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Asylum by The Legendary Pink Dots
Asylum by The Legendary Pink Dots
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"The Cure were my gateway drug – a year or two later I discovered the Legendary Pink Dots, because I had a boyfriend who was really into them. That blew my mind. It was an entirely new way of being into a band, because they weren't well known. And the music touched me in a place that the Cure couldn't ever dream of reaching. Part of that had to do with the intimacy and depth of Edward Ka-Spel's songwriting, but also the fact that this was a band that no one in my high school had heard of. They were really, really special – they were my band. I became a devotee. If I could wish anything on any teenager, it's that they could get to have a relationship with a band like that, because the Legendary Pink Dots made me so incredibly happy. I really considered them a holy band. Going to see them live was like going to church. They're highly underappreciated band, and I wander around proselytising them all the time. But it's difficult to know where to start, because they have like 900 records. It's overwhelming. I counted the amount of Pink Dots records I have, and it's well over 50, with all the side projects and all the Edward Ka-Spel solo stuff. They're music putter-outers. In one life-changing experience when I was 18 or 19, I not only got to meet them, but they were staying at the house of a friend of mine and I was able to go over to the house after the show and hang with the band. It was my fantasy come true. This really is biopic stuff. I couldn't have scripted my life any better. My friend knew I was a musician and that I had a demo tape, and he said to the Legendary Pink Dots, 'You should hear her stuff.' And they said, 'Sure, put it on.' I nearly shit myself. It was the moment of judgement. This had been my favourite band for years, I couldn't believe I was even in the room with them, and this guy told me to go grab my demo tape so they could listen to it. It was unbelievable. So we sat there, in what was the longest ten minutes of my life, and we popped the tape in and played two songs, and they were like 'Yeah, sounds really good.' And then about half an hour later, I was on the porch sharing a cigarette with Edward Ka-Spel and he looked and me and said 'You know, I think your songs are genuinely really good, and I don't say that to everybody.' In that moment I legitimately decided that I could do this, because I felt like I'd been given transmission from the master. That one little moment of encouragement took me so far, and I always remember that when I'm talking to my own fans."

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Ignite (Midnight Fire, #1)
Ignite (Midnight Fire, #1)
8
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Kira Dawson has the power to burn vampires to a crisp. The problem is, she doesn't know it yet. The even bigger problem is, she's dating one.

When Kira Dawson moves to South Carolina, she meets Luke, a blond goofball who quickly becomes her best friend, and Tristan, a mysterious bad boy who sends shivers down her spine. Kira knows they're keeping secrets, but when she discovers Tristan's lust for blood and her own dormant mystical powers, Kira is forced to fight for her life and make the heart-breaking decision between the familiar comfort of friendship and the fiery passion of love.

Ignite was another book from Tea's Wishlist challenge. I did enjoy this book, even though I found it slow at first. We have a familiar setting of a girl that moves to a new place, makes friends and enemies right away, and discovers secrets. And, it turns out the boy she loves is a vampire.

The first though I have in the first chapters, and I believe you did too, was - Twilight much? But, no. Once you get to read further into the book, you realise that Kira is nothing like Bella. And Tristan is nothing like Edward either...

This book is so different, and somewhat refreshing from all vampire books I have read so far. It isn't even a book about vampires. It's a book about this girl that can mirror the sun's light and heat from her hands, and is able to hurt only vampires. With her friend, Luke, Kira will discover that she has this ability, and so much more, she will discover secrets about her past that will change her life forever, and she will have to choose between her best friend or the love of her life.

I thought that this book might have used more action, as I felt a bit bored, especially at the beginning, and sometimes during some parts of the book.

I loved Kira's character - she is the typical girl that moves and tries her best to fit in.
I loved Tristan - he proves that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and sometimes people aren't what everyone thinks they are, and your environment doesn't define you as a person.
I didn't like Luke - I know he was there with a mission to tell Kira her secrets and protect her - but what friend would make you feel guilty about every single choice you have to make in your life. He is like, the very attached and overprotective boyfriend, that isn't her boyfriend.

Overall, it was a great refreshing read, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. If you love vampire high-school stories, women that discover they have powers, a lot of forbidden love and paranormal fantasy - you will really enjoy this book. Solid 4 stars from me!
  
A Deadly Education: Lesson One of the Scholomance
A Deadly Education: Lesson One of the Scholomance
Naomi Novik | 2020 | Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
4
6.6 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Original (0 more)
Very repetitive, slow, gets boring quickly (0 more)
Rough start for a new series but shows promise
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik was given eighth place in the Goodreads choice awards for fantasy last year and has been nominated again this year. Unfortunately this book will not be receiving my vote although at this time I have not yet decided which book I will be voting for. This is the first book in a new series and I do have high hopes that future editions to the series will be better as it shows a lot of promise.

The basic idea here is that magical children are teleported away to The Scholomace for education and safety from the mals ( evil creatures attracted to the easy target of young magic user) though not all make it into the school. The school itself is dangerous as well yet even with the horde of mals waiting at the graduation gates to feast on everyone trying to leave the school once a year and the few who make it into the rest of the building the survival rate os those inside the school is still better than if they were left in the general magical population.

While completing school work is important it only because the school will attack those who don't complete their work the samation of alliances is almost more important. This is problematic thoug for those who don't come from an enclave and who are not interested n making friends in the first place.

What I liked about this book was that it is relatively unique. The fact that the main character actually goes through a very clear mental and maturity growth is a plus as well. She really improves as she learns about herself and her classmates. Unfortunately that is pretty much everything good I can say about this book. I enjoyed reading the book when I first started it but around halfway through it became clear that a lot of the book is repetitive. The book ended up becoming slow with the group just fighting off mals and not making much progress on the storyline for a while.it actually got to the point that I was about ready to put the book down.it is also rather predictable.

The ideal target audience for this book is teens to some young adults. I believe the book is too much for most readers younger than teens but at the same time it lacks the detail and depth needed to really capture the attention of older readers. I can only rate this book a 2 out of 5 at best with the hope that it is just a slow start to a good series.

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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated That Snow Moon in Tabletop Games

Jun 12, 2019 (Updated Jun 12, 2019)  
That Snow Moon
That Snow Moon
2017 | Action, Bluff, Card Game, Science Fiction
Many years ago, in a star system located quite a long ways away from our own…… Remind you of a wildly successful fantasy film series involving laser swords, telekinetic powers, and space travel? That snow coincidence. Ha! See what I did there?

That Snow Moon is a card game of dexterity, mixed with some bluffing. Players are divided between two ‘teams’ – the Liberation (good guys) and the Dynasty (bad guys). The goals are simple. The Liberation is trying to assemble a set of plans to be used in the destruction of the Snow Moon. The Dynasty is trying to destroy the Liberation base and stop them from acquiring those plans. I don’t know about you, but if they turned this into a movie, I would probably watch it.

Here’s the kicker though – you don’t simply PLAY cards in this game. You toss/drop them. Yep, you read that right. In this game, you throw cards. Each team takes turns tossing cards into the play area, in hopes of creating clusters of touching cards that activate powers to aid in the completion of their respective goals. Bluffing comes into play because Liberation cards can be played face-down, and remain that way until exposed by a Dynasty card. Can you trick the Dynasty into revealing a card whose power you want to use, or will they see through your ruse and expose and eliminate your more powerful cards? On the flip side, can you foil the plans of the rebellious Liberation, or will they be sly enough to avoid detection? The final fate of your galaxy is up in the air – literally.

The premise of this game sounded really cool to me, but when I actually got to play it, it was quite….underwhelming. In theory, tossing cards puts a unique twist on the standard card game. But the unpredictability of actually tossing/dropping cards makes this game way more luck-driven than strategic to me. It should be noted that we have a PnP of this game – sleeved and with regular playing cards added to beef up the cards. Maybe if we had a retail version, the cards would be easier to manipulate? I’m not sure. At times it just felt futile to try to strategize certain tosses because they cards are going to fall where they may. The actual gameplay is a little bland too – it feels like it’s missing something. Maybe adding more action options or more complex/powerful card powers would up the ante a little bit. The game, as is, just kind of feels like 16-Card-Pick-Up to me.

As a huge fan of the brand-name muse of this game, That Snow Moon fell flat for me. It feels a little too simple, yet wildly unpredictable at the same time. Is it a game I’d pull out to play again? I don’t know – maybe? It’s not high on my list. That snow joke, Purple Phoenix Games gives it a disappointing 9 / 18.


https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/that-snow-moon-review/
  
Seventh Son (2015)
Seventh Son (2015)
2015 | Drama, Sci-Fi
4
5.6 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
After a two-year delay, Seventh Son has finally reached the big screen, and it will leave you conflicted.

Seventh Son is brought to us by director Sergey Bodrov. Originally set for a February 2013 release, the film had complicated distribution arrangements between Legendary and Warner Brothers, which kept causing delays.

Jeff Bridges plays one of the title characters: Master John Gregory. He is the last of an order of peacekeeper knights, which once used to be a thousand strong. All of these knights are seventh sons of seventh sons, and are self-tasked with keeping the evil creatures of the world at bay.

The movie starts off with a young Gregory completing a prison cell for an unknown woman. Years later, the prisoner, a draconic beast, breaks out and attacks a nearby town, specifically targeting the aged Knight and his apprentice (Kit Harington — Jon Snow from Game of Thrones). This recently released evil is Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), the queen of witches.

During the battle, Harington’s brief existence in this film is brought to an end, causing Gregory to seek out another apprentice. This search leads him to young Thomas Ward (Ben Barnes). After Ward goes through some sad goodbyes with his family, he and Gregory set out to take down the Witch Queen before the blood moon sets.

His training would normally take 10 years, but they only have a week.

Put simply, this movie was very fragmented. It isn’t a good movie, but it isn’t a bad one either. It has reasonable special effects and decent fight scenes.

There is plenty of star power: Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Kit Harington, Djimon Hounsou (one of my favorites), and Jason Scott Lee.

Jeff Bridges missed the mark on his character. It’s one thing to be disgruntled and war-torn with a curious sense of humor, but it’s something quite different to be outright silly.

There were no explanations. How did the order come about? Why seventh sons of seventh sons? How did Gregory KNOW there was a seventh son at that house? How did the war start? Why is Gregory the last? Why wasn’t there more about Gregory’s relationship with Malkin? Why did the skeleton in the armor attack Tom? Why do the swords hum? Where did the stone come from? Why was it powerful? Why anything, really? The story has no depth, failing to explain the “why” of any of its lore. There were only statements of fact, which confuses viewers and prevents them from becoming emotionally anchored to the story.

I simply didn’t care about the characters. The film was disorganized and rushed. Perhaps it would have been better served as two films, or a longer film, or even a mini series.

Seventh Son had the potential to be so much more. A combination of poor writing and bad direction made the movie lackluster to me and all three of my companions.

The actors delivered many campy one-liners, and the chuckles they drew from the crowd were quite unintentional.

If you are a fan of high fantasy, it’s probably worth seeing, but wait for it to arrive on Netflix and use it as background entertainment
  
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