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Kaukasis The Cookbook: The Culinary Journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan & Beyond
Book
Over 100 recipes from Georgia and beyond. Over 100 delicious recipes from the Wild East. "A...
Food
Heart Disease: Eat Your Way to Better Health
Book
In this title, Dale explains that heart disease is at epidemic proportions and rising, and attempts...
The Goon Show Compendium: Ten Episodes of the Classic BBC Radio Comedy Series Plus Bonus Features: Volume 12
Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers
Book
Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers star in 10 rare episodes of The Goon Show, plus a...
Kyera (8 KP) rated Red Rising in Books
Feb 1, 2018
I did not immediately fall in love with Red Rising. Rather the storyline slowly built over the first third of the book and then I found myself wanting to know what happens next. Darrows life as a Red is important to experience so you know what made him the man he is today, but didnt captivate my attention.
The world that he knows is a lie. He is not the sacrificing pioneer his society led him to believe, but rather little more than a slave. His entire outlook and being is altered so that he may fight his way to the top, and maybe change the Society.
Darrow is filled with love for his people and his family, but does not understand the world at large. He must learn, and quickly, to fit into this new world without losing himself in the process. Each character in the book is unique and contributes differently to the story. Some force Darrow to question his resolve to the cause, others show him a different side of humanity, while a rare few make him wonder if all Golds are bad.
Mustang and Sevro are probably my two favourite supporting characters. Mustang is smart, strategic and caring even though she was not raised to be that way. Her father is the leader on Mars, so she led a sheltered but harsh childhood. Sevro is a strange human, but he grows on you over the novel and his dark humour is infectious.
The most fascinating parts of the book were when he was attending the Institute and proving that he had what it took to become a Peerless Scarred. It was almost a study on the absolute lowest that humanity can sink to, the darkness they can embrace when there are no consequences to their actions and the leaders that can rise despite it. It was disgusting and horrifying at times, but you cant put it down.
Relationships form and are torn asunder, lies build and fester, and humanity sinks lower. The book was well written and I kept picking it up, needing to know what happened next, despite the darkness. I would recommend it to older young adult/teen readers, or adults, who enjoy science fiction novels.
The world that he knows is a lie. He is not the sacrificing pioneer his society led him to believe, but rather little more than a slave. His entire outlook and being is altered so that he may fight his way to the top, and maybe change the Society.
Darrow is filled with love for his people and his family, but does not understand the world at large. He must learn, and quickly, to fit into this new world without losing himself in the process. Each character in the book is unique and contributes differently to the story. Some force Darrow to question his resolve to the cause, others show him a different side of humanity, while a rare few make him wonder if all Golds are bad.
Mustang and Sevro are probably my two favourite supporting characters. Mustang is smart, strategic and caring even though she was not raised to be that way. Her father is the leader on Mars, so she led a sheltered but harsh childhood. Sevro is a strange human, but he grows on you over the novel and his dark humour is infectious.
The most fascinating parts of the book were when he was attending the Institute and proving that he had what it took to become a Peerless Scarred. It was almost a study on the absolute lowest that humanity can sink to, the darkness they can embrace when there are no consequences to their actions and the leaders that can rise despite it. It was disgusting and horrifying at times, but you cant put it down.
Relationships form and are torn asunder, lies build and fester, and humanity sinks lower. The book was well written and I kept picking it up, needing to know what happened next, despite the darkness. I would recommend it to older young adult/teen readers, or adults, who enjoy science fiction novels.
Alone: Generations Trilogy
6.0
Rate It
Book
In the final installment of an exhilarating sci-fi adventure trilogy in the vein of The Hunger...
Science fiction
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Book
*** Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2014 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014 *** 'The...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising in Tabletop Games
Dec 3, 2020
Have you read our review of Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War? If you have not, please do. I’ll wait. The reason I ask is because this Harry Potter version is a reimplementation of Thanos Rising with a few new twists. Great twists. In fact, I’ll spoil it for you and let you know that I now prefer the Harry Potter version even though I enjoy Marvel-related things in my life much more. But why is it good or better than its predecessor?
Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a game utilizing the Rising system of games (which also includes Batman, Star Wars, and SpongeBob Squarepants as of now) for two to four players. It is a cooperative game where players will take charge of one of the three factions: Dumbledore’s Army, Hogwarts, or Order of the Phoenix in order to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eater cronies. Though Voldemort will be menacing players throughout the game, the players will not be able to attack him directly until about half way through the game. Can you survive long enough to battle the big bad?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook, but generally the central board will have the large painted Voldemort “mini(?)” and three areas that hold Place cards: Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic, and Diagon Alley. Players will be given one Leader card in their chosen faction (obviously Order of the Phoenix is best) to begin the game. Set aside the damage counters, corruption gem tokens, and Spell tokens in their own piles. Shuffle the main deck of character cards, reveal and place three per Place and then insert the Voldemort card somewhere near half-way into the shuffled deck. The game may now begin.
On a player’s turn they must complete the following steps: 1. Travel to a Location, 2. Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions, 3. Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice, and 4. End Turn. After taking these actions it will be the next player’s turn.
To Travel to a Location, the active player will place their faction-matching Mission token upon one of the Places on the board. This is the Place that the active player may now be able to recruit Wizards from and also attack enemies.
Once at a Location, the active player will Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions thenceforth. The game affords players a large green Voldemort Die to be rolled. Upon the faces are sides that instruct players to turn the Voldemort mini Left or Right one Place and attack all Wizards there (including all Wizards on a player’s team if Voldemort is now in their Location). Two faces will also show the Dark Mark. When this face is rolled Voldemort does not move, but will attack all Wizards at his current Place (by placing damage counters on the card) as well as activating ALL Death Eater Dark Mark abilities. Not all Death Eaters will have Dark Mark abilities, but when they activate, they can be deadly.
Now that Voldemort has had his fun, the active player will Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice. Players will have in front of them faction cards that indicate how many and of which color dice to be rolled on a turn. These dice may be added to or otherwise altered as a result of recruited Wizards’ special abilities as well. Once a player takes the appropriate dice to be rolled, they must roll them and begin assigning faces to Wizards for recruitment, Death Eaters for damage, or other abilities on team cards. Recruiting more Wizards to a player’s team or damaging Death Eaters is how the game progresses because each time a card is recruited or defeated it is removed from the main board and a new card replaces it. As long as at least one die is removed from the player’s pool each time the dice are rolled the player may continue rolling to match symbols needed.
To End Turn, the active player will add any recruited Wizards to their team, discard any defeated Death Eaters, Wizards, or Places, and retrieve their Mission token to be used on the next turn.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns through the four steps until the Voldemort card is drawn. He then comes into play as an enemy that may be attacked like normal. Players win when they defeat enough Death Eaters and Voldemort, but can lose if the players allow a Place to be completely corrupted (usually by Death Eater card abilities), allowing four Places to be corrupted, if too many Wizards have been defeated per number of players, or any player has all their Wizards defeated from their team.
Components. This game includes a lot of components of varying style and materials. The cards are all very glossy (meh) and feature headshots of the characters mostly. The board is three pieces fit together like a pizza and is great. The damage counters are little translucent red cubes, and the corruption gem tokens are also translucent gems but gray in color. The best components in the game are by far the Voldemort, well, statue and all the dice. The Voldemort piece is incredible, and pre-painted. The stance he is taking is formidable and somewhat intimidating when he’s pointing his wand right at you. The dice have been upgraded to a matte finish (as opposed to yucky polished finish) and feature some great inking. The one negative I have to say is also about the dice: I believe that the faces sometimes can be confusing because the icons are more detailed than is necessary. While some would argue that detailed dice are better than merely serviceable dice, I would much rather see a sword on a face and know it’s a sword than to look at a die face and wonder what I am looking at exactly. In any case, that’s my opinion and yours may be different. Let’s still be friends.
So overall this is a big upgrade over the Thanos version of a Rising game for several key reasons. In Thanos I always felt like every turn could lose the game for us, and Thanos seemed to gain the Infinity Stones too quickly for my taste. In this version, you know you have half a deck before you are able to even fight Voldemort, so being able to tackle his minions until then seems more surmountable. The dice have been upgraded, and the Voldemort die is wonderful and easy to read. That was an issue I had with Thanos: his die was hard to read and the colors were not distinct enough. Not a factor in this version at all. I also feel that this version has much more faction-dependency and interplay. What I mean is that an Order of the Phoenix card may require a player to also have a Dumbledore’s Army card on the team in order to unlock access to their special ability. I like that. I like a well-balanced team, though my first game saw me recruit eight Order of the Phoenix cards and one Dumbledore’s Army card. We won, but I felt bad.
So it’s no surprise that I love this game. I find it better and easier to learn/play than the Thanos version. I like the components a whole lot more. I like the interplay between the factions more. I am sad that I prefer Marvel to Harry Potter, but I do not dislike Harry Potter, let it be known. And I do enjoy this version much more. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a triumphant 10 / 12. My wife and I truly love it and can’t wait to play it again very soon. If you are looking for a good Rising game, I certainly recommend you look at Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. It’s a guaranteed hit if you or a loved one is a Harry Potter fan. For sure. It’s brilliant.
Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a game utilizing the Rising system of games (which also includes Batman, Star Wars, and SpongeBob Squarepants as of now) for two to four players. It is a cooperative game where players will take charge of one of the three factions: Dumbledore’s Army, Hogwarts, or Order of the Phoenix in order to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eater cronies. Though Voldemort will be menacing players throughout the game, the players will not be able to attack him directly until about half way through the game. Can you survive long enough to battle the big bad?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook, but generally the central board will have the large painted Voldemort “mini(?)” and three areas that hold Place cards: Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic, and Diagon Alley. Players will be given one Leader card in their chosen faction (obviously Order of the Phoenix is best) to begin the game. Set aside the damage counters, corruption gem tokens, and Spell tokens in their own piles. Shuffle the main deck of character cards, reveal and place three per Place and then insert the Voldemort card somewhere near half-way into the shuffled deck. The game may now begin.
On a player’s turn they must complete the following steps: 1. Travel to a Location, 2. Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions, 3. Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice, and 4. End Turn. After taking these actions it will be the next player’s turn.
To Travel to a Location, the active player will place their faction-matching Mission token upon one of the Places on the board. This is the Place that the active player may now be able to recruit Wizards from and also attack enemies.
Once at a Location, the active player will Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions thenceforth. The game affords players a large green Voldemort Die to be rolled. Upon the faces are sides that instruct players to turn the Voldemort mini Left or Right one Place and attack all Wizards there (including all Wizards on a player’s team if Voldemort is now in their Location). Two faces will also show the Dark Mark. When this face is rolled Voldemort does not move, but will attack all Wizards at his current Place (by placing damage counters on the card) as well as activating ALL Death Eater Dark Mark abilities. Not all Death Eaters will have Dark Mark abilities, but when they activate, they can be deadly.
Now that Voldemort has had his fun, the active player will Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice. Players will have in front of them faction cards that indicate how many and of which color dice to be rolled on a turn. These dice may be added to or otherwise altered as a result of recruited Wizards’ special abilities as well. Once a player takes the appropriate dice to be rolled, they must roll them and begin assigning faces to Wizards for recruitment, Death Eaters for damage, or other abilities on team cards. Recruiting more Wizards to a player’s team or damaging Death Eaters is how the game progresses because each time a card is recruited or defeated it is removed from the main board and a new card replaces it. As long as at least one die is removed from the player’s pool each time the dice are rolled the player may continue rolling to match symbols needed.
To End Turn, the active player will add any recruited Wizards to their team, discard any defeated Death Eaters, Wizards, or Places, and retrieve their Mission token to be used on the next turn.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns through the four steps until the Voldemort card is drawn. He then comes into play as an enemy that may be attacked like normal. Players win when they defeat enough Death Eaters and Voldemort, but can lose if the players allow a Place to be completely corrupted (usually by Death Eater card abilities), allowing four Places to be corrupted, if too many Wizards have been defeated per number of players, or any player has all their Wizards defeated from their team.
Components. This game includes a lot of components of varying style and materials. The cards are all very glossy (meh) and feature headshots of the characters mostly. The board is three pieces fit together like a pizza and is great. The damage counters are little translucent red cubes, and the corruption gem tokens are also translucent gems but gray in color. The best components in the game are by far the Voldemort, well, statue and all the dice. The Voldemort piece is incredible, and pre-painted. The stance he is taking is formidable and somewhat intimidating when he’s pointing his wand right at you. The dice have been upgraded to a matte finish (as opposed to yucky polished finish) and feature some great inking. The one negative I have to say is also about the dice: I believe that the faces sometimes can be confusing because the icons are more detailed than is necessary. While some would argue that detailed dice are better than merely serviceable dice, I would much rather see a sword on a face and know it’s a sword than to look at a die face and wonder what I am looking at exactly. In any case, that’s my opinion and yours may be different. Let’s still be friends.
So overall this is a big upgrade over the Thanos version of a Rising game for several key reasons. In Thanos I always felt like every turn could lose the game for us, and Thanos seemed to gain the Infinity Stones too quickly for my taste. In this version, you know you have half a deck before you are able to even fight Voldemort, so being able to tackle his minions until then seems more surmountable. The dice have been upgraded, and the Voldemort die is wonderful and easy to read. That was an issue I had with Thanos: his die was hard to read and the colors were not distinct enough. Not a factor in this version at all. I also feel that this version has much more faction-dependency and interplay. What I mean is that an Order of the Phoenix card may require a player to also have a Dumbledore’s Army card on the team in order to unlock access to their special ability. I like that. I like a well-balanced team, though my first game saw me recruit eight Order of the Phoenix cards and one Dumbledore’s Army card. We won, but I felt bad.
So it’s no surprise that I love this game. I find it better and easier to learn/play than the Thanos version. I like the components a whole lot more. I like the interplay between the factions more. I am sad that I prefer Marvel to Harry Potter, but I do not dislike Harry Potter, let it be known. And I do enjoy this version much more. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a triumphant 10 / 12. My wife and I truly love it and can’t wait to play it again very soon. If you are looking for a good Rising game, I certainly recommend you look at Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. It’s a guaranteed hit if you or a loved one is a Harry Potter fan. For sure. It’s brilliant.
Merissa (13792 KP) rated Red Moon Rising (Strength of the Pack #3) in Books
Feb 20, 2026
RED MOON RISING is the third book in the Strength of the Pack series, and it begins with a kidnapping. Tristan has finished a late shift at the diner and is making his way home when he is accosted by a couple of members of Cale's pack. They take him back to their compound, where things look bleak, before Colby does what he never thought possible.
Boy, if there's ever anyone who needs therapy (and a sh!t ton of it, too!), it's Colby. While nothing is specifically said, you get the gist of it enough to know how hellish his life is. But Tristan makes him want to be better, not liking who he is in the mirror that Tristan is metaphorically holding up.
Matt's pack may be one of the good ones, but they don't deal well with change, this time in the shape of Colby. Now, I understand why they have their reasons not to trust everyone immediately, but it does make me a little sad. That is one of the reasons I loved it when Tristan had his realisation about Riley and tried to change his behaviour.
I loved Colby and Tristan, both together and separately, the same way I loved that Tristan recognised (with a little help from Bryce) that Colby would need more help than he could give. I would have preferred a different ending with Cale and Nico, though. The one we got just seemed a little anticlimactic.
It's Bryce's story next, and he's not looking for a mate, so it should be fun. The overall story arc is continuing along nicely, and I am thoroughly enjoying this series. Definitely recommended by me.
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Feb 20, 2026
Boy, if there's ever anyone who needs therapy (and a sh!t ton of it, too!), it's Colby. While nothing is specifically said, you get the gist of it enough to know how hellish his life is. But Tristan makes him want to be better, not liking who he is in the mirror that Tristan is metaphorically holding up.
Matt's pack may be one of the good ones, but they don't deal well with change, this time in the shape of Colby. Now, I understand why they have their reasons not to trust everyone immediately, but it does make me a little sad. That is one of the reasons I loved it when Tristan had his realisation about Riley and tried to change his behaviour.
I loved Colby and Tristan, both together and separately, the same way I loved that Tristan recognised (with a little help from Bryce) that Colby would need more help than he could give. I would have preferred a different ending with Cale and Nico, though. The one we got just seemed a little anticlimactic.
It's Bryce's story next, and he's not looking for a mate, so it should be fun. The overall story arc is continuing along nicely, and I am thoroughly enjoying this series. Definitely recommended by me.
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Feb 20, 2026
Easy Cupcake Recipes - Learn How to Make Cupcake
Food & Drink and Lifestyle
App
Learn how to make delicious cupcake from this app. Check out our tips to make the perfect cupcakes....
JT (287 KP) rated Rogue (2008) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
Along the quiet river banks of the Australian outback, buried deep within the baron red plains that surround desolate bush, lies a fear, a fear that lurks beneath the murky waters. Greg McLean does to boat trips what backpacking did for Wolf Creek, after seeing it you’re going to want to steer well clear of ever doing it.
Pete (Vartan) is a travel writer, sent around the world to exotic locations he finds himself in a place that he has no idea about. Taking a boat trip up the river with a bunch of people that we really won’t care much about, he goes in search of what the territory has to offer.
Leading the tour is Kate (Mitchell) someone who is the polar opposite to Pete and has never traveled out of her comfort zone once. As the boat glides up the river McLean makes sure he includes sweeping shots of the quiet picturesque landscape, of which is beautiful.
The focus of course is on the salt water crocodile’s that populate the river itself, a quick lesson from Kate about these prehistoric looking creatures sets up for the carnage that is only minutes away. Once the boat is capsized the unfortunate crew end up stranded on an island surrounded by a fast rising tidal river, with no direct route off it.
Like any monster movie we only ever catch glimpses of the predator (at least until the very end), a tail there, a moving ripple in the water there. The stranded patrons of course go through the motions, there’s infighting, emotion, selfishness and a coming together that in the end they are going to be able to escape the island.
It does carry a fairly decent degree of suspense even though it is predictable in places, and has an ending which quite frankly is a little preposterous.
The story line is as basic as it can get and the script is not brilliantly written, the acting has its moments with characters that don’t really have time to reveal their back stories to great effect, before a few all but disappear between the teeth of the seven foot beast.
It’s not overly gory but does have some scenes for those that are blood thirsty. On a whole it’s a decent flick, not as terrifying as Wolf Creek but holds itself well for the 100 minute run time.
Pete (Vartan) is a travel writer, sent around the world to exotic locations he finds himself in a place that he has no idea about. Taking a boat trip up the river with a bunch of people that we really won’t care much about, he goes in search of what the territory has to offer.
Leading the tour is Kate (Mitchell) someone who is the polar opposite to Pete and has never traveled out of her comfort zone once. As the boat glides up the river McLean makes sure he includes sweeping shots of the quiet picturesque landscape, of which is beautiful.
The focus of course is on the salt water crocodile’s that populate the river itself, a quick lesson from Kate about these prehistoric looking creatures sets up for the carnage that is only minutes away. Once the boat is capsized the unfortunate crew end up stranded on an island surrounded by a fast rising tidal river, with no direct route off it.
Like any monster movie we only ever catch glimpses of the predator (at least until the very end), a tail there, a moving ripple in the water there. The stranded patrons of course go through the motions, there’s infighting, emotion, selfishness and a coming together that in the end they are going to be able to escape the island.
It does carry a fairly decent degree of suspense even though it is predictable in places, and has an ending which quite frankly is a little preposterous.
The story line is as basic as it can get and the script is not brilliantly written, the acting has its moments with characters that don’t really have time to reveal their back stories to great effect, before a few all but disappear between the teeth of the seven foot beast.
It’s not overly gory but does have some scenes for those that are blood thirsty. On a whole it’s a decent flick, not as terrifying as Wolf Creek but holds itself well for the 100 minute run time.