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Grey: The Balance: Book One (2000)

by Nick Shamhart(Favorite Author)

4.57 of 5 Votes: 5

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English

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review 1: My Review So Far (~70% into the book):Once again, I am a Goodreads oddball. While most folks here have found this book worthy of 5 stars, I do not. Not only that, when I read the other reviews, I find that the very things that they loved so much, I find annoying.First the humor. In review after review, I find glowing comments on the humor. I, on the other hand, find the book's "attempts" at humor to be forced. The similarity here is to all those generic cop movies which so often have the playful banter going back and forth between the good guy and the bad guy, even during a life or death fight. Usually the good guy is some scruffy, rogue character, not a moral giant by conventional standards, but a good guy where it really matters, and so cool & hip that he can converse an... mored make clever wisecracks even while fighting. I don't find this type of banter funny usually though, nor do I think it's very hip. In fact, it is such an over-used bit nowadays that to me it just feels really fake, and kind of corny. Now, to be fair, this is admittedly a pet peeve of mine, so perhaps I am being a bit too harsh. But the bottom line is this: In spite of my annoyance at the comedic plot device, all would be forgiven if the comedy was, you know, funny. Well, although there are lots of witty lines in this book, not one time, not at any moment during reading it, have I been tempted to actually laugh. Enough said about that.The other favorite of most reviewers are the little monologues that we get from the lead character at the beginning of each chapter. These are intended to provide some further back story I guess, in addition to offering some general philosophy from this guy, thus flushing out his characterization a bit more. On occasion they are somewhat interesting, but more often they are not. I find myself just trying to get through them and onto the real story. Lately, I have resorted to just skimming through them mostly, and that says it all.More later...
review 2: This was an amazing first book in a series. Typically the first book sets the stage and the rules and you muddle through it because your friends said it was good and that it gets better in the later books. But "Grey" was great from the start. Shamhart gives you the rules of his Universe in a way that is never short of entertaining, with depth and humor unlike any genre fiction I have read lately. You need to READ THIS SERIES! less

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