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David McK (3377 KP) rated Armada in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Armada

John Stack | 2012

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

John Stack seems to have a knack for choosing unusual settings.

His previous novels - Ship of Rome, Captain of Rome and Masters of Rome all concerned the Roman navy during the first Punic war against Carthage. While this novel is not part of that series, it also has another unusual setting: this time, that of the Spanish Armada.

While it does have an unusual setting, it also shares some similarites with those other books: again, the main protaganist of the novel is an outsider, this time a loyal Recusant (or practising, secret, Catholic) in the English navy compared to the Greek captain in the Roman navy of the Masters of the Sea series. Again, a large chunk of it takes place on sea, rather than on land. Again, it is an enjoyable read.

Kudos

Deborah (162 KP) rated Tides of War in Books

Dec 21, 2018

I found this novel took a while to get in to, when I did I quite enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it's something that's going to stay with me.

The novel takes place predominantly during the Peninsular War, following both some of the soldiers and seeing how those in England cope with the situation. There were quite a few characters and quite a lot going on; I did feel that we never really got deep enough into any of the characters to really know them - really, my favourite was Racket the dog! It was the sort of book where I wanted to see how it ended, but didn't care enough about the characters to feel much about what happened to them - I felt they wren't developed enough and had revealed enough to the reader to earn my sympathy

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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) in Movies

Mar 7, 2020

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

2018 | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

6.6

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Terry Gilliam emerges victorious from his epic battle to the death with Miguel Cervantes' famous novel. Not quite the movie he famously never finished making with Johnny Depp, nearly twenty years ago, but a subtly different tale of a film director finding himself entangled in different versions of the Quixote story and, perhaps, looking for redemption.

After a slow and rambling start the film eventually becomes a charming, funny, and occasionally thrilling and moving adaptation (sort of) of the book - if it's picaresque and episodic, that's the nature of Quixote. The knowing wit and intelligence of the novel survive too. Strong performances, visually very impressive - the fact the film exists at all is remarkable, let alone that it's this good. Very reminiscent of Gilliam's movies from the 1980s: hugely imaginative, narratively chaotic, very individual, and equally easy to like.