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Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Under the Blue in Books
Jul 7, 2024
131 of 220
Book
Under the Blue
By Oana Aristide
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world?
Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program. Every week they feed him data, starting from the beginning of written history, era by era, and ask him to predict what will happen next to the human race. At the same time they're involved in an increasingly fraught philosophical debate about why human life is sacred and why the purpose for which he was built - to predict threats to human life to help us avoid them - is a worthwhile and ethical pursuit.
These two strands come together in a way that is always suspenseful, surprising and intellectually provocative: this is an extraordinarily prescient and vital work of fiction - an apocalyptic road novel to frighten and thrill.
This was a case of don’t judge a book by its cover I wasn’t expecting much from it to be honest. But I actually liked it. We follow two different stories that some how come together in the end one of 3 people trying to escape the pandemic and nuclear fall out and then 2 scientists developing an AI. While I liked it the ending left me feeling a bit flat! But it is worth a read.
Book
Under the Blue
By Oana Aristide
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world?
Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program. Every week they feed him data, starting from the beginning of written history, era by era, and ask him to predict what will happen next to the human race. At the same time they're involved in an increasingly fraught philosophical debate about why human life is sacred and why the purpose for which he was built - to predict threats to human life to help us avoid them - is a worthwhile and ethical pursuit.
These two strands come together in a way that is always suspenseful, surprising and intellectually provocative: this is an extraordinarily prescient and vital work of fiction - an apocalyptic road novel to frighten and thrill.
This was a case of don’t judge a book by its cover I wasn’t expecting much from it to be honest. But I actually liked it. We follow two different stories that some how come together in the end one of 3 people trying to escape the pandemic and nuclear fall out and then 2 scientists developing an AI. While I liked it the ending left me feeling a bit flat! But it is worth a read.
David McK (3562 KP) rated The Last of Us Remastered in Video Games
Feb 13, 2020
I must be one of the few people who hadn't actually played this the first time around (in the PS3 era): truth be told, I've never really got the pop culture love for Zombies.
However, I knew it was by the team behind the Uncharted games, and so picked it up when it was part of the PSN free games package, and thought I would give it a whirl. Now I've finished it, I have to say: I still prefer the Uncharted games.
Detailing the trials and travails of pottie-mouthed Ellie and Joel in a post-apocalyptic (pandemic?) world, there's no denying the skill and attention to detail put into the plot"; it's just a pity I found the game to be very 'samey' after a while.
However, I knew it was by the team behind the Uncharted games, and so picked it up when it was part of the PSN free games package, and thought I would give it a whirl. Now I've finished it, I have to say: I still prefer the Uncharted games.
Detailing the trials and travails of pottie-mouthed Ellie and Joel in a post-apocalyptic (pandemic?) world, there's no denying the skill and attention to detail put into the plot"; it's just a pity I found the game to be very 'samey' after a while.
Kelly Rettie (748 KP) rated The Tattooist of Auschwitz in Books
Oct 22, 2020
Very emotive
I have just finished this and it took me a few tears and had to have a wee break while reading it. It tells the story of Lale, while he was in the concentration camp and how he survived. Fairly graphic in parts, but then the detail of how he met and fell in love with who would become his wife. I found this a stern reminder to appreciate the freedom I have now, even with its limitations of the current pandemic and for that I am so grateful to this book. I feel the Heather Morris did this mans memory proud with this piece and to read his sons afterword brought tears to my eyes again. So glad I finally read it.
David McK (3562 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.
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.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Sister, maiden, monster in Books
Apr 9, 2024
68 of 220
Book
Sister, Maiden , Monster
By Lucy A. Snyder
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Humanity has been irrevocably changed by a virus that radically alters its victims...yet life goes on.
Three women must band together to try to survive. Erin and Savannah are helping usher in the new world, while Mareva has been burdened with a very special task ― one she's too horrified to even acknowledge.
This is absolutely brilliant I didn’t want to put it down. It’s so well written. Following a the covid pandemic the world gets thrown into another apocalyptic virus. This is a fantastic comic horror/end of days novel. It is graphic so please read any trigger warnings. I’m so glad I found this author her writing style is definitely something I want to read more of!
Book
Sister, Maiden , Monster
By Lucy A. Snyder
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Humanity has been irrevocably changed by a virus that radically alters its victims...yet life goes on.
Three women must band together to try to survive. Erin and Savannah are helping usher in the new world, while Mareva has been burdened with a very special task ― one she's too horrified to even acknowledge.
This is absolutely brilliant I didn’t want to put it down. It’s so well written. Following a the covid pandemic the world gets thrown into another apocalyptic virus. This is a fantastic comic horror/end of days novel. It is graphic so please read any trigger warnings. I’m so glad I found this author her writing style is definitely something I want to read more of!
Jordi Sanchez (3 KP) rated Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 in Tabletop Games
Mar 8, 2019
Immersive narrative (3 more)
Plot twists!
Real cooperation
Exciting, lots of surprises every campaign
The campaign is not replayable (1 more)
Adding steps to the mechanics of the game can make you forget some things
The best experience we had on a table
The famous Pandemic cooperative game about saving the world from epidemic disease with a Legacy twist, which means, playing a campaign where new goals, rules, characters, skills will be added and lost along the game.
We loved the tension and the rewarding feeling when we won.
The game is full of surprises. The box includes some mystery boxes and a bunch of dossiers that you can only open as you advance with the campaign.
The storyline is interesting and we'll balanced. You will get help if you keep losing, and things will get more challenging if you keep winning.
We loved the tension and the rewarding feeling when we won.
The game is full of surprises. The box includes some mystery boxes and a bunch of dossiers that you can only open as you advance with the campaign.
The storyline is interesting and we'll balanced. You will get help if you keep losing, and things will get more challenging if you keep winning.
David McK (3562 KP) rated The Aeronauts (2019) in Movies
Mar 29, 2020
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!
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!
Erika (17789 KP) created a post
Nov 7, 2020
David McK (3562 KP) rated I Am Legend (2007) in Movies
Apr 4, 2021
Messing with nature is never a good idea
Will Smith as Robert Neville
The sole survivor of the Zombie Apocalypse in New York City.
This is actually the third movie to be based on the classic Richard Matheson novel, taking liberties (like the previous two both do as well) with that source material - there is a very different ending here (even in the alternate cut!) than that novel originally had.
It also, for large parts, an acting masterclass by the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as he is onscreen alone for large swathes of the movie - only really sharing the screen in the flashback portions to the pre-pandemic time (hmm .... sound familiar? I'm writing this in 2021), when scientists believe they have found a genetic cure for cancer.
But, oh Sam ...
(I'll deliberately leave that obscure)
The sole survivor of the Zombie Apocalypse in New York City.
This is actually the third movie to be based on the classic Richard Matheson novel, taking liberties (like the previous two both do as well) with that source material - there is a very different ending here (even in the alternate cut!) than that novel originally had.
It also, for large parts, an acting masterclass by the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as he is onscreen alone for large swathes of the movie - only really sharing the screen in the flashback portions to the pre-pandemic time (hmm .... sound familiar? I'm writing this in 2021), when scientists believe they have found a genetic cure for cancer.
But, oh Sam ...
(I'll deliberately leave that obscure)
David McK (3562 KP) rated Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) in Movies
Mar 24, 2021 (Updated Jan 22, 2023)
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)
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)