Friday 30 August 2013

Emperor of Thorns Review


This week we’re returning to Europe, or the flooded, warped remains of Europe in Emperor of Thorns. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s about anti-hero Jorg Ancrath and his quest to unite the 100 small, fractured kingdoms of the continent into one glorious empire like in the olden days. That said though the previous books were more about Jorg’s revenge on his father, his uncle and finding more and more darkly hilarious, albeit morally questioning ways to kill people who got in his way. 

Now aged 20 and king of his own kingdom, King Jorg is summoned to Congression where he and other leaders of the realm are to meet and vote on a new emperor. Emperor of Thorns leaps between the journey to Congression and the events of five years ago, running together at the end of the book to explain how what happened then has affected the present.

I know I’m going to have stones thrown at me for saying this but I didn’t like this book as much as the last one. The story is still really strong and early on the style the flashbacks are wrote in tease you to keep reading to find out more. There is still a great deal of mystery and questions from the previous books which are played out here and what Jorg discovers is surprising as well as intriguing. There are some tense and bloody moments early on which also keep you hooked in the vein of the previous two books.  

That said I felt Emperor of Thorns wasn’t as sharp as its predecessors. What made the first two great were the ways ever increasingly imaginative ways Jorg killed his enemies or got out of tight spots. The way Jorg reflected on the situation in the first person also made it darkly funny. But I just didn’t feel this was replicated in the new book, especially the second half. The first half of the book did and did so well. 

The thing that really brought it down for me was the ending. I won’t spoil it here as I know a lot of people haven’t finished reading it yet and Mark Lawrence is a really cool guy. But I will say that it just didn’t do anything for me and seemed vague. 

Emperor of Thorns still gets a healthy 7/10.

Friday 23 August 2013

Falling flat on your ass: Kick Ass 2 Review


The world’s favourite would-be-super-hero in a green wetsuit Kick Ass is back on cinema screens.
Kick-Ass 2 to set two years after the first film when a teenager called Dave decided to become a real life super hero. 

We find him still patrolling the streets on a nightly basis. But his stand-up and be counted attitude has spawned legions of other would-be-heroes. Dave joins a team of them but his actions draw the attention of Red Mist, the son of the crime boss he killed in the previous film. Dave turns to Mindy (Hit Girl) for help but she has given up the trade to focus on high school. 

While the story gets off to an energized and funny start it soon falls flat. The first twenty minutes are fun and the last half hour of the film delivers great action, great jokes and an impressive climax. But the material in between is just, well, boring. It’s not terrible, it just isn’t interesting. In a nutshell it focuses too much on whiney teenagers, like Mindy…actually it’s all about Mindy…whining. 

It’s hard to believe this was the same foul-mouthed, ass-kicking kid from the first film who thought nothing about killing someone. In this film she suddenly decides she cares what other people think about her, which isn’t believable given her previous character convictions. Also given the nature of the film I couldn’t take any of it seriously. I understand the film was trying to build character but this just went into overkill. It dragged on and was completely unnecessary. 

Parking that to one side, the action and fight scenes had me glued and were a lot of fun. Probably the best villain in the film was Mother Russia. When you see her in action you’ll know why. The only action sequence I didn’t like was the van chase scene near the end. The green screen was just horrible. I don’t know if this was done deliberately to create a comic book style feel to it, but either way it didn’t work. The characters looked like cardboard cut-outs flying down a motorway.

When the film did make a joke it was hilarious each time, although there were long pauses between them. This definitely wasn’t as funny as the first movie, which is a shame as it did have some really good moments.
Too much teenage angst and not enough jokes diminish what would have otherwise been a great film.

Kick Ass 2 gets 6/10.

Friday 16 August 2013

The Nightlife: Las Vegas Review



If there’s one thing worse than vampires, it’s vampires high on smack. Those are the ones you should really be afraid of according to Travis Luedke’s vamp-porn-gangster-thriller The Nightlife: Las Vegas.

The sequel to The Nightlife: New York, the books catches up with newly-graduated vampire Arron and golden oldie blood sucker Michelle. The pair head across country after the deadly events of the previous book and are trying to keep a low profile. 

Hold on a second…how do you keep a low profile in Las Vegas? There are security cameras everywhere. This is one thing I didn’t understand about their choice of location but I’ll let it slide *thumbs up*. I suppose if they went to live in Amish country the book would have been nowhere near as fun.

Anyway, if you’re familiar with the series, Travis once again delivers another sex-filled novel about randy vampires. I felt Las Vegas got off to a bit of a slow start but once it gets going, the plot gets very interesting and there is a lot more steam in it than the previous book. There are funny moments and there is a lot of action as well. I don’t think this one if as sex or gore heavy as the previous one, focusing more on plot substance, which works out well. 

One thing I did find lacking though, like the previous novel was the scene setting. The book is very dialogue heavy. Not like that’s a bad thing, but I felt there was room here for more description of the many places the characters visited. 

But I’ll let that go because it’s funny to see vampires drugged up.
The Nightlight: Las Vegas gets 7/10.

Saturday 10 August 2013

OUT NOW: Crashing Down to Earth

It's finally here! My new novel, Crashing Down to Earth, is now out on Kindle for all to enjoy!
If you have not seen any of the promos, this is what it is about: 

Hayley Foster is a woman with a secret. Her flatmate is her guardian angel. But with the terrifying events of two years ago firmly put behind them, Hayley finally dares hope for a quieter life for her and Alex to enjoy.

But it is not long before the old angel’s past comes back to haunt him in the form of an ex-lover. As Alex tries to protect Hayley though, it quickly becomes apparent that far greater powers are at play, far bigger than either of them could ever have possibly imagined.

Join Hayley and Alex in the first part of their epic journey as they try to save Glasgow, as well as each other, from doom.

Amazon US link.





Amazon UK link.


Friday 9 August 2013

Ceri London Author Interview


Happy Friday everyone! This week I have been ctaching up with fellow sci-fi author Ceri London, the author of Rogue Genesis. As you'll see, her fascinating story is a world away from her real life in sunny old England. 

1) Can you please start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a science fiction/fantasy writer who lives in Sussex, England, with my husband and two daughters.  I am (normally) a piano tutor following a career in IT project management. A strange career move and one by chance – a friend asked me to introduce her children to piano as a favour and they stuck with me for years. Word of mouth built up my tuition business. I discovered I enjoy teaching and it gave me more time to spend with my children when they were young.

A few years ago, I picked up writing again. My children are older now and roles seem to have reversed. They look after me while I juggle lessons and my writing – make sure I’m not starving, that sort of thing. Every now and again, I check in as a mother and re-discover just how brilliant they are.

2) Why did you become a writer?

The arrival of home PCs led me to write a story. This was over twenty years ago, I can’t remember why I wrote my first story or what it was about. I clearly enjoyed the experience as I took an evening course in creative writing. Even then, I wrote science-fiction. Nothing I would ever share, even if I could find the stories I wrote. Or the hard floppy disks they were saved on.

3) Can you tell us about your book Rogue Genesis?

Rogue Genesis is the first story in a series: Shimmer In The Dark. It’s about an US military man who discovers that the dream-like alien world in his head is real. His mind has an instinctual ability to project through wormholes, shortcutting galaxies and light years without ever leaving Earth. Different time flows allow him to experience life across two worlds, effectively at the same time. Astereal is a doomed planet, but its time flow is slowing, aligning with Earth. The Astereans face extinction, but they believe Niall can save them, except he doesn’t believe they really exist. That is all about to change. His uncanny ability to evade death has caught the attention of sinister forces on Earth, setting in motion a chain of events that forces him to recognize Astereal is no dream.

That’s the opening premise, but the book is more about Niall Kearey’s journey of self-discovery as his growing abilities start to impact his career, his life, and his family. It’s about Earth’s cynical reaction to aliens and our inherent prejudices. Niall’s eyes are opened to truths about himself, his friends, and the real power brokers pulling strings behind the scenes on his home world. He starts to question everything he believes in as he fights to protect his family, and ultimately Earth, from humanity’s instinct to distrust anything beyond our tiny piece of the universe.   

4) Are the characters based on anyone you know? 

I never write about people I know personally. I would feel too uncomfortable. My main character, Major Niall Kearey, is loosely based on various characters from US military sci-fi shows, but really he evolved from the moment I started writing him. I wanted a military character whose career was about going into enemy territory to rescue people in trouble, and I chose the USAF Special Tactics as a setting for him. 

He’s a medic with Special Ops capability, can fly a helicopter, loves skimming Astereal’s electromagnetic grid in a jet-style aircraft. That sort of thing. I know no one like that. I had to do a lot of research. I didn’t even know how doors worked on helicopters before I started. I thought pilots needed a key like we do to open our front doors. Fortunately, I’ve had many betas with military experience correct me on stuff like that. I recently asked a reviewer with US Army experience to beta check it for military credibility and it passed!

What inspired me to write in an area I know very little about, except for what I read and watch on TV? I love it. It’s so much fun and I hugely admire the military forces. The military setting allows an added dimension of intrigue and conspiracy, and presents Niall with a huge obstacle to his ability to move freely, because he is already caught up inside that military machine
.
5) Are you working on anything at the moment?

I’ve started the sequel to Rogue Genesis. It deals with the repercussions as Niall tries to resume his life, and then throws more at him. He will learn about his heritage. Dangers hinted at in Rogue Genesis will start to take form in the sequel. The world still needs to discover exactly what he did to save the Astereans. The reaction will be very mixed. It will all come together in an unexpected way that will force Niall on a path away from everyone he loves. I so want to get on with writing it. It’s going to be very exciting.

Terry, thank you so much for having me! I’ve very much enjoyed answering your questions.

Rogue Genesis is currently available at the promotional launch price of $2.99

Friday 2 August 2013

Pacific Rim Movie Review



So I saw Pacific Rim at the cinema and thought I’d check in to leave my thoughts on the film.

So let’s get to it. If you haven’t seen the movie or watched the trailers you should still be able to guess what it’s about just by looking at the poster outside the cinema. Unless you’re blind. Huge robots’ fighting giant monsters is pretty self-explanatory.

In the near future a dimensional tear appears in Pacific Ocean. Giant monsters start to pour through and, being angry at mankind for no apparent reason like all monsters are, they start to destroy cities. The world’s answer to this is to build giant robots to kill them. Yes, that old chestnut.

The premise is quite silly but once you get over that this is quite a fun movie. The graphics are very impressive and the fight scenes are nothing short of epic.

One of the only problems with Pacific Rim is that at times it tries to take itself too seriously. Which, considering what it’s about, is impossible to do. I ended up not caring about any of the characters, nor did I learn any of their names. The filmmakers try to ram a lot of sad back stories down your throat in the first hour and it just doesn’t work, simply because you’re counting down the minutes to the next robot-monster smack-down. Which let’s be honest, that’s the only reason why anyone would want to watch this film. Also, the characters are either clique stereotypes or have no personality whatsoever. 

Names? You want names. Erm…you’ll find none here. 

Also the film has some strange bits that not everyone will notice when watching it the first time round. For example, at the start of the film, the leader of the robot defence program is told that the plug is being pulled. He gets told that the governments of the globe will only continue to fund the robots for another eight months.
Why eight months? Are they already four months into the new financial year or something? This isn’t explained. It just seems like such a random number. 

Also, the reason the robot program is wound-up is because the governments are building giant coastal walls to keep the monsters out. But these aren’t finished yet. Why would they retire their only line of defence before the new one was finished? And there are a few others which I won’t go into here or else I’d spoil it. 

If you like Godzilla movies (except that awful 1998 Hollywood version) and rock-em-sock-em-robots, you’ll enjoy this.