The Divided

Rating:
Summary: Not my style
Review: I find this book to be a somewhat interesting read, but not in the particular style that I happen to enjoy.

Like many of the other reviewers, I find the prose a bit too purple for my taste.

The story itself is fairly interesting, and the world is sufficiently interesting to be worth understanding, without being so different as to be incomprehensible. This is a fairly rare gifts, where alien cultures are too alien.

The ending of the story itself does leave a lot to the imagination, but I don't think this is a bad thing as such. The contrast between the two parts is remarkable, and shows a fair amount of talent to be able to make the transition from a story of a warrior to the spiritual journey that is the second part.

Overall, well worth reading, should the prose be something you can deal with.

Rating:
Summary: Arab-Israeli conflict
Review: It's hard not to see the Arab-Israeli conflict in this novel of two people at war. The parallels are too strong. I'm sure the author used it as a basis for the plot, characters and background. I agree with another review that the author loves to use flowery adjectives and prose that at times gets in the way of the narrative. At times I was thinking, 'Just get on with it.' But after a couple of chapters, I got used to the style and just got into the flow of the novel. The book has a weak ending, with an ambiguous resolution, but I liked the author's style, it was different. I have to say though, I don't think I'll read another by this author. I like a little more substance behind all the artful use of language.

Rating:
Summary: This book was an outstanding acomplishment
Review: The book was great. I was easily drawn within the first few pages. In this book action speaks louder than words. There is always something happen to keep my interest afloat. Sekme the main character was a no hold bars female character who can hold her own. When I read this book I sensed that Katie Waitman must have gotten her ideas and influence from the middle-east. The sun, desert, bloodshed and a never-ending war I thought would be a little redundant like other sci-fi military fiction but the way Ms. Waiteman carry the story into the unknown was outstanding. This book wasn't predictable at all and Katie Waitman is a wonderful story teller.

Rating:
Summary: A long story of how people suddenly get sick of war
Review: The Maurkheti and the Tel-Mari have been at war as long as anyone remembers, with the mysterious, aloof notion of "peace" only hinted at in ancient chronicles. The war continues for no perceptible reason short of religious zeal and the fact that cheap Tel-Mari labor profits the industrial nation of Maurkhet. But decadence and a tradition of bloodshed is fertile ground for seeds of radical change that is about to take on unheard-of forms...

Here we find a work of scifantasy that is innocuous and straightforward, whose characters rarely speak out more than two or three at a time, always speak as equals, say what they are expected to say, and ALWAYS keep an open mind. It is no wonder that the human interactions in the permanently wartorn world of "The Divided" seem artificial, contrived, and rather predictable. Nevertheless, the prose is quick-moving and descriptive. The book maintains readability throughout and consistently captures the reader's attention, if not imagination or some other faculty. Ms. Waitman clearly has yet to discover a great deal of her considerable literary talent.

In all honesty, this is the only work of fiction where you likely to find passages like "Excuse me, Captain, but I suddenly have a terrible headache and must lie down". As you might have realized, the speaker of this line is the Emperor of a nation of zealots. To all appearances, he has no guards save one, his palace, though it is a titanic gold-sheathed dome on the outside, appears to be a simplified royal hovel, and one needs to follow no specific rules of conduct when addressing him. Character development is frequently as light and unrealistic. Even the ending, despite its vibrant messages of peace and reconciliation, answers few questions and is antithetical to the novel's apparent premise. The jo are never adequately explained, masses of war-tired soldiers break down all too quickly, and the line between good and evil is too sharply drawn and obvious. This is hardly a worthwhile pick from a sea of good literature.

Rating:
Summary: A long story of how people suddenly get sick of war
Review: The Maurkheti and the Tel-Mari have been at war as long as anyone remembers, with the mysterious, aloof notion of "peace" only hinted at in ancient chronicles. The war continues for no perceptible reason short of religious zeal and the fact that cheap Tel-Mari labor profits the industrial nation of Maurkhet. But decadence and a tradition of bloodshed is fertile ground for seeds of radical change that is about to take on unheard-of forms...

Here we find a work of scifantasy that is innocuous and straightforward, whose characters rarely speak out more than two or three at a time, always speak as equals, say what they are expected to say, and ALWAYS keep an open mind. It is no wonder that the human interactions in the permanently wartorn world of "The Divided" seem artificial, contrived, and rather predictable. Nevertheless, the prose is quick-moving and descriptive. The book maintains readability throughout and consistently captures the reader's attention, if not imagination or some other faculty. Ms. Waitman clearly has yet to discover a great deal of her considerable literary talent.

In all honesty, this is the only work of fiction where you likely to find passages like "Excuse me, Captain, but I suddenly have a terrible headache and must lie down". As you might have realized, the speaker of this line is the Emperor of a nation of zealots. To all appearances, he has no guards save one, his palace, though it is a titanic gold-sheathed dome on the outside, appears to be a simplified royal hovel, and one needs to follow no specific rules of conduct when addressing him. Character development is frequently as light and unrealistic. Even the ending, despite its vibrant messages of peace and reconciliation, answers few questions and is antithetical to the novel's apparent premise. The jo are never adequately explained, masses of war-tired soldiers break down all too quickly, and the line between good and evil is too sharply drawn and obvious. This is hardly a worthwhile pick from a sea of good literature.