Rating: 
Summary: Could have used 200 more pages
Review: This book could have used 200 more pages, to give the author more chance to share the deeper feelings of the characters with us. Matthews other books allowed us into the soul of every character who even as much as passed through the scene. So I'm sure that in this case, it was probably some reason I can't imagine that the book appeared far too short, and left me feeling that with the extremely interesting moral dilemma she explored, there was a lot more she could have told us about.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun quick read with plenty to think about later
Review: This is way different from author's previous, and I liked both. This story goes down so quick and smooth that it wasn't till days later that I started really thinking about some of the ideas that it had raised in my mind that had been just sort of rattling around in my head since I read the book. Sure there was meat on its bones that I gulped down whole while I was reading it & digested later, but basically it's an easy read with an interesting plot.It's a deceptively simple story. The heroine goes through a lot of changes and the choice she has to make at the climax of the book was a real doozie -- a great payoff that really tied everything together. There's character-driven stories and there's plot-driven stories, and this one's both. I liked it. Give it a whirl!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad. Period.
Review: Ugh! I loved Susan Matthews' three previous novels, but Avalanche Soldier is hideously amateurish -- did she write it a long time ago, and only publish it now? The writing is choppy; the plot color-by-number; the emotions unconvincing; the religious backdrop derivative; the characters unengaging. I lost count of how many times the stupid heroine lost consciousness, and how many important plot points happened while she was unconscious. My disappointment was such that I tossed the book right in the wastebasket upon finishing -- and I only finished it as a result of nagging incredulity: how could this drivel be written by the same woman who'd written the wonderful Prisoner of Conscience, etc.? SHAME on the author and publisher for fobbing off genuine fans with this rubbish.
| 
