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The Subtle Knife Review

Posted : 3 months ago on 6 June 2008 03:11 (A review of The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials))

A far faster and lighter read then the first one in the trilogy (Northern Lights), I didn't realise why until I'd finished and compared it to the first one. It was far less detailed then the first but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Rather then spending all that time reading into and absorbing the details you could really get into the story. Although it was a bit more predictable.
I enjoyed the introduction of Will but I didn't like how Lyra was portrayed. Something about her character seemed a bit off putting which left me not liking her as much. A thing I don't think is very good when it's one of the main characters. The dialogue that involved her was better though and so was some of the punctuation.


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Skinwalkers review

Posted : 3 months ago on 6 June 2008 02:56 (A review of Skinwalkers)

Atrocious and yet amusing. Which is why I watched the whole thing, so I could snicker at it. I figure I should get my moneys worth.
As a concept it was workable but once made into a movie, well it just didn't work. I think that's because it was not only poorly executed but perhaps shouldn't have been made into a movie in the first place. A book, now that could have worked. Could have, but then again who knows.
The acting was pretty bad and then granny with her gun was even worse but at least it was mildly entertaining in a humorous way. Throw in the looks these people gave each other, the nurse who was flirting with a child, the fact that the werewolves kept their clothes on and intact (pfft) and they didn't really look like wolves in the first place in my opinion and that's even more reason for it to be a movie to laugh at not spend your money on.

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Communion Review

Posted : 3 months, 1 week ago on 1 June 2008 01:30 (A review of Communion: A True Story)

This isn't your typical "little green men flew down in funny ships and took me away" alien story so if you read this expecting that you might be either disappointed or surprised. Yes there is talk of "visitors" but this isn't some sci fi novel. What this is, is a man trying to understand the disruption to his life and the people around him. I got the impression as I read the book that it was his way of coming to terms with and understanding his experience. In saying that don't expect a definite conclusion as to what is going on.
It was an interesting read though especially seeing as a fair bit of it was told via hypnosis transcripts but I think if it wasn't for those transcripts I wouldn't have found it as interesting. It also isn't a novel that stays with you while you're reading it, I was really only ever compelled to read it and not put it down when I finally decided to pick it up, but when I took a break and closed the covers it felt like I wasn't even reading it.

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Won't Leave A Lasting Impression

Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 25 May 2008 02:37 (A review of The Last Legion)

I think this movie had a lot of potential but it fell far short of it. It really didn't do anything for me which is a shame because I was looking forward to it. A lot of the actors weren't up to scratch and I think that was more due to the fact that they weren't suited to their roles rather then being bad actors. Aishwarya Rai, for example, although I love her in every other role I've seen her in she didn't perform too well in this one. John Hannah was quite a soft actor, it was almost like he was melting into the background especially when Colin Firth was in a scene with him. I found the best out of the lot to be Colin Firth who was stronger in his role then any of the others and the kid who played Romulus (Thomas Sangster) made an impression on me also.
There were also some attempts at humour which didn't amount to anything mildly amusing, the dialogue was questionable and I'm so glad that there wasn't more of a love story then there was because then it would be one of those movies you can't help but roll your eyes at. Something it was very close to being in the first place.
I did however find the ending interesting, not good just interesting because now I wonder if they'll continue on from that with a movie about Arthur.

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Into The Dark Review

Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 22 May 2008 09:43 (A review of Into the Dark)

It's interesting how at the end of the synopsis of this book it says it's an unforgettable erotic tale giving the impression that it's a vampire erotica. It's anything but that.
It's a vampire novel and yes it does have some erotica in it but not true erotica and that's more towards the end of the story. This is more a general vampire novel about Count Dracula being told from the perspective of Dracula's servant.
Basically it borrows a lot from Bram Stoker's Dracula which is not a rarity in itself but this is to a certain extreme. Kelleher has used characters from Dracula from Mina to Van Helsing, borrowing a lot of the story line which has made the novel remind me a lot of fan fiction.
It's an interesting perspective especially as there is more attention paid to Dracula and the other characters come off as being close to savage heartless men but for someone who has only recently read Bram Stoker's and loved it I find it hard to not get a little peeved with the story. Sure I read it all and I enjoyed the perspective at times but it wasn't exactly ingenious or original. Kelleher has a nice flowing writing style but perhaps if Kelleher hadn't borrowed so much from Bram Stoker's I would give it more credit but as it is I couldn't help be frustrated as it unfolded and neared it's ending. An ending which I thought was ludicrous and unnecessary.

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Not Your Typical Fantasy

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 19 May 2008 12:29 (A review of Betwixt)

For a young adult fantasy this book turned out to be completely different to what I was expecting. For starters there wasn’t any innocence as I’d come to expect from young adult fiction, it actually turned out to be quite dark with sexual undertones to it which only seemed fitting seeing as the characters were young adults and at that sexual age. Being devoid of innocence was a shock but in the end not really surprising.
Another thing is, although I found it really hard to put down (it’s one of those books you could easily read in one sitting) it felt disjointed. Not the story over all but the writing style. Not much of it flowed and at times it was a bit confusing and disorientating and yet I loved it.
In mentioning the story over all it felt like it was in two halves. First half was the sexual undertones and the characters were a certain way, it had the potential to go a different way then it did because by the second half of the story the characters seemed to change and so did the story albeit subtly.
Nothing turned out quite as it seemed and the ending wasn’t all that clear cut. As if the author didn’t quite know how to finish it so left it somewhat open. I see the potential in that ending for this to turn out to be a trilogy or a series and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened, but because of the ending I also wouldn’t be surprised (even if I was disappointed) if it ended up being a stand alone novel.

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Dark and Sinister

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 18 May 2008 08:20 (A review of Next Door)

Sometimes it helps to not know what a movie is about, to not know anything about a movie and that’s what happened when I started watching this one (It was on telly). It ended up being one of those movies that really messes with your head. I was riveted so much that I lost track of the time.
You can tell something isn’t quite right especially when it comes to the neighbours. The two actresses play such convincing roles which only adds to the sinister atmosphere of the apartment.
I thought the apartment was great with all the little signs of there being something out of the ordinary going on, add to that that the rooms seem to be never ending and you could get lost in there only adds to the gloom.
Although you get an inkling throughout of how disturbing this movie could be it’s not until you get to the end that you realise just how disturbed it is.

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Lazy Writing

Posted : 4 months ago on 4 May 2008 10:56 (A review of The Cosmic Puppets (Gollancz))

Even though I enjoyed this enough to read the whole story and I liked the way the concept was delivered (a concept that has been used time and time again) there were some things that irked me.
For starters the writing style I found to be frustrating, lacking proper description and fluidity.
Then there is the fact that the main character accepted certain reasons behind what was going on so quickly. I honestly can't accept that any rational human being however open minded could accept something so out there so readily. Yes I'm aware that this is a science fiction novel and pure fantasy but still there should always be a touch of rationalism to a story no matter how far fetched. Add to that, that no one attempted to ship the character off to a nut house or question his sanity more closely and the rushed ending and well you've got yourself a story that could have done quite well but was written by someone who gave the impression of being lazy.

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Wolfblade

Posted : 4 months, 1 week ago on 26 April 2008 11:33 (A review of Wolfblade (The Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade Trilogy, Book 1))

This being the first book in the Wolfblade trilogy but the fourth book in the Hythrun chronicles it’s hard for me to say as yet if this is better then the Demon Child trilogy (first part of the Hythrun chronicles).
Set some years before the Demon Trilogy it makes for an interesting read seeing as you get to revisit old characters and learn more about characters mentioned previously. It’s also obviously not really a carry on from the first trilogy. Other then the fact that it’s set in some of the same places and has some of the same characters it could probably be a stand alone trilogy, so far.
There is one thing that is better and stands out and that’s the mistakes. Someone did a ripper of a job editing this and I have to say I’m impressed with how few spelling errors there are compared to before.
That’s about all I have to compare this with the first part of the chronicles.
This isn’t your typical magical fantasy seeing as there are no dwarves, elves, dragons or as yet heavily magical battles but it is your typical fantasy when it comes to political intrigue, betrayal, royalty and war. Of course it wouldn’t really be fantasy without some magic and magical beings which it does have it’s just not riddled with it.
I like Fallon’s style because she adds so much detail and I feel this novel had a good amount of detail although slightly predictable at times it wasn’t as predictable as what I’ve read before (there I go comparing again) whether that’s because of what I did read of her work before or if it was really unpredictable I don‘t know. I’m referring here to a part at the end of the book that I was not expecting and it’s probably the first truly unpredictable part in the whole story. This probably made it an even better read then it started out as and has made me want to hurry up and read the rest so I can find out what’s going to happen next.

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Heart breaking

Posted : 4 months, 1 week ago on 26 April 2008 11:05 (A review of The Horizontal Instrument)

Upon finishing this I thought it was an interesting take on love, loss and grief about a man who losses his wife to dementia. At first it read like a book about time and timepieces interspersed with bits of the story but after awhile it became moments of introspective reflections on perspective, time, memory and how they are connected again interspersed with more of the story reading like two separate books in the one, yet fluidly moving within the two, until the two became the one and ended in a complete story that was quite heartbreaking probably even more so because of Wilkins’ writing style made it feel like someone was actually talking to you about their loss and their thoughts on that loss.

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