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The Fire Wish (The Jinni Wars, #1)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The mere concept of jinni was what attracted my attention to take a look at The Fire Wish. The idea of a girl making a wish on a jinni – in the process of stripping away said jinni's choices – to change her path of being a princess to the caliph's son, was what made me decide to request The Fire Wish from Netgalley. There's a war that's been brewing, there's magic, and there are jinns... which haven't made much of an appearance in YA these days – what could go wrong?

Not much, thankfully, in the case of Amber Lough's debut novel. The Fire Wish is written in 2 POVs – Zayele and Najwa. Out of the 2, I found Najwa's side of the story to be much interesting and page turning over Zayele's, and though Zayele eventually wins me over near 75% of the story, I still have a preference over Najwa.

For most of the book, Najwa tends to be the stronger of the two girls. All of her life she's lived as a jinn and training to be part of the Eyes of Iblis, which is sort of like the CIA – just less discreet. At least, until Zayele catches her while traveling to the caliph's palace in Baghdad, and makes a wish on her to get out of marrying the caliph's younger son. As a result, both Najwa and Zayele switches places – Najwa in Zayele's place as wished upon and Zayele in Najwa's place, which isn't what Zayele wanted. Always amusing to see lives being switched – there must be something wrong with me.

Najwa is my favorite because she actually tries to blend in as Zayele. Zayele doesn't really seem to try, and it's obvious from the start that she would be the first of the two to get caught, so it wasn't surprising when it finally did happen. But it does make a little difference that Najwa had some help to blend in as Zayele and Zayele didn't until she actually gets caught. Zayele focuses more on trying to get out of being Najwa and getting home, which leads her into big trouble later. Fortunately, Zayele does do a heroic job of untangling the mess she made, but I'm not going to reveal how she manages to win me over (psst: it's a spoiler). ^_^

The Fire Wish is a great start to a series – the jinni culture is a delight to learn about while reading the story, and the world is a place that I feel I would enjoy visiting. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the series plays out.
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Advanced copy provided by the publisher for review
Formatting is lost due to copy and paste
Original Review posted on at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2014/07/arc-review-the-fire-wish-by-amber-lough.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
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Fred (860 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Red Dead Redemption 2 in Video Games

Dec 4, 2018  
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
2018 | Action/Adventure
Beautiful humongous world (5 more)
Tons to do. Hours & hours of stuff.
Great acting and characters
Lots of Easter eggs
Wonderful music
Great story
That feckin robin (2 more)
Big world means lots of riding
New Austin is kind of dead
Rockstar let my mama's baby grow up to be a cowboy
Yes, I'm a little late to this party, but I wanted to play until I completed the game & today, I finally did. I've also played a few hours of the online beta, but I'll get to that later.

Let's start with what this game is about. It's an open world game, set in the old west. It's set before the events of Red Dead Redemption. In that game, you played as John Marston. In that game, John was a man trying to change his life. He was a criminal, a thief, a murderer, but he's gone straight In this game, you play as Arthur Morgan. A criminal in the same gang with John. He is a bad guy, no doubt. But throughout the game, he has many opportunities to do good. Of course, you can play him that way, or you can play him as a heartless bastard. This will effect some of the story, the dialogue & the ending of the game. I played the game as if Arthur was a good guy inside & the ending I got was very satisfying, very emotional.

For most of the story, you're on the run with your gang, setting up different camps throughout the map, evading rival gangs & the law. This is a great way to get to know the world, however, you're free to explore most of the map freely. It is enormous & gorgeous. Some of the best scenery I've seen in a game. Sometimes you will really feel you're living in a real world. And that's the greatest thing about this game. The immersion. You really feel like you're living the life of your character. And Rockstar did that by making you take care of your character. You shave, bathe, eat & take care of your horse. Yes, you name your horse, feed it, brush it, pet it. You get very attached to it, as it is your main way of getting around. If your horse dies, it's gone. And believe me, it hurts to lose your horse.

Rockstar fills the game with so many missions, side activities, random encounters & hidden Easter eggs that it will take you weeks to do them all. I've been playing since day one, an average of 6 to 7 hours a day, & today, 5 & a half weeks later, I finally got 100% in the game. To be honest, when I first started, I spent lots of time just riding around, finding activities & hidden goodies & enjoying the scenery. Like most of their games, there's a supernatural element to some things as well as supernatural encounters. Steampunk, monsters, etc... a little bit of everything. Some encounters are funny, some terrifying, all of them cool.

I think what makes this game different & better than it's predecessor is the characters themselves. I'm not talking about the main characters alone, I'm talking about the people who litter the world. In RDR, some of the characters were silly, off-the-wall & unnatural. They were cartoonish. In RDR2, the people are real. Some may be weird and a bit crazy, but they never feel fake. They never feel like a character. Because of this, the world lives. They breathe life into it with every interaction. From the
Civil War veterans to the blind beggar, to the racist jackass standing on the corner in Saint Denis handing out pro-white pamphlets. They really make you feel like you're there. Again, immersion.

Some of the things you can do besides the missions are rob people, trains, coaches, banks. Another thing is hunting. Hunting can be a great way to make money. During the game, there are many challenges that you can undertake as well. There's are 9 categories with 10 challenges to each that can be done at your leisure. I left a lot of these to do last. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to do some of them. They just seemed ridiculous. But funny enough, I did about 50 of the last challenges within 2 days. And when I finished, I expected my 100% trophy to pop up. But it didn't. I was at 99%. What the? Looking at my completion list, there was something under the collections section that said unknown collection. Searching the internet, I found that most sites didn't have it listed. But I finally found a site that did. The last collection was the hunting challenge. And this brings us to that feckin robin.

Okay, let me explain. The hunting challenge you are given is to kill 5 different lists of animals. Each animal must be a perfect carcass. Which means, they have to be of perfect quality before you kill them & you must not damage them while killing them. Well, all of these animals are small animals. And most of them are small birds. It was fairly easy to get most of these animals. But there was one that was a huge pain in the ass. Can you guess what it was? Yes, a robin. A small, fast bird that is so rare, there are pages & videos galore on finding one. Most of which as total bollocks. How do I know? I spent over 7 hours trying to find one. Going to all these spots, seeing 3 of them total, shooting one & ruining it's carcass, & missing the other 2 based on their disappearance through the trees. I was really going to give up. So close, but so far. Luckily, using some people's hints & coming up with my own, I finally figured out how to get him. And it then took me 15 minutes. Yes, 15 minutes with 7 hours of wasted time. I am putting this as a negative, because it was really ridiculous to try to hunt this thing. So aggrivating. I understand if they want to make something rare, but it's just not nice. I felt like Rockstar was pulling a joke on it's players.

But anyway, this still doesn't bring down my score of the game. It's one of the greatest games I've ever played. But Rockstar has many perfect 10 games under it's belt in my opinion, including RDR. Is this game better. Yes, I think so. But it's oh so close.

A quick word on RDR online. It's only in beta, so I can't give a true review yet. However, I'm finding it so much fun doing missions with other people. Of course, there are jackasses going around shooting people for no reason. It gives no benefit to do so. Not all of the features are in there yet, but I will be playing when it goes to full online & will giv an update.
  
Blade Runner Soundtrack by Vangelis
Blade Runner Soundtrack by Vangelis
1994 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I went to see Blade Runner when it came out in the cinema; for me it was the perfect melding of sound and vision and a kind of dystopian future that seemed quite compelling. Almost a place you'd like to live in, because of the idea of replicants and who is human, and WHAT is human? Also, the beauty of Harrison Ford. Him and - whatsername - Sean Young, she was styled to perfection. Ridley Scott, although he reckoned it was a torturous film to make - the budget got cut and all kinds of jiggery pokery went on backstage - the one enduring thing, for me, is the soundtrack. Bizarrely, the soundtrack album didn't come out until years and years and years afterwards [1994], but you could get the film on VHS and everything. In 1990, I got summoned to work with Vangelis in Paris, and we wrote the title track on my album. One of the first things I asked was, ""Can I have a copy of the soundtrack?"" We recorded 'Europa' in Studio Omega on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, which was originally earmarked for Hitler's occupation should things go pear-shaped during the Second World War. The Bois de Boulogne is where all the transvestites and transsexuals would come out at night. It was quite an atmospheric place to work. At the end of the weekend they gave me a tape of the track we'd recorded, and a metal cassette of the Blade Runner soundtrack that I've still got today. It's a real treasured item. I remember reading And Suddenly There Came A Bang!, where it talks about Blade Runner, Harrison Ford and also Mel Gibson in Mad Max 2, and I remember seeing it soon after and thinking, ""Oooh. Yes."" That was mindblowing. It was kind of a blueprint for the early look of Frankie for me. That whole cyberpunk and S&M... The baddies were more attractive than the goodies, obviously, and Max himself was somewhere in between the both, neither good nor bad - just out for himself. Another soundtrack I think needs mentioning is Midnight Express by Giorgio Moroder. which is also on a par, I think. Although it's more disco - especially 'Chase' - Vangelis and Moroder to me were icons of electronic music in the '70s and '80s. Although I think Vangelis had the edge with atmosphere."

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    Frontline Commando: D-Day

    Frontline Commando: D-Day

    Games and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Lead the charge on D-Day as the tip of the spear in the largest Allied invasion of WW2! Defeat the...

CO
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Absolultion
Shooter
The third of a planned four content packs for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has arrived with Absolution. The collection was first available for the Playstation 4 system and was released for the Xbox One and PC platforms about five weeks later and contains the usual offerings of four new maps and a new chapter for the Zombie mode of the game.

The maps are as follows…

Ember

This is a remake of the classic map “Resistance” From the castle lined landscape to the close-quarters fighting in rooms like gallows or a torture area this is a great map for those looking to run and gun.

Bermuda

This is a fun map based on a Shanty Town fishing village. There are locales ranging from a Fish Market to a Lighthouse and the mix of colors and action make this one really enjoyable.

Permafrost

This is a frozen landscape set in the ruins of a city. The map has several open areas where players can attack from above thanks to holes in the roof and streets. The debris strewn map offers plenty of cover but also numerous places for enemies to attack from all angles.

Fore

This is a large map that is so much fun to play. Set in a mini-golf course, players can run into the arcade, putting areas, and props to attack the enemy. There is plenty of cover and also terrain that is uneven giving a new and diverse set of challenges to players.

 

While the new maps are lots of fun, the main draw of the collection was the latest chapter in the Zombie mode where four aspiring actors are drawn into actual horror films by a demented Director.

The previous chapters have given us an 80s theme park, a 90s Summer Camp, and a 70s Disco Infused Martial Arts setting. This time out, Attack of the Radioactive things lets players play with and interact with Elvira in a 1950s Atomic Monster setting. The mode starts in Black and White before moving to color and even allows for a red tint Chroma mode.

Of course waves of Zombies and other terrors await and players must run and fight to survive.

This has been another winning collection for Infinite Warfare. While it does not offer anything radically new or different, it does offer plenty of fun and will increase your enjoyment of the game.

I am looking forward to seeing the final pack, around October ahead of the new Call of Duty: World War 2.

http://sknr.net/2017/08/13/call-duty-infinite-warfare-absolution-dlc/
  
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
2014 | Action, Animation, Family
In 2010, the most unlikely Viking proved that dragons and humans can co-exist in the first How To Train Your Dragon film. Set five years after the original movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2 opens up on the Village of Berk where Vikings and dragons have developed a fond relationship. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the nerdy chieftain’s son, is now a few years older and has made himself a winged suit and spends his days soaring the skies with his beloved dragon, Toothless. This film brings together the original gang of friends, Astrid (America Ferrera), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), and twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut (Kristen Wiig and TJ Miller). Still at odds with his expectations, Hiccup’s father Stoick (Gerard Butler) demands that he begins the preparations and training to follow in his footsteps and become chief of their Village. This is not the future Hiccup sees for himself, he and Toothless flee the Village and explore the world and stumble upon a cave full of dragons and encounter a Mysterious Dragon Rider (Cate Blanchett), with a similar affinity for dragons. Hiccup has realized that war still exists between dragons and men beyond the borders of his Village. He attempts to negotiate peace with dragon-hunter Drago (Djimon Hounsou), who is threatening to invade the village with his army.

Writer/director Dean DeBlois helms the reins on this one; he has opened up the story without losing the tone of the original. The true delight is in the details, the visual effects are stunning; a prime example of how much computer generated animation has progressed in such a short amount of time. From the diverse landscapes to the design of the characters were absolutely breathtaking. Even the most minute details, such as the texture from the armor, to the scales on the dragons, even the battles scars on the soldiers are so vividly expressed, they assisted in creating the most dramatic and heartfelt moments.

The overall theme has matured from the first film with a continually surprising plot. In the first go around, Hiccup learned to be himself; in this installment Hiccup is taught to become a better version of himself when those unbreakable bonds are tested, and the line between good vs. evil is skewed.

I wouldn’t say there is much training in the sequel, however there is still a wonderful message of friendship, love, and loyalty. Some of the material may be a little too dark, and there were moments that spent way too much time developing the characters which can be pretty taxing for young children.

A worthy follow up….
  
Churchill (2017)
Churchill (2017)
2017 | Biography, Drama, History
4
6.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
“We will bore them on the beaches”.
“Churchill” tells the story of the great leader’s extreme opposition to “Operation Overlord”, the Eisenhower-led invasion of Normandy in 1944 that ultimately led – more by luck that judgement perhaps – to the fall of the Third Reich in the following year.
I’m not a historian but am married to one, so know the importance of “sources” in the pursuit of “truth”: one man’s terrorist is after all another man’s freedom fighter from a different perspective. Some sources on the internet (here for example) certainly suggest the The British (led by Churchill as Prime Minister) might have sensibly promoted the acceleration of the Italian campaign to reach Berlin rather than the far riskier Channel crossing.

This film however paints Churchill as a man demonised by his decision to send young men to their deaths in the fateful Gallipoli beach landings of World War One, with this – rather than a sensible strategic one – being the primary reason for opposing the Normandy landings. To further paint him as a bumbling old fool that is “worked around” by his peers strikes you as borderline libellous.

So the film’s script, by novice Alex von Tunzelmann, immediately set the wrong tone with me, and the undeniably strong performances of Brian Cox (“The Bourne Identity”) as Churchill and the wonderful Miranda Richardson (“Harry Potter” and the soon to be released “Stronger”) as Clemmie can’t fill the gap.

Besides anything else, diretor Jonathan Teplitzky (“The Railway Man”) delivers a piece so dull and lifeless, and with so much brooding, that its not remotely enjoyable. You think the introduction of a bullied secretary – Ms Garrett (Ella Purnell) – with a strong personal connection to ‘Overlord’ will add dramatic colour? But this angle too seems to go nowhere in particular.

There are many tales of the Normandy landings that are fascinating, over and above the dramatic sweep of “The Longest Day” (which is surely well overdue for a remake?) and Spielberg’s fictionalisation of the Niland brothers in “Saving Private Ryan”. How about the 2 out of 29 American amphibious tanks that reached Omaha beach after ignoring British advice to not launch so far from shore in rough seas?

So, as a film, it might be “worthy”. But I didn’t remotely believe the depiction of Churchill and it astonished me that such a rivetingly exciting period of British history could deliver a film that bored me. So, sorry, can’t recommend this one. Perhaps Joe Wright will have a better go with Gary Oldman as Churchill in “Darkest Hour”…