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Lou Grande (148 KP) rated The Perfect Whore in Books
Jun 12, 2018
Fanfiction is usually free. You can find better stuff there
Once upon a time, I read Star Wars slash fanfiction. That was a lot better than this. I don't quite know what the author was going for here, as the story leans too far into plot and exposition to be a "romance" novel (not a bad thing, if the plot wasn't just a vehicle for the romance), and the erotica was less than erotic. I've read female authors who could write believable gay characters, but this isn't one of them. These characters interact more like men in Japanese yaoi, which is to say, you could sub one of the men with a woman and have the same story. I would be more generous (considering one character is a shapeshifting alien with no true gender) but her author's bio specifically states she writes gay erotica. So let's be clear: this is gay erotica for women. So if you're a lady who fetishizes gay men, this is in your wheelhouse. If you're a gay man, probably avoid this one, unless you really have a thing for sci-fi and lizardmen.
Circling back around, of course the title is attention grabbing. And the story is short enough to be fun. Both characters are obnoxious, but not so much that you can't sit two or three hours with them. The story employs standard tropes, including using rape as a dramatic crutch. If that's your thing, you'll probably enjoy this and also what's wrong with you?
Circling back around, of course the title is attention grabbing. And the story is short enough to be fun. Both characters are obnoxious, but not so much that you can't sit two or three hours with them. The story employs standard tropes, including using rape as a dramatic crutch. If that's your thing, you'll probably enjoy this and also what's wrong with you?
I think it's a common understanding that, of all the characters in 2015's 'The Force Awakens', Gwendoline Christie's enigmatic Captain Phasma was the biggest missed opportunity.
Much like Darth Maul before her (who became a cult favourite in the 'old' Extended Universe), this novel seeks to set that right.
How?
By, effectively, having a story-within-a-story: in this case, by having a captured Resistance spy telling her First Order captor what she has discovered about Phasma, with that interrogation carried out in secret as Phasma is still viewed as a hero of the Order (but with deep mistrust by said captor).
This story-within-a-story, then, tells of the mysterious Phasma's originss, of her early life on her abandoned and decaying home planet, of a trip across said planet to the site of a crashed First Order spaceship in the company of a rescued officer and of the many and varied incidents and people/driods met along that journey.
The result is not a bad novel, but not the best of the recent Star Wars novels I've read: it passes a few days easy reading, sure, but (for me, at least) has no real oomph to it; nothing that really makes it stick in my mind or that would cause me to look for other novels by this author. That's not to say I wouldn't read any such if I came across them; just not going out of my way to look for them.
Much like Darth Maul before her (who became a cult favourite in the 'old' Extended Universe), this novel seeks to set that right.
How?
By, effectively, having a story-within-a-story: in this case, by having a captured Resistance spy telling her First Order captor what she has discovered about Phasma, with that interrogation carried out in secret as Phasma is still viewed as a hero of the Order (but with deep mistrust by said captor).
This story-within-a-story, then, tells of the mysterious Phasma's originss, of her early life on her abandoned and decaying home planet, of a trip across said planet to the site of a crashed First Order spaceship in the company of a rescued officer and of the many and varied incidents and people/driods met along that journey.
The result is not a bad novel, but not the best of the recent Star Wars novels I've read: it passes a few days easy reading, sure, but (for me, at least) has no real oomph to it; nothing that really makes it stick in my mind or that would cause me to look for other novels by this author. That's not to say I wouldn't read any such if I came across them; just not going out of my way to look for them.
Rebecca Billcliff (2409 KP) rated Jurassic World (2015) in Movies
Nov 11, 2019 (Updated Nov 12, 2019)
Bast-a-saurus from the Past
Contains spoilers, click to show
Jurassic Park was the first film I ever loved, and sparked my love of cinema. So this film had a lot to live up to for me, and you know what, it was not bad. A bit heavy on the CGI in places, but did bring back the practical effects to create that element of fear you just can’t get from CG. The way the suspense is built up around the Indominus is very good, and brought back that same filling of tension where you find you are actually holding you breath and seat, just a little.
Characters and plot did suffer a little from that repetitive remake syndrome, see also Star Wars the Force Awakens, where the film tries so hard to recreate the love of the original, it just repeats everything.
Two kids, one young and cute, the other a been of a moody teen. A large escaped Dino, which should have been the main attraction. A knowledgeable-about-Dixon’s man and his almost-a-not-sexist-but-still-a-steriorypical-woman love interest out to save the kids, and themselves as things emulate. An overly complacent billionaire, ignorant to the potential danger.
Which film am I talking about....
That said, if what you want is a trip back to your youth and the thrill of seeing dinosaurs on screen, or just some resurrected reptile based mayhem, it’s a great film, and well worth a watch.
Characters and plot did suffer a little from that repetitive remake syndrome, see also Star Wars the Force Awakens, where the film tries so hard to recreate the love of the original, it just repeats everything.
Two kids, one young and cute, the other a been of a moody teen. A large escaped Dino, which should have been the main attraction. A knowledgeable-about-Dixon’s man and his almost-a-not-sexist-but-still-a-steriorypical-woman love interest out to save the kids, and themselves as things emulate. An overly complacent billionaire, ignorant to the potential danger.
Which film am I talking about....
That said, if what you want is a trip back to your youth and the thrill of seeing dinosaurs on screen, or just some resurrected reptile based mayhem, it’s a great film, and well worth a watch.
Rodney Barnes (472 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) in Movies
Jan 2, 2020
Just Glad It's Done
Contains spoilers, click to show
End to the Skywalker saga? If you mean taking a Palpatine and making her a Skywalker in the last 10 seconds of this movie ....then yes. This was a decent movie. I will say that much. This whole 7,8 and 9 saga was such a disappointment. The Rise of Skywalker still succeeded in giving the same narrative. Kylo Ren turned back to the light and died saving Rey's life. Sound familiar??? Yes we got to see Lando but as it has been said numerous times, the biggest mistake is not having all the legacy characters on the screen at the same time. But I digress. I did not care for the Palpatine angle. Abrams had to make up some story to fix Johnson's dumb mistake of killing Snoke. Seeing the Knights of Ren was anti climatic. They could have been left out of the movie and you wouldn't have missed them. Then Rey being the granddaughter of Palpatine. That has been theorized since episode 7. No big reveal really. But she changes her name to Skywalker at the end of the movie. This is the bottom line for me....40 years from now....is Kylo Ren, Rey, Finn and Poe going to be as significant as Luke, Han, Leia and Vader were? NO...when you think Star Wars villain 40 years from now it's still going to be Darth Vader not Kylo Ren, unless they create one hell of a villain between now and then.
The West Wing
Book
With its fast and furious dialogue, crackling wit, and political savvy, The West Wing became...
The Geeky Chef Strikes Back!: Even More Unofficial Recipes from Game of Thrones, Twin Peaks, the Legend of Zelda, Firefly, and More!
Book
Comic-lover, avid gamer, and sci-fi and fantasy fanatic, Cassandra Reeder, author of The Geeky Chef...
Duncan Jones recommended Blade Runner (1982) in Movies (curated)
World Craft Epic Dream Island
Games
App
Best Free Craft Game Ever! Build your own base, mine, castle or whatever you imagine! WorldCraft...
The Martians Of Science
Book
If science has the equivalent of a Bloomsbury group, it is the five men born at the turn of the 20th...
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Wrong Stars in Books
Aug 26, 2018 (Updated Aug 26, 2018)
Diversity (2 more)
World-building
Amazing alien species
I've watched my fair share of Space Opera (Firefly, Dark Matter, Farscape, Star Trek, Star Wars - don't try to tell me those last two aren't Space Opera, THEY TOTALLY ARE) - but I haven't read much of it. I picked up The Wrong Stars mostly because reviews said it had a demisexual main character, rather than because it's a Space Opera. Regardless, I am SO GLAD I DID. The book is excellent.
First off, the diversity! Over the course of the story, we meet people who are, in no particular order, gay, bisexual, demisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary. The story is set 500 years after Earth sends out its first colony ships, and in that time, culture has evolved. Marriage is not common, but contractually-bound relationships exist. Promiscuity and non-monogamy aren't viewed any different than monogamy, and in the same way, the distinctions between gay, straight, and bi don't carry any negative connotations. It's not a complete utopia - it's still a capitalist society, and there is still scarcity - but socially, at least, it has definitely evolved a lot from the present!
Elena, one of our main characters, was a biologist sent out on one of the first colony ships. Stocked with seeds, crude replicators, and cryo-sleep pods, a small crew was sent out, in stasis, on a five-hundred year journey to a system with probable life-supporting planets. They were called Goldilocks ships, in the hope they'd find a planet that was "just right." What humanity didn't expect was that in the intervening five hundred years, they would make contact with an alien species and be given the means for true space travel via wormholes. Some of the ships arrived at their destinations to find human colonies already thriving on their target planets! Elena, however, found something quite different, and it's a very disconcerting difference. She is rescued by the motley crew of the White Raven, and they quickly get drawn into the mystery.
I really enjoyed the world-building and characterization in The Wrong Stars. The science of it made sense to me, but I'm not very versed in science, so I can't really say how realistic it is. It was at least pretty internally consistent. I'd like to learn more about how the AIs are created, though. Luckily, there is a sequel coming! The Dreaming Stars should be coming out this September, and I'm DEFINITELY going to read it.
If you like Dark Matter, Firefly, or Farscape, you should definitely read The Wrong Stars. There's a little bit of light romance threaded into the larger plot, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It's definitely not the focus of the book. There is some violence, but nothing incredibly graphic. I would put it at about the same maturity level as Star Trek.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
First off, the diversity! Over the course of the story, we meet people who are, in no particular order, gay, bisexual, demisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary. The story is set 500 years after Earth sends out its first colony ships, and in that time, culture has evolved. Marriage is not common, but contractually-bound relationships exist. Promiscuity and non-monogamy aren't viewed any different than monogamy, and in the same way, the distinctions between gay, straight, and bi don't carry any negative connotations. It's not a complete utopia - it's still a capitalist society, and there is still scarcity - but socially, at least, it has definitely evolved a lot from the present!
Elena, one of our main characters, was a biologist sent out on one of the first colony ships. Stocked with seeds, crude replicators, and cryo-sleep pods, a small crew was sent out, in stasis, on a five-hundred year journey to a system with probable life-supporting planets. They were called Goldilocks ships, in the hope they'd find a planet that was "just right." What humanity didn't expect was that in the intervening five hundred years, they would make contact with an alien species and be given the means for true space travel via wormholes. Some of the ships arrived at their destinations to find human colonies already thriving on their target planets! Elena, however, found something quite different, and it's a very disconcerting difference. She is rescued by the motley crew of the White Raven, and they quickly get drawn into the mystery.
I really enjoyed the world-building and characterization in The Wrong Stars. The science of it made sense to me, but I'm not very versed in science, so I can't really say how realistic it is. It was at least pretty internally consistent. I'd like to learn more about how the AIs are created, though. Luckily, there is a sequel coming! The Dreaming Stars should be coming out this September, and I'm DEFINITELY going to read it.
If you like Dark Matter, Firefly, or Farscape, you should definitely read The Wrong Stars. There's a little bit of light romance threaded into the larger plot, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It's definitely not the focus of the book. There is some violence, but nothing incredibly graphic. I would put it at about the same maturity level as Star Trek.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com