be useless/one-dimensional. Durin and Dayel, the two elves were useless. Hendel was not focused on as much as Balinor and Menion. I would have liked more character development there. The inclusion of the two elves especially seemed forced. Menion and the Valemen were likeable. I did not like Shirl who I thought was a very cliche portrayal of a female character.

Overall, I don't give a 1 or 2 star rating because I don't think the book is terrible. It gets better and I got more engrossed in the story as it went along, although moreso in the 2nd half. The book also did make me want to read the 2nd book and carry on with the series, which I will. So overall, I say this book is standard fare but can still draw your interest nonetheless.

Not sure if this extends to manga, but I had to post up this one, cause it's absolutely one of my faves of all time.

The manga is called M.a.r.s. The description being an epic romance that spans 15 volumes. I give this a 4/5.

For this manga, it wasn't so much just the story line, but the very depth they seemed to give these particular characters. How their lives and love seemed to collide and then expand in an ever widening degree of encompassing ones life.

I've been a fan for a while, and I like the way they can incorporate the excitement of a motorcycle race into certain volumes, till you can almost hear yourself cheering him on. I give it a 4 only as I wasn't fond of the whole folks suicide almost every three volumes, but it did tie in enough that in the end I still loved the manga.

Below if anyone wants to take a gander, instead of buying the whole series not sure if you'll like it, there's a site below that I was able to find it all. It's an old manga, but I'm still convinced a good one

http://www.mangafox.com/page/manga/series/93/mars/