Tag Archives: Review

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

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An interesting read.  Definitely a brain workout trying to understand all the science and relativity and whatnot.  Much of it was fascinating.  The technology and the military and the science was very intriguing.  His vision of how society would change was interesting. 

The story itself was pretty good.  I felt slightly detached for a lot of it, but not too bad, and the science did distract from the plot a little, but was enjoyable in itself.  It covered a long period of time without a lot of really exciting stuff happening.  That’s not a bad thing necessarily, I just tend to prefer short time lines that drop you right into the action and really show a lot of detail of said action.  But for the story being told, this was probably the best way it could have been written. 

His style I did like.  It felt fairly informal, but also very intelligent and well-written.  He fused the protagonist’s thoughts seamlessly into the narration in just the way I like.  It was a fairly quick read, aside from when you’re trying to grasp the scientific concepts, but didn’t feel dumbed down like a lot of the more recent quicker reads.

Overall, I enjoyed it.  Not my favorite book and probably won’t make it onto my “reread shelf,” but I am glad I read it.

Lexicon by Max Barry

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I really enjoyed this one.  At first I was a little annoyed by the inconsistent jumps in POV and time, but that disappeared quickly.  I was never lost and my enjoyment did not diminish because of this, just the opposite in fact.  I loved his style as well.  It was different than what I usually read; it felt more informal, which I really enjoyed.  The idea behind the story is fascinating.  I don’t want to give away too much, but they way it views words and the brain and the idea of this “magic” is amazing.  The story itself was great as well.  I read it much faster than I have been reading lately and didn’t want to put it down.  Barry does a wonderful job of keeping you guessing and in suspense.  I did feel the ending fell short a little bit, but maybe I’m just too picky, as there hasn’t really been a book or movie I’ve been satisfied with the ending of lately. 

Overall I would definitely recommend this book.  It is very intelligent and gripping.  I will definitely be adding other works by Max Barry to my list of books to read.

10 Cloverfield Lane

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This was actually a really good movie. I wasn’t real sure on how much I was going to like it, but I really did. It had a tiny cast and a tiny setting, but still managed to be an intense and emotional film. Very suspenseful throughout, and yet there was no clear and present danger for almost the entire movie. I wasn’t sure if this would be one of those movies where the main character dies and I was waiting for it to happen. The actors did a great job, all three of them. The characters were unique and decently strong. The plot was one of the simplest I’ve seen, but it still managed to hold me the entire time. In a lot of movies there are times that I look around and fall out of interest and remember that I’m in a movie theater, that didn’t really happen with this one. I was entrapped the whole time. I will hopefully be seeing this one again sometime soon.

Saga by Conor Kostick

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Pretty good.  Not my favorite, but pretty good.  A good follow-up to EPIC.  It had an interesting premise and characters.  There were some improvements made from EPIC, namely in the POV department.  He took it to a whole new level, but executed it well.  The changes felt more regular and better prepared than in the first book.  They were a little confusing at first, but once I got used to them, they definitely added to the story.  The writing itself was just about the same as the first book, not perfect but pretty good.  He was a little inconsistent at times; there were a couple of times I noticed he referred to a character by his full name, then a little later by his shortened nickname and back again.  It didn’t take away from my understanding of the book at all, but it felt wrong.

In terms of story, I was a little disappointed.  It started out kinda slow and took a long time to get going.  There was very little at first that would hint at where it was going.  It just seemed to be pulling itself along with no goal.  Eventually the goal became clear, but the story didn’t really speed up until the last few chapters.  Even then, the sense of danger and fear of failure never really came.  Maybe I’m just too picky, but I’m adding this one to my pile of stories that I feel have low stakes, low danger and a disappointing climax.  But I still enjoyed it.  Mostly.  Not quite as much as EPIC.  Probably won’t be reading it again.

Deadpool

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Best movie ever.  Maybe an exaggeration, but it is definitely up there.  Quite possibly the best Marvel film to date.  Very different than the others, but better.  People who think it is like the others and want to bring their kids, I suggest you pay attention to the rating.  It is rated “R” for a reason.  But for those of us fine with such a rating, it is a magnificent movie.

One of my favorite things ever, when it’s done right, is fourth wall breaks.  Given that this is Deadpool we’re talking about, I was expecting them, and I was not disappointed, starting with the opening credits.  Between them and the constant pop culture references, this movie was non-stop laughs.  The best references were about Ryan Reynolds and his other Marvel roles.  This movie is also the bridge between X-Men and the rest of the MCU, if only barely, and the references to both are fantastic.  As with all Marvel movies, be sure to stay through the credits.

Really, this movie was awesome.  I want to watch it again, and again, and again just so I can start to get all the jokes.  Absolutely see this one of you are good with the language, gore and sex, because it is one of the funniest movies you will see.

Epic by Conor Kostick

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I enjoyed this book.  I had started it a few years ago, but I don’t think I finished it.  I’m glad I went back.  The tale is a refreshing take on the overused “young hero leads rebellion to destroy dystopian society” story.  It had the same basic idea as The Hunger Games and Divergent and the Inheritance Cycle and… you get the point.  However, this story had a different feel.  Aside from the general idea, the overall story arc was different.  I don’t want to spoil anything, but it wasn’t the usual “nobody teen hero is discovered and put at the head of an established army to fight an age-long war” thing.  A nice change.

It did suffer a little bit from what I have noticed in a lot of stories I’ve experienced lately, that the story is too easy.  A couple of the major events didn’t really seem to put the heroes in serious danger.  There wasn’t really the uncertainty that the hero would survive.  Aside from him telling us that they were struggling, I didn’t really get the sense that they were having much difficulty.  That brings me to another point.  Overall, the writing was great, but I felt like he could have done a better job “showing, not telling” in places.  But he did do a fantastic job in many places of painting a very vivid image in my mind.  There were other minor issues with the writing sometimes (like using the
POV character’s name more than he should have in a short stretch) but it mostly fell away as I got more invested in the story.  His dialogue did cause some issues for me at times through the whole thing.  I got lost in some exchanges trying to figure out who was saying and doing what.

How he structured the story felt a bit off sometimes as well.  It felt very fast sometimes and could have benefited from slowing down between events.  His choice of point of view changes felt awkward as well.  It was extremely irregular with most of the book from one character’s POV, but with half a chapter here and there from another character’s and one page from another’s and so on.  This might not bother some people, but it felt strange to me. 

Now I have just pointed out all the problems I had with the book, and most of these complaints really had very little effect on my enjoyment of the book.  I still definitely recommend the story to young adults interested in fantasy and sci-fi.  The book creates a nice mix of elements from both.  He created a fascinating world and interesting characters.  I am now about to start the second one and am looking forward to it, so I will waste no more time writing this.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Fantastic.  I have some minor issues with it, but overall, I loved it.  So many tiny details that touches on all of the other films.  I am 100% certain I didn’t catch all of them, but the ones I did were great.  A couple of shots were taken practically straight from the previous films, and it was wonderful.  But they did not go overboard.  If I wasn’t such a geek, it would have been easy to never notice, so it wasn’t distracting.

Story wise, it was pretty good.  Not wonderful, but pretty good.  I was pretty invested in it the whole time.  It did, however, suffer a bit from a problem that a lot of movies I’ve seen and books I’ve read recently suffer from: it was too easy.  This one isn’t as bad as some others, but I didn’t really feel like they were at risk of failing for most of the big action scenes.  The first half was better, but the second half really just felt like they couldn’t lose.

As far as characters go, I love most most of them.  Kylo Ren was a little disappointing though.  He wasn’t a bad character of villian per se, but he wasn’t as cool as I had hoped.  Relating to my above point about the story, he wasn’t that dangerous.  He was better than Ultron in that department, but not great. 

As a movie, it was really well done.  J.J. Abrams did a wonderful job of crafting a great movie.  The camera work was wonderful and the whole movie was beautiful.  The big lightsaber fight is one of the best of all the movies.  While not as impressive as a lot of the prequel fights, it was visually amazing.  The acting was a little cheesy, but given that it is a Star Wars movie, that was 150% expected.  At least there was no whiney Skywalker kid this time, so that is a bonus over all the others.  Daisy Ridley and Harrison Ford stole the show.  The latter was no surprise, he stole the show during the original trilogy as well.  The former was a pleasant surprise and I look forward to seeing her act in future films, especially the next Star Wars.

My biggest problem with this movie is the same as many Star Wars geeks: it trashed the Expanded Universe.  While I am very disappointed by this, this film was an okay substitute.  Some parts felt pretty familiar and were clearly pulled from the EU.  I will always love the EU first, but I do like this story, so I am just going to keep loving both of them separately. 

Overall I was very excited for this movie, as it is the first Star Wars to come out since I have been old enough to appreciate it, and I wasn’t disappointed.  Maybe not the absolute best movie ever, but it was wonderful and I definitely recommend it to old fans and new comers alike.