#minorspoilers

[louk419]

As the body count mounts on Flight 357, DC Li renews her suspicions about Dr Nolan when he makes an unauthorized call home.

[velloria]

“just let go keith... you don’t need to fight anymore”

[froghoneyy]

【Delete Monika? 】

【ERROR】【NO】

[tompatel95]

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan review

There’s been a lot of buzz about Wicked Saints and I’m pleased the hype is real! I was completely obvious to it, only discovering the book through Kindle recommends. I had little idea what the story was about before diving in, so I was surprised, horrified and delighted in equal measure.

 Before we get started, below is GoodReads’ synopsis:

 A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

 A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

 A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

 Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

 In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.

 So, what are the positives about Wicked Saints? Firstly, it’s a fully realised fantastical world, inspired by Slavic folklore. There’s been quite a few comparisons with Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, yet I found any similarities to be superficial at best. In Bardugo’s own words, her works are inspired by imperial Russia, whilst Wicked Saints is definitely medieval in tone.

               Moreover, each chapter begins with a brief biography of one of the Gods or Saints, helping to build the religious system of this world. Personally, it felt so real and tangible that I was immediately transported within the first few pages.

               With one exception, the characters were engaging and absorbing. The main character, Nadya, can commune directly with the Gods and is dedicated to ridding her world of heretical blood magic. Nadya is refreshing – she’s so sure of her destiny and accepts it, unlike many YA protagonists. Additionally, her faith in the gods provides her with strength, yet her doubt renders her belief believable. As a Hindu, I really responded to this as it is rare that religion is depicted positively at all in contemporary culture.

               Nadya’s counterpart is the High Prince Serefin, an accomplished Blood Mage. Alongside the rest of his kingdom, Serefin has rejected the Gods and practises blood magic. Whilst our first introduction to Serefin paints him as a villain (he burns down Nadya’s home), his chapters illuminate his character – his fractious relationship with his father, his companionship with his fellow soldiers Ostiya and Kacper, his love for his country. He’s drunk, witty, snarky and utterly charming.

               Other supporting characters, from Rashid to the Queen’s witch, help to boost up the narrative whilst still enjoying character arcs of their own.

Are there any negatives to the book? Well . . . yes. The most glaring one is Malachiasz. As Nadya’s love interest, he follows the enemies to lovers trope. There’s also a touch of the insta-love about their entire relationship. Now, don’t get me wrong, these techniques can work – Zelie and Iman from Children of Blood and Bone work fabulously, as do Elias and Laia of Ember in the Ashes. However, Malachiasz felt kind of bleurgh. I found him dull and I couldn’t understand Nadya’s attraction to him, even despite his multiple lies and manipulations. Personally, I feel like Nadya and Serefin are a far better fit, which may be the direction the story is heading. A huge part of Malachiasz’s blandness is that he doesn’t have a POV chapter like Nadya and Serefin. Without an insight into his psychology, he comes across as just another tortured bad boy – utterly forgettable.

               Secondly, there’s a sense of confusion within the narrative which is never resolved. The book never appears to make up it’s mind over whether the Gods are good or bad – do they deserve Nadya’s devotion? I feel like Emily A. Duncan will head down the latter route which would be a shame – as mentioned earlier, it’s nice to see the positives of religion highlighted. Who the actual villain is remains confusing; if you’re going to play around with whose the villain and whose the hero ala George RR Martin, you need to know what you’re doing. Speaking of Game of Thrones, I felt the political machinations weren’t intricate enough.

Information was found out easier and the political elements were simplified. I wanted more conniving, manipulation from a variety of characters, not just the main ones. Billed as a bloody, gothic fantasy, this element felt underwhelming. Lastly, the magic is underdeveloped. Whilst the blood magic is ingenious, I felt like I don’t understand the rules of magic and where it comes from. The gods? Humans? Who knows.

 In conclusion, I do recommend this book. It’s enjoyable, engrossing and immersive. The issues with it will hopefully be ironed out with the sequel next year. It’s already on my wishlist!

[trevordmerrill]

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) Review

Film Rating: God Mode / On 10/10

Quick Review: This isn't the Star Wars you remember, but it is everything you ever hoped the series could be and more. The magic and mystery of the force have returned and the characters are finally made out of flesh rather than wood. Welcome to the new Star Wars where anything can happen and J J Abrams puts the “war” in Star Wars.

- Details Breakdown -

The Good: The only way to do this film justice is to break it down into just some of the many component parts that made it work so well, so first up is something not being talked about a whole lot, but something that stood out to me less than a minute in: sound design.

Sound Design:

Maybe it was just the theater I was in or maybe the projectionist in the booth just absolutely loves Star Wars and wanted to start the movie off with a bang, I don't know, but one thing I do know is that the intro music to Star Wars this time was like the starting pistol at a race. It jolted me upright and sure got my attention as the movie left the gate at a whole new level. After that, one scene after another, I was continually impressed and surprised by the sound work done on this movie. The Force sounded and FELT like a force to be reckoned with, the bass was so strong during the force torture scene, I began to actually feel it inside my own head a little too. The lightsaber sounds seems completely redesigned and amped up to the next level to make them sound vicious, exciting, and terrifying. Kylo Ren's saber in particular has a distinctive raw sound to it that makes it feel like the blade itself is trying to escape and kill someone. Many of the other iconic Star Wars sounds, such as the memorable Tie Fighter scream, were also redone and cranked up to level 10. Tie Fighters finally sounded terrifying as they chase down enemy ships and even more so to those on the ground as they do bombing runs. So many sound design elements in this movie helped just make everything feel not only more real, but just plain MORE.

The Personality:

One of the single greatest faults of the Star Wars series has been its flat characters and clunky dialogue. Due largely in part to Lucas' direction, the actors frequently overacted or gave stoic performances and only a few moments here and there were the characters ever given any genuinely believable personality traits, much less likable ones. I recently rewatched all 6 of the other movies and there were MANY times, even during the original trilogy, that I was quite simply embarrassed of an actor's performance. For the first time since Star Wars came to the big screen in 1977, we finally have real, genuine characters with real, genuine personalities and emotions. There are tears flying, people getting snappy at one another, witty banter, sarcasm, people going into full on pissed off rage mode, and people getting so incredibly excited over just making it out alive of a crazy situation. One of the first scenes in the movie we get that sets the entire tone for the remainder of the story is when Kylo Ren captures Poe and is interrogating him and Poe's response is something to the effect of "I'm sorry, what did you say? It's really hard to hear you with all of this *motions to mask* going on". At that moment, I knew that this wasn't George Lucas' Star Wars anymore. This was a whole new beast. The second scene that absolutely stands out to me is when Poe and Fin are escaping and Fin gets SUPER excited about being a badass and says something to the effect of "DID YOU SEE THAT? I'M AMAZING!". There is just so much raw emotion flying around in this movie, it's incredible. It is almost the polar opposite of the rest of the franchise and in a wonderfully refreshing way. I also absolutely love how they introduced Fin's character and used blood for the first time in Star Wars in such a powerful way.

Balancing Act:

Something that many people were worried about with this movie, myself included, was if the movie was going to either bank too much on nostalgia or too much on forcing the new characters on people and it unbelievably and impossibly did neither. It was clear that they were pulling the absolute best aspects from the original trilogy and essentially repackaging it for a new story, but it didn't seem to matter. I saw a lot of familiar faces, scenes, and even plotlines, but none of them felt too much ripped off. It did help that they acknowledged the similarities upfront several time as well. It also didn't feel too much like they were trying to force the old series out, except for the prequels. The new characters felt right at home in the Star Wars universe and worked perfectly along side the old ones.

Forget The Prequels:

Something I feel like this movie was trying to subtly (and sometimes not so much) do was erase the prequels from memory. Sure, they reference them here and there, but in the same way that X-Men Days of Future Past acknowledges the original X-Men trilogy. J J Abrams literally took a giant death laser, pointed it at the prequels and destroyed them. On top of that, the movie got back to its roots in terms of its viewpoints on The Force. People fell in love with the concept because of the mystery of it and the potentially limitless power it had, which was wrecked in the prequels with a list of rules and can and cannots. Welcome to the new Star Wars where love and attachment does not lead to the Dark Side, where tears and passion can be an ally of the Jedi, and where J J Abrams is going to throw force powers at you that make you stand up and shout OH SNAP DID HE JUST DO THAT??? There has been an awakening alright, J J Abrams and Lawrence Kasden has awoken the wonder that is Star Wars.

The Bad:

There are a few strange things about this movie that especially stand out since it was so incredibly phenomenal, the first being the last shot of the movie. I feel like Abrams took the whole "episode" thing a little too literally and cut the end like a TV show cliff hanger...but like an awkward one where there's just a REALLY uncomfortably long shot of two characters looking at one another and basically just waiting for the next movie to happen. It kind of thew me off, especially since there was a far better ending to cut at only a few minutes before. Another thing that threw me was Snoke's character. A fully CGI character, especially one like Snoke, placed into the fairly practical setting of this movie felt extremely off. It was more like they pulled a Marvel villain and plopped him into the Star Wars universe than anything else. I'm hoping Snoke isn't what he appears to be in the next movie and it isn't quite as bad as it looks, but his character doesn't show much promise as a villain to be perfectly honest. Great acting, don't get me wrong, but everything about him visually didn't make any sense.

[pinielle]

[mccartershanon]

I can't stress enough how amazing this book is!!!!! Check out my review on YouTube to hear more about what makes this book one of the best I've ever read!

[superchayray]

The Man who would be King

Re watching this episode breaks my heart. The betrayal of Cas hits them all pretty hard, especially Dean. This show and the feels man, I just love it.