Reviews of Shatter (The Children of Man, #1)

(no rating)
Wonderfully written andgives the reader a clear view of each character introduced. Plot is masterfully laid out and gives the reader something he or she wants in the book.

A great book with an intricate plot full of mystery and conspiracies and a magic structure that doesn't rely on previously written fantasy. There are so many characters that it's hard to remember them at first, but Elizabeth Mock does a great job of returning to them to solidify them in the reader's mind. Each character is unique, so even if you can't recall their names when asked you remember their faces and their personalities. (Of course, I'm terrible at remembering names anyway, so I'm not one to judge) One thing that I would fix is the use of commas. If you're a stickler for grammar and punctuation rules, this will bug you worse than a hornet's nest. However, it's a minor detractor to the book--one that could be easily fixed with the handy help of a friend with a red pen. That said, I've read punctuation-perfect books that were far inferior to this fine example of storytelling.

This book started great - fun whimsical creatures set in a middle-ages era kingdom. However, as it progressed we get introduced into more and more side stories. Somewhere about 2/3 through, i encountered a scene with about 14 individual characters intersecting and i just gave up - too many "lead" characters. For space-opera / fantasy people who like many characters, this is a great book - if you are more the type that involve a cast of less than 8, maybe you should avoid. The writing was fine - it was the number of threads i couldn't take.

A fantastic good book. A better fantasy book.

Good versus evil. Heroes and Villains. A fantasy world. Check, check, and check! Great fun read.

I love this book.

Beautiful descriptions.

I like the use of colors of light as symbols.

I usually have trouble remembering names of secondary characters, but this narrative keep me from forgetting all the characters. The way they are introduce, and then get back to them with more details, makes you familiar with all of them. I like the complexity of the characters, not entirely good or bad.

I really enjoy reading this book.

Just finished this book and can't wait for the next one!

I absolutely loved this book. I did find it hard to remember all the different characters at first (as another reviewer also wrote), but once I knew them, they were old friends. I am anxiously awaiting tne release of the next book, Render.

Very good book. I wish I could give it a 4.5/5 but since we can't do half stars I'll round up. My only piece of constructive criticism I would have is that in the beginning it felt a little like I was meeting people very fast and there was not much to distinguish them from one another in my mind leading to it being hard at first for me to remember who it was that said or did what.

The other reason that I'll give it a five and round up is because there is always a chance that it was my fault and I was just a little more distracted than normal that day, which wouldn't surprise me.

All that being said, this is a very good book. I think that it had a great ending, very strong. I definitely plan to move onto the rest of the series eventually. Keep writing, we'll keep reading!

Great book!