Jordan WeismanRezensionen

Into the Shadows is series of short stories that help flesh out much of a future Seattle landscape that provides a partial backdrop for Shadowrun and many major players that occupy its decrepit streets and luxurious corridors. Each story follows a unique group as they are tasked with completing a task before them and how they deal with it when their caper inevitably goes wrong. The tone for each story varies per author giving them a unique flavor and viewpoint. As you dive deeper into the anthology you begin to realize that all these individual stories and the characters within are actually connected.

I thoroughly enjoyed these stories and loved how they worked together to tell pieces of the whole story. I didn't feel lost throughout though some of the more technical jargon I allowed to slip through the cracks. None of this diminished my understanding of what was going on. I do wish I could spend more time with the characters to fill them out a bit more, but all the authors did a tremendous job with the pages they had.

Teen fiction. The conclusion to the Cathy's Book trilogy, though certain activity on the various websites suggests there may be more stories forthcoming. I didn't look at the "evidence" that came along with this book, so perhaps I can't judge the full effect of the material, but this one was a lot less exciting than the first two installations.

Teen fiction. Though it dawdles on somewhat about the CoverGirl makeup line (they removed the brand name, but all the makeup talk is still in there), this is a suspenseful (and interactive) mystery that reluctant teens will love.

Teen fiction.

As a collection of odds and ends stories set in the Battletech universe, these were pretty good. A couple of the stories stood out while only about 2 fell flat. My problem, however, was the terrible editing. Perhaps it was just my copy but there were loads of grammatical and spelling errors and funky issues with sentence structure. If you are a hard core Battletech fan, check this one out, otherwise move along, nothing to see here.

Il segreto di Cathy (Cathy's Key) è un romanzo per ragazzi del 2008 scritto da Sean Stewart e Jordan Weisman ed edito in Italia nello stesso anno da Mondadori. È il secondo capitolo della trilogia composta da Il diario di Cathy come primo libro e L'anello di Cathy come terzo volume.

Ah, one of my all time favourite RPGs. It is in the second half of the 21st century. Magic has returned to the world, large sections of the population have mutated into new sub-species of humanity (which become named dwarves, elves, orcs, trolls, etc, for their resemblance to figures of myth), mega corporations hold more power than nations, a new information structure that replaced the World Wide Web allows true immersive cyber reality, nations have fractured and monsters can be found in the dark back alleys.

in concept, it always sounded to me very much like some old-fashioned, sword&sorcery, Tolkien fanatic Middle Earth Roleplaying gamers had the following conversation:


Larry: dud, did you read [b:Neuromancer|22328|Neuromancer (Sprawl Trilogy, #1)|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1285017005s/22328.jpg|909457] yet?

Curly: man, that was so awesome! and i'm just reading a book called [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275669886s/830.jpg|493634], where this hacker is REALLY a hacker because he's like awesome with a katana!

Moe: wow! that sound's awesome! i thought some more katanas would have made Neuromancer even better. you now what else would have made it truly awesome?

Larry and Curly: What man?

Moe: some like orcs and trolls and elves and wizards...

all: woooooooow


and, to be honest, the first edition was a bit like that, with a horribly clunky system, but by third edition not only had the system evolved into something more workable (and a few tweaks of my own improved further, like making dice rolls open-ended and allowing multiple successes) the authors had begun to use the ideas of fracturing society (and humanity) to point a mirror at some real-world issues. the most obvious is racism. when skin colour is no longer the most obvious physical attribute, and the blueprint of what is human has to be suddenly expanded to include shapes so far from the baseline this obviously causes problems (as [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg] once said "black and white live in perfect harmony - and gang up on green").

Three examples. One adventure involved the characters encountering the ghost of a young orc boy in a hospital and their investigations uncovering that a leading politician isn't who he had seemed. In the early days of 'goblinisation' (as the process 'mutation' was called) a wealthy couple swapped their suddenly deformed young son with an foundling, who grew up to be the politician. The city of San Fransisco is now a protectorate of Japan (in the desettlement that resulted in the break up of the USA Japan moved into to 'Frisco to protect Japanese interests and stayed) the changed human subtypes are not granted citizenship and are forced to live outside the city, crossing checkpoints early in the morning to work at menial jobs - a clear analogy to the Palestinian territories today. In earlier editions, the descriptions of the orc and troll subspecies (or meta humans, as they are called) described them as having a higher physical strength but low intelligence, and being largely nocturnal. In third edition, these sociological reports are referred to, but the question of whether the intelligence discrepancy is down to educational discrimination and the so-called nocturnalism down to not wanting to mix more than necessary with other people when you're treated like a mutant.

Throw in lots of action, gunplay, car chases, cyber crime, political shenanigan and gunplay (i know i mentioned it twice, the players like their big guns) and you have an entertaining, involved background in which to grow interesting characters and have some stonking adventures.

I bought this book because the art is amazing, but now that I begun reading it, the story is actually gripping! But the best thing about this book is the design art and the gifts. Every illustration is related to what Cathy is writing in her journal. And the gifts are all clues to solving what is the nature of Victor.

When you begin reading you just have to know everything that will happen. What is great about the book is that it is fast paced and you can finish it in one sitting, and it is very exciting. You just have to know what Victor and the paper man and Tsao are. That was a great first book, though Cathy and Victor are not your average heroes, they are not heroic, they are very flawed but very human.

At the end you see Emma telling Cathy at her 18th birthday that the police will come questioning her now that Victor and Lu have fled, Cathy asked her what should she do, Emma said print out all your diary with every single evidence you've collected and show them everything, otherwise they won't believe anything.

I think they won't buy it even with everything inside the diary, they might think it's a young girl's fantasy.

Anyway the war of the immortals has just begun, all in order to stop death and time.

Can't wait to read book 2: Cathy's Key!

The war of the immortals has just begun, all in order to stop death and time.

I bought this book because the art is amazing, but now that I begun reading it, the story is actually gripping! But the best thing about this book is the design art and the gifts. Every illustration is related to what Cathy is writing in her journal. And the gifts are all clues to solving what is the nature of Victor.

When you begin reading you just have to know everything that will happen. What is great about the book is that it is fast paced and you can finish it in one sitting, and it is very exciting. You just have to know what Victor and the paper man and Tsao are. That was a great first book, though Cathy and Victor are not your average heroes, they are not heroic, they are very flawed but very human.

At the end you see Emma telling Cathy at her 18th birthday that the police will come questioning her now that Victor and Lu have fled, Cathy asked her what should she do, Emma said print out all your diary with every single evidence you've collected and show them everything, otherwise they won't believe anything.

I think they won't buy it even with everything inside the diary, they might think it's a young girl's fantasy.

Anyway the war of the immortals has just begun, all in order to stop death and time.

Can't wait to read book 2: Cathy's Key!

The war of the immortals has just begun, all in order to stop death and time.

[Sunday, June 26, 2011] I bought this book because the art is amazing, but now that I begun reading it, the story is actually gripping! But the best thing about this book is the design art and the gifts. Every illustration is related to what Cathy is writing in her journal. And the gifts are all clues to solving what is the nature of Victor.

When you begin reading you just have to know everything that will happen. What is great about the book is that it is fast paced and you can finish it in one sitting, and it is very exciting. You just have to know what Victor and the paper man and Tsao are. That was a great first book, though Cathy and Victor are not your average heroes, they are not heroic, they are very flawed but very human.

At the end you see Emma telling Cathy at her 18th birthday that the police will come questioning her now that Victor and Lu have fled, Cathy asked her what should she do, Emma said print out all your diary with every single evidence you've collected and show them everything, otherwise they won't believe anything.

I think they won't buy it even with everything inside the diary, they might think it's a young girl's fantasy.

Anyway the war of the immortals has just begun, all in order to stop death and time.

Can't wait to read book 2: Cathy's Key!

Nadia and Thorne

These are my two least favorite couples in The Associates Series. True, they are far different that any of the other Associates and their lovers. I would give the romantic parts only 2 stars.

The plot/story on the other had was up there with Ms. Crane's other Associate books. 4 stars.

The concept of this book... calling numbers, investigating websites and utilizing the evidence packet enclosed, is fantastic. The story, the mystery, the characters and the writing were terrible. The best thing about this book was the artwork. I was impressed with the amount of effort that went into the little details surrounding the story. I just wish the writing had been even slightly close to the artworks level. I am hoping the concept of this book catches on and I hear about an author who can pull it off... and make it interesting.

Interesting format with a pocket of "evidence" in the front for readers to look through. BUT, the format made it hard to hold the book, and the "evidence" wasn't necessary to the plot's outcome. A fast read nonetheless.

17-year old Cathy's boyfriend Victor has just broken up with her. She tries to find him (there seems to be weird things going on with him), but runs into some trouble along the way.

This was written in a sort of diary form. The other thing with this book is that it is supposed to have an “evidence” bag that includes a bunch of extra things in it. I had a library book, and the evidence bag was ripped open and nothing was in it. I wonder if I would have liked the book more if I'd had the entire “experience” of it? I think – from what I've read – the extra stuff is supposed to make the book more interactive. Apparently there are websites to look at and things one can look up, etc.

The book was ok – the story, I mean. It sounded kind of interesting, but I think I wasn't crazy about the writing style or something. It didn't feel like it was actually written by a 17-year old girl – at least I didn't think it did. I did like the “look” of it, though. There were doodles, scribbles, and drawings as if it was an actual diary. It was ok, and there are other books in the series, but I don't think I liked it enough to want to continue.

Prepping for this ARG's sequel, Cathy's Key.

has lots of cool stuff to "find" in the book so you feel as if you are on the adventure with the characters

Book three of the series and it feels like the authors have written themselves into a corner. This one lacs the tension of the other two and there didn't seem to be the same degree of romantic tension either. I love the illustrations that really add to the story, this is almost a graphic novel, the illustrations add to what's going on in the story, telling you what the humour of the author is.

Not bad, preferred the first one.

suite de Cathy's book

Le père de Cathy est mort brutalement ; elle se retrouvent seule avec sa mère... De plus elle se fait plaquer par son petit ami Victor... C'est son journal intime qui est proposé. C'est aussi un nouveau concept de livre. En plus d'une lecture de qualité, de nombreuses pièces accompagnent le document, avec des liens internet et numéros de téléphone (réels), ainsi qu'un site internet très bien conçu...

Cathy finds out more about the immortals and about her boyfriend and also about her dad, while juggling trying to find a job and being impersonated by a girl she met on a bus.

It's not a bad sequel, the illustrations are a lot of fun as well.½

This is heavily illustrated and with an assortment of items inside the front cover which are some of the items that Cathy takes from Victor.

Cathy is dating an older man, little does she know how much older, but when he ditches her, she has to know more about him. She finds out that a lot of women associated with him have died, but the truth is stranger than she thought.

It's an interesting story but in some ways it just didn't flow for me, told in diary format with a lot of illustrations supposedly by Cathy it's different but I didn't feel like the story really flowed. While I'm interested to see where it's going I'm not really invested in the characters.½

Meglio del primo, c'è più ironia e più azione. Attendiamo il terzo...

Tutta la prima parte è abbastanza noiosa, poi la vicenda prende una piega insospettabile ed avvincente... Gli autori scrivono bene, si immedesimano nella perfetta psicologia di una diciassettenne quasi diciottenne, e la storia è molto stile Sherlock Holmes...