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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Door (Seventh Dimenson #1) in Books
Nov 12, 2019
Shale Snyder is a troubled teenager. Her father left her mother when she was little, she has alienated almost all of the other children around her and has problems at school. Following yet another incident she is suspended and feels totally cast adrift. At this point she finds a door and hears a voice calling her to enter...
There is quite a clever concept at the heart of this book; that the Holy Land at the time of Jesus is a sort of dimensional nexus where those who are called can travel and gain spiritual help for themselves as well as the other travellers. It is a fine blending of both science fiction and Christian concepts.
There is also much of The Pilgrim's Progress about this, with Shale's journey and the characters she meets. And although she is living near Nazareth and does encounter Jesus (and other people mentioned in the bible) the religious side is not forced but comes naturally from the narrative. There is also a fair smattering of The Wizard of Oz, as the dimensional copy of the Holy Land from 2000 years ago also contains versions of people that Shale knows from home.
The result is a book that shows how even a little faith by someone as lost as Shale can give her the will to turn her life around and make herself and those around her better people. It is a very positive message, though not gained without significant trials.
There are a couple of negatives. Sometimes the narrative thread can be a little confusing, a side-effect of the dimension-hopping aspect of the story. Also some of the characters appear to serve little purpose, but perhaps as this is the first of a series they will come into play in later books. There is also one comment from her friend Daniel (another traveller from modern-day Israel) that did concern me, I hope this is due to his personal experience rather than a theme of future books.
Overall this is an engrossing read, managing to deliver a positive Christian message without labouring the point and providing a good story arc for Shale to keep the reader invested in the story
There is quite a clever concept at the heart of this book; that the Holy Land at the time of Jesus is a sort of dimensional nexus where those who are called can travel and gain spiritual help for themselves as well as the other travellers. It is a fine blending of both science fiction and Christian concepts.
There is also much of The Pilgrim's Progress about this, with Shale's journey and the characters she meets. And although she is living near Nazareth and does encounter Jesus (and other people mentioned in the bible) the religious side is not forced but comes naturally from the narrative. There is also a fair smattering of The Wizard of Oz, as the dimensional copy of the Holy Land from 2000 years ago also contains versions of people that Shale knows from home.
The result is a book that shows how even a little faith by someone as lost as Shale can give her the will to turn her life around and make herself and those around her better people. It is a very positive message, though not gained without significant trials.
There are a couple of negatives. Sometimes the narrative thread can be a little confusing, a side-effect of the dimension-hopping aspect of the story. Also some of the characters appear to serve little purpose, but perhaps as this is the first of a series they will come into play in later books. There is also one comment from her friend Daniel (another traveller from modern-day Israel) that did concern me, I hope this is due to his personal experience rather than a theme of future books.
Overall this is an engrossing read, managing to deliver a positive Christian message without labouring the point and providing a good story arc for Shale to keep the reader invested in the story
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Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Love, Death & Robots in TV
Jul 7, 2020
Unique And Visceral Experience
Love, Death, & Robots is an adult animated anthology tv series on Netflix. The series is produced by Joshua Donen, David Fincher, Jennifer Miller, and Tim Miller. Each of the 18 episodes released on the first season was animated by different crews from a range of countries. It's also a re-imagining of 1981 animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal. Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, Gary Cole, Samira Wiley, and Stefan Kapicic.
Produced by different casts and crews, and consisting of 18 stand-alone episodes, each under 20 minutes, the title of the series refers to the recurring themes of love, death, and robots in each episode. Full of terrifying creatures, wicked surprises and dark comedy, it's a collection of animated short stories spanning several genres like horror, comedy, fantasy, and science fiction. Captivating stories come to life with world-class animation in a plethora of tales unlike anything else.
This series was wicked awesome. Reminded me of some of the other animated anthologies I've seen such as The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, except quite a bit more NSFW. This series also gave me a Twilight Zone vibe but bit darker. More blood and guts and highly sexual. Even though it's pretty graphic, I really liked a lot of the stories they told and the twists that most had in the end as well. Some are kind of hit or miss or just better than others but I think that there is definitely something for everyone despite the gore and nudity and language. I especially enjoyed the following episodes, 1. Sonnie's Edge, 8. Good Hunting, 10. Shape-Shifters, 13. Lucky 13, and 18. Secret War. The way they went about the story telling and world building in each episode was phenomenal. I really feel that some of these episodes deserve their own individual films or series to do them better justice. I mean some were just so good and less than 20 minutes felt like not enough or that they could have been even better. I give the entire series overall a 9/10.
Produced by different casts and crews, and consisting of 18 stand-alone episodes, each under 20 minutes, the title of the series refers to the recurring themes of love, death, and robots in each episode. Full of terrifying creatures, wicked surprises and dark comedy, it's a collection of animated short stories spanning several genres like horror, comedy, fantasy, and science fiction. Captivating stories come to life with world-class animation in a plethora of tales unlike anything else.
This series was wicked awesome. Reminded me of some of the other animated anthologies I've seen such as The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, except quite a bit more NSFW. This series also gave me a Twilight Zone vibe but bit darker. More blood and guts and highly sexual. Even though it's pretty graphic, I really liked a lot of the stories they told and the twists that most had in the end as well. Some are kind of hit or miss or just better than others but I think that there is definitely something for everyone despite the gore and nudity and language. I especially enjoyed the following episodes, 1. Sonnie's Edge, 8. Good Hunting, 10. Shape-Shifters, 13. Lucky 13, and 18. Secret War. The way they went about the story telling and world building in each episode was phenomenal. I really feel that some of these episodes deserve their own individual films or series to do them better justice. I mean some were just so good and less than 20 minutes felt like not enough or that they could have been even better. I give the entire series overall a 9/10.
Becs (244 KP) rated 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four in Books
Oct 2, 2019
1984 by George Orwell, one of my favorite literary classic novels to this date! This was a monster to get through but once I finished, I was able to take the novel as a whole and learn from it. And man, what a loaded punch it throws at you. George Orwell is a favorite of mine and his writing style is just exactly what I expect from an author from his era.
1984 is about a government that controls everything a citizen of Oceania does, says, etc. If you rebel, you get kidnapped, tortured and then broken down to the point where they are able to rebuild you into the ideal citizen. That’s pretty much exactly what happens in this 328-page novel. But trust me when I say, this is worth a read through!
Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Literary Classic
Reading Level: High School +
Interests: Dystopian worlds, politics, science fiction, totalitarian systems.
Difficulty Reading: Like putting butter on a soft piece of bread. Not kidding, 1984 was difficult to read but the meaning behind it is what counts.
Promise: Dystopian, Sci-Fi world with a totalitarian system that runs your life until you are no longer a rebellious individual and instead under their complete control. A bit like being a slave.
Favorite Quotes: “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
What Will You Gain: Knowledge on what the world could turn into when the government decides to rule over all a certain way. Where everything you do is controlled and if you do anything differently or that goes against what the government says, you end up dead.
Aesthetics: The entirety of the novel. The cover. How Orwell pretty much has the real world mixed in with a fantasy world. I mean, you just have to read it to know.
“The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.”
1984 is about a government that controls everything a citizen of Oceania does, says, etc. If you rebel, you get kidnapped, tortured and then broken down to the point where they are able to rebuild you into the ideal citizen. That’s pretty much exactly what happens in this 328-page novel. But trust me when I say, this is worth a read through!
Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Literary Classic
Reading Level: High School +
Interests: Dystopian worlds, politics, science fiction, totalitarian systems.
Difficulty Reading: Like putting butter on a soft piece of bread. Not kidding, 1984 was difficult to read but the meaning behind it is what counts.
Promise: Dystopian, Sci-Fi world with a totalitarian system that runs your life until you are no longer a rebellious individual and instead under their complete control. A bit like being a slave.
Favorite Quotes: “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
What Will You Gain: Knowledge on what the world could turn into when the government decides to rule over all a certain way. Where everything you do is controlled and if you do anything differently or that goes against what the government says, you end up dead.
Aesthetics: The entirety of the novel. The cover. How Orwell pretty much has the real world mixed in with a fantasy world. I mean, you just have to read it to know.
“The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.”
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated The Brood (1979) in Movies
Sep 4, 2020 (Updated Sep 4, 2020)
They're Waiting For You
Man i love David Cronenberg, his horror films are disturbing, disgusting, gory, burtal, horrorfying and terrorfying. All of those words describe this film.
The plot: follows a man and his mentally-ill ex-wife, who has been sequestered by a psychologist known for his controversial therapy techniques. A series of brutal unsolved murders serves as the backdrop for the central narrative.
Conceived by Cronenberg after his own acrimonious divorce, he intended the screenplay as a meditation on a fractured relationship between a husband and wife who share a child, and cast Eggar and Hindle as loose facsimiles of himself and his ex-wife. He would later state that, despite its incorporation of science fiction elements, he considered it his sole feature that most embodied a "classic horror film".
Written in the aftermath of writer-director Cronenberg's divorce from his wife, The Brood has been noted by critics and film scholars for its prominent themes surrounding fears of parenthood, as well as corollary preoccupations with repression and the treatment of mental illness in women.
The Brood is my version of Kramer vs. Kramer, but more realistic." —Cronenberg commenting on his concept of the film, 1979.
In retrospect, Cronenberg stated that he felt The Brood was "the most classic horror film I've done" in terms of structure.
The Brood had cuts demanded for its theatrical release in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Eggar conceived of the idea of licking the new fetuses that her character Nola Carveth has spawned. "I just thought that when cats have their kittens or dogs have puppies (and I think at that time I had about 8 dogs), they lick them as soon as they’re born. Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick…," Eggar said.
However, when the climactic scene was censored, Cronenberg responded: "I had a long and loving close-up of Samantha licking the fetus […] when the censors, those animals, cut it out, the result was that a lot of people thought she was eating her baby. That's much worse than I was suggesting.
Its a distubing film but a excellent film.
The plot: follows a man and his mentally-ill ex-wife, who has been sequestered by a psychologist known for his controversial therapy techniques. A series of brutal unsolved murders serves as the backdrop for the central narrative.
Conceived by Cronenberg after his own acrimonious divorce, he intended the screenplay as a meditation on a fractured relationship between a husband and wife who share a child, and cast Eggar and Hindle as loose facsimiles of himself and his ex-wife. He would later state that, despite its incorporation of science fiction elements, he considered it his sole feature that most embodied a "classic horror film".
Written in the aftermath of writer-director Cronenberg's divorce from his wife, The Brood has been noted by critics and film scholars for its prominent themes surrounding fears of parenthood, as well as corollary preoccupations with repression and the treatment of mental illness in women.
The Brood is my version of Kramer vs. Kramer, but more realistic." —Cronenberg commenting on his concept of the film, 1979.
In retrospect, Cronenberg stated that he felt The Brood was "the most classic horror film I've done" in terms of structure.
The Brood had cuts demanded for its theatrical release in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Eggar conceived of the idea of licking the new fetuses that her character Nola Carveth has spawned. "I just thought that when cats have their kittens or dogs have puppies (and I think at that time I had about 8 dogs), they lick them as soon as they’re born. Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick…," Eggar said.
However, when the climactic scene was censored, Cronenberg responded: "I had a long and loving close-up of Samantha licking the fetus […] when the censors, those animals, cut it out, the result was that a lot of people thought she was eating her baby. That's much worse than I was suggesting.
Its a distubing film but a excellent film.
Gnomon: A Novel
Book
Near-future Britain is not just a nation under surveillance but one built on it: a radical...
Science fiction