Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2346 KP) rated Microphones and Murder in Books

Feb 12, 2020

Don’t Miss This Debut

Liv Olsen has spent a few years working on a popular true crime podcast, but now she’s decided to risk everything to start her own, Missing or Murdered. Working with her stepsister, Camry Lewis, she’s identified her first case. Just over ten years ago, Amelia Clark disappeared from Santa Maria, a town on central California’s coast, a week after an embarrassing video of her was posted on YouTube. The trail has long gone cold, but the retired detective who worked the case reached out to Liv, hoping that publicity would bring forward a new clue. As Liv begins to interview people who knew Amelia, she gets more questions than answers. What happen to Amelia all those years ago?

It’s always fun when a mystery opens with something other than a murder, and that’s what we get here. The missing person case was compelling, and it seemed the further I read, the more confusing the case became. However, everything came together for a satisfying solution before it was all over. The characters are charming, and I fell in love with them immediately. I appreciated the character growth we saw here, and I can’t wait to see how these relationships grow in future books. The suspects are just as real and do a great job of confusing us. I did find out character who speaks with a stutter annoying, and there were a couple of scenes I could have done without, but these are both minor issues. On the other hand, I appreciated the book’s humor and found myself laughing several times. This is a delightful debut, and I will definitely be back when the sequel drops.

Kudos

JT (287 KP) rated Iron Sky (2012) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020

Iron Sky (2012)

2012 | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

6.5

(6 Ratings)

Movie Rating

When a pair of astronauts set foot on the moon having not been back in over five decades they get a nasty surprise in the shape of a Nazi soldier.

If you thought the premise of Snakes on a Plane was nuts then this is surely right up there for insanity, the film has it’s moments but doesn’t have any A-listers big enough to pull in an audience.

After discovering that the Nazi’s have won the space race (we’re never enlightened as to how they come to arrive there) and set up a huge base on the dark side of the moon, it’s up to a lone astronaut (Kirby) to stop a potential invasion of Earth.

The base is like something out of a cartoon and is in the shape of a huge Swastika which gives you some indication about just how insane this film is? Couple that with big hats and large trousers, along with turning a black man white and you’ll see what you’ve let yourself in for.

The battling US President is a Sarah Palin wanna be, (in all honesty they might as well have got the real one) complete with a gung-ho approach and deer heads on the wall of the Oval office.

It doesn’t get much better, but ironically there is enough to keep you interested. Oddly the visuals featuring battling ships in space is quite effective.

This is one film that you’ll probably watch just for the title of it, when it’s finished you’ll wonder why the hell you ever put it on in the first place?

Kudos

Hazel (1853 KP) rated Ubiety in Books

Feb 12, 2020

Ubiety

Grzegorz Kunowski | 2018 | Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Science Fiction/Fantasy

4.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

How can you prove what is real? This is essentially what Grzegorz Kunowski is asking in his novellaUbiety. The title relates to the state of existing and being in a localised space, which is what the protagonist Adam Johnson is challenging throughout the story. Designed to help people face up to reality and question endless possibilities about what could or should be, Adam finds himself in many bizarre situations that blur the lines between reality and fantasy.

Quite frankly difficult to follow, Ubiety includes many dream scenes that border on madness. “Since the dawn of time common folk and wise men have scratched their heads as they asked about topics to do with dreams, such as why do we have them?” (Page 9, PDF version) Through his dreams, Adam’s brilliant mind creates scenes based on human fears and curiosity, however, it is difficult to tell which parts of the novel are “reality” since everything is equally absurd.

Adam is a person who thinks too much, resulting in overanalysing every aspect of life. The imaginary monsters that haunt his dreams begin to seem less scary than the hidden evils in the real world. Through his writing, Kunowski questions whether we are truly free or are we slaves? Slaves to machines, slaves to technology, slaves to social norms and so forth.

Unfortunately, Ubiety is difficult to read, however, within the confusion, there are a couple of gems that make you think and philosophise about life, the world and reality. Heading each chapter with a quote from a historical thinker, Kunowski draws our attention to the “realities” of the past, present and future, encouraging us to challenge what we know and believe.