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Munich: A Novel
6.5
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Book
September 1938. Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the...
Thriller politics
The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish: My Life in Churchill's School for Spies
Book
'My mother thought I was working for the Ministry of Ag. and Fish.' So begins Noreen Riols'...
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
If it’s not one of the most anticipated movies of all time, it is certainly way up there. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the thing that every Star Wars fanboy, including myself, fears. Will it be as good as the original trilogy, or will Disney and Bad Robot drop a deuce like many believe Lucas did with the prequel trilogy. Well, here is a spoiler free look from someone who has these fears.
Fret not, everyone. Abrams has done a magnificent job of continuing the Skywalker saga in Episode VII. And great news, there are no lens flares, at least none that I noticed. As I mentioned, this is spoiler free, but I will give you an idea of the overall plot.
Episode VII picks up 30 years after the end of Episode VI. The Emperor is dead, and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) began training a new generation of Jedi. But something went wrong and one of his students turned against him and destroyed the school. Blaming himself, Skywalker went into isolation. With Luke out of the picture, risen from the ashes of the Empire, the First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), is trying to reclaim the power of the Empire. Knowing that Skywalker is their only threat, they are attempting to find him to eliminate him before he can join the Resistance’s fight against them. Daring Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is attempting to find a map to Luke’s location, but is quickly interrupted by the First Order. He hides the map on his droid, BB-8, before being captured by the menacing force. And so sets off a chain of events to find Luke Skywalker by the Resistance and the First Order alike.
It’s no secret that many of the main cast is returning, including Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), See-Threepio (Anthony Daniels), and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker). We also have a slew of new characters such as the aforementioned Poe Dameron, Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), General Hux (Domnall Gleeson), and Supreme Leader Snoke. The cast, both returning and new, blended really well together and had a great amount of charisma on the screen. There was the right amount of comedy, drama, and action in this movie, and the interaction between the characters just felt genuine. This movie definitely felt more like the original trilogy than the prequels did.
The soundtrack and effects were amazing. Right in line with what you would expect from a Star Wars movie, but as I mentioned to the studio rep as I was leaving the theater, the film didn’t try to go overboard with everything. So there was no feeling of over production as some felt from the prequels. And with John Williams doing the score again, you know it will have the same sound. He did a great job of blending in little melodies, or snipits of songs, that made reference to the previous movies at just the right moments.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic film that did not leave me disappointed. It shouldn’t leave you disappointed either. Now, it’s not without a few plot holes, and suspension of belief will help, but they are, for me any way, forgivable and I will leave it for you to discover them. At the end of the day, this is definitely the Star Wars film you are looking for. Go see it. See it multiple times. Give Disney and Bad Robot more reason to continue not only with the Skywalker saga, but also the other stories like next year’s Rogue One, young Han Solo and Chewie, or, one can only hope, the story of everyone’s favorite bounty hunter/orphan, Boba Fett.
Fret not, everyone. Abrams has done a magnificent job of continuing the Skywalker saga in Episode VII. And great news, there are no lens flares, at least none that I noticed. As I mentioned, this is spoiler free, but I will give you an idea of the overall plot.
Episode VII picks up 30 years after the end of Episode VI. The Emperor is dead, and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) began training a new generation of Jedi. But something went wrong and one of his students turned against him and destroyed the school. Blaming himself, Skywalker went into isolation. With Luke out of the picture, risen from the ashes of the Empire, the First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), is trying to reclaim the power of the Empire. Knowing that Skywalker is their only threat, they are attempting to find him to eliminate him before he can join the Resistance’s fight against them. Daring Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is attempting to find a map to Luke’s location, but is quickly interrupted by the First Order. He hides the map on his droid, BB-8, before being captured by the menacing force. And so sets off a chain of events to find Luke Skywalker by the Resistance and the First Order alike.
It’s no secret that many of the main cast is returning, including Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), See-Threepio (Anthony Daniels), and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker). We also have a slew of new characters such as the aforementioned Poe Dameron, Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), General Hux (Domnall Gleeson), and Supreme Leader Snoke. The cast, both returning and new, blended really well together and had a great amount of charisma on the screen. There was the right amount of comedy, drama, and action in this movie, and the interaction between the characters just felt genuine. This movie definitely felt more like the original trilogy than the prequels did.
The soundtrack and effects were amazing. Right in line with what you would expect from a Star Wars movie, but as I mentioned to the studio rep as I was leaving the theater, the film didn’t try to go overboard with everything. So there was no feeling of over production as some felt from the prequels. And with John Williams doing the score again, you know it will have the same sound. He did a great job of blending in little melodies, or snipits of songs, that made reference to the previous movies at just the right moments.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic film that did not leave me disappointed. It shouldn’t leave you disappointed either. Now, it’s not without a few plot holes, and suspension of belief will help, but they are, for me any way, forgivable and I will leave it for you to discover them. At the end of the day, this is definitely the Star Wars film you are looking for. Go see it. See it multiple times. Give Disney and Bad Robot more reason to continue not only with the Skywalker saga, but also the other stories like next year’s Rogue One, young Han Solo and Chewie, or, one can only hope, the story of everyone’s favorite bounty hunter/orphan, Boba Fett.
Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated The Legacy in Books
Jun 24, 2019
When I first read Malley's The Declaration series this third novel hasn't yet been released. And then I kind of forgot about the series until the end of last year.
Anna and Peter have found a safe residence in the countryside thanks to the Underground, the resistance movement against the use of Longevity. But their safety is being compromised as some unknown "illness" is spreading through the Legals - killing people who are supposed to live forever. People are pointing the finger at everyone around them, fear spreading even quicker than the virus.
Jude and Sheila are living in the main Underground facility, but are forced to move base when their leader, Pip, hands himself in and a brick comes flying in through their window. Meanwhile, Peter's ring is of high importance to Richard Pincent, who has arranged with some unknown Underground member for it to be sent to him.
Without Pip, Jude has to take over. But he wasn't expecting his half-brother to arrive, especially without the rest of his family. And now Sheila's disappeared...
Why are people dying? Are the Underground really to blame?
And then, when he didn't think things could any worse, Jude sees Pip talking to Richard Pincent's closest friend and guard, as if they were friends.
Is this really the end of the Underground? Have they finally lost?
I noticed a lot of typos and punctuation mistakes, which gave the book a bit of an unprofessional, juvenile feel. But I've always loved this series and honestly I found the book so easy to read and enjoyable, despite the mistakes. There are some really interesting twists, and the story focuses a lot on characters other than Anna an d Peter which is nice.
4 stars for this book.
Anna and Peter have found a safe residence in the countryside thanks to the Underground, the resistance movement against the use of Longevity. But their safety is being compromised as some unknown "illness" is spreading through the Legals - killing people who are supposed to live forever. People are pointing the finger at everyone around them, fear spreading even quicker than the virus.
Jude and Sheila are living in the main Underground facility, but are forced to move base when their leader, Pip, hands himself in and a brick comes flying in through their window. Meanwhile, Peter's ring is of high importance to Richard Pincent, who has arranged with some unknown Underground member for it to be sent to him.
Without Pip, Jude has to take over. But he wasn't expecting his half-brother to arrive, especially without the rest of his family. And now Sheila's disappeared...
Why are people dying? Are the Underground really to blame?
And then, when he didn't think things could any worse, Jude sees Pip talking to Richard Pincent's closest friend and guard, as if they were friends.
Is this really the end of the Underground? Have they finally lost?
I noticed a lot of typos and punctuation mistakes, which gave the book a bit of an unprofessional, juvenile feel. But I've always loved this series and honestly I found the book so easy to read and enjoyable, despite the mistakes. There are some really interesting twists, and the story focuses a lot on characters other than Anna an d Peter which is nice.
4 stars for this book.
The Periodic Table
Primo Levi and Raymond Rosenthal
Book
Primo Levi's The Periodic Table is a collection of short stories that elegantly interlace the...
Fitness Buddy for iPad : 1700+ Exercise Workout Journal
Health & Fitness and Lifestyle
App
The #1 downloaded fitness app on the iPhone is now available on the iPad! - As seen and...
Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony: Unwanted Memories of Social Trauma
Dori Laub and Andreas Hamburger
Book
Psychoanalytic work with socially traumatised patients is an increasingly popular vocation, but...
Constitutionalizing EU Administrative Risk Governance: GMOs and the Promise of European Conflicts-Law Constitutionalism
Book
This book offers a topical inquiry into the legal and political limits of EU regulation in the field...
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.
The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World
8.0
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Book
What moral values do human beings hold in common? As globalization draws us together economically,...
politics philosophy