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David McK (3425 KP) rated A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

To most people, if you mention the name Edgar Rice Burroughs the first thing that they will think of, in all likelihood, is his creation of the character Tarzan. Alongside this, however, he also wrote the Barsoom series of books, of which this is the first (published in 1912).

Commonly regarded as classics of the Pulp Sci-Fi genre of books, and with the new Disney movie John Carter of Mars recently released (even if it is getting a panning from the critics), and finally with The John Carter collection (consisting of A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars) available on Apple's ibooks stores for 99p, how could I resist picking them up?

Having now read the first book, it's easy to see the influence these particular novels had on later writings and popular culture. James Cameron is on record as stating this particular work as an influence on his movie Avatar, while it is also possible to trace elements of Star Wars (inspired by Flash Gordon, itself inspired by this) back to this work.

In short: this is pretty much a prime example of early pulp SF!

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David McK (3425 KP) rated Rebellion (Matthew Hawkwood, #4) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

The fourth book in James McGee's Matthew Hawkwood series of books, and over the course of the last two (in particular), the eponymous Bow Street Runner is getting further and further away from his usual haunts!

In this installment, Hawkwood actually spends the vast majority of it in the heart of Imperial France: in Paris itself, while Napoleon is away on his ill-fated Russian campaign. Again taking real historical facts as its basis, this novel concerns itself primarily with a conspiracy attempt to over-throw the regime: an event which, obviously, did not succeed.

If I'm honest, and to draw an anology between these books and the Star Wars films (which might seem strange, but bear with me!), the first couple of books in the series are like the original couple of films: full of danger, action and excitement. This one, unfortunately, is more like Episode I: seeming to be setting itself up for a broader story arc, and more concerned with politics than with action and excitement.

Worth a read? Yes, but if this was my introduction to the series as a whole - which can, by and large, be read independently as they only occassionally refer to earlier events - I wouldn't be going out of my way to look for any others in thes series, unlike if I had read any of the others first.

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David McK (3425 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) in Movies

Dec 23, 2019 (Updated Apr 28, 2020)

Let's face it: no matter what JJ Abrams did, he was never going to please everyone.

Personally, I feel he wasn't helped by the fact that there was no clear over-arching strand to the sequel trilogy; no guiding hand (as it were) such as with Kevin Feige's role in the MCU, leaving each director free to do their own thing, to ignore what had went before or (as in this case) to blatantly attempt to fix what many see as the flaws of the previous film.

Set up as both the capper to this particular trilogy, and to the 9-movie Skywalker saga as a whole, Abrams was definitely NOT in an enviable position ...

It's hard to talk about this movie without giving too much of the plot away: I think it's fairly safe to say that Palpatine returns (he's in the trailers) for reasons, that the issue of Reys parentage is - again - brought up, and that this was intended to be Leia's movie (before Carrie Fisher passed away) in much the same way as The Force Awakens was Hans and that The Last Jedi was Luke's.

It also very much has a 'Return of the Jedi' feel to it, and seemingly lifts from the 'Legends' series of no-longer-canon Star Wars spin-offs, with the inclusion of the Katana fleet in all but name.

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Barry Newman (204 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) in Movies

Jan 11, 2020

Contains spoilers, click to show

Well JJ Abrams certainly had a helluva job to do here, wrapping up a 42 year saga whilst addressing the criticisms made of episode 8 and creating an entertaining movie. Whilst this isn't a complete disaster like the 'Game Of Thrones' ending I still couldn't help but come out of this feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. I wanted wow instead it was just ok and completely lacking in the magic and memorable moments we have come to expect from the series. The first half of the film felt very muddled and disjointed, it did get better in the second half but overall the storytelling felt very safe. I think that was particularly reflected in the decision to resurrect Emperor Palpatine which personally I didn't like. Whilst certainly the weakest of the new trilogy it's not boring, it's a fast paced adventure that does answer some unanswered questions and there's still plenty of fun to be had seeing all the spectacular effects millions of Disney dollars can buy. Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley also continue to turn in decent performances as Rey and Kylo Ren (shame the same can't really be said for the rest of the cast). So as the finale to the 9 film Star Wars saga it's sorely lacking but as a bog standard action blockbuster it's reasonably entertaining.