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Bethr1986 (305 KP) rated Heretic (Hellmage Chronicles, #1) in Books
Sep 19, 2022
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Somebody has killed an earth mage it's up to light keeper Sira, with the help of a Hellmage Jana to find who has committed the dreadful crime. Will they be able to work together or will their differences stop them from finding the abomination who's committed the act?
For saying that this book has a lot of fighting, lust and sex, it's quite gentle - who knew that could happen? It is a nice easy read with lots of action but made me eager to find out who was doing what. I couldn't read it fast enough. A couple of times I did find myself getting a bit confused over which character was talking but after re-reading the start I soon got my head straight and was able to continue without too much disruption.
A fantastic read.
Somebody has killed an earth mage it's up to light keeper Sira, with the help of a Hellmage Jana to find who has committed the dreadful crime. Will they be able to work together or will their differences stop them from finding the abomination who's committed the act?
For saying that this book has a lot of fighting, lust and sex, it's quite gentle - who knew that could happen? It is a nice easy read with lots of action but made me eager to find out who was doing what. I couldn't read it fast enough. A couple of times I did find myself getting a bit confused over which character was talking but after re-reading the start I soon got my head straight and was able to continue without too much disruption.
A fantastic read.
Dean (6927 KP) rated The Blackcoat's Daughter (February) (2015) in Movies
Apr 24, 2022 (Updated Apr 24, 2022)
Cast (1 more)
Errie atmosphere
Very slow pace (2 more)
Poorly executed
The ending
Rather boring
Seen this around on Netflix a while back and caught on Film4 recently. I gave it a go as Emma Roberts is in it. Called February in the UK.
It's a very slow paced , atmospheric Horror. The pace is rather tedious to the point it's not until the last 15 minutes that everything comes together and makes sense.
A couple of girls are left behind at a boarding school in a cold bleak February. Something sinister appears to be happening. Meanwhile another girl escapes a mental health hospital and makes her way to the School.
It's just far too slow with little happening until towards the very end. Also one of those endings that is frustrating making you think is that it? The story once you figure it out is interesting but it is badly done.
It's a very slow paced , atmospheric Horror. The pace is rather tedious to the point it's not until the last 15 minutes that everything comes together and makes sense.
A couple of girls are left behind at a boarding school in a cold bleak February. Something sinister appears to be happening. Meanwhile another girl escapes a mental health hospital and makes her way to the School.
It's just far too slow with little happening until towards the very end. Also one of those endings that is frustrating making you think is that it? The story once you figure it out is interesting but it is badly done.
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Ava (2020) in Movies
Apr 28, 2022
With the exception of a couple of half decent action scenes, Ava doesn't have much going for it. It's feels generic, it feels phoned in, and above all, it's just quite boring.
It has an engaging enough set up, but somewhere around the half hour mark, it just kind of trails off into limbo, as a pretty stacked cast are subjected to a lackluster script. Seriously, Jessica Chastain is doing the best she can with what she's been given, but considering Ava also stars the likes of John Malkovich, Geena Davis, Colin Farrell, Joan Chen, Ioan Gruffudd - all heavy hitters who don't make much impact. The whole experience is just uninspired.
It's not a complete train wreck, but since John Wick exploded into cinemas, these kind of films have been a dime a dozen, and Ava doesn't do nearly enough to rise above its peers.
It has an engaging enough set up, but somewhere around the half hour mark, it just kind of trails off into limbo, as a pretty stacked cast are subjected to a lackluster script. Seriously, Jessica Chastain is doing the best she can with what she's been given, but considering Ava also stars the likes of John Malkovich, Geena Davis, Colin Farrell, Joan Chen, Ioan Gruffudd - all heavy hitters who don't make much impact. The whole experience is just uninspired.
It's not a complete train wreck, but since John Wick exploded into cinemas, these kind of films have been a dime a dozen, and Ava doesn't do nearly enough to rise above its peers.
David McK (3716 KP) rated Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020) in Movies
Aug 27, 2021 (Updated Sep 27, 2022)
I can't believe it's been over 30 years since the first Bill & Ted movie
Man, I feel old.
This is the long-mooted capper to the trilogy, with Bill & Ted's band Wyld Stallyns still waiting for that one song that (as per both 'Amazing Adventure' and 'Bogus Journey') will unite humanity. No, that one at the end of the last film didn't do it.
Now older - but no wiser - and with their kids grown up, the duo find themselves summoned to the future and told that all of space and time will be destroyed if they don't write that song in the next couple of hours.
Cue more time (and afterlife) -travelling idiocy as they decide to steal said song from their future selves, while their daughters also try to put together a band of musical prodigies from throughout history.
Good natured fun, in effect.
Man, I feel old.
This is the long-mooted capper to the trilogy, with Bill & Ted's band Wyld Stallyns still waiting for that one song that (as per both 'Amazing Adventure' and 'Bogus Journey') will unite humanity. No, that one at the end of the last film didn't do it.
Now older - but no wiser - and with their kids grown up, the duo find themselves summoned to the future and told that all of space and time will be destroyed if they don't write that song in the next couple of hours.
Cue more time (and afterlife) -travelling idiocy as they decide to steal said song from their future selves, while their daughters also try to put together a band of musical prodigies from throughout history.
Good natured fun, in effect.
![Journeyman (Raven Series #2) [Audiobook]](/uploads/profile_image/05a/4d769610-6428-4f90-ab4d-66481731905a.jpg?m=1658697823)
Journeyman (Raven Series #2) [Audiobook]
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Bad things stalk the wanderer who's lost his way. Raven's adopted father One Eye has disappeared...
Bring the Night
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"Suicide was all the rage in L.A. the summer of '39." When an oddball sister and brother hire him...
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated The Boys in TV
Jul 7, 2020
A Gritty Superhero Drama With Equal Parts Dark Comedy, Blood And Violence
The Boys is a 2019 black comedy/action/superhero/drama web tv series developed by Eric Kripke for Amazon. It was produced by Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios, Kripke Enterprises, Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, Kickstart Entertainment and KFL Knightsky Productions. Executive producters on the show include Erick Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, Dan Trachtenberg, Ken. F. Levin and Jason Netter. The series stars actors Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Anthony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligot and Jessie T. Usher.
Hugh "Hughie" Campbell (Jack Quaid) is a regular guy living in a city where superpowered people are recognized as heroes by the general public and owned by a powerful corporation Vought International, which markets and monetizes them. Outside of their heroic personas, these heroes are arrogant and corrupt, none more so than the Seven, Vought's premier superhero team. After his girlfriend is killed by A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), one of the Seven, Hughie is sought out by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a man who despises all superpowered people, and whose goal is to "spank the bastards when they get out of line".
This show is awesome. I was blown away by how much I liked it and binged watched it in one day. It reminded me of Watchmen a little bit in how it was a darker version of a superhero world. I really liked how it balanced the dark comedy with the violence and pacing of the plot. It was incredibly violent though, with lots of blood and gore. The acting was really good too with the actors being believable in their roles. I enjoyed the character development from several of the characters like Hughie and Starlight. Even the Deep, who I disliked was able to make me feel sorry for him in a couple of parts. The special effects were pretty top notch and I hardly noticed anything I didn't think fit or stuck out in a wrong way. The twists in the plot as the story progressed really kept me into it. It also had a lot of emotional scenes that I didn't think it would. There were a couple of things that bothered me like when a character acted out of character or did something that I didn't understand their motivations, and also the weird relationship between Homelander and Madelynn Stillwell. The latter of which you have more understanding towards the end. The only thing that really disappointed me was that there were only 8 episodes for the season. I almost gave this show a 9 but like I said there were a couple of things that I didn't like with it, still I give this show a 8/10. It also gets my "Must See Seal Of Approval". You really got to check this show out if you haven't seen it.
Hugh "Hughie" Campbell (Jack Quaid) is a regular guy living in a city where superpowered people are recognized as heroes by the general public and owned by a powerful corporation Vought International, which markets and monetizes them. Outside of their heroic personas, these heroes are arrogant and corrupt, none more so than the Seven, Vought's premier superhero team. After his girlfriend is killed by A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), one of the Seven, Hughie is sought out by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a man who despises all superpowered people, and whose goal is to "spank the bastards when they get out of line".
This show is awesome. I was blown away by how much I liked it and binged watched it in one day. It reminded me of Watchmen a little bit in how it was a darker version of a superhero world. I really liked how it balanced the dark comedy with the violence and pacing of the plot. It was incredibly violent though, with lots of blood and gore. The acting was really good too with the actors being believable in their roles. I enjoyed the character development from several of the characters like Hughie and Starlight. Even the Deep, who I disliked was able to make me feel sorry for him in a couple of parts. The special effects were pretty top notch and I hardly noticed anything I didn't think fit or stuck out in a wrong way. The twists in the plot as the story progressed really kept me into it. It also had a lot of emotional scenes that I didn't think it would. There were a couple of things that bothered me like when a character acted out of character or did something that I didn't understand their motivations, and also the weird relationship between Homelander and Madelynn Stillwell. The latter of which you have more understanding towards the end. The only thing that really disappointed me was that there were only 8 episodes for the season. I almost gave this show a 9 but like I said there were a couple of things that I didn't like with it, still I give this show a 8/10. It also gets my "Must See Seal Of Approval". You really got to check this show out if you haven't seen it.
Peter Shephard (2822 KP) rated Merchants Cove in Tabletop Games
Jun 4, 2021
Great range of character options (4 more)
Single player option
Great looking board and pieces
Expansions are great
Every character is like playing a different subgame
Great and Varied game
I backed this on Kickstarter, with the Oracle, Dragon Rancher and Inn Keeper expansions. Over the course of our first evening playing, my wife and I had 1 game of learning the rules, then another three games fairly quickly.
The pieces (ships, meeples, and individual gaming boards) are fantastic (although a couple are a little fiddly/weak) and every single character has their own flavour and type of sub-game;
The Alchemist makes potions by drawing marbles, firstly from a bag, then from a "decanter" (echoes of Quacks of Quiddlingberg)
The Blacksmith makes weapons and armour from dice rolls and combos in furnaces (not quite Yahtzee)
The Captain sails her fleet of ships to go fishing and treasure hunting using a spinning compass mechanism (can't put my finger what this reminds me of)
The Chronomancer (a great Back to the Future nod) travels through time portals to get pieces of technology, using a slide-and-shift board (like a mini Labrynth)
The Dragon rancher (believe it or not) hatches, raises and sells dragons; a couple of mechanics which work well together (even if one is shovelling poop) but not really like a game I've played
The Innkeeper is a great sub-sub-game; he can only sell drinks at one point, but he can put people up in his Inn which gives a bonus. A little bit of prediction work, but not like a other game I can think of.
The Oracle uses a scatter/dish for her fetishes and dice, and this limits what she can do - but I'd say she has the most varied scope of games (dots, predictions, and a few others)
The aim of the game is to be the Merchant who makes the most money, without attracting too much Corruption. Each game is played over three days, and each day has a limited amount of time. Each task the characters do has a different amount of time-cost - it might take 1h to brew potions, but it takes 2h to get ingredients from the decanter and prepare the potions. At several points each day, random Adventurers are drawn from the bag, and put into the travelling ships, as chosen by the drawer. However, there are also rogues who take up space and don't buy anything!
My only real complaint with the game is the comparatively long set up (5-10 minutes seems to be our average) for a 30-45m play time for 2 players - but it is really worth it. If/when this goes to retail, I'd say every gaming group who enjoys a combination of resource management, meeple and worker placement, and beautiful set-piece games, should give this a try.
The pieces (ships, meeples, and individual gaming boards) are fantastic (although a couple are a little fiddly/weak) and every single character has their own flavour and type of sub-game;
The Alchemist makes potions by drawing marbles, firstly from a bag, then from a "decanter" (echoes of Quacks of Quiddlingberg)
The Blacksmith makes weapons and armour from dice rolls and combos in furnaces (not quite Yahtzee)
The Captain sails her fleet of ships to go fishing and treasure hunting using a spinning compass mechanism (can't put my finger what this reminds me of)
The Chronomancer (a great Back to the Future nod) travels through time portals to get pieces of technology, using a slide-and-shift board (like a mini Labrynth)
The Dragon rancher (believe it or not) hatches, raises and sells dragons; a couple of mechanics which work well together (even if one is shovelling poop) but not really like a game I've played
The Innkeeper is a great sub-sub-game; he can only sell drinks at one point, but he can put people up in his Inn which gives a bonus. A little bit of prediction work, but not like a other game I can think of.
The Oracle uses a scatter/dish for her fetishes and dice, and this limits what she can do - but I'd say she has the most varied scope of games (dots, predictions, and a few others)
The aim of the game is to be the Merchant who makes the most money, without attracting too much Corruption. Each game is played over three days, and each day has a limited amount of time. Each task the characters do has a different amount of time-cost - it might take 1h to brew potions, but it takes 2h to get ingredients from the decanter and prepare the potions. At several points each day, random Adventurers are drawn from the bag, and put into the travelling ships, as chosen by the drawer. However, there are also rogues who take up space and don't buy anything!
My only real complaint with the game is the comparatively long set up (5-10 minutes seems to be our average) for a 30-45m play time for 2 players - but it is really worth it. If/when this goes to retail, I'd say every gaming group who enjoys a combination of resource management, meeple and worker placement, and beautiful set-piece games, should give this a try.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House in Books
Mar 22, 2018
It took me a while to get my hands on this one - I was watching the scandal around its release, and laughed my butt off when the publisher scorned Trump's threats and published it early instead. My copy finally came in at the library, and I've been reading it off and on for the last couple of weeks. I normally read books far faster than that, and it's not a long book, but I kept having to set it aside for numerous reasons.
It could have benefited from more thorough editing - between a couple of typos, some odd grammar, and a phrase being repeated twice in the same sentence (I think the sentence may have originally been broken across two pages, so no one realized, and then in the final formatting it was all together) - it definitely had some technical problems.
It was also just infuriating. Especially the beginning, where so many of the campaign staffers don't think Trump SHOULD be president, but still campaign for him because it's impossible that he could win, so what does it matter if they don't think he should? That was incredibly frustrating to read.
Honestly there wasn't a lot in this book that I didn't already know, but I've been following politics pretty closely since early 2016. If you haven't, and you're looking for a good way to get up to date on current American politics, this could be a pretty good place to start. (Don't stop at this book, though, there's a lot that it doesn't cover.)
I can't say that anything really surprised me. Everything sounds like what I've come to expect from this administration. The book is decent, but anything terribly salacious from it has been pulled out and splashed across the news at this point, so if you've been paying attention, I don't actually think it's worth spending your time on. It's certainly not the groundbreaking INSIDE LOOK THAT NO ONE'S SEEN HURRY AND READ IT that it was advertised as.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
It could have benefited from more thorough editing - between a couple of typos, some odd grammar, and a phrase being repeated twice in the same sentence (I think the sentence may have originally been broken across two pages, so no one realized, and then in the final formatting it was all together) - it definitely had some technical problems.
It was also just infuriating. Especially the beginning, where so many of the campaign staffers don't think Trump SHOULD be president, but still campaign for him because it's impossible that he could win, so what does it matter if they don't think he should? That was incredibly frustrating to read.
Honestly there wasn't a lot in this book that I didn't already know, but I've been following politics pretty closely since early 2016. If you haven't, and you're looking for a good way to get up to date on current American politics, this could be a pretty good place to start. (Don't stop at this book, though, there's a lot that it doesn't cover.)
I can't say that anything really surprised me. Everything sounds like what I've come to expect from this administration. The book is decent, but anything terribly salacious from it has been pulled out and splashed across the news at this point, so if you've been paying attention, I don't actually think it's worth spending your time on. It's certainly not the groundbreaking INSIDE LOOK THAT NO ONE'S SEEN HURRY AND READ IT that it was advertised as.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Micah Ulibarri (79 KP) rated Star War #44 in Books
Mar 15, 2018
A Strong start to a new story
Contains spoilers, click to show
A new story begins in Marvel's flagship series for the Star Wars universe. After the destruction of the Death Star, the Alliance's greatest heroes; Leia, Han, and Luke, must convince the Mon Calamari to join their rebellion and donate their great capital ships to the cause.
Readers familar with the Star Wars galaxy will understand how important this never before told story is to the universe. The rebellion has few warships at this time and decide to ask their friend and everyone's favorite Star wars meme, Admiral Ackbar, to call in a favor from his planet. In a time when Star Wars comics has been criticized for being irrelevant in the grand scheme, this story is one worth telling and with real stakes on the galaxy.
Don't worry. You're faborite Star wars characters are written with great respect to who the characters are while still keeping them fresh and interesting. I particularly found myself enjoying Han in this issue.
While the previous arcs had been somewhat episodic and disjointed, this one seems to make sense and includes reveals from the previous issue, leading to a more cohesive overall feel to the series since Kieron Gillen took over from Jason Aaron.
The main thing holding the issue back from being great is its need to exposit and introduce what the next arc will include. A couple times the exposition can be a bit cumbersome.
Finally, my hope is that this series will bring another tie-in from The Clone Wars animated series. They seem to be telegraphing the return of Mon Cal king Lee-Char. I would be quite tickled if we got to see a more wisened version of him in this series.
Conclusion: A fun and strong start with just a couple hiccups in the set up and a great place to junp on for the curious.
Readers familar with the Star Wars galaxy will understand how important this never before told story is to the universe. The rebellion has few warships at this time and decide to ask their friend and everyone's favorite Star wars meme, Admiral Ackbar, to call in a favor from his planet. In a time when Star Wars comics has been criticized for being irrelevant in the grand scheme, this story is one worth telling and with real stakes on the galaxy.
Don't worry. You're faborite Star wars characters are written with great respect to who the characters are while still keeping them fresh and interesting. I particularly found myself enjoying Han in this issue.
While the previous arcs had been somewhat episodic and disjointed, this one seems to make sense and includes reveals from the previous issue, leading to a more cohesive overall feel to the series since Kieron Gillen took over from Jason Aaron.
The main thing holding the issue back from being great is its need to exposit and introduce what the next arc will include. A couple times the exposition can be a bit cumbersome.
Finally, my hope is that this series will bring another tie-in from The Clone Wars animated series. They seem to be telegraphing the return of Mon Cal king Lee-Char. I would be quite tickled if we got to see a more wisened version of him in this series.
Conclusion: A fun and strong start with just a couple hiccups in the set up and a great place to junp on for the curious.