The Reckoning (Matthew Hawkwood #6)
7.0
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The 6th historical thriller featuring Matthew Hawkwood, Bow Street Runner and Spy, now hunting a...
Mist Revealed (Elemental Desire #1)
10.0
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An ancient vampire. A bookish woman. And an explosive bond neither expected. Rune awakens into the...
Paranormal Romance
David McK (3633 KP) rated Mission impossible dead reckoning part one (2023) in Movies
Aug 19, 2023 (Updated Jun 1, 2025)
Long winded title.
It's also the 7th entry (of a definite 8, possibly more) in what-has-become Tom Cruise's signature franchise, which has now been running for nearly 30 years (27 years as of 2023, to be precise).
And I was initially shocked by how old Cruise looked during the opening scenes of this - no longer the fresh baby-faced figure of the early entries!
Anyway, this particular entry goes more into the realms of science-fiction than any of the previous instalments have, with Ethan Hunt and co searching for a way to stop the rogue AI known only as The Entity.
Personally, I found this to get a bit muddled in the middle - with one surprising death that I wasn't expecting (and that left a bit of a sour taste) - although it all leads to a barn-buster of a final act.
Personally, I still feel that Rogue Nation is the one to beat.
Hidden in Smoke
5.0
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When the crimes of a serial arsonist lead to murder, Sharpe and Walker need detective Eve Ronin to...
David McK (3633 KP) rated Project Hail Mary in Books
Apr 13, 2025
Watched the movie no long afterwards.
Enjoyed both, but not enough to make me hunt out any others by the same author, so never (yet) read "Artemis" by the same author.
Then saw this on sale on Kindle, for something like 99pence, so thought I might as well give it a chance, after checking it was not part of a series i.e. could be read as a standalone (which it can).
Like The Martian, I found this enjoyable enough, maybe a bit slow during the middle section, but I'm also left with a burning question at the very end - just what happened back home on Earth? The novel completely bypasses that, perhaps as it's pretty much all told in first-person perspective from the astronaut/science teacher Ryland Grace, the last survivor on board the spaceship Hail Mary on a last-ditch effort to save Earth.
David McK (3633 KP) rated Three Cheers for Me (The Bandy Papers, #1) in Books
Jan 30, 2019 (Updated Aug 10, 2025)
Mainly because I found myself stifling full-blown belly laughs sitting on a bus on the way home from work reading it.
Which happened again here.
For those not in the know, in these early novels the protagonist is a Canadian air war ace, one Bartholomew ('Bart') Bandy, who seems to constantly find himself getting into scrapes, especially where it concerns the top brass of the time, and then - somehow - coming out of them smelling of roses, as the saying goes.
I have since went on and read the entire series, but - I have to say - I found these earlier instalments, set amongst the horrors of the First World War - to be the better of the books.
Ultimate Lion Simulator
Games and Education
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Jump into a brand new adventure as a ferocious Lion! Brave a dangerous new world to claim your place...
postapocalypticplayground (27 KP) rated The Last Namsara in Books
Jan 9, 2018
The last Namsara is very much a book of revelations for Asha. The dragon attack when she was a child left her without a mother and also horrible scarred from the burns she suffered. Having to not only live with the fact that she is hated she also has to deal with the stares associated with her disfigurement, the armour she wears is both necessary for her hunt and for her emotional wellbeing. When her secret is out following an accident during a hunt, she is tended to by Torwin, her betrothed’s slave, who seemingly is willing to keep her secret, but at what cost to both of them?
Through a series of cruel acts she finds herself visited by the first Namsara who starts her on a path that will not only unravel the truth about what happened the day of the dragon attack, but also a much deeper and long running deception. Asha must therefore right the wrongs.
I very much liked Asha as a character, I found that she was written with both strength and vulnerability, she has always been the Iskari and that has given her an opportunity to hide behind a persona. She is however still a teenager and she has the same hopes and fears as everyone, but her hardened act is thankfully easy to scratch beyond the surface of. The book was an easy flowing read and I particularly liked how the Old Stories were interwoven into the pages, completing parts of the story and acting almost like a running prologue. It was a great way of explaining a complicated back story without being an info dump on the reader. I also found that there was a great deal of realism about the aftermaths of events, the fact that laws can’t be changed to suit the sovereign and that one persons change for the better will always be anothers change for the worse. It didn’t shy away from the ugly side of things and that always gets good marks from me.
That being said, I found the Last Namsara lacked a certain spark. I enjoyed reading it very much don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t have my pulse racing and I found it easy to put down of an evening. I would still recommend this to anyone who is a fan of dragons and kick ass female protagonists as it really does have a lot to like.
Real Guns & Games - Master Collection
Lifestyle and Entertainment
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