Rating: 
Summary: Star Wars story without depth, consistancy, or sense.
Review: What could have been an epic story is turned into a frightfully jumbled mixture of shallow characters, ideals, and pet expressions. The author's writing style relied too heavily on repetitive similes and character comic interaction that easily added 50+ pages to the book (I don't need to be reminded endlessly that the energy crystals need two minutes to recharge or read the same pun over and over). There didn't seem to be any reason behind the plot. It jumped around, twisted and turned, and left this reader suffering from post-plot-traumatic-stress-syndrome. Maybe I'm picky, but I prefer a plot with a purposeful direction and characters with consistent personalities. With better editing and character construction, this story would have been great instead of just okay.
Rating: 
Summary: Great world could have been so much more.
Review: As I read the first half of this book, I was facinated by the world that Simon R. Green had created. On style I would rate this first book in this series a five. It manages to combine A Romanesque emipire and mix it with 16th century Europe, and adds in in modern punk culture. Amazingly he makes this work somehow. On the surface the characters are just really neat. This alone carries the series through the first two books. Unfortuantly the storyline lets the rest of the series down. The more I read this book the more it became clear that there were no real characters just a bunch of odd fighting machines that seemed to choose sides almost at random. But even with this the world kept me enthralled enough that I managed to read through the third book. The only reason I couldn't read on was because the characters just simply became too strong. By the second bood six people are attacking armies and winning without breaking a sweat. Too bad, this had the makings of a trully great pulp action sereis.
Rating:
Summary: A mangled space opera
Review: Green attempts a classic space opera with in Deathstalker. He started with a clean idea (historian forced to be a hero), but rapidly cluttered the theme with the rapid-fire introduction of new invincible killing machines. He snatches technological solutions to support the plot, then ignores the obvious implications when it's not convenient. All of which I could forgive if I really believed in his characters. The fatal flaw of this book is that he never let the characters react like real people. I was left with the feeling that the hero's motivation swayed, not from indecision or some human frailty, but from the author's simple inability to keep his story straight. It's a quick read, but I was disappointed with this book. I will not be continuing the series.
Rating: 
Summary: A great and gory space opera
Review: Having cut my teeth as an adolescent on E.E. Doc Smith's space operas, I still have a sweet tooth for the guilty pleasures of space opera. And this one's a doozy. Owen Deathstalker is a historian forced to become a hero; once the world falls apart for him, the action never stops. Filled with an astonishing blend of every cliche you've ever heard of in science fiction (rogue AIs, espers, aliens, gladiators, an evil empress, corrupt lords, and genetic engineering, just to name a few), the novel keeps moving like there's no tomorrow. I got down in the mud and had a good wallow with this one. My only caveat about the novel is that the dialogue tends to be somewhat jarringly reminiscent of half-remembered lines from Hollywood movies at times, with sayings better suited to the 1990s coming out as if they were newly minted. Fortunately, Green's use of these sayings declines in his sequels, which are actually even better than the first one.
Rating: 
Summary: Explosive beginning to an explosive series
Review: I first saw a review for the final book in this series and decided to start reading the series from the beginning. I was hooked after the first chapter. It was gritty and bloody. Just the way I like a book to be. Simon Green creates good guys that you keep rooting for and bad guys you will love to hate. Keeps entertaining until the end.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Book!
Review: This book is a great read. It has very well developed characters that you can watch grow through-out the series. In this book the characters are described so vividly that it takes sometimes maybe a whole chapter on one character. This book also has very good details on the state of the characters. For example if they were feeling down, Green would take whole paragraphs to say what you could say in two words.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful series...
Review: I loved reading this book as well as the four that follow it. Be warned, though, that once you have read the first book, you will want to follow through to at least the third book. The author repeats certain phrases multiple times but once you get used to hearing, "a death-head's grin" or "their minds slammed together, becoming a whole far greater than the sum of it's parts" often, you'll love the book.
Rating:
Summary: Explosive 1st book in a series of banal drudgery
Review: The 1st book in the life of Owen Deathstalker is a roller coaster ride of a read. Once you pick up this blockbuster of a space opera, it will be hard to put down. Greene does an excellent job of stringing together non-stop action with unusal characters, technology, and intriguing villians. Downfall to this book are the sequels, which fail to hold much attention as the 1st book.
Rating:
Summary: Light Reading
Review: A fast-paced space opera with a lot of action and little character development. He decribes his high-tech world well enough. And swords are a welcome respite from blasting laser guns. I would recommend this book as something to read while you wait for the next book of your favourite epic. I did not buy a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to stop reading!
Review: The book rocks! The cast of characters is very colorful and none are the usual typecast heroes/villians. Heroes have their own lives and villians are not the obvious pure evil type. There are some who walk the line in between. Green's ability depict a universe in the far flung future is astonishing. The locales are vividly described, from the Imperial throne room to the Wolfling World, an isolated planet where there is no sunlight. There is also humor as well as suspense, LOTS of action, and even the challenges of the heart and of honor. Good stuff, man... no wonder it made me read the other three books as well!
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