Jasher Drake
Had such a blast being back in the world of the OASIS with these characters. Although the original nostalgia-fuelled buzz of Ready Player One has worn off a little bit, Ready Player Two manages to up the stakes, up the references and tell an epic tale of the things, and the people, that we love.
Really do recommend checking this one out! Whether you read the first one years ago or you simply lost interest in the premise - this is a super worthwhile, timely, and entertaining sequel. May even be the Empire Strikes Back to the first's Star Wars.
Woah, woah, woah! An absolute all-timer of a fantasy tale full of memorable characters, wild adventures, and a whole lot of heart.
That final battle with Huma vs. Takhisis? Might just be the coolest thing I've ever read.
Definitely going to be checking out more of Richard A. Knaak's stuff ASAP and going to be inspired by this crazy little book for a while.
Loved the sprawling cast of characters and kaiju that this follows, as well as the really creative use of location and timezone in every chapter.
And the monster fights?! Was skeptical that the huge battles we're used to in Godzilla flicks wouldn't translate well to paper, but boy was I wrong. Some of the most exhilarating and intense action I've read in years.
Loved being back in the world of Dragonlance and had an absolute blast devouring this book - but didn't find myself engaging with the actual story so much this time around.
Our heroine, Destina, frustrated me. She's set up in the first act as a really well fleshed-out protagonist that you can't help but relate to and feel sorry for but by the end of the book it's like her actions don't even stay true to who she was set up to be, and it gets harder and harder to root for her.
Add in the whole time-travel element with Tasslehoff that was already done well multiple times in the original series, and everything just feels a little like a shallow repetition of what I once fell in love with.
In saying all of that however, I love Weis and Hickman's writing style. I loved reading a story set in Krynn again and I loved all of the callbacks and characters from stories of old. I also really dug the tension of the finale and really do hope that we see more from this series because even though this might've been a bit average, it has set up some very very exciting stuff.
This book was so good! Didn't know what I signed up for when I decided to read a collection of essays, but honestly loved it! Bruce Campbell has a style of humour very similar to my own and there was so many times when I found myself genuinely cracking up over his writing.
And although there were some essays that I liked less that the others (the tree-planting & exercising ones), they were still super fun to read and all in all I enjoyed this a lot more than other non-fiction and autobiographies I've read recently.
Hail to the king, baby!
Can totally tell why this is such a highly regarded classic. Sure it isn't one of my personal favourites ever, but the story, characters and writing-style actually made this a super enjoyable read for me.
I've never been the biggest fan of period dramas, and although I'd like to think of myself as a romantic at heart, I never have found myself drawn into those types of stories. Usually I‘be found that the majority of stories akin to this tend to be pretty much the exact same story, with a few slight variations. But, I actually found myself loving the particular character interactions and drama in Pride and Prejudice, and it's probably thanks to the way that Jane Austen managed to make these character all unique and add an amount of humour in this that I never expected.
All in all, I really enjoyed Pride & Prejudice, and would 100% recommend it to everyone, even if it isn't usually your thing.
Simply capital!
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. This is my independent opinion.
Looking through my Goodreads a few months ago I was surprised with how many books I've given 5 stars. Like surely all those books I've rated can't all be masterpieces, right? So I made a commitment. I wasn't going to just throw out 5/5s willy-nilly anymore, I was only going to give them to stories that completely captivated me, moved me, entertained me and had me on the edge of my seat.
And then along comes E.M Powell with her latest mystery and try as I might, I couldn't help but rate it honestly.
‘The Canterbury Murders' once again follows Stanton and Barling, two men who now are no strangers to murders and mysteries after solving a few in the last entries in the series. This time though, they are caught completely unawares as disaster strikes at the Canterbury Cathedral, a place they were only visiting by chance. With a superb cast of shady characters and an almost impossible deadline to meet, can they solve the mystery before it's too late?
Powell never fails to impress me as she takes the reader back in a journey through time, you honestly feel like you're there in Canterbury, and that the story you're reading is just so real. This is an absolute credit to the her and all of the research she does and dedication she has to the subject matter. It makes everything come alive and jump off of the page.
Then we have the characters, and man alive do they deliver. No joke, Stanton & Barling may just be my favourite duo to ever be put on paper. Each character is so fleshed out and unique and that makes for engaging moments of banter, conflict and discussion. And that actually goes for every character in this book, each one is absolutely and believably brought to live, even though the majority are entirely fictional.
Then there's the mystery, the crux of the whole book. This is the first time in a long time that a mystery was too smart for me. I thought I had it figured out and I was completely wrong. I ABSOLUTELY loved it. Everything ended up making so much sense, how everything played out was nothing short of masterful and the conclusion left me breathless. I will say though that it did feel like the mystery took a while to actually get going, but when it got going it really got going and you see that the setup was super important.
Lastly, the final chapter hit me harder than I think anything I've ever read ever has. Such a phenomenal piece of writing that made me unexpectedly well up with emotion.
I loved every single bit of this book, and E.M Powell has made me fall in love with the historical fiction genre, something I never really found all too appealing before reading her incredible works. Each of her books feels like an improvement on the last and every one of them is an absolute must-read. I cannot wait for whatever comes next.
Such a mind-blowing and insightful book on the human psyche and what makes people act the way that they do. It's also a fascinating look at what life is actually like for a g-man and I found myself learning a lot about the FBI, numerous cases that they've cracked and a lot about the infamous serial killers themselves.
Mindhunter wasn't an easy read though, let me tell you that! No punches are pulled when it comes to the gruesome and horrific details of a lot of these cases, and at some points I found myself having to take a break from reading just to get my mind off of the horrible acts described. The fact that it took me about two months to get through this whole thing probably speaks for itself in that regard.
In saying all of that though, I've definitely gained a newfound respect for the people who devote their lives to work like this.
Loved this book and I was so close to rating it five stars, but did find the ending a little rushed and feel that it could have been handled a little bit better.
Other than that though, it was so, so, so, so, so good! Felt like a Black Mirror episode or an A24 movie at times while also feeling like The Midnight Gospel or an enthralling podcast at others.
Super fresh, original, easy to read and hard to put down.
Really wanted to like this but for something that's called a ‘Guide to Dinosaurs', it didn't actually spend too much time on the dinosaurs themselves. Instead, it delved a whole lot more into evolution, extinction, climate change and chickens. And while a few of the conversations were interesting at times, I just wanted to learn about the dang dinos!
Maybe it's just that I'm actually not a grown-up yet, but I think I'll stick with Jurassic Park for now.
This was probably the weirdest book I've ever read.
Like honestly, I really didn't know that I was in for a novel about a musical-theatre actress saving talking animals from zombies in a haunted swamp by using the magical powers of her dancing, but that's what I got and it was actually really good.
Pacing was a struggle at the very start, but once the story gets going, it really gets going.
Dance of the Dead was a super unique book with memorable characters and a great plot. Had a few awesome horror moments as well which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This definitely wasn't as good as Cold Cases, and I probably would've rated this two stars if it wasn't for the last chapter. Most of the chapters were quite hard to follow in audio format, and a lot of them were very short and didn't have much of a plot.
Just like the last audiobook in this series, this is pretty much like a season of the tv show, taking place between seasons 9 and 10. Each chapter plays and sounds like an all new episode with stunningly produced sound effects and the original cast voicing their characters. I'm going to share a couple of thoughts on each chapter.
Chapter 1 - Immaculate: First things first, the plot for Immaculate was very, very... strange. It involved a girl possessed by the devil blowing up an abortion clinic and recruiting people for a suicide cult, which was quite messed-up, even for X-Files. I found the whole chapter hard to follow in audio format and very dark and depressing. Probably my least favourite of the bunch.
Chapter 2 - Chitter: A classic monster-of-the-week episode! This one I enjoyed but it was only about 20 minutes long and didn't have too much of an actual story. It did have a unique monster and classic Scully-in-peril moments though so it won me over.
Chapter 3 - Monica & John: This chapter was alright as well, but just like a lot of the others, it suffered by being short and not having a proper plot. It also kind of sucked to not have the actual actors of Doggett & Reyes reprising their roles because the two voice actors that did do it really didn't do the characters justice.
Chapter 4 - G-23: Another chapter with a strange concept that was hard to follow in audio format. Basically, Mulder and Langly hear about a conspiracy involving a government-created hallucinogenic drug called G-23, they start to investigate it and then end up accidentally taking it. From then on, the rest of the episode is basically just one big trip, with both Mulder and Langly seeing a whole ton of random hallucinations, hence why it was hard to follow, what they were hallucinating didn't transition into audio well and the descriptions didn't come across clearly.
Chapter 5 - Elders: The conclusive mythology episode and the best of the book. Brings back a few surprising characters from the original show and actually has a really thrilling storyline. This chapter by itself was over an hour and a half which was pretty much more than triple the length of each of the others, making it feel almost cinematic in scope.
Just like the last audiobook in this series, I was blown away by the production quality of the whole thing, and the voice acting from the returning cast was great. I found myself laughing at Mulder's quips and sighing at Scully's scullyisms.
Unfortunately though, this was quite a big step down from the last one, and the pacing and clarity of majority of the book was a big letdown. Still worth listening to just for further adventures with the gang, but definitely not essential listening like the last one was.
Really wanted to like this book, but ended up being very disappointed.
The author obviously had such an awesome imagination. The storyline and monster are so original and unique, but I found the style of the writing very hard to read. I felt lost with the way the author would describe things and constantly found myself bored with the lack of tension and drama in the way that it was written, although that may just be because this is an extended edition of the original novella.
In my opinion, John Carpenter's ‘The Thing' film from 1982 is a much better version of this story. Skip reading this and give it a rewatch.
This was so much better than I thought it would be! David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and a ton of other original cast members are back as their characters in a fully-voiced and stunningly produced audiobook that feels just like you're watching episodes of the show.
The audiobook consists of five chapters that are essentially 5 all new X-Files episodes that take place between seasons 9 and 10 of the series. I'm going to quickly break each one down and give you a few thoughts on each as some were better than others.
Chapter 1 - Believers: So great having the whole ensemble back and it even had a few surprise appearances from X-Files side characters. This acted as a mythology episode and pretty perfectly made sense of all the twisted alien mythology the show had it its later seasons, making me wish that we'd seen something like this chapter in the actual show. Only downside was that the action sequence at the end was quite hard to follow in audio form, and could have done with a bit more narration from the characters on what was actually happening.
Chapter 2 - Hosts: Easily my favourite of the bunch, even if the ending was anticlimactic. As it's name suggests, this chapter finally gave us the long awaited return of the Flukeman and upped-the-ante just like Alien did with its sequel Aliens, giving us a ton more Flukemen. Some really cool scenes in this chapter, and really fleshed-out the Flukeman backstory.
Chapter 3 - Being for the Benefit of Mr. X: I found this one to be the worst of the lot. It was very hard to follow in audio form, very short compared to the others, and the whole chapter pretty much solely consisted of a single conversation and flashback. Mr. X was back though so even though this chapter was quite lacklustre, he was still as badass as ever.
Chapter 4 - More Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man: This chapter was probably my second favourite after Hosts. It works as a sequel to the Season 4 episode ‘Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man' and follows the same format as that episode did by pretty much only focussing on Cancer Man himself and taking us through different stories from his past for the runtime. Absolutely loved every single one of the stories and how they all connected to different moments in the show. The highlight of this chapter though was easily William B. Davis's voice acting. So good!
Chapter 5 - Pilgrims: This chapter was epic. Clocking in around an hour and a half long it had everything you'd ever want in a mythology episode and totally felt that it was movie-scale in execution. Even though this chapter was long, it went by in a breeze and the story was super engaging. And come on, our favourite rogue agent Krychek coming back? What's not to love about that.
All in all, I was blown away with the quality of the audiobook and honestly think that the stories and route that they took with this should've been what they went with for season 10 of the show, so much more engaging and a better storyline all around.
Would definitely consider this essential listening for any X-Files fan.
I actually really dug this book. The writing made this character feel like the Scully I know and love, the story was original and interesting, and it kept me guessing right up until the very end.
Only downsides were the very repetitive chapters spent visionquesting at Beyond Beyond and the confusingly written visions and dreams.
I have serious mixed feelings about this book because, just like a lot of the other reviews are mentioning, it feels like two completely different stories in one.
The first half of the book was incredible. It had me completely hooked and managed to constantly make me feel like I was in the intense, dire and downright terrifying situations that the characters were going through every time I'd read it. It had great character development, so many clever twists and takes on classic horror tropes, and actually may just be some of the best horror fiction I've ever read.
Then in the second half, all of that went away. The whole story lost momentum, almost felt like it even changed genres and just went off the rails into pure fantastical nonsense. That was really disappointing.
All things considered, I'm still going to give it 3 stars simply because of how great the first half was, and the very end was actually decent. It's very disappointing how things ended up panning out though, and I really wish that the feel of the first half of the story had continued throughout the whole book. It's actually quite baffling to me as to why the author chose to go with what he ended up going with when he was onto something so unique and captivating initially.
I cannot believe that's it's taken me this long to finally get around to reading this book, and I'm infuriated that it did because just like always, E.M Powell has written something amazingly thrilling, thought-provoking and wholly original.
This book is so easy to read! It's been written in such a way that you never get bored and you're always left wanting more after putting it down.
Something I always love about E.M Powell's books is that you can tell how much effort has been put into making them historically factual, and it just makes them feel so real. Everything from the intricacies of the way the monastery is run to just her detailing of buildings, objects and clothing. It just utterly transports you to the time period and you cannot help but become completely immersed in the story.
Another thing I love about E.M Powell's writing is how she treats her characters. Every single character, from Stanton & Barling to each monk at the monastery are fleshed out like I've never experienced before. I don't know how she does it but she brings so much life into characters that that may even only be in the book for a page or two. In particular probably the main thing I loved was yet again the relationship between our two protagonists, Stanton & Barling. Powell really does something special with them both throughout the story and builds so much on what was set up in the previous book.
In conclusion, I loved this book. Such a great mystery and such a good thriller. Manages to also teach you so much historically while reading as well which is always something that I enjoy. Thanks E.M!