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Malice: Book One of the Faithful and the Fallen
Malice: Book One of the Faithful and the Fallen
John Gwynne | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
7
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The action (1 more)
The hints of the epic story still to come
The number of characters and places to try and remember (1 more)
A little long and derivative
This book, the first in a series of four, chronicles the beginning hints at the coming God-War, a time when the forces of good and evil will battle for the world (pretty standard fantasy fayre), with prophecies unfolding and battles for thrones.
The book moves between different character PoVs, which is fairly common these days, but I found some of the characters to be indistinguishable. For the first third of the book, if the PoV was Camlin, Kastell or Veradis I struggled to remember who he was or what he had been doing. This did start to improve around the halfway mark, but it is quite a slog at times to remember the events preceding this chapter.
The bulk of the book, however, follows Corban, a young blacksmith's son hoping to become a warrior some day, but is stuck working his da's forge, helping stablemaster Gar or apprenticing to healer Brina. His development over the book is well told, he doesn't suddenly become a master swordsman but at the same time we don't have to sit through chapter after chapter of him learning sword forms (Rand al Thor could learn a lot from Corban!).
Along the way, Corban has also become friends with a wild wolven (giant wolves hunted near extinction), whom he raised from a pup. Yes, exactly like the Stark children in GoT. Leave it.
The political intrigue and manoeuvring throughout the book is great as events seeming to be based on one king/queen's ambitions actually turn out to be based on another's treachery.
The battle scenes are well told and believable without the main characters always escaping unscathed.
The book finished with a number of deceptions uncovered and the main group of characters fleeing for their lives, with more secrets to be uncovered.
  
The Wasp Factory
The Wasp Factory
Iain M. Banks | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
4
7.4 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
✭✭ 2 Stars

This was a very difficult book for me to rate so I rated it purely based on 'personal enjoyment'.
Yes the book was dark and clever and so well written but the enjoyment factor just wasn't there for me. Something I can not handle to read about is the abusing, torturing and killing of animals and this book was full of that. I could read an endless amount of books about the killing of people (slashers, thrillers,crime etc.) and not really be phased much but if animals are involved in it then my enjoyment level drops dramatically. I wish I had read other reviews first about this book so then I would of known what this book contains and wouldn't of read it, but I didn't as I worry about stumbling across spoilers.
An excellent look into the minds of the mentally disturbed and a truly crazy ride...it just wasn't for me.
  
The Girl With All the Gifts (2017)
The Girl With All the Gifts (2017)
2017 | Drama
Contains spoilers, click to show
The Girl With All the Gifts is a slow paced zombie movie based on the book of the same name. Unlike a lot of zombie movies, 'The Girl With All the Gifts' doesn't go in for gore, although there is a bit. Instead it uses it's slow pace to build suspense as the protagonists try to find safety as they pass through zombie infested England. As they travel the group find out more about both the zombies and the strange children that now inhabit the earth.
As I said, 'The Girl With All the Gifts' is slow but it uses this pace to let us know about the new world, the zombies and the other characters. The scenery is both beautiful and harsh as the characters travel through the now overgrown city of London and the visual effects are built on by the eerie soundtrack.
If you have read the book then you should find that the film is close to the main story, of course the film cuts out some of the back story's and there are some scenes missing but over all the film does well and manages to show how the events of the story change some of the characters (although even this is a bit lacking from the book but that is too be expected) and, over all the film does manage to get the feel of the book.
As I said, 'The Girl With All The Gifts' does not really go for gore so, if you want to see lots of action and people getting eaten then this isn't really for you. 'The Girl With All the Girts' focus more on what lies ahead, both for the reaming humans and for the zombies who will be left and the answer is bleak.

So, 'The Girl With All the Gifts' is a slow, story based zombie film with an interesting, well thought out take on the popular monster.