Books like Iron Dawn

Not bad for his first book. I'd rate this guy somewhere between two and three stars. The book kept my interest and had a lot of great stuff going for it: clever dialogue, plenty of action, and a compelling story without gaping plot holes. The characters did seem a tad bit flat--Stover makes some effort to round them out, but simply doesn't quite make them (or their troubles) compelling enough. Leucas in particular didn't really show any personality beyond the basic warrior archetype. Kheperu had a little bit going for him but didn't quite manage to be three-dimensional. Barra only managed a semblance of personality because of the sceon-tif (or whatever it was called) made her. And these guys need more motivation than following Barra around because she's one tough chick.The bad guys were truly and horribly bad, despicably so, and I wish Stover would have made them at least a little bit more sympathetic. This is just a matter of taste, of course.Stover could do with a little less gore and violence. Rape and torture are facts of life, I suppose, but they don't have to be so in-your-face disgusting. I prefer a more subtle approach to horror. Less manipulative.The wolf as pet pretty much flopped. Anybody who knows anything about wolves and wolf hybrids will know that they aren't dogs and can't be domesticated in the same manner as dogs, no matter how young you get them...so a lot of the Graegduz stuff fell completely flat for me.