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The Recreators
The Recreators
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
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I went into reading this book partially blind. The blurb doesn’t uncover much, and I was excited as to whether I would like it or not. The Recreators is a young-adult novel that happens in Medieval times and features characters who have God-like powers and are able to change a slight minimal portion of the world.

We follow three separate stories throughout this book:

<b><i>Filia’s story</i></b>

A princess who has disappeared and comes back years later to claim her throne. A fierce woman who is a Recreator, but chooses to use the powers for her own benefit. In this story we can see how Filia develops as a character, changes while learning new things, makes sacrifices and answers some of the most asked social questions… A powerful story of growing up, and definitely my favourite one of all three.

<b><i>Vepresila’s story</i></b>

She is chosen by the Goddess to serve her, but decides to take destiny in her own hands. This girl grew up with her family in a tribe with different moral and cultural values than what we know. Men and women don’t sleep under the same roof, and boys have to pass tests to become men, otherwise, they are stuck and disrespected. When the girl is chosen to go to the Goddess’ temple and serve her, she realises that the system doesn’t work, and tries to beat it. Finding her own destiny can prove to be a bouncy road, but she goes for it.

<b><i>Simmiolas’s story</i></b>

He is a Recreator and comes back to fixes a mistake he made in the past. While he travels, he settles with a circle of people, but they fail to believe he has powers and he doesn’t seem able to change their views on how they see nature and the world. Taking a dear friend with him, he is set on a mission to do what is right, before it is too late.

<b><i>'’Just because things don’t always go as planned, it doesn’t always mean the outcome will be for the worse.’’</i></b>

These three stories feature these three different characters, with a lot of characters surrounding them and supporting them. The three stories connect each other at a few points, some sooner, some later. They never fully connect though, which did bother me, as I was expecting a one big ending. The three stories remained separated, which made me think if it would’ve been better to not connect them at all, or create three separate books for them.

<b><i> ‘’But if all places have different ideas about what’s right and wrong, how do we know what really is right and wrong?’’</i></b>

Despite the story lines and the grammar errors I encountered, this book was truly amazing and I really enjoyed reading it. I loved the concept of the powers, loved the ethical lessons throughout the book, and I absolutely loved watching all of these characters grow in their own kind of way.

There were amazing scenes of what is wrong and right, what fear is and how to overcome it, how to keep going despite making mistakes in the past, and a lot of various life lessons worth reading. I recommend this book if this seems like the genre you might enjoy reading. It was the first book
I read by Desiree Nordlund and I can’t wait to read more books written by her.

<b><i>‘’The best way to cure fear of the unknown is to admit what caused the fear and watch it until it’s no longer something strange.’’</i></b>

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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated That Snow Moon in Tabletop Games

Jun 12, 2019 (Updated Jun 12, 2019)  
That Snow Moon
That Snow Moon
2017 | Action, Bluff, Card Game, Science Fiction
Many years ago, in a star system located quite a long ways away from our own…… Remind you of a wildly successful fantasy film series involving laser swords, telekinetic powers, and space travel? That snow coincidence. Ha! See what I did there?

That Snow Moon is a card game of dexterity, mixed with some bluffing. Players are divided between two ‘teams’ – the Liberation (good guys) and the Dynasty (bad guys). The goals are simple. The Liberation is trying to assemble a set of plans to be used in the destruction of the Snow Moon. The Dynasty is trying to destroy the Liberation base and stop them from acquiring those plans. I don’t know about you, but if they turned this into a movie, I would probably watch it.

Here’s the kicker though – you don’t simply PLAY cards in this game. You toss/drop them. Yep, you read that right. In this game, you throw cards. Each team takes turns tossing cards into the play area, in hopes of creating clusters of touching cards that activate powers to aid in the completion of their respective goals. Bluffing comes into play because Liberation cards can be played face-down, and remain that way until exposed by a Dynasty card. Can you trick the Dynasty into revealing a card whose power you want to use, or will they see through your ruse and expose and eliminate your more powerful cards? On the flip side, can you foil the plans of the rebellious Liberation, or will they be sly enough to avoid detection? The final fate of your galaxy is up in the air – literally.

The premise of this game sounded really cool to me, but when I actually got to play it, it was quite….underwhelming. In theory, tossing cards puts a unique twist on the standard card game. But the unpredictability of actually tossing/dropping cards makes this game way more luck-driven than strategic to me. It should be noted that we have a PnP of this game – sleeved and with regular playing cards added to beef up the cards. Maybe if we had a retail version, the cards would be easier to manipulate? I’m not sure. At times it just felt futile to try to strategize certain tosses because they cards are going to fall where they may. The actual gameplay is a little bland too – it feels like it’s missing something. Maybe adding more action options or more complex/powerful card powers would up the ante a little bit. The game, as is, just kind of feels like 16-Card-Pick-Up to me.

As a huge fan of the brand-name muse of this game, That Snow Moon fell flat for me. It feels a little too simple, yet wildly unpredictable at the same time. Is it a game I’d pull out to play again? I don’t know – maybe? It’s not high on my list. That snow joke, Purple Phoenix Games gives it a disappointing 9 / 18.


https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/that-snow-moon-review/
  
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
2019 | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Cast (3 more)
Humor
Story
Epic Scale
Forced political message (0 more)
Almost a perfect movie
Contains spoilers, click to show
I just got out of Avengers: Endgame. This will have minor spoilers, but nothing related to the plot.

If you read my review of Captain Marvel, you'll see that I was underwhelmed because they didn't really explain her powers or weaknesses. Avengers: Endgame is exciting, funny, rich, and fantastic, full of great callbacks to earlier MCU movies and references to things we hadn't heard about it a while.

And yet... Here comes Captain Marvel. Again, her powers aren't explained. She doesn't help much until the last 20 minutes, and in those minutes she is seemingly invincible. Because we don't know what can hurt her, the stakes are minimal. It's an invincible woman punching an invincible man and there isn't really an expectation of anything.

But then she gets hit. And someone says "She has backup" or "She has friends" or something similar, and then we see almost every female character from the MCU come behind her to help.

I literally don't care if a superhero is male or female. It doesn't matter. But by forcing scene into the film, it is a reminder that Captain Marvel = Girl Power!!! and it pulled me right out of the film. It was an unnecessary political statement in the midst of a galatic battle. And I hated it.

I'm pro-woman. I'm pro-man. I think both sexes have unique attributes and abilities and features. But trying to say "The women have her back!" was, again, like I felt the directors sitting next to me in the theater, poking me in the ribs, saying "Look at the woke subtext!!!"

It isn't necessary. It is dumb. Let the heroes - all of them - have moments of strength and weakness. Imagine if there was a hero who suddenly called on the name of God and a big cross appeared behind them and the hand of God came down and helped them. That's the kind of heavy-handedness (pun intended) it felt like.

Go see the movie. It's great. But that one bit really soured the end of the movie for me, reminding me that it was a fictional story set in modern times. Why?
  
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
2018 | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
The actors, the filmography, the effects, is influenced by the book but does not follow the book (0 more)
is influenced by the book but does not follow the book, The time period, made weak women out of a strong women (0 more)
Cool Movie
Contains spoilers, click to show
I enjoyed this movie. The actors were all good choices, and the effects were great- for the most part. The movie was definitely influenced by the book, but did not stick close to the book. The choice to not stick close to the book could be seen as a wise one, as the director/ producer probably wanted it to be relatable for the viewers. The problems I had with the movie, was the time period, that they took strong women characters and made them weak, and that the Uncle was hiding his powers. The time period was a few decades earlier in the book, which helped explain the main characters quirks a bit better than the movie did. The women in the movie got the "Women in the Refrigerator" treatment. Meaning the two big women roles, who in the book were highly powerful, were lowered in their abilities in the movie. The neighbor witch to the main character, was elderly and was more powerful than the Uncle was and never had a curse put on her in the book and didn't have a romantic relationship with the Uncle. Also, Selena was the one who was summoned in the book and was the main baddie, while in the movie they teamed her up with her husband effectively making her character useless. Another point, the magicians and witches in the books didn't hide their powers, magic was meant for anyone to learn or study. In the movie, magic is hidden and only for a select few. I did love the part were the demon showed up, it was very freaky and made what was meant to be a kids movie into a "uh...well that was disturbing," kind of dark tone to the show. I love Eli Roth's films, but he could have done a little bit more with this than he did.
  
All Superheroes Must Die (2013)
All Superheroes Must Die (2013)
2013 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: All Superheroes Must Die starts as the superheroes Charge (Trost), Cutthroat (Till), Shadow ((Merkley) and The Wall (Valmassy) all awaken with an implant in their wrists with a message from the villainous Rickshaw (Remar).

Rickshaw sets the heroes tasks they must complete to save innocent lives of their city even if it means break their own rules along the way. We are left to watch as our heroes must work together as they are torn apart by this mastermind villain.

 

Thoughts on All Superheroes Must Die

 

Story – The story is simple and all it needs to be, we have vulnerable superheroes finally against a villain who has a play that is solely against the superheroes. Each test feels like a genuine threat to the heroes with the villain safely out of danger which only adds to the idea that the film is giving us. The idea theses heroes must learn to fight without their powers also adds to the concept behind the film. The story really does take the superhero genre to a new direction and one we haven’t seen before.

Sci-Fi/Thriller – The world is filled with superheroes with powers we don’t get to see put into action but the thriller side of the film really does keep us guessing from start to finish.

Characters/Performance – The characters are all created well to feel like superheroes in everyday life with the villain as always needing to be the stand-out character of the film outsmarting the heroes along the way. Performance wise everything is good with each star becoming their character almost effortlessly.

Settings – The settings are all inside a small town that has different stores for our heroes to complete their tasks inside which shows us the number of victims there could be if the villain wins.

Special Effects – We have good special effects for the budget which is all good for the film which tries to make everything practical effects.

Final Thoughts – This is a refreshing take on the superhero genre that brings us into the story to see them take on a villain that isn’t afraid to kill.

 

Overall: Enjoyable superhero film that fans can enjoy

https://moviesreview101.com/2017/05/02/all-superheroes-must-die-2011/
  
The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1)
8
7.4 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
A story that you want to read till the end (0 more)
Female characters tend to lack variety in comparison to male characters (0 more)
A fantastic start to an epic tale
Contains spoilers, click to show
The Eye of the World is the first of many books in The Wheel of Time series, firstly wrote by Robert Jordan, and finalised by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan’s death, following the story of several characters from Emonds Field.

 In my opinion The Eye of the World is the strongest book in the series, and is a fantastic hook to get you to read the following books. Although the series centres around many characters, the true main character of the first book is Rand al’Thor, a reluctant hero, who discovers he has magical abilities, which could ultimately destroy him. In an attempt to save Emonds Field, Rand and his friends flee, accompanied by an Aes Sedai (a female with magical powers). The story primarily details the journey of the group (either together or in smaller groups), detailing regular encounters with the dark ones forces. As such the story does follow the predictable fantasy format of -unlikely hero discovers that they have magical powers, and then goes on a journey to save the world, however it is an enjoyable tale.


The male characters in the book are diverse and entertaining- I struggled to decide which was my favourite character as they all had likeable features. One thing about the book, which does takeaway from
It’s score is Jordan’s portrayal of female characters. I found a lack of diversity amongst those female characters who were on the side we are led to route for, and some stereotyping of women. This was evident even amongst female characters that were meant to be in power. The women as a whole in the novel always needed a man to support them (for
Example Moiraine needing Lan, Egwene needing Rand, there are a few isolated incidents of independence amongst these female characters, but this was often as an exception to the rule. This is addressed a little in later books in the series, but not in the The Eye of the World.
  
Children of the Different
Children of the Different
S.C. Flynn | 2016 | Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Great Madness has decended and all but destroyed humankind. Of those that survived many have become less than human, feral, and hunt in packs preying on the rest.

Narrah and Arika are twins who have been born in Australia since the madness; like all children who come after the Great Madness they will enter a coma as teenagers and their minds will enter what is known as the Changeland. This will indeed change them - some gain special powers, others return damaged and feral.
The Great Madness has decended and all but destroyed humankind. Of those that survived many have become less than human, feral, and hunt in packs preying on the rest.

Narrah and Arika are twins who have been born in Australia since the madness; like all children who come after the Great Madness they will enter a coma as teenagers and their minds will enter what is known as the Changeland. This will indeed change them - some gain special powers, others return damaged and feral.

Against this post-apocalyptic backdrop Flynn follows Arika and Narrah as they enter the Changeland and what follows after. The Changeland sections, which take up the first half of the story, resemble dreams and nightmares - but ones in which any threats are very real. From their experiences the twins discover that there is an adversary who wants to destroy them.

Back in the real world they go on very different journeys, exploring what is left of society and finding that the effects of the Great Madness might extend beyond just the Changeland and that the very future of the human race is threatened.

Flynn tells this with verve; the twins are very likeable protagonists and the reader will be rooting for them through all of their adventures. There are breathless action scenes as well as some introspection on the fragility of human life and how quickly the lifestyle we take for granted can be reduced to ashes. Some great twists are thrown in and as the last page approaches the stakes are raised ever higher.

Well worth a read for anyone young adult and up who likes to read post apocalyptic and zombie style stories with interesting and challenging ideas
  
    Iron Blade

    Iron Blade

    Games

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    ... To all Action-RPG fans: The ancient prophecies were true. The Demon Lord Baal is set to return...