When at last I lay it down
This sword will be bloody
For now it has no sheath
Except in my foe’s body.
When at last my Lord removes them
My breastplate, my greaves will be dented
My gauntlets, my helm will be worn
But my soul is forever restored.
When at last this war is won
I’ll join the victors at the gates
But I am not there yet
So I’m jumping the grave
I’m gonna run one more day.
When at last I am brought home
My King will give me rest
And say to me
“You’ve done well”
With a lifeline I cling to
I stare out in longing
At the ever amazing ocean,
But cannot let go to swim
Out there all on my own.
Hold me up, keep me safe.
Hold me back, keep me still.
Why is this safety net
Made of razor wire?
Can I swim on my own
If I just let go?
Or will I drown,
My mind shut down?
I could not put this one down. I wanted to, but I just could not stop. That is very rare. Even books I thoroughly enjoy I can usually put down pretty easily unless I am right near the end or at a cliff hanger. Something about this story and the history in it just held me captivated. Remarkable the things these people did and what I previously knew barely scratched the surface. Still does no doubt.
Grann does a great job dividing the narrative between his own story of discovery and the story of Percy Fawcett. He keeps it professional but still gripping the entire time. He clearly did a lot of research to get the facts straight and he lays out a brilliant tale of a man consumed by obsession. The detail about the Amazon and the feats of the men that explored it is quite enthralling. It does little to make me want to go there myself and imitate them, but it does give me a greater respect for those that do.
I recommend this book for. . . everyone. It is an enjoyable read and informative. I am certainly going to be watching the movie sometime in the near future.
One of the better Star Wars EU stories out there. I’d been told for years I needed to read it, going back to when I was first obsessed, somewhere around Episode 3 coming out I believe. It mostly lived up to the hype. I like the way Zahn writes, it is very much my style. A few things he does kind of bug me, but they were small and merely a matter of taste. I did catch a couple of mistakes that were missed in editing, but those are easily forgivable.
The story itself was pretty good. It had a nice pace that kept me reading. There were possibly too many coincidences and characters showing up at the same places at the same time. Pretty convenient. But maybe that’s just the Force at work.
The characters introduced were mostly good and the ones from the movies felt true. I did have a problem with Pallaeon though. He seemed to be there strictly for the purpose of making Thrawn seem like a genius. He does nothing but marvel at Thrawn’s insight and carry out Thrawn’s orders. I understand the need to show us how smart Thrawn is, but I feel like they could have made the character showing us that brilliance a little more necessary to the plot. If we took out his parts, the story would play out exactly the same. And Thrawn himself, while pretty cool, was maybe too smart. There were a couple of times where I thought it was just too much. At least Zahn did give him a couple of failures.
Overall, a pretty good series and a must read for Star Wars fans. I prefer it to much of the new canon, even if there were inconsistencies from it coming out before the prequels were fully planned.
This one was good. Very well made movie. In terms of storytelling, I can think of only two things that made me question them. One was one character’s motivations near the end. It felt kinda vague and weak. The other was how prepared one minor character was to the point that I was certain he was a bigger character than he was. Otherwise it was very well put together. Everything tied in well with no excess pieces. It carried through in a smooth, but exciting ride without sudden and uncalled for diversions. A wild ride right to the end.
I have nothing but praise of the director. There were many scenes I was just marveling at the way it was filmed. Showed exactly what had to be shone and nothing more. Set the mood of every scene perfectly. And the use of music was incredible. The way songs were incorporated into the construction of so many scenes. Just awesome.
And the actors. Oh man. I was captured by every single one of them. Kevin Spacey was remarkable as always, executing every line perfectly. And Ansel Elgort played his character so well. His interactions with the music and with the other characters was great. His character felt real and I felt connected to him. The others did a great job as well, special mention to Jon Hamm.
Overall, I really have nothing but praise for this film. Serious kudos to Edgar Wright for a well done film. I highly recommend this one to most everyone. Not the young ones, but most everyone else.
A fitting end to the series. I am sad to see that it is over. I will miss the story and the characters (those that are left). The ending was very satisfying aside from one part that felt a little too deus ex machina for me. There was a little hinting to it (something Gwynne does well) but it still saved the day a little too suddenly. On the other hand, this is one of the few stories I have read or watched lately that I did not feel like the climax was rushed and too easy. Gwynne did a great job upping the stakes and suspense and drawing out the scenes that needed drawing out. He didn’t rush to the conclusion. The story moves around in surprising but fitting ways. He brought all the characters together for a natural and epic finale.
He stayed consistent in his writing, which means I have the same general complaints as the previous books. But at this point I have accepted it as just part of the story and it doesn’t really bother me anymore.
I highly recommend this series to fans of fantasy. It has everything you could want, giants, magic, angels, demons, swordplay, betrayal, deception, massive and epic battles. Exactly what you look for in a fantasy. This series has given me plenty of ideas for my own writing and provided me with many hours of entertainment to boot. Thank you Mr. Gwynne, these books are going on my VIB (very important book) shelf.
There’s a joy when I know,
A bounce none can deny.
I can be all I see
Knowing what is behind me.
But then I’m hit with a lie
I tend to believe.
What I know feels wrong
And I question the song.
But through my tears
I see you kneel.
You take my palms
And quell my qualms.
With your truth comes a dawn.
Though I’m never without woe
I can stand and continue on.
Because I know,
Though my life may be gone,
Resurrection is Your show.
Mother feeds me, she seeds me.
She warms her children, draws them strong.
We listen to her poison
And let the praise erode with sin
‘Til we have nothing left within.
Bury me ’til I’m suffocating.
Bury me ’til I can’t breathe in.
Bury me ’til I can’t see the sun,
‘Til all I can see is the Son.
Mother tells me to prune her garden
And calls me shepherd, carer.
Forget the stick, here’s a bloom.
Bury that heart beside this flower,
‘Til it has all your power.
Bury me ’til I’m suffocating.
Bury me ’til I can’t breathe in.
Bury me ’til I can’t see the sun,
‘Til all I can see is the Son.
Bury me
Then set me free as the Lion
To tear up her garden
And roar at the gnomes.
Give me claws, give me teeth
Give me all Mother took from my sheath.
Bury me ’til I’m suffocating.
Bury me ’til I can’t breathe in.
Bury me ’til I can’t see the sun,
‘Til all I can see is the Son.
Bury me
Then shout my name
And tell them my might.
Silence her lies
And give me your sight.
Brand me with truth
That I might be a light.
Shout my name so I may scream your own
And guide them from her garden
To your great throne.
Not my favorite movie. The special effects were pretty good, though it was sometimes pretty obvious when there was blue/green screen. It was fairly enjoyable on the surface, but with my focus on my stories and characters, I over-analyze everything I see or read. So, I didn’t like this one a whole lot.
For starters, the pacing felt weird for much of it. It was jumpy. It bounced between times and characters rather suddenly. And some of the events just seemed to happen out of the blue with no build-up and then the story jumped again. That can work when it creates shock, but I never really felt shocked or surprised, just confused.
And the whole movie was trying too hard. It worked hard to push a message with blatant images and statements. The cinematography also tried too hard. There were some cool shots, but also quite a few that didn’t make sense and were distracting. Too much slow motion. At one point the camera focused on a character’s hand for too long and it didn’t really make sense why, the scene would have been exactly the same, but flowed better had that shot not been in there. Similarly, it tried to foreshadow. A lot. In obvious ways. A whole shot of a guy walking by just to settle on a gun on a table. Setting a sword down and lingering on it for too long. There were so many blatant foreshadowing shots. There were some points that tried too hard. Two in particular come to mind. Two moments of huge heroism that looked fake and/or came out of nowhere and served to purpose.
My biggest complaint has to be the characters. Only one character seemed to come off naturally and that’s because he was supposed to be strange and awkward. There were too many characters and not much time spent on any of them. They had a few moments where they tried to force-feed who the character was to us in the most obvious way. Basically the closest showing can come to telling. In distracting ways. Their interactions and dialogue were awkward and unnatural. Their relationships seemed to come out of nowhere and grew with no real sense of what went into it or even what it was. I felt no attachment to any of them and got no real sense of who they were. Aside from the traits forced down my throat, I got nothing from them. There were some great actors in the film, but I felt like most of them didn’t really get into it.
Overall, I wasn’t thrilled with it. Others thought it was pretty good, so I can’t say you won’t like it. Again, I’m into over-analyzing stories right now, so you could disagree and not see anything I did or not care. There’re my thoughts, but, as always, make your own.
Not impressed. By the end of the prologue (which in itself was a poor choice) I knew it wasn’t going to be great,but I made myself keep reading, hoping I would be surprised. I wasn’t. The writing was very unimpressive. On one page he used the word “soldier” ten times. One right after the other. It did not flow well. It used a lot of direct thoughts that were out of place and redundant. It restated a lot. I really don’t need to know what kind of car every character drives and what coffee they drink and the exact square footage of their apartments. It brought in so much unnecessary information in the most awkward way. He would have someone say something that sounds completely unnatural and was clearly something understood by all the present characters, so it was done simply to inform the reader. So many words and scenes that could have easily been cut out and only made the book better. And the dialogue was structured wrong sometimes. That annoys me. That should be one of the first things a writer figures out before they start writing. Make I’m being unfair. Maybe it was typos. Maybe. And one more thing that annoyed me to no end in the beginning was his unwillingness to name the characters. I believe that, unless you have a really good reason (he did not),the POV character should be named right away. He went pages without naming some characters. That led to an over reliance on “he” and ridiculous nicknames.
Besides the writing being bad, the story wasn’t even good. It was way too political. To the point where it literally went to political speeches many times throughout. I realize that is kinda the point of the book, but it was just exhausting. It maybe is meant to teach people, but I think that most people would just get annoyed and stop reading. I almost did. But maybe I just am not the right audience. I prefer to read fiction for the story, not to be preached at. Sue me. If you want a political message in a book, try and be at least somewhat discreet. Don’t make one of your characters a professor who literally gives political lectures in your book. In doing that, Bobby tried too hard to show how smart he is. Not just on political topics, but on locations and objects. Too much irrelevant detail about things that have no bearing on the story. And the story itself was pretty boring. Maybe if the entire series was cut down to a reasonable length and all the excess was chopped, it would be good, but the way it is, I was bored. I really was.
So no, this was not a good book. I will not be reading the rest of the series. I probably should have seen that coming. Any series that has 6 books come out in little over a year cannot be well written. Tell me if I’m wrong, but that raises a red flag for me. But hey, if you want a political lecture with a storyline and don’t mind bad writing, this is the book for you. Not the book for me.