Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding series! BAD editing!, Oct 18 2003
This review is from: Moreau Omnibus (Mass Market Paperback)
This is truly an imaginative series: 50+ years from now, genetic engineering has produced a multitude of 'moreaus' - human animal hybrids created for use as soldiers and assassins. But the nations which originally created them (mainly India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and the Latin American countries) have either lost control of their creations or have ceased to exist as coherent nations, allowing the moreaus to disperse all over the globe, most notably to the USA, where the stories in this trilogy take place. I won't go into too much descriptive detail about the plots of the three novels exept to say that they are a true homage to the 'hard-boiled' detective novel. Very 'noir'ish, very suspenseful, very good characterization (which does not attempt to overly 'humanize' the non-human moreaus, but makes them a truly new life-form). One gripe though: The omnibus edition contains perhaps the most editing and typographical errors I have ever seen in a book in my entire life. They're just horrible - flipping open to a random page, I can spot at least 4 misspelled words or phrases, punctuation errors, or 'word repeats'. The mistakes are so bad and so jarring that they can actually take you out of the story, ruining the atmosphere. But if you can ignore it, :) these books are highly recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stuff, Aug 12 2003
This review is from: Moreau Omnibus (Mass Market Paperback)
I am a fan of nonhuman fantasy. Swann's world is vivid and diffrent. The charaters are not human and have to cope with that in ways that are acceptable to them. He does not crunch his charaters down into strange shaped humans, and I love that. The fiction does not touch fantasy, but stays a solid science fiction story placed in the neat future. The story itself is detaield and vivid. He has acceptable science, and he does not dive into areas that he can not explain. The past is explained clearly throughout the stories. The second book/story 'Emperors of the Twilight' is a bit fast paced and wild at the start, but it ties in neatly later, allowing forgiveness for the first few chapters. Each of these stories is tightly linked. Swann does not fear hurting his charaters or making things painful for them. I fully plan to buy the fourth book to complete this series. My only pet peeve is the dates, but as that it can be seen to be an alternate world, it is only a small irritant.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding series! BAD editing!, Oct 18 2003
By J. R Weaver "A simple man." - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Moreau Omnibus (Mass Market Paperback)
This is truly an imaginative series: 50+ years from now, genetic engineering has produced a multitude of 'moreaus' - human animal hybrids created for use as soldiers and assassins. But the nations which originally created them (mainly India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and the Latin American countries) have either lost control of their creations or have ceased to exist as coherent nations, allowing the moreaus to disperse all over the globe, most notably to the USA, where the stories in this trilogy take place. I won't go into too much descriptive detail about the plots of the three novels exept to say that they are a true homage to the 'hard-boiled' detective novel. Very 'noir'ish, very suspenseful, very good characterization (which does not attempt to overly 'humanize' the non-human moreaus, but makes them a truly new life-form). One gripe though: The omnibus edition contains perhaps the most editing and typographical errors I have ever seen in a book in my entire life. They're just horrible - flipping open to a random page, I can spot at least 4 misspelled words or phrases, punctuation errors, or 'word repeats'. The mistakes are so bad and so jarring that they can actually take you out of the story, ruining the atmosphere. But if you can ignore it, :) these books are highly recommended.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stuff, Aug 12 2003
By M. S. Holmes - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Moreau Omnibus (Mass Market Paperback)
I am a fan of nonhuman fantasy. Swann's world is vivid and diffrent. The charaters are not human and have to cope with that in ways that are acceptable to them. He does not crunch his charaters down into strange shaped humans, and I love that. The fiction does not touch fantasy, but stays a solid science fiction story placed in the neat future. The story itself is detaield and vivid. He has acceptable science, and he does not dive into areas that he can not explain. The past is explained clearly throughout the stories. The second book/story 'Emperors of the Twilight' is a bit fast paced and wild at the start, but it ties in neatly later, allowing forgiveness for the first few chapters. Each of these stories is tightly linked. Swann does not fear hurting his charaters or making things painful for them. I fully plan to buy the fourth book to complete this series. My only pet peeve is the dates, but as that it can be seen to be an alternate world, it is only a small irritant.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Page Turner Plots, Good Characters, Poor Science, Terrible Editing, April 10 2011
By mobiusklien "mobiusklien" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Moreau Omnibus (Mass Market Paperback)
No doubt that the three books of this series kept yo on the edge of the seat. Time just flew by Forests of the Night and Emperors of Twilight. Nohar the protagonist of the Forests of the Night was someone you can feel for. Unfortunately the editing was really bad (I am talking about misspelling of words that altered the meaning of the sentence at key points). the editing was awful for all three stories.
Other things that could have been better:
1- The real movers and shakers behind all of the troubles on earth and all of the horrible wars, could have been very different. I felt it was an easy way out. There is plenty of fodder for other types of evil doers that can be legitimately ripped from today's headlines.
2- The author bothered to create a detailed time line that was way too ambitious which created credibility gaps. He should have moved the timeline out a few hundred years
nonetheless the read was engaging
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