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Mermaid Fins, Winds & Rolling Pins (Spells & caramels 3)
By Erin Johnson
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Scheming pirates. Reveling mermaids. When murder crashes the party, can one witch dredge up the killer?

Imogen's personal spellcraft lessons with Prince Hank have sparked a different type of magic between them. So when she's invited to bake for the mermaid queen's lavish wedding, she hopes the underwater ceremony will help cool off their growing attraction. But between the temptations of the sea-cave nightlife and the discovery of a murdered royal court member, her emotions are rising higher than the tide.

When one of her signature treats is found in the dead mermaid's gills, she'll have to stow her feelings and wade through the clues to clear her name. But surrounded by hard-partying revelers, a scandalous royal court, and a shipload of pirates, the twisted truth may be more elusive than sunken treasure.

With rough waters closing in, can Imogen catch the real killer before she has to walk the plank?

I enjoyed most of this book and really this should be a 2.5 stars but went for the 3 as 2 would have been to low. This is the weakest so for for me and all down to the way the mermaids and pirates were written it got on my nerves. Other than that it was a good read I just can’t get past that annoying queen mermaid and her dumb pirate!
  
40x40

David McK (3623 KP) rated Aliens (1986) in Movies

Jun 23, 2020 (Updated Mar 16, 2022)  
Aliens (1986)
Aliens (1986)
1986 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
The action (1 more)
Powerloader scene
All downhill from here ... (0 more)
James Cameron's sequel to Ridley Scott's 'Alien', set 57 years later and turning the 'haunted-house' setup of the original into a full-blown Vietnam war movie metaphor, with the sole survivor of the Nostromo, Ellen Ripley (a career best Sigourney Weaver) rescued and woken up from hypersleep by The Company, and convinced to return to the planet where she first encountered the Xenomorph, when they suddenly lose contact with the colonists on said planets.

The Extended Edition of the movie adds even more context, with the revelation that Ripley had a daughter who has since died, to the 'found family' at the heart of the narrative - especially between Newt and Ripley herself - while Bill Paxton has the honour(?) of becoming the only actor to be killed by a Predator, an Alien and a Terminator, as one of the (initially) cocksure Colonial Marines trapped behind enemy lines.

Top it off with the iconic final act (Ripley in a Powerloader Vs the Alien Queen) and some eminently quotable lines throughout:

"Game over, man! Game Over!!"
"They mostly come at night, mostly …"
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure"
"Get away from her, you b..."

And we have what most surely be one of the best sequels ever. Even, in my opinion, eclipsing the original.

It's just a pity it's all downhill from here ...
  
The Ghost Theatre
The Ghost Theatre
Mat Osman | 2023 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Ghost Theatre was one of those books that had me heading straight to Google. I was looking up “Aviscultan religion”. It doesn’t actually exist, but it sounds like it should.

Shay is an Aviscultan, but she is distracted from her home and way of life when she meets Nonesuch and his fellow young thespians at the Blackfriars theatre. She falls in love with him, neglects her failing, blind father, and eventually becomes something of a celebrity when she uses her ability to predict the future for Queen Elizabeth I. Soon, all wealthy Londoners want to see her, and the owner of Blackfriars theatre realises he can make some serious money out of Shay.

This is an exciting story with lots of running-across-rooftops-action, but I thought the real magic was in the descriptions of the narrow London streets, the smells, sights, the people and the animals. The descriptions of the birds, especially that of Devana, Shays falcon friend, truly expressed the wonder and reverence that Shay and her fellow Aviscultans had for all birds - and frankly, I can’t see what would be bad about a belief such as this!

The fact that a rebellion could be stoked by a guerrilla theatre group - a Ghost Theatre - showed the power of art, theatre and stories.

This is a mesmerising book; I was completely immersed in the birds, the magic and the dark London streets. And I didn’t want it to end.

Highly recommended.