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Hazel (1853 KP) rated The Smoke Thieves in Books
May 8, 2018
Review This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
From the author of the popular fantasy trilogy, Half Bad comes a brand new historical-fantasy series: The Smoke Thieves. Featuring a princess, a traitor, a soldier, a hunter and a thief, Sally Green’s fictional world is a dangerous place for these five teenagers. From demons to tyrannical fathers, they must do their best to overcome every obstacle placed in their way to survive a world that is destined for conflict.
The five main characters are a mixed bag of personalities and status. Princess Catherine is preparing for her arranged marriage, which aims to politically unite two nations, or so she believes. Her brutally ambitious father, on the other hand, has other ideas. Ambrose, Catherine’s guard and a traitor to her father, escapes death by chasing after Catherine with news of her father’s real plans.
Meanwhile, March, a soldier whose entire family and heritage were wiped out in a war, aims to get revenge by finding his king’s illegitimate son and only heir, however, he does not anticipate the prince being the naïve thief, Edyon. March and Edyon travel through the country in the company of an elderly man until they are ambushed by a demon hunter and his thirteen-year-old assistant, Tash. All Tash wants to do is hunt demons, collect their drug-like smoke and sell it so she can buy a pair of boots, but fate has other plans, and it is all because of demon smoke.
Coming from all walks of life, the unlikely characters join forces at the conclusion of the book, preparing to face the biggest battle of their young lives. The first book of the series is an exciting introduction to the action promised in the following novels. Slow to start but growing increasingly interesting, The Smoke Thieves is an engaging story with fantastic main characters.
As a work of historical fantasy, The Smoke Thieves is a welcome change from the contemporary fantasy Sally Green has previously written. This book suggests the author has great ideas to come in the near future.
From the author of the popular fantasy trilogy, Half Bad comes a brand new historical-fantasy series: The Smoke Thieves. Featuring a princess, a traitor, a soldier, a hunter and a thief, Sally Green’s fictional world is a dangerous place for these five teenagers. From demons to tyrannical fathers, they must do their best to overcome every obstacle placed in their way to survive a world that is destined for conflict.
The five main characters are a mixed bag of personalities and status. Princess Catherine is preparing for her arranged marriage, which aims to politically unite two nations, or so she believes. Her brutally ambitious father, on the other hand, has other ideas. Ambrose, Catherine’s guard and a traitor to her father, escapes death by chasing after Catherine with news of her father’s real plans.
Meanwhile, March, a soldier whose entire family and heritage were wiped out in a war, aims to get revenge by finding his king’s illegitimate son and only heir, however, he does not anticipate the prince being the naïve thief, Edyon. March and Edyon travel through the country in the company of an elderly man until they are ambushed by a demon hunter and his thirteen-year-old assistant, Tash. All Tash wants to do is hunt demons, collect their drug-like smoke and sell it so she can buy a pair of boots, but fate has other plans, and it is all because of demon smoke.
Coming from all walks of life, the unlikely characters join forces at the conclusion of the book, preparing to face the biggest battle of their young lives. The first book of the series is an exciting introduction to the action promised in the following novels. Slow to start but growing increasingly interesting, The Smoke Thieves is an engaging story with fantastic main characters.
As a work of historical fantasy, The Smoke Thieves is a welcome change from the contemporary fantasy Sally Green has previously written. This book suggests the author has great ideas to come in the near future.
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated The Incredibles 2 (2018) in Movies
May 14, 2019
Super
#pixar #disney #incredibles2 is an exceptional #sequel with a much more mature tone & flawless #animation. After doing a double bill of the incredibles films today in #4k I found myself awe of the technical achievement on show. This #film is stunning & I mean visual #perfection, particle effects are complex & mesmerising, #eyes house tiny red veins, faces blush & cloths contain intricate stitching too with character animation also being fluid & #natural. Subject matter is dark this time around & deals with extremely #adult themes, parents might want to think twice before taking kids to see this one as id say almost 80% of the film is a heavily dialog driven #drama. I wont lie at times its incredibly intense, heavy going & hard work but its also always fascinating & higly rewarding housing many very real world/mature themes with great complexity & depth. With things getting very serious the film does break things up every now & again with just enough huge scale top notch memorable action set pieces & slick comedy to let your brain rest briefly (however I found most #Kids in my screening were getting restless & bored by then so parents may want to think twice before taking the #family). Themes of death, jealousy, trust, lies, parent roll reversal, balancing home #life & family with work, teaching kids to be themselves while also making sure they obey the law & fit in, as well as metaphors about technology enslaving us all & how superhero films are only pushed on us to distract us from real world problems & belief someone else will solve all our problems for us (this is not only refreshing but expertly handled & over flowing with intelligence giving the #film a more human, realistic & relevant tone). Voice work is simply top notch with #bobodenkirk being the most interesting & going the extra mile. Score & #sound design are also on point & at times I swear I thought #jackjack was a #kid in my screening running around behind me. The last 20mins felt a tad rushed but with such likeable & well fleshed out characters & a more mature story #incredibles 2 might just be the most intelligent & #fun #superhero film or the year. #odeon #odeonlimitless #beautiful #hero #super
Dana (24 KP) rated Batman the Killing Joke in Books
Mar 23, 2018
I really enjoyed reading this comic.
We get the Joker's origin story. He was in a robbery gone wrong and fell into acid because his wife and unborn child died in an electrical fire accident right before the robbery. He was poor, down on his luck, trying to get a job as a comic, and needed some money fast to keep them from losing their apartment. He started off by trying to do an honorable thing and it haunts him for the rest of his life. It is one of the reasons he has gone a bit loony, he cannot face the fact that he is alone in his grief.
We get the reason for Barbara Gordon's paralysis and her origin into becoming the Oracle. (Thanks Joker)
Detective Gordon is attacked by the Joker who is trying to show him how painful it is to lose something he loves. Joker wants to turn Gordon crazy, but doesn't.
Batman does not want his fight with the Joker to end in death, but it will if it has to.
Overall, I really enjoyed this comic and recommend it to anyone who likes the Joker and wants to know more about him.
I love the Joker's last joke, so I'm going to write it out.
Two guys are living in a lunatic asylum and one night they decide they do not like living in an any night they don't like living in an asylum anymore. They decide they're going to escape. So they get up onto the roof and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the roofs of the town, stretching away in the moonlight, stretching away to freedom. The first jumps across with no trouble. The second pauses, he is afraid of falling. The first calls back and says, "I'll turn on this flashlight I've got and you can walk across the beam." The second replies "What do you think I am, crazy? You'll turn the light off once I'm half way across."
I love that joke and the fact that both Batman and the Joker crack up after it.
We get the Joker's origin story. He was in a robbery gone wrong and fell into acid because his wife and unborn child died in an electrical fire accident right before the robbery. He was poor, down on his luck, trying to get a job as a comic, and needed some money fast to keep them from losing their apartment. He started off by trying to do an honorable thing and it haunts him for the rest of his life. It is one of the reasons he has gone a bit loony, he cannot face the fact that he is alone in his grief.
We get the reason for Barbara Gordon's paralysis and her origin into becoming the Oracle. (Thanks Joker)
Detective Gordon is attacked by the Joker who is trying to show him how painful it is to lose something he loves. Joker wants to turn Gordon crazy, but doesn't.
Batman does not want his fight with the Joker to end in death, but it will if it has to.
Overall, I really enjoyed this comic and recommend it to anyone who likes the Joker and wants to know more about him.
I love the Joker's last joke, so I'm going to write it out.
Two guys are living in a lunatic asylum and one night they decide they do not like living in an any night they don't like living in an asylum anymore. They decide they're going to escape. So they get up onto the roof and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the roofs of the town, stretching away in the moonlight, stretching away to freedom. The first jumps across with no trouble. The second pauses, he is afraid of falling. The first calls back and says, "I'll turn on this flashlight I've got and you can walk across the beam." The second replies "What do you think I am, crazy? You'll turn the light off once I'm half way across."
I love that joke and the fact that both Batman and the Joker crack up after it.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The 5th wave (2016) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Films about invaders from space have been a staple of film and television since the golden age of cinema. Playing on many Cold War fears in the aftermath of W.W.II, aliens bent on destruction has been an enduring staple of cinematic culture.
In the new film “The 5th Wave” which is based on the book of the same name, Chloe Grace Moretz plays Cassie, a teen who has her entire life turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious craft. A few days after the arrival of “the Others” as they are known, a pulse wipes out all electronics on the planet. This is soon followed by tsunamis and earthquakes as well as disease and death.
Cassie along with her father and brother find shelter but their community is soon disrupted by the arrival of the military who say that the invaders are now amongst them and posing as humans.
The military under the leadership of Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) has a plan to train the children to spot and defeat the alien invaders thus setting in motion the main conflict of the film. The secondary story consists of Cassie attempting to reunite with her family and her relationship with a mysterious stranger named Evan (Alex Roe).
The film is clearly aimed at a young adult market and as such I was able to spot the big twist in the film a long ways off as the clues were blatantly obvious to me. That being said, the film is better than you might expect and being the first chapter in a trilogy of books does set up the possibilities of sequels.
The dialogue and acting is pretty groan inducing at times, but again, remember the target audience, the film should entertain and it is nice to see Moretz deliver a solid performance in what in many ways could have been a limited role.
While it is not going to make you forget “The Hunger Games” anytime soon, the film is still a decent escape for those willing to overlook the flaws.
http://sknr.net/2016/01/22/the-5th-wave/
In the new film “The 5th Wave” which is based on the book of the same name, Chloe Grace Moretz plays Cassie, a teen who has her entire life turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious craft. A few days after the arrival of “the Others” as they are known, a pulse wipes out all electronics on the planet. This is soon followed by tsunamis and earthquakes as well as disease and death.
Cassie along with her father and brother find shelter but their community is soon disrupted by the arrival of the military who say that the invaders are now amongst them and posing as humans.
The military under the leadership of Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) has a plan to train the children to spot and defeat the alien invaders thus setting in motion the main conflict of the film. The secondary story consists of Cassie attempting to reunite with her family and her relationship with a mysterious stranger named Evan (Alex Roe).
The film is clearly aimed at a young adult market and as such I was able to spot the big twist in the film a long ways off as the clues were blatantly obvious to me. That being said, the film is better than you might expect and being the first chapter in a trilogy of books does set up the possibilities of sequels.
The dialogue and acting is pretty groan inducing at times, but again, remember the target audience, the film should entertain and it is nice to see Moretz deliver a solid performance in what in many ways could have been a limited role.
While it is not going to make you forget “The Hunger Games” anytime soon, the film is still a decent escape for those willing to overlook the flaws.
http://sknr.net/2016/01/22/the-5th-wave/
MaryAnn (14 KP) rated Fragments of Fear in Books
Nov 4, 2019
From award-winning author Carrie Stuart Parks comes a new novel with danger that reaches from a New Mexico Anasazi archaeological dig to micro- and nano-chip technology.
Evelyn Yvonne McTavish-Tavish to her friends-had her almost perfect world in Albuquerque, New Mexico, come to a crashing end with the suicide of her fiancé. As she struggles to put her life back together and make a living from her art, shes given the news that her dog is about to be destroyed at the dog pound. Except she doesnt own a dog. The shelter is adamant that the microchip embedded in the canine-with her name and address-makes it hers. Tavish recognizes the dog as one owned by an archaeologist named Pat Caron because she did a commissioned drawing of the two of them months earlier. The simple solution is to return the dog to his owner, but she arrives only to discover Carons murdered body. After meeting undercover FBI agent Sawyer Price the mystery deepens as more people start disappearing and Tavish becomes a target as well. Her only solution is to find the links between microchip technology, an Anasazi site in the desert, her fiancés death, a late-night radio show, and the dog. And the clock is ticking.
My Thoughts: This is an interesting suspense mystery novel. The author has a whimsical way of writing, that puts a little humor into the storyline. When the story begins, we have a young woman at the funeral of her fiance, then finds herself with a dog she doesn't really want and then discovers that it's the owner has been murdered. No wonder Tavish had so many panic attacks. I really enjoyed this novel. It kept my attention from the beginning and did not disappoint me throughout the story.
I enjoyed this novel, the one point I did like about this novel, is that the main character does come to Christ, and learns to overcome her fears by leaning on God.
I look forward to more from Carrie Stuart Parks.
????
Evelyn Yvonne McTavish-Tavish to her friends-had her almost perfect world in Albuquerque, New Mexico, come to a crashing end with the suicide of her fiancé. As she struggles to put her life back together and make a living from her art, shes given the news that her dog is about to be destroyed at the dog pound. Except she doesnt own a dog. The shelter is adamant that the microchip embedded in the canine-with her name and address-makes it hers. Tavish recognizes the dog as one owned by an archaeologist named Pat Caron because she did a commissioned drawing of the two of them months earlier. The simple solution is to return the dog to his owner, but she arrives only to discover Carons murdered body. After meeting undercover FBI agent Sawyer Price the mystery deepens as more people start disappearing and Tavish becomes a target as well. Her only solution is to find the links between microchip technology, an Anasazi site in the desert, her fiancés death, a late-night radio show, and the dog. And the clock is ticking.
My Thoughts: This is an interesting suspense mystery novel. The author has a whimsical way of writing, that puts a little humor into the storyline. When the story begins, we have a young woman at the funeral of her fiance, then finds herself with a dog she doesn't really want and then discovers that it's the owner has been murdered. No wonder Tavish had so many panic attacks. I really enjoyed this novel. It kept my attention from the beginning and did not disappoint me throughout the story.
I enjoyed this novel, the one point I did like about this novel, is that the main character does come to Christ, and learns to overcome her fears by leaning on God.
I look forward to more from Carrie Stuart Parks.
????
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