Search

Search only in certain items:

Cypher (The Dragon's Bidding #2)
Cypher (The Dragon's Bidding #2)
Christina Westcott | 2016 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
read book 1 first!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 2 in The Dragon’s Bidding series, and it cannot be read as a stand-alone. You NEED to read A Hero For an Empire before this one and I would recommend you read them back to back. It’s been 4 years since I read the first one, and I think that’s why I feel as I do about this one. I did not have time to reread book one before reading this one!

I found this a much more difficult read, to follow. It’s heavy on the technical stuff and at times I struggled to keep up.

It moves fast, and even though I had to slow down my reading (which is usually a good thing!) I still struggled a bit.

Fitz and Wolf’s relationship is intense in book one, and that flows over into this one. That fact, and the fact we meet Cypher here, are what made me able to finish this book.

Cypher takes over Wolf’s body, his muscles and his bones but not his mind. He can see what Cypher is doing and is helpless to stop it. He has to trust his love for Fitz, Ari and the others in his life will tide him through and THEY will get to the bottom of it all.

It is HEAVY on the fighting/violence scale. While I enjoyed that in book one, it was a not so much here.

Things are still not where Wolf, Fitz and Ari want them to be, and I expect it may take more than one more book to make it so.

I have Cypher’s book to read next, and given what happens here, I’m looking forward to that.

3 stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)
2021 | Horror, Thriller
Y'all get scared too easily lmao. Let's not act like the first one was a genius piece of filmmaking or anything - it just had a solid premise you could wring a metric ton of mileage out of and wasn't afraid to provide lots of fun, goofy, intense thrills in an age of comically over-serious pity parties saturating the horror movie market. I really enjoyed it, but with its sequel the switch from horror/thriller to drama/thriller really took a toll imo. Because what made these work was never the characters, of which I honestly couldn't tell you a single name of nor more than one defining personality trait now two entries later - it was the gimmick, carried so efficiently by the marvelous performances at the forefront. Here the acting still rips (except for Blunt, who along with her character seems totally lost with nothing to do rather than just kind of awkwardly wing it) but the gimmick seems to just try and retrace the steps of the first movie while adding in a deathly simplistic, extraneous story since this one has no real clue what to do with itself... for some reason. And maybe it's just me but this one also looks so much worse. That all being said, this works best when it depicts moments of peace and/or normalcy being immediately brutalized by swift, sweeping violence - it knows exactly how to play them, that shit is *awesome*. Both times it lets these (admittedly kind of lamely designed) creatures wreak havoc on unsuspecting, populated areas it's a total riot. Also features a pretty neat three-way thriller sequence in the middle that's decently cool, too. A perfectly serviceable distraction.
  
This starts with Kira trying to get to one of her enemies destroyed ships so she can salvage parts and other things from it, making her way through a field of broken ship parts to get there. She finally makes it on board and salvages several parts but not without incident, heading back to her ship to find out something is now broken and they need to head to a station to buy the part. While there she comes to the rescue of some children and draws the attention of the Tuann, a race of beings who claim she is one of them. She is coerced into going with them to one of their planets by the leader of the group, Graydon, and lots of things come to light - including an intense attraction.

I actually got quite into this, more than i expected to considering sci-fi is not really my type of thing. Loads of stuff kept happening and kept me entertained. Secrets came to light, a romance was blooming, people thought dead were coming back out of the woodwork...

It was really well thought out and written and we learnt things about Kira in dribs and drabs that kept us guessing about her and what happened in her past until we learnt even more. It was great. The ending had me intrigued enough to go and buy book 2 straight away.

I'll admit that the above is mostly down to the romance that was slowly brewing between Kira and Graydon and the little fact that he's not letting her leave - which I find quite funny, because Kira was ready for killing him about it, and because I am excited to see what happens there romantically.
  
40x40

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated The Hateful Eight (2015) in Movies

Aug 30, 2019 (Updated Sep 11, 2019)  
The Hateful Eight (2015)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
2015 | Action, Western
A modern masterpiece
Honestly, there is nothing I dislike about the 8th film from Quentin Tarantino. Absolutely nothing.

From the minute The Hateful Eight starts it's meaty runtime, we're treated to some stunning long distance shots. The setting is gorgeous, and every shot in the opening moments has been shot with care.
It's not long until the cast start getting introduced, specifically Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), John Ruth (Kurt Russell), Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), as they all make their way to the town of Red Rock for various reasons.
All four of them are fantastic, as they masterfully work Tarantino's wonderful script. As usual, the dialogue throughout The Hateful Eight is thoroughly engaging, and didn't lose my attention for one second.

On the way there, they stop at an inn to shelter from the violent blizzard - Minnie's Haberdashery - where the rest of the film takes place. It's here we meet Bob (Demián Bichir), Oswald Mobray (Tom Roth), Joe Gabe (Michael Madsen), and General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern), rounding out our eight strong cast of hateful characters.

What follows is a dialogue heavy, intense ride as these characters begin to find themselves at odds with each other, revealing hidden secrets along the way, in the aftermath of American Civil War.
It's an intriguing set up that I can't say anymore about without spoiling anything.
It's certainly a film that benefits from knowing nothing about it before going in.

As I said, this is an amazing looking movie, with an extremely solid cast, and a tight and often funny script. The music score is beautiful just to add a lovely finishing touch.

I can't praise this masterpiece enough - Tarantino at his best.
  
    Sky Force 2014

    Sky Force 2014

    Games and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    The mobile blaster legend is back to celebrate its 10-year anniversary in super-destructive style....

    Regenmelding

    Regenmelding

    Weather and Utilities

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Never stand in the rain again! Rain Alert sends you a push notification when it is going to rain at...