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How to Survive the End of the World as We Know it: Tactics, Techniques and Technologies for Uncertain Times

James Wesley Rawles

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Book

This is the definitive guide on how to prepare for any crisis, from global financial collapse to a...

The Pine Barrens Stratagem: From the Case Files of Steve Rockfish

Ken Harris Fiction

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Book

Private Investigator Steve Rockfish needs cash, like yesterday. The bad news is that yesterday, a...

Crime Thriller

David McK (3422 KP) rated Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) in Movies

Mar 11, 2023

Caesar. Home.

A surprisingly good prequel/re-imagining/reboot of the seminal Charlton Heston starring sci-fi flick, with this being set in more contemporary time and with it tracing the origins of the smart Apes/the beginning of the decline of man.

Basically, don't mess with nature.

I have to say, the end credits - tracing the virus - also hits differently now (in 2023) than it did on release (in 2011), after the world has been through a global pandemic.

Anyway, Andy Serkis interpretation of Caesar is really the star of the show, with able support from his surrogate 'father' Will Rodman (James Franco), the scientist who first developed a drug that he hopes will cure Alzheimer's but which leads to super intelligence in the chimps exposed to it.

Kudos

David McK (3422 KP) rated The Aeronauts (2019) in Movies

Mar 29, 2020

The Aeronauts (2019)

2019 | Adventure, Drama

7.3

(11 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

1860's period action/drama piece, starring Eddie Redmayne (I still associate him more with Newt Scaramander) and Felicity Jones (who I still associate more with Rogue One), told pretty much in 'real-time' and charting an attempt by a Royal Society meteorologist James Glaisher to ascent in a hot air balloon to study the weather in a period when nobody believed this was possible, and when the sky was still largely unknown

That much is fact.

The character of Amelia Wren, however? Completely made up - I only discovered this afterwards, when I read a bit more into it!

Predictably light-weight, and released (early?) on Amazon Prime - due to the current global pandemic - I'm happy enough to have seen this one, but am also happier that I didn't have to pay to do so in the cinema!

Kudos

David McK (3422 KP) rated Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) in Movies

Mar 24, 2021 (Updated Jan 22, 2023)

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

2000 | Action, Mystery

5.6

(19 Ratings)

Movie Rating

I'm writing this in early 2021.

I don't think I'd seen this film since the early noughties.

If you asked me what I remember of it, I probably would have said

Thandie Newton
Masks
Slow motion. Lot and lots of slow motion.

And that is actually pretty accurate: directed by John Woo, this has an overabundance of Slo-Mo shots and has Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames both reprising their role from the first film.

It's also slightly uncomfortable watching this now (with the world still in the grip of a global pandemic), as the driver for the plot is - guess what - a deadly virus getting loose.

(oh, and in one of cinemas great 'what if' : I believe that Dougray Scott had to turn down the role of Wolverine as he was busy filming this)

Kudos

ClareR (5721 KP) rated The End of Men in Books

Jun 8, 2021

The End of Men

Christina Sweeney-Baird | 2021 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy

10.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Oh. My. Goodness. This book is totally my cup of tea (unlike in this book, it has both tea and milk in it). I’ve always been drawn to science fiction, dystopian and apocalyptic styles of novels ever since I read Stephen Kings The Stand as a teenager. The End of Men drew me in and had me checking the news outlets, just to check that Covid-19 hadn’t taken a turn for the even worse - and I’m not joking here. I did question whether reading a book about a global pandemic during a global pandemic was a good idea, and then I told myself to shut up, sit back and just enjoy it (much the same as when I read Last One at The Party by Bethany Clift!). And I really did!

This is told from multiple perspectives. There are mostly recurring characters, such as Dr Maclean, some scientists, the anthropologist, intelligence and government types, interspersed with ‘ordinary’ people who were also affected and lost friends and family. We see perspectives from all over the world. The voices of these people all seem so real: their pain, confusion and determination coming through in their own voices, as their stories are all told in journal form.

The End of Men had pretty much the same effect on me as World War Z: I was checking the news and the windows (just in case), completely preoccupied with the book whilst I was reading it, and I predictably experienced a stonking book-hangover when it ended.
This is science fiction for people who wouldn’t normally pick up science fiction (a bit like a gateway drug!). It reads like contemporary fiction - the here and now.

This novel had me on the edge of my seat and in tears - and a bit angry at times, truth be told. This doesn’t feel like you’re reading science-fiction, it has a tinge of the non-fiction about it. Perhaps that’s because of the times we’re living in...
Would I recommend it? You’d better believe I would!