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Sam Hill (23 KP) rated Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King in Tabletop Games
Jun 21, 2019
Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King is the follow up to the hugely successful Super Dungeon Explore (spoiler alert; I wasnt the base games biggest fan). Forgotten Kings has slipped a little more under the radar, possibly due to the hugely controversial kickstarter for the base game, and Soda Pops split from the publisher who helped launch their (and a number of successful KS campaigns), but also likely due to the fact that since the base set came out miniature based board games have gone from being a rarity, to a more mainstream product.
Its here that Forgotten Kings falls to pieces. When SDE launched it was a top end board game, and was excitingly innovative, playing like a fusion of Warhammer-a-likes, Euro board games, and an rpg. With no direct comparison it shone out as something special, but Forgotten Kings has launched into a market surrounded by superior games more tailored to specific gamers.
Want a quick fun mini based game; here's Zombicide, want a complex deep and strategic mini based board game; here's Dark Souls.
And therein lies the issue, Gorgotten King is a mesh of simple things and randomness, and a level of complexity in set up phases that makes you read the rules three times.
The one thing Forgotten Kongs nails perfectly is the miniatures. The models are detailed, cute and fun to paint. If you can pick up a decently priced copy and have a use for then it is almost worth picking up a copy just for them.
Forgotten Kings also has one feature to lift it above the original version; the introduction of Arcade mode. Whilst the normal rules requires one player to sit in a dungeon master style role in Arcade Mode an AI system has been introduced to allow you to solo play, or all play on the same side.
Like the original Forgotten Kings still feels very much like an 8-bit experience on a board, but, like its video game counterparts, the competition has moved on to better things.
Its here that Forgotten Kings falls to pieces. When SDE launched it was a top end board game, and was excitingly innovative, playing like a fusion of Warhammer-a-likes, Euro board games, and an rpg. With no direct comparison it shone out as something special, but Forgotten Kings has launched into a market surrounded by superior games more tailored to specific gamers.
Want a quick fun mini based game; here's Zombicide, want a complex deep and strategic mini based board game; here's Dark Souls.
And therein lies the issue, Gorgotten King is a mesh of simple things and randomness, and a level of complexity in set up phases that makes you read the rules three times.
The one thing Forgotten Kongs nails perfectly is the miniatures. The models are detailed, cute and fun to paint. If you can pick up a decently priced copy and have a use for then it is almost worth picking up a copy just for them.
Forgotten Kings also has one feature to lift it above the original version; the introduction of Arcade mode. Whilst the normal rules requires one player to sit in a dungeon master style role in Arcade Mode an AI system has been introduced to allow you to solo play, or all play on the same side.
Like the original Forgotten Kings still feels very much like an 8-bit experience on a board, but, like its video game counterparts, the competition has moved on to better things.
Kaz (232 KP) rated The Dead Ex in Books
Nov 5, 2019
‘The Dead Ex’ was a buddy read, I had never read anything by Jane Corry before. To be quite honest with you, it will possibly be the last book I will read by this author.
Firstly, this book is split into several threads of story. We have the main character Vicki’s point of view, a little girl named Scarlett and a woman named Helen. Lately, whenever I have read a book which had more than one story thread running through it, I’ve been frustrated that one plot was good and the others, disappointing. With ‘The Dead Ex’, this was the same. I liked Scarlett’s story line and found it particularly moving. The power of this story was let down, by the weaker threads running along side it.
The characters were mostly ok, but I found some of their behaviors to be too exaggerated. This book would have been a good read for this month’s ‘Disability Read-a-thon’ (I read this just before the beginning of October), because the main character in this book, has Epilepsy. The sad thing for me though, was that this book would have been the perfect example of how NOT to portray a person with this condition.
I felt annoyed that, whenever anyone discovered that the main character had Epilepsy, she was instantly treated with suspicion. To me, this didn’t highlight the condition, but in some ways, demonized people who have to deal with Epilepsy and this wasn’t fair.
The plot of this novel was, for the most part, intriguing and I wanted to continue reading to find out what was going to happen. Whilst the many threads of story were tied up in a satisfactory way, there were a couple plot twists, which I felt to be weak, or really silly.
Overall, I think that this book was trying to highlight many social issues. Unfortunately, this need to cram a lot into the pages of this book, resulted in a weak and messy read.
This book was ok, but nothing that I would recommend rushing out to read.
My Rating: ** 1/2 Stars
Firstly, this book is split into several threads of story. We have the main character Vicki’s point of view, a little girl named Scarlett and a woman named Helen. Lately, whenever I have read a book which had more than one story thread running through it, I’ve been frustrated that one plot was good and the others, disappointing. With ‘The Dead Ex’, this was the same. I liked Scarlett’s story line and found it particularly moving. The power of this story was let down, by the weaker threads running along side it.
The characters were mostly ok, but I found some of their behaviors to be too exaggerated. This book would have been a good read for this month’s ‘Disability Read-a-thon’ (I read this just before the beginning of October), because the main character in this book, has Epilepsy. The sad thing for me though, was that this book would have been the perfect example of how NOT to portray a person with this condition.
I felt annoyed that, whenever anyone discovered that the main character had Epilepsy, she was instantly treated with suspicion. To me, this didn’t highlight the condition, but in some ways, demonized people who have to deal with Epilepsy and this wasn’t fair.
The plot of this novel was, for the most part, intriguing and I wanted to continue reading to find out what was going to happen. Whilst the many threads of story were tied up in a satisfactory way, there were a couple plot twists, which I felt to be weak, or really silly.
Overall, I think that this book was trying to highlight many social issues. Unfortunately, this need to cram a lot into the pages of this book, resulted in a weak and messy read.
This book was ok, but nothing that I would recommend rushing out to read.
My Rating: ** 1/2 Stars
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Havana Storm in Books
Nov 14, 2019
I've been reading some pretty demanding books recently and needed something a bit more lightweight and the Cussler template usually fits the bill. You always know what you are going to get and sometimes that's just what you need. I didn't expect this book to blow me away and it didn't - but it was better than my expectations.
This is another collaboration with Dirk Cussler and as usual it's hard to know how much of the book is down to Clive and how much to Dirk. But that's not the point. In this book you get lots of underwater action, 'bad guys' intent on making money and creating environmental disaster in the process and Cuban political intrigue.
In previous installments the children of Dirk Pitt (called Dirk and Summer) have sometimes appeared to have written in just to make sure they appear in the series leaving the actual meat of the story progression to the familiar team of Pitt and Giordino. But this is quite notable for the ensemble cast that get their hands dirty in the course of the story, especially when the usual pairings are split up and Pitt works with his daughter and Dirk is with Giordino.
There are the usual scrapes and death-defying escapes but again the reader is kept guessing as sometime the escapes leave the heroes free to continue their task of thwarting the bad guys but other times ingenious and risky plans work but end up with their almost immediate recapture.
Overall the book is indeed a little more realistic that previous ones (although still pretty far fetched). The threat is localised rather than global and the motivation of political power and greed seems plausible, as does the way the NUMA team pull the threads together to work out what is going on.
This is never going to be a must read book or on any kind of literary shortlist for me but for pure escapist adventure, it's really hard to beat.
Possibly one for Dirk Pitt fans only as the first few books are far superior, but a lot better than some installments in the series.
Rating: Some violence but not excessive
This is another collaboration with Dirk Cussler and as usual it's hard to know how much of the book is down to Clive and how much to Dirk. But that's not the point. In this book you get lots of underwater action, 'bad guys' intent on making money and creating environmental disaster in the process and Cuban political intrigue.
In previous installments the children of Dirk Pitt (called Dirk and Summer) have sometimes appeared to have written in just to make sure they appear in the series leaving the actual meat of the story progression to the familiar team of Pitt and Giordino. But this is quite notable for the ensemble cast that get their hands dirty in the course of the story, especially when the usual pairings are split up and Pitt works with his daughter and Dirk is with Giordino.
There are the usual scrapes and death-defying escapes but again the reader is kept guessing as sometime the escapes leave the heroes free to continue their task of thwarting the bad guys but other times ingenious and risky plans work but end up with their almost immediate recapture.
Overall the book is indeed a little more realistic that previous ones (although still pretty far fetched). The threat is localised rather than global and the motivation of political power and greed seems plausible, as does the way the NUMA team pull the threads together to work out what is going on.
This is never going to be a must read book or on any kind of literary shortlist for me but for pure escapist adventure, it's really hard to beat.
Possibly one for Dirk Pitt fans only as the first few books are far superior, but a lot better than some installments in the series.
Rating: Some violence but not excessive
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated The Iron Warrior (The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten, #3) in Books
Jan 23, 2020
<a href="http://www.inwonderlandbookblog.com/2016/02/the-iron-warrior-review.html"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on In Wonderland</a>
At this point in time, I'm starting to think "My name is..." is starting to become really basic.
But hey, I won't complain. It's been nearly two years since <i><a title="The Iron Traitor review" href="http://www.bookwyrmingthoughts.com/2013/11/review-the-iron-traitor-by-julie-kagawa.html"; target="_blank" rel="tag">The Iron Traitor</a></i> came out and I've been waiting to get my hands on this one since... forever.
Anyways...
The very last book in the <i>Iron Fey</i> series starts off about a month after the lovely cliffhanger Kagawa left us in the second book – Ethan finds himself back in the NeverNever and discovers that not only is the world in chaos after the split second break in the Veil, but Keirran has declared war on all of the faery courts. Family drama at its best, right?
<i>The Iron Warrior</i> is perhaps one of the darkest, if not the darkest novel in the entire series (including the main arc with Meghan). Kagawa takes us on an adventure into the NeverNever as she did with the past books, but it is one really disturbing journey. We go into parts of the faery world that have not been covered and more obstacles in the Between where creepy carnivals and malevolent witches are involved in the process as Ethan and Kenzie try to stop Kierran from raging war on the courts.
All of the characters – at least, the ones that remain alive from the spin off and the main series all make some sort of appearance in this last book, and Kagawa introduces a few new ones that will never make a future appearance. There are so many feels and internal threats to kidnap Razor – he is absolutely ADORABLE and his tiny size makes him so much more adorable – that happen throughout the book.
It's a sad thought to close the final chapter to the NeverNever, but <i>The Iron Warrior</i> is totally worth reading if only to see all of the major characters from both series once more.
At this point in time, I'm starting to think "My name is..." is starting to become really basic.
But hey, I won't complain. It's been nearly two years since <i><a title="The Iron Traitor review" href="http://www.bookwyrmingthoughts.com/2013/11/review-the-iron-traitor-by-julie-kagawa.html"; target="_blank" rel="tag">The Iron Traitor</a></i> came out and I've been waiting to get my hands on this one since... forever.
Anyways...
The very last book in the <i>Iron Fey</i> series starts off about a month after the lovely cliffhanger Kagawa left us in the second book – Ethan finds himself back in the NeverNever and discovers that not only is the world in chaos after the split second break in the Veil, but Keirran has declared war on all of the faery courts. Family drama at its best, right?
<i>The Iron Warrior</i> is perhaps one of the darkest, if not the darkest novel in the entire series (including the main arc with Meghan). Kagawa takes us on an adventure into the NeverNever as she did with the past books, but it is one really disturbing journey. We go into parts of the faery world that have not been covered and more obstacles in the Between where creepy carnivals and malevolent witches are involved in the process as Ethan and Kenzie try to stop Kierran from raging war on the courts.
All of the characters – at least, the ones that remain alive from the spin off and the main series all make some sort of appearance in this last book, and Kagawa introduces a few new ones that will never make a future appearance. There are so many feels and internal threats to kidnap Razor – he is absolutely ADORABLE and his tiny size makes him so much more adorable – that happen throughout the book.
It's a sad thought to close the final chapter to the NeverNever, but <i>The Iron Warrior</i> is totally worth reading if only to see all of the major characters from both series once more.
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