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Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railway Journeys

Chris Tarrant

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Book

Over the last two and a half years, Chris Tarrant has travelled, literally, all around the world...

Rainforest Tourism, Conservation and Management: Challenges for Sustainable Development

Bruce Prideaux

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Globally rainforests are under threat on numerous fronts, including clearing for agriculture,...

After the Final Whistle: The First Rugby World Cup and the First World War

Stephen Cooper and Jason Leonard

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When Britain's empire went to war in August 1914, rugby players were the fi rst to volunteer: they...

Joe Goodhart (27 KP) rated Who Fears Death in Books

Nov 30, 2020

Who Fears Death

Nnedi Okorafor | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry

4.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I liked Nnedi Okorafor's work on Marvel's SHURI, plus her themes fit in with some of the recent "LeVar Burton Reads" podcasts that I have enjoyed. Needless to say, I thought I would give this a shot, as it comes with numerous positive reviews.

While I enjoyed the world-building and the characters presented, I began to lose some interest about 45% into the book. I felt Onyesonwu's set-up, and subsequent chapters leading to where I stopped, felt like a car ride: I enjoyed the view, I enjoyed the companions on the ride, but I wanted to be at the destination already.

I think Ms. Okorafor is very talented. Her depiction of Africa felt like I was truly there, as if I could feel it. The backstory of the rape and genocide, clearly taken from what was barely a blip on the radar of American news broadcasts, was eye-opening, it helped to illustrate what it must have been like. For these two aspects of the book, I was quite impressed.

Unfortunately, the journey began to feel too long, and I had to "pull the car over". I may revisit it at a later date, but for now, I must take my leave it.

That said, I will give other works by Ms. Okorafor a try for sure.

Kudos

Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated The Scorpion King (2002) in Movies

Aug 24, 2019

The Scorpion King (2002)

2002 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

6.2

(19 Ratings)

Movie Rating

The Rock (2 more)

Kelly Hu

Michael Clarke Duncan

Lots of white guys for Africa (1 more)

Not a single female who is not stuck in a bikini of some sort (Not that I'm complaining, but....)

Good sword and sorcery fun

Spinning out of The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King is a decent sword-and-sorcery epic in the vein of Conan the Barbarian that would work better on its own than it does connected to the Mummy franchise. It's not that it's bad, but we know how things end up in The Mummy Returns, and that undercuts some of the characterization in this film. The performances are good to great across the board, though there's a lot of white guys given the African setting. I realize that it's the cradle of civilization, but still. Then there's the trope of all the women wearing bikinis, which doesn't play as well in this day and age as it did in the pulp era....I mean, it has the desired effect, don't get me wrong, but I think we've moved on. The action is excellent, the graphics hold up even seventeen years later (which is more than can be said for the character's introduction in TMR), and on the whole, I enjoyed the film. After watching the special features, though, I think they should have kept the prophecy element in the film. Just my opinion.