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Garrison Life at Vindolanda: A Band of Brothers

Anthony Birley

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

The ink writing-tablets, first indentified at Roman Vindolanda, just south of Hadrian's Wall, in...

Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Killer Inside (Joe Stark #3) in Books

Jul 20, 2021

Loved it - proper rollercoaster of a ride that I didn't want to get off!

At first, I didn't realise this was the third in the series starring Joe Stark as I have never read anything by Matthew Frank before but first the title and then the blurb enticed me and had I not read some other reviews first, I wouldn't have known. So, I can safely say that this can be read as a standalone because although I have probably missed a lot of backstory and character development, for me it didn't detract from my enjoyment one little bit.

I absolutely love the character of Joe Stark - yes, he is a bit of a cliché being ex-military with a troubled history now working within the police but, for me, this made him an interesting and complex character. The supporting cast were equally well developed and I think Julian Sinclair was a great "baddie".

At first, you think the plot is going to be pretty simple and straightforward but as the book progresses, it becomes more complex; the police investigation plays this out really well with them struggling to put the pieces of the puzzle together with many of their leads ending in dead ends. The politics within the police also provide an interesting side story as does Joe's complicated life.

This is fast paced with plenty of twists and action. It is also a dark read with some scenes that some might find disturbing so if you are easily shocked, I would give this a miss but I would definitely recommend this to others who enjoy this genre and eagerly await the next instalment.

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Avatar (2009) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

Avatar (2009)

2009 | Action, Comedy, Mystery

7.6

(84 Ratings)

Movie Rating

"𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬."
The story has been criticized up and down for being about as basic as can be, as well as being somewhat subtractive of the real life parallel this is generally aiming for - and I agree wholeheartedly. But let's be honest here, nobody goes into this for its merits as a piece of storytelling - which it isn't even necessarily bad at on the whole - it just rushes into and through everything too quickly (that goes double for a movie of this length). No, this is front-to-back pure, rich spectacle. Movies since have tried to emulate it but none have even come close to reaching the grandiose scope, immaculate attention to detail, and luxurious world-building. There's so much on the screen all at once you could almost get lost, as if you were right there in this massive, vibrant splashpad of late 2000s blockbuster merriment. And those last thirty minutes of rock-solid PG-13 fantasy violence just take the cake, holy *shit* they rule (remember when these used to end in half-hour long epic battle sequences where you could actually see and even care about what was going on?). Mechs fighting giant fantastical animals, soldiers getting pincushioned left and right with massive arrows, huge flying creatures shot-putting military aircrafts into the sides of cliffs... had a smile the size of Texas across my face the whole time - that's as good as those things get. Plus this is another entry into my Joel-David-Moore-is-underrated collection because he outacts the entire cast of A-listers here. As beautiful as the day it came out, but perhaps in a different way reflexively.