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ReSet: Be Good, Your Life Depends On It
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Good plot (1 more)
Well developed characters
cliff-hanger ending (0 more)
A one-night read
I picked up ReSet at the request of a friend as the story sounded rather like the YA dystopian novels of my teens. I started reading it before I went to bed and finished it before I went to sleep. It's a pretty quick read, and a pretty good story.

The plot's interesting, though it's a little surprising how easily the unsuitable people are eliminated. I think I only actually liked a couple of the characters; however I don't think we were necessarily meant to as these are fairly normal people (for the most part) dealing with an extreme and abnormal situation. The fellow in charge, Greyson Jeffers, who made this situation happen, keeps a close eye on the people he allows to form towns with the help of microchips implanted in them. Each town is allowed so many "bad" actions before it is "reset" aka destroyed. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but doing something about it is hard with the close surveillance. The end of the book felt a bit like a cliff-hanger to me, but I am hoping the author is able to publish book 2 soon.
  
Storm Of The Gods: An Areios Brothers Novel #1
Storm Of The Gods: An Areios Brothers Novel #1
Amy Braun | 2018 | History & Politics, Religion
6
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
a good solid 3 stars
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

30 years ago, the Greek gods re-emerged into the modern world from their enforced sleep. Since then, scions, direct descendants of those gods, have been doing their bidding and keeping the human population safe from the mythical beats of old. Derek and his 18 year old brother Liam, are war scions, doing the bidding of Ares, the god of war. Ares orders Derek to find and kill four rogue scions, by threatening Liam and Derek will do anything to keep his brother safe. But not all is as it seems, and Derek, Liam and the four scions find themselves in a battle to keep the mighty Titans at sleep.

**insert sigh**

For the most part,I did enjoy this. It took a while for me to get into it. There are several HUGE info dumps near the beginning and I didn't like that., It came at you all in one go, and I did not process all of that information, there was so much. It meant I got lost a little in places later on.

But it's all the history of the gods that dumps on you. You don't get all of Derek and Liam's history in that dump. That comes out in dribs and drabs, slow enough for you to process their history, before the next bit is thrown at you. And I think there may be more to come, I really do.

It is HEAVY on the fighting. Derek, Liam and the scions do a lot of fighting and it is described in all its detail. A bit too much for me.

Only Derek has his say, in the first person. I think if Liam, and maybe one of the scions, Selena, had their say too, even in the first, I might have enjoyed this one a little more.

I DID like the story itself, info dump and fighting aside, I did not see a lot coming at me, kept me on my toes.

There is something brewing between Derek and Selena, and I hope that plays out how I see playing out! But Derek has more secrets to reveal, some I don't think he even knows about yet. And he still has to get out of the war pact made with Ares, but to do that, Derek has to do what Ares asked him to. Derek does not want to do that now.

Will I read the next book?? Yes, I'd like to, if only to see how this all goes down.

So, because of the massive info dump, and because only Derek has a say....

3 solid good stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
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Darren (1599 KP) rated Air (2015) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019  
Air (2015)
Air (2015)
2015 | Mystery, Sci-Fi
5
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: Air starts in the future when the world has gone through a war, the remaining people live in a bunker in sleep chambers, engineers Bauer (Reedus) and Cartwright (Hounsou) both awaken on a routine cycle to check the equipment before returning to their chambers, but when a fire causes them to lose one of their chambers, they must work together with the resources they have because in 2 hours their air supply runs out.

As the clock ticks down the two must face moral decisions which involve risks to the fellow the sleepers in their bunker but finding a way for them both to get back to sleep is the most important part and any means necessary.

 

Thoughts on Air

 

Characters – Bauer seems to be the most resourceful of the two technicians in the chamber, he plays things safe and makes sure he knows the damage of any effect the men do. Cartwright seems to be the one who is about to lose his mind, he has visions of his wife who makes him make the decisions he does. While it could be argued these two men are meant to be considered the lower lives of the selected neither of them is made out to be the good guy while both find themselves making bad decisions through the film.

Performance – Both Norman Reedus and Djimon Hounsou are great actors but in this role the two just don’t give their best performances and end up not helping us care about either character.

Story – The story should work, we have the world ending with the only survivors in sleeping pods with two technicians watching over them every so many months or years. The problems here are clear, we have two unlikable characters who while they do take a step back to solve the problem it does just turn into a mindless battle of who will get the upper hand.

Sci-Fi/Thriller – The sci-fi side of the film comes from idea the world has ended and now the few survivors are underground, we are left wondering how the two men could survive with the only one chamber.

Settings – The film is set within the chamber, it shows the unclear feeling of what is outside and the fear of what is happening with no safety in the chamber.

Special Effects – The effects are used well with most being practical until we see the outside world which is as bleak as we are expecting.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – I just didn’t care about the two characters.

Final Thoughts – This is a sci-fi film that we have seen before, we have seen better before but we have seen worse too and lacks the pace we need in the film.

 

Overall: Disappointing thriller.

https://moviesreview101.com/2018/06/01/air-2015/
  
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Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies

Nov 3, 2019 (Updated Nov 4, 2019)  
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
2019 | Horror
Love or Death
Doctor Sleep is a perfect companion piece to The Shining giving us more insite to the story it told while being carful not to stand on its toes. A chilling film that creates such a great atmosphere by using a great score and tight direction to keep you on edge and unnerved with shivers down your spine. This accompanied with a grim, cold, errie visual style and lingering slow camera pans you have a film that echos the original in some respects but feels very current too. Cinematography is also gorgeous with vast haunting establishing shots, dim lit rooms, cold fog drenched roads and lonely lights lost in the darkness. But what i found truly facinating is the continuous theme of life and death here which had me gripped/wanting to explore the film deeper and more intricatly with every scene. Every single life is precious and the film depicts how many of us seem to just take that for granted, waste it, live it alone, abuse it or spend it hung up on the past or on extream circumstances choose to take it from another without care or thought to what value that persons precence in the world held. Its all very powerful, deeply saddening and thought provoking stuff which gives the film its own soul rather than echoing the shining. Theres a lot to say about how we view death too these days, be it when its from natural causes or murder we all just seem to have in a way become desensitized to it or in a rush to forget and move on. Child trauma, grievence and the torment plus the dangers of locking things up and trying to forget can bring are also facinatingly explored also.
Characters are all so likable and we spend a good chunk of time with all (including the menacing and creepily intimidating villains) which I thought was really nice and this helps create great attachment meaning that when a death hits you really feel the impact of the loss adding poweful emotion and a small amount of grievence to each one (and adds to the running theme of all life being important and death being something everyone fears/cant escape). Acting is great especially with the new cast replicating old characters from the shining. Doctor sleep also gets nostalgia right using parts of the shining respectfuly and tastfully rather than just simply replicating them for a cheap cash grab, instead choosing to intrigate them as crucial parts of the plot. All in all this movie unnerved me, engrosed and provoked me making me think more on the subject of death the journey we all take towards and how we should all pay more care and give more thought to the ones we let go.