Two Conventions Coming Up (Plus Another Giveaway)

Posted by cat2002116 on May 20, 2017
Posted in: Giveaway, Ice Warriors, Promotion, Writing. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

In light of the fact that, this time next weekend, I’ll be in London at the Heroes and Villains convention and the following weekend, I’ll be in Blackpool at Ultimates… I thought for this giveaway of an e-book copy (mobi, epub, PDF, word format…) of Ice Warriors: Key of Midgard, I’d ask readers which celebrity they’d most like to meet and what you’d say to him or her.

Join in even if you don’t want to win a copy of the book. Just indicate you don’t want to be in the drawing, but please do join in.

A reminder that Ice Warriors: Key of Midgard is available on Amazon UK at £2.70 and Amazon US at $3.48 and also on other variations of the Amazon site. It is also available in paperback format, but the Kindle app is free to download. You can also read a free excerpt on Amazon.

Please continue to help me spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. Buy a copy. Leave an honest rating and even a review on Amazon and Goodreads. And I’ll continue to keep readers updated about how Ice Warriors: Key of Helheim is getting on, along with the other books I have in the works. And, of course, I will continue to post reviews.

Alien: Covenant

Posted by cat2002116 on May 17, 2017
Posted in: Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Alien Covenant

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve seen all of the Alien movies to date, though the only Predator movie I’ve seen is Alien VS. Predator.

While I did find this movie entertaining to watch, I did feel like the characters made one bad decision after the other. It wasn’t very clear how the crew had been chosen for the mission. If any of them were scientists or doctors… and if any of them were, the decision to go onto an unknown planet with no protective gear, no matter how breathable the air supposedly is, was an insanely stupid idea.

I felt only a handful of the characters were really developed a lot. There were some relationships, but as the majority of them weren’t really shown, it was hard to care when people began dying. I spent most of the movie just waiting for each person to die.

Ironically, the characters I felt were developed the most weren’t even human – Walter and David. It was good to see their almost human reactions and interactions, though I definitely preferred Walter over David. It was a mark of how good an actor Michael Fassbender is that he could play two totally different characters.

A lot of this movie was visually dark, which made it hard at times to see what was going on. And there were some motivations that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, even by the end of the movie.

While there was a lot of gore in this film, it wasn’t until the end that the iconic Alien actually put in an appearance. There were, however, quite a few other iconic scenes, such as the face-hugger and creature bursting out of someone’s chest.

This movie was entertaining to watch, but I didn’t particularly care about the fate of a lot of the characters. And I also picked up on certain things long before they happened. I felt the fact the other characters didn’t made them come across as quite inept.

All told, I wouldn’t watch this movie again…but if you’re a fan of the Alien franchise, you probably do want to see this.

Fury Rising

Posted by cat2002116 on May 17, 2017
Posted in: Books, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Fury Rising

(This review may contain spoilers).
I’ve read (and now re-read) the previous two books in this trilogy. Even after reading this one, though, I would still consider book one to be my favourite.
While I did still find this book to be really engaging and I cared about more characters than just the main ones, while I was reading this, I felt like all I was doing was waiting for the real end to come.
I’ll be honest. I liked Aries, Mason and Daniel as separate characters, but I was really off the love triangle by the end of this final book. I liked seeing the survival of the characters, but I was kind of disappointed in how many of the characters seemed unable to organise themselves. I would have liked to see a bit more of the attitude in the base, rather than just being told that all of the adults didn’t really trust Aries and the other teenagers to know what they were doing.
I did feel that the characters had become complacent. I would have liked to see more details about how the plans were made, rather than just the aftermath and what seemed like characters making really poor decisions they shouldn’t have, given the world they were in at that time. I couldn’t believe one character risked an entire mission to feed a dog. I actually assumed they were lying about it at first.
I was with Clementine towards the end of the book. I couldn’t believe so much had been crammed into a day, two at the most. The appearance of the ferals was really creepy… and that was saying something. I wasn’t sure which was the worst threat: the mob of psychos, or the Baggers still able to think, feel, reason.
I was kind of disappointed there wasn’t more of a resolution. While this book was the final one in the trilogy, I felt there was still a lot of the story to be told and not enough answers. For instance, why was Aries able to bring back a Bagger’s conscience, however temporarily? And what was the whole deal with Daniel? I did enjoy seeing the friendship growing gradually between Daniel and Mason, though.
I would definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future; and also any more books set in the Dark Inside universe.

Ice Warriors Giveaway

Posted by cat2002116 on May 10, 2017
Posted in: Giveaway, Ice Warriors, Promotion, Writing. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

Briggs_Sarah_Jayne_IW-1_KoM-page-001

The giveaway is now live for Ice Warriors: Key of Midgard on Goodreads. It is completely free on Goodreads to enter and can be found here.

I will also be giving away one ebook of Ice Warriors through here, whether in mobi or PDF format. All you have to do is comment with your favourite myth or legend, or even just a figure from mythology. Doesn’t even have to be from Norse mythology. Next Tuesday, I’ll pick one person at random who will receive a free ebook copy.

I look forward to your responses.

 

Links to buy Ice Warriors

Posted by cat2002116 on May 2, 2017
Posted in: Ice Warriors, Promotion, Writing. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Briggs_Sarah_Jayne_IW-1_KoM-page-001

Ice Warriors: Key of Midgard is now available in paperback format on Amazon and Lulu. Both of these are print-on-demand services. Unfortunately, because printing is quite expensive, the physical books are a lot more than the Kindle versions. You can, however, get the Kindle app on both the phone and the laptop.

Amazon UK Kindle e-book

Amazon UK paperback book

Amazon US Kindle e-book

Amazon US paperback book

Lulu paperback book

Please do help me spread the word by sharing and, where possible, leaving a rating and even a review on one of these sites, or even on Goodreads.

And it’s live!

Posted by cat2002116 on May 2, 2017
Posted in: Ice Warriors, Promotion, Writing. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

At least the Kindle version is. Paperback is still in review on Amazon, but I’m planning to also publish on Lulu with a physical copy, which will hopefully be cheaper.

The book costs £2.70 on the Amazon UK Kindle and $3.50 on the Amazon US.

The UK version can be found here: Ice Warriors Book One Kindle UK

The US version can be found here: Ice Warriors Book One Kindle US

Please help me spread the word! And if you read the book, feel free to leave a rating at least. Even if you didn’t like the book, it’ll still help to know.

I’ll post once the book is available in paperback format.

Cover Reveal: Ice Warriors Book One: Key of Midgard

Posted by cat2002116 on April 29, 2017
Posted in: Cover Reveal, Ice Warriors, Promotion, Writing. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This is exciting! I can now confirm that the expected publication date for the first book in my series, Ice Warriors, is to be this Tuesday – 2nd May.

Here’s the front cover:

Briggs_Sarah_Jayne_IW-1_KoM_front-page-001

And here’s the back cover:

Briggs_Sarah_Jayne_IW-1_KoM_back-page-001

And here’s the full cover, including the spine:

Briggs_Sarah_Jayne_IW-1_KoM-page-001

The cover was designed by Rebecca L. Burrows, who can be contacted here: burrowpermaculture@gmail.com

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

Posted by cat2002116 on April 28, 2017
Posted in: Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

(This review may contain spoilers).

To probably absolutely no one’s surprise… I went to see the midnight showing of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. And to be honest, I really enjoyed it. The first one, I liked… but I thought this one was a whole lot better. And by the end, I felt like I’d been put through the wringer emotionally.

The main thing I liked about this movie was the fact that I could see more depth to Nebula’s character. It was really good to see her and Gamorra interacting with each other, but there were also times I felt a whole lot of empathy for her.

Baby Groot was adorable. Seriously. From Rocket’s comments/translations/etc., I gather that what Baby Groot says isn’t necessarily cute, but right from the start of the movie, when he’s dancing around while everyone else is fighting, I was in love.

I also really liked Rocket, though I was considerably less keen on Drax. First-movie Drax, as I recall, I thought was an interesting character. In this movie, he seemed full of contradictions. On the plus side, though, I did like Yondu a lot more in this movie. And considering how much I disliked his character in the Walking Dead, it just goes to show how good an actor he is.

This movie does fall very short of the storyline in the comics. While it was entertaining to watch on its own, there are a huge amount of differences that are noticeable if you’re a fan of the comic books.

I particularly liked Mantis as well, though I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. I had some mixed feelings about her ‘friendship’ with Drax, as I went off him quite a bit in this movie.

There were some really good visual effects in this movie and it was good to see there were serious moments to offset the elements of humour. This was a movie I thoroughly enjoyed watching and would definitely watch again in the future.

Power Rangers Dino Charge

Posted by cat2002116 on April 27, 2017
Posted in: Reviews, Television. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Power Rangers Dino Charge

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having watched Power Rangers Dino Charge, I think this might be my favourite of the Power Rangers franchise; though the new movie is quite close to that.

I felt this series did more to explore the characters and the relationships between them and it was good to see them interacting with their families outside of their work as rangers, for instance Chase’s relationship with his younger sister. And it was also good to see that there was an allowance made for them to be able to rush off from their job, since the café was directly connected to the museum and the secret base.

I did like the fact that this series didn’t fall into the trap of most of the previous, with one (or two) Power Rangers having gone rogue and attacking the group, only to then lose their initial over-powered status after becoming the good guy again.

I’d have to say that, out of the Power Rangers in this group, Koda is probably my favourite. While the other rangers do have depth to them (though I didn’t really like the hostility between Kendall and Shelby. It didn’t really seem to have a realistic reason), Koda was not only the one strongest physically… but also emotionally, as indicated by the fact that his friendship bonds were impossible to cut and break.

It was nice to see the origins of how Chase and Koda became rangers, but I would have liked to see a bit more detail about how Kendall got involved in the whole situation, as it wasn’t made very clear how she and Chase met. Or how they met Keeper, even after it was shown how Chase got his Energem.

I did like Ivan and Philip, though it was more that they grew on me. With the way the two of them talked, it was really hard to take either of them seriously. And I would have liked to know a bit more about the country both of them originated from.

There was a lot about this series that followed the same traits as previous series, but I did like who the original first purple ranger was. It was nice to see age wasn’t really a factor in how the Energems chose the rangers to bond with.

Compared to some of the previous series of Power Rangers, I felt the characters came across as more mature and it was nice to see the smaller friendships form within the group. I did enjoy watching this series of Power Rangers and probably would watch it again in the future.

The Belko Experiment

Posted by cat2002116 on April 26, 2017
Posted in: Movies, Open Discussion, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

The Belko Experiment

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I initially saw this movie advertised, I was immediately intrigued by the concept, even though I knew it would basically be a slasher movie on a much bigger scale.

I did feel like the trailer gave away a lot of the movie’s events, as it was quite clear from the first voice’s speech that things would escalate.

Considering there were eighty employees (and therefore eighty characters) in the building, it was hard to fully connect to a handful. While it was good to see bits and pieces of some of the characters and their relationships with each other, I felt that, by the time they were locked inside the building, all I was doing was waiting for everyone to die.

It was Mike I felt primarily able to connect to on a moral level, but out of the characters I did get to know, at least a little, I thought Wendall was the one with a moral compass that was completely skewed. I really didn’t like Barry, but I did see that he showed some remorse, even if it wasn’t outright hesitation. As much as I didn’t want to, I could understand where he was coming from.

There were a lot of actors I recognised in this movie and it was interesting to see the way different people handled the crisis. This movie did have an 18 rating and that was definitely deserved.

While I could understand the amount of panic experienced by the people trapped in the building, I did think there were certain things they could have tried that didn’t seem to have occurred to them.

The atmosphere of the movie was very intense and there were moments I was waiting on the edge of my seat to see what would happen. There were some very gruesome and gory scenes in this movie, but I found it an interesting concept with some characters who I did care about… even if the majority of those just seemed to be cannon fodder.

For anyone reading this, I’d like to start a discussion. How do you think you’d react if placed in a similar situation? (You should get a read on the plot just by watching the trailer).