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Book
When Gavin Meckler's light aircraft encounters a mysterious cloud and crashes to earth, he discovers...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
8.4
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Movie Watch
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION is visionary director Steven Spielberg's...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Awaken Me Darkly (Alien Huntress, #1) in Books
Jan 6, 2021
Hmm...
Well I loved this at the beginning. Mia was kick-arse, as were the rest of her team. I was interested in what was going on with the murders and finding out who was behind it...
I also loved the little glimpses we got at the start of Kyrin. He sounded equally seductive and bad-arse--which is a great combination.
I can't say I understood Mia's need to attack him all the time...but I guess she has some anger issues regarding aliens.
The murder plot became less interesting throughout the book as I just wanted to concentrate on the sexual tension between our main characters. There were some pretty steamy scenes between them...but also not enough for my liking.
There was a shock thrown in, which did surprise me.
The thing that stopped this from having four stars was the ending. I can't say I enjoyed it that much. It seemed to resolve itself far too quickly and I can't say I felt Mia's emotions at the time.
Well I loved this at the beginning. Mia was kick-arse, as were the rest of her team. I was interested in what was going on with the murders and finding out who was behind it...
I also loved the little glimpses we got at the start of Kyrin. He sounded equally seductive and bad-arse--which is a great combination.
I can't say I understood Mia's need to attack him all the time...but I guess she has some anger issues regarding aliens.
The murder plot became less interesting throughout the book as I just wanted to concentrate on the sexual tension between our main characters. There were some pretty steamy scenes between them...but also not enough for my liking.
There was a shock thrown in, which did surprise me.
The thing that stopped this from having four stars was the ending. I can't say I enjoyed it that much. It seemed to resolve itself far too quickly and I can't say I felt Mia's emotions at the time.
Josh Sadfie recommended 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in Movies (curated)
David McK (3562 KP) rated Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, #1) in Books
May 8, 2021
This is pretty much the book that re-ignited the whole Star Wars craze. (Re)reading it, it's not hard to see why.
Set after the events of the original trilogy, "Heir to the Empire" also introduces a host of new characters and soon-to-be-official aliens and planet names (it is here that Coruscant is first named, for example).
Reading the trilogy as a whole, though, you also have to wonder how much inside-info Zahn had on the whole Star Wars mythos: clones are (re)introduced here, the Clone Wars are given a larger role than their original throw-away reference and the role of the Jedi are expanded upon.
I know there's a lot of hostility towards spin-off books, but do yourself a favour and read this one! After all, the original material had to be good for their to BE a spin-off in the first place, and the quality of the first spin-off can often be determined by the quantity of books that followed it ...
Set after the events of the original trilogy, "Heir to the Empire" also introduces a host of new characters and soon-to-be-official aliens and planet names (it is here that Coruscant is first named, for example).
Reading the trilogy as a whole, though, you also have to wonder how much inside-info Zahn had on the whole Star Wars mythos: clones are (re)introduced here, the Clone Wars are given a larger role than their original throw-away reference and the role of the Jedi are expanded upon.
I know there's a lot of hostility towards spin-off books, but do yourself a favour and read this one! After all, the original material had to be good for their to BE a spin-off in the first place, and the quality of the first spin-off can often be determined by the quantity of books that followed it ...
The Necromancer's Prison
Alec Whitesell and Craig Bonacorsi
8.0
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Book
She wanted to find her place in the universe. She never imagined it might not be on Earth. When...
Drusus (Fueled By Lust #1)
8.7
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Book
Drawn to Texas by a vortex link between Insedivertus and a plethora of potential mates, Prince...
Science Fiction Erotic Romance
Darren (1599 KP) rated Freaks Of Nature (2015) in Movies
Nov 29, 2019
Verdict: Silly Sci-Fi Horror Comedy
Story: Freaks of Nature starts as we head to Dillford, where humans, vampires and zombies leave side by side, we follow three high school students, Dag (Braun) who doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, Petra (Davis) that has been crushing a vampire, hoping to get turned into one herself and Ned (Fadem) a school geek that is destiny for better things, but is tired of his parents dreams in his brother, deciding he wants to become a vampire.
When aliens arrive in the town, the vampires and zombies go on a feeding craze, where Dag, Petra and Ned, must stand together in an attempt to survive the alien invasion even if they are different species now, they must put these difference behind them to survive.
Thoughts on Freaks of Nature
Characters – Dag comes from a normal family that sees him being in the middle of the high school hierarchy, he gets picked on by the jocks and just wants to be something more, waiting for the day he can be with his dream girl. Petra is dreaming of a vampire party, which sees her getting turned into one, looking for a chance to learn about her new blood lust. She hasn’t always fitted in, which has never bothered her. Ned is the smartest kid in school, his parents are more interested in their jock son, which sees them ignoring him more often than not, making him want to become dumber like the zombies. We do meet a host of other characters that are different a mix of humans, vampires and zombies each with their own stigma.
Performances – Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis and Josh Fadem in the leading roles do bring out the colourful side of their characters even if they fit the generic types for a high school movie. We do have some big name comic actors that get their moments to shine too.
Story – The story here follows three high school kids growing up in a world of humans, vampires and zombies when aliens visit causing chaos as the three unlikely friends must come together to save themselves and the town. This is meant to be more of a parody, more than a serious story, which for the most part is fine, it plays out like a zombie survival story when the outbreak just starts, finding a hiding place before figuring out what to do, while trying to deal with high school problems the three are facing. It isn’t as clever of a story as it thinks, which does leave parts of it feeling flat by the end.
Comedy/Horror/Sci-Fi – The comedy is meant to be more parody, which tries to poke fun at the invasion genre, while the horror is meant to be about the creatures in horror, rather than being scary in anyway, with the aliens being the sci-fi side of the film, which is the biggest threat, but not focused on enough.
Settings – The film is set in a small town which does bring the characters together through the problems they will be facing, how certain stories around town bring them together.
Scene of the Movie – Opening attack.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Doesn’t get enough laughs for a comedy.
Final Thoughts – This is a comedy that just doesn’t get enough laughs and ends up feeling flat by the end of the film.
Overall: Flat Comedy.
Story: Freaks of Nature starts as we head to Dillford, where humans, vampires and zombies leave side by side, we follow three high school students, Dag (Braun) who doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, Petra (Davis) that has been crushing a vampire, hoping to get turned into one herself and Ned (Fadem) a school geek that is destiny for better things, but is tired of his parents dreams in his brother, deciding he wants to become a vampire.
When aliens arrive in the town, the vampires and zombies go on a feeding craze, where Dag, Petra and Ned, must stand together in an attempt to survive the alien invasion even if they are different species now, they must put these difference behind them to survive.
Thoughts on Freaks of Nature
Characters – Dag comes from a normal family that sees him being in the middle of the high school hierarchy, he gets picked on by the jocks and just wants to be something more, waiting for the day he can be with his dream girl. Petra is dreaming of a vampire party, which sees her getting turned into one, looking for a chance to learn about her new blood lust. She hasn’t always fitted in, which has never bothered her. Ned is the smartest kid in school, his parents are more interested in their jock son, which sees them ignoring him more often than not, making him want to become dumber like the zombies. We do meet a host of other characters that are different a mix of humans, vampires and zombies each with their own stigma.
Performances – Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis and Josh Fadem in the leading roles do bring out the colourful side of their characters even if they fit the generic types for a high school movie. We do have some big name comic actors that get their moments to shine too.
Story – The story here follows three high school kids growing up in a world of humans, vampires and zombies when aliens visit causing chaos as the three unlikely friends must come together to save themselves and the town. This is meant to be more of a parody, more than a serious story, which for the most part is fine, it plays out like a zombie survival story when the outbreak just starts, finding a hiding place before figuring out what to do, while trying to deal with high school problems the three are facing. It isn’t as clever of a story as it thinks, which does leave parts of it feeling flat by the end.
Comedy/Horror/Sci-Fi – The comedy is meant to be more parody, which tries to poke fun at the invasion genre, while the horror is meant to be about the creatures in horror, rather than being scary in anyway, with the aliens being the sci-fi side of the film, which is the biggest threat, but not focused on enough.
Settings – The film is set in a small town which does bring the characters together through the problems they will be facing, how certain stories around town bring them together.
Scene of the Movie – Opening attack.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Doesn’t get enough laughs for a comedy.
Final Thoughts – This is a comedy that just doesn’t get enough laughs and ends up feeling flat by the end of the film.
Overall: Flat Comedy.