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1l2ns's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jimmehrabbit's review
2.0
With Fight and Flight, nothing really happened. It was a side story Meyer turned into a novel. Before reading this book, I browsed the reviews that said this story was similar, and that Meyer was slowly ruining the amazing world he created with the first 3 books. Based on that, I went into it with low expectations, and I got to say, until the end of the book, I couldn't wrap my mind around the bad reviews it got. Meyers establishes new rules to the universe, several characters are at risk and possible danger, it progresses the story logically, with a plot that actually takes an entire book to tell... But then, that ending. Can't avoid an honest review about this without spoilers, so heads up... It was the equivalent of "It was all a dream." Nothing that happened mattered, and the way things play out make no sense at all. Why does Meyers keep writing about characters who try to change the past, but are never able to? What I thought was the best part of this story, and what I found most intriguing was that, "Whoa... you can change the past? Brit the younger and Brit the elder ARE different?" But nope... 7 hours in, you find out that's not the case... AGAIN. And the explanation of it all is the most infuriating. Brit creates the problem the basically blames and punishes Phillip for it. The past is the way it is because instead of living genuinely, you have to out on an act in order to fulfill the past? Why doesn't Brit the elder TRY being nice to Brit the young and see what happens? Why does she HAVE to give a glitch to Phillip? Why does she have to invent the story that he cheated???? It's makes no sense... And the most bummer thing is if in fact, there was an error that was caused by the past being changed, this would have been the best book in the series. But here we are again... another wasted book that, in the end, DOESN'T progress the story and DOESN'T matter in the least. The book ends where it starts, and is literally a waste of time. Come on Scott... let's do better with Vexed Generation, yeah?
titleistmuffin's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
mnstucki's review
3.0
Definitely redeemed the series with this. Quite a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to the next book.
catharsis's review
2.0
So this probably technically better than Book 4 based on the first half, but I can't stomach to give it more than the same rating, a 2
ortal_reads's review
2.0
I wanted to love it but I couldn’t. Too much “if they could just finish their sentence we could avoid all of this” and the time travel and “I’m doing this because my future version” did it for ridiculous and tedious. Same thing over and over, seemed the catch all for everything. Also Phillip didn’t deserve what he got.
jfkaess's review
4.0
I really enjoy the entire Magic 2.0 series, though books 1 and 2 are the best, the rest are very enjoyable. And Luke Daniels hits a home run (as he always does) with his narration of the entire series. This is book 5, the last book in the series so far. The story is very heavy with time travel glitches, paradoxes, and problems to solve, and is a total blast to listen to. Very geeky and just a lot of fun.
ryanpfw's review
1.0
I am so furious with this book I can’t see straight.
Spoilers to follow.
Just to make this clear, I loved this series. I gave Fight and Flight four stars. Luke Daniels is an outstanding narrator, and the first 84% of this book hovered between 4-5 stars. It was well paced, not boring, kept my attention, and genuinely intrigued me.
Reviewing isn’t an exact science. Sometimes I adjust my rating as I read. If a book starts off low and rebounds, I try to split the difference. In hundreds of reviews this is only my third 1 star review. Even the book that snuck in a love affair between half brothers got 2 stars for writing style. I’m a fair reviewer. (Update: While I initially increased the rating to 2 stars, the offensiveness of this book has been nagging at me the last few weeks.)
The unforeseen complete drop-off into utter shit at the 84% mark extinguished any excitement for this series I had, and it was so complete that it wiped out all the wonderful things I loved about this book until that point. I mean it. I’ve been texting about this book for days and bothering all my friends. There was good stuff there. I couldn’t care less about any of it now. The ending. Any of it.
I was naggingly annoyed throughout the start of the book that the female characters would be condescending, rude, even cruel at times to the men and not face consequence for that. Men are just idiots and that’s the way it is, right? No thank you. Later in the book, two women even remark they women need a reason to fight, and men need a reason not to fight, as the sophisticated women sip on tea as the men embarrass themselves. I’m fucking sorry, but speaking as a feminist, a daughter’s father, and a lover of women, has this author ever hung out with a pack of women? Every person is their own individual, but women can be just as nasty as anyone else on the planet, in all senses of the word.
Brit was an interesting character concept. I’m not going to get into much depth on her journey and her complaints and the ramifications of what’s placed on her because she’s a horrible human being and I’m very sorry she wasn’t eviscerated from the program in this book, because now there’s no possibility of me reading another one. Philip was informed unless he did XY, and Z, the universe would end, he still fought it, it still cost Brit nothing, and the cruelty she showed him extended to defaming him across her entire timeline for something terrible he didn’t do, and everyone else just accepts this and treats her like their BFF? I’m surprised Brit was in the final scene of the book because there’s no reason any other character should ever speak to her, and certainly no reason Philip isn’t having a bonfire and torching all her stuff because the bitch is out of his life!
There was no plot-related reason why the cover story had to be what it was. It was unforgivable that it was spread to all of the other Brits without consent because the character was holding a grudge over having to work for years on a problem that was only a problem because she went against everybody and broke her own code! Twice! I cannot properly express how infuriating it was to see such a vile character be treated as perfectly acceptable beyond a couple of references to “why you gotta be so mean?”
The twenty minute fight scene, where we knew exactly how it would play out after ten seconds, was unnecessary padding that the book had been free of to that point. It’s a bad sign when even the characters called it unnecessary.
I’m so mad because I so loved this series and loved recommending it to people. I got my own wife to start it yesterday.
I’m in for it now.
Spoilers to follow.
Just to make this clear, I loved this series. I gave Fight and Flight four stars. Luke Daniels is an outstanding narrator, and the first 84% of this book hovered between 4-5 stars. It was well paced, not boring, kept my attention, and genuinely intrigued me.
Reviewing isn’t an exact science. Sometimes I adjust my rating as I read. If a book starts off low and rebounds, I try to split the difference. In hundreds of reviews this is only my third 1 star review. Even the book that snuck in a love affair between half brothers got 2 stars for writing style. I’m a fair reviewer. (Update: While I initially increased the rating to 2 stars, the offensiveness of this book has been nagging at me the last few weeks.)
The unforeseen complete drop-off into utter shit at the 84% mark extinguished any excitement for this series I had, and it was so complete that it wiped out all the wonderful things I loved about this book until that point. I mean it. I’ve been texting about this book for days and bothering all my friends. There was good stuff there. I couldn’t care less about any of it now. The ending. Any of it.
I was naggingly annoyed throughout the start of the book that the female characters would be condescending, rude, even cruel at times to the men and not face consequence for that. Men are just idiots and that’s the way it is, right? No thank you. Later in the book, two women even remark they women need a reason to fight, and men need a reason not to fight, as the sophisticated women sip on tea as the men embarrass themselves. I’m fucking sorry, but speaking as a feminist, a daughter’s father, and a lover of women, has this author ever hung out with a pack of women? Every person is their own individual, but women can be just as nasty as anyone else on the planet, in all senses of the word.
Brit was an interesting character concept. I’m not going to get into much depth on her journey and her complaints and the ramifications of what’s placed on her because she’s a horrible human being and I’m very sorry she wasn’t eviscerated from the program in this book, because now there’s no possibility of me reading another one. Philip was informed unless he did XY, and Z, the universe would end, he still fought it, it still cost Brit nothing, and the cruelty she showed him extended to defaming him across her entire timeline for something terrible he didn’t do, and everyone else just accepts this and treats her like their BFF? I’m surprised Brit was in the final scene of the book because there’s no reason any other character should ever speak to her, and certainly no reason Philip isn’t having a bonfire and torching all her stuff because the bitch is out of his life!
There was no plot-related reason why the cover story had to be what it was. It was unforgivable that it was spread to all of the other Brits without consent because the character was holding a grudge over having to work for years on a problem that was only a problem because she went against everybody and broke her own code! Twice! I cannot properly express how infuriating it was to see such a vile character be treated as perfectly acceptable beyond a couple of references to “why you gotta be so mean?”
The twenty minute fight scene, where we knew exactly how it would play out after ten seconds, was unnecessary padding that the book had been free of to that point. It’s a bad sign when even the characters called it unnecessary.
I’m so mad because I so loved this series and loved recommending it to people. I got my own wife to start it yesterday.
I’m in for it now.