I thought this movie looked quite entertaining to watch… and right from the first scene, even though I had no idea of the characters involved or the events leading up to the first scene, it drew me in.
Out of the three who were stealing from people, I really only found Alex to be the most sympathetic. While I felt for Rocky and her situation, I couldn’t say I really liked her, even though her survival instinct was strong. And Money was a character with very little depth to him. I would have liked a little bit more background to the ‘friendship’ formed between the three of them.
There was a lot to this movie that wasn’t shown, such as the relationships between other characters. I actually felt there was quite a small cast… but despite not forming too much of an emotional connection to two of the three characters, I felt there was a lot of tension in this movie.
There was a lot of violence in this movie, but although there were a number of jump scares, I also thought it was good to see a lot of the suspense came from the atmosphere. There were some really good scenes of lighting in this… and I liked being able to see the man able to get around. For a lot of the movie, I was on his side… but that did start to change, especially when I began wanting Alex to survive.
There wasn’t a lot of background to this movie, but it was good to have things revealed as the movie went on. I felt that, with the exception of Money, all of the characters had moments of being sympathetic and really bad guys throughout the film.
I really liked the dog, though… and it was good to see some elements of foreshadowing. I wouldn’t watch this movie again, but I did find it entertaining to watch it the first time through.
A Mortal Song
by Megan Crewe
Publisher: Another World Press
Release Date: September 13th 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Synopsis:
Sora’s life was full of magic—until she discovered it was all a lie.
Heir to Mt. Fuji’s spirit kingdom, Sora yearns to finally take on the sacred kami duties. But just as she confronts her parents to make a plea, a ghostly army invades the mountain. Barely escaping with her life, Sora follows her mother’s last instructions to a heart-wrenching discovery: she is a human changeling, raised as a decoy while her parents’ true daughter remained safe but unaware in modern-day Tokyo. Her powers were only borrowed, never her own. Now, with the world’s natural cycles falling into chaos and the ghosts plotting an even more deadly assault, it falls on her to train the unprepared kami princess.
As Sora struggles with her emerging human weaknesses and the draw of an unanticipated ally with secrets of his own, she vows to keep fighting for her loved ones and the world they once protected. But for one mortal girl to make a difference in this desperate war between the spirits, she may have to give up the only home she’s ever known.
“Megan Crewe’s A Mortal Song is engrossing from the first chapter. The world of the kami is beautifully fantastic and delicately drawn, and the switched-at-birth scenario made me instantly feel for both of these resilient, brave girls. A Mortal Song has lots of magic, lots of heart, and lots to love.” -Kendare Blake, author of Three Dark Crowns.
My Review
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Having been a long-time fan of manga and anime, I was particularly intrigued to see more about the Japanese paranormal culture when I was given the opportunity to read this book.
I really liked Sora’s character. She was easy to engage with and I found myself aching with her as she learned she wasn’t who she thought she was.
I was particularly interested in learning about the kami. I thought the different kinds of kami were good to see, although I would have liked a bit more detail of things like how they could have children and what kind of relationship they had with the world they took care of.
I especially liked being able to see how Sora related to the environment around her and her relationships with the other kami, especially Midora. I really didn’t like Ayame, though. I thought she was fickle and didn’t really care about Sora as a person… only about the position.
I really didn’t like the love triangle. Even though it didn’t irritate me quite as much as most love triangles do, it was one of the worst cliches I’ve seen in love triangles. If it wasn’t for that, I would have easily given this book five stars.
I did like both Keiji and Takeo, even though there were some problems involving both of them. However, I felt both of them had a lot of depth… although there were times I felt Takeo was a bit one-dimensional.
While I did feel there were times Chiyo crossed too far into the over-powered territory, it was good to see that she did have to have training and that she wasn’t perfectly good at using her power. I did also find her boyfriend to be a really interesting character. It was good to see the humans battling along with the kami to save the world… and it was also good to see that it wasn’t just one person who could do everything.
I felt this book was good at drawing me in and making me care about the world and the characters. I even thought it was good to see that the villain had a lot of depth and wasn’t just a one-dimensional character. I would definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.
Like many authors, Megan Crewe finds writing about herself much more difficult than making things up. A few definite facts: she lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband and son (and does on occasion say “eh”), she tutors children and teens with special needs, and she’s spent the last six years studying kung fu, so you should probably be nice to her. She has been making up stories about magic and spirits and other what ifs since before she knew how to write words on paper. These days the stories are just a lot longer.
Megan’s first novel, GIVE UP THE GHOST, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Her second, THE WAY WE FALL, was nominated for the White Pine Award and made the International Reading Association Young Adults’ Choices List. Her Fallen World trilogy (THE WAY WE FALL, THE LIVES WE LOST, THE WORLDS WE MAKE) is now complete and she has a new trilogy forthcoming in October 2014, beginning with EARTH & SKY. Her books have been published in translation in several countries around the world. She has also published short stories in magazines such as On Spec and Brutarian Quarterly.
On the afternoon of my seventeenth birthday, I came down the mountain to visit a dying man.
The affliction had revealed itself slowly. I’d first noticed the tremor of discord in Mr. Nagamoto’s ki—the life energy that glowed inside him—three months ago. Over the weeks, that tremor had swollen into a cloud, dimming the ki at the side of his abdomen. Today I arrived to find the cloud twisting and churning while he typed at his computer in the living room. It was draining his already inconceivably short human life away, but neither he nor his wife knew it was there.
They didn’t know I was there either. I kept myself invisible as I watched from beside the narrow sofa, as I always did when I visited the households in the town at Mt. Fuji’s foot. The people living in those homes looked much like myself and many of the other kami, but it was their differences that fascinated me. They shifted from one mood to another in patterns too complex to predict, and their bodies changed quickly too, for better or for ill. As I’d drifted through the beige walls of this house over the years, Mr. and Mrs. Nagamoto had grown plumper and their hair grayer. I’d joined their children’s games unseen and silently shared their laughter before the son and then the daughter had transformed into adults leaving for college. And now this sickness had come.
I stepped closer to Mr. Nagamoto. Seeing how his disease had spread made me feel sick myself, but that was why I’d come. My resolve solidified inside me, overshadowing the worries that had driven me from the palace. If I really wanted to consider myself a part of this family’s lives, I should help them—help him.
I’d have healed him if I could, but the cloud of decay was so large and fierce I doubted even the most practiced healers of my kind would have been able to defeat it. We kami had other skills, though. I knew a few in the palace whose focus was tending to the dying. When a worthy person or creature passed away, they let it hold on to life a little longer by transferring its spirit into something it had loved. I thought Mr. Nagamoto might like to linger in the cypress tree in the yard or one of the koi in the pond beneath it, where he could continue watching over his family.
Any kami was capable of doing that. Any kami but me. Mother and Father hadn’t let me learn the sacred practices yet.
I had so much more power than anyone in this town—more ki in my little toe than Mr. Nagamoto had in his whole fragile human body. It wasn’t right for me to stand by and let his life slip away unrecognized. My parents would just have to accept that it was time I started serving the purpose I was meant to.
I bowed my farewell to Mr. Nagamoto and slipped outside. The summer sun was dipping low in the stark blue sky. Midori, my dragonfly kami friend who always accompanied me on my ventures off the mountain, flitted around me with a mischievous tickle of ki that dared me to try to reach the palace faster than her.
I took off down the street. Midori darted past me, but in a moment I’d matched her pace, sending ki to my feet to speed them on. The houses streaked by, clay walls and red-and-gray tiled roofs standing behind low fences of concrete or metal. It was strange to think most of these people barely believed my kind existed, spoke and prayed to us only out of habit, with no more faith than they had in the characters they watched on their TVs. But as long as kami lived on Mt. Fuji and elsewhere, we’d continue to act as guardians of the natural world, doing all we could to keep the crops growing, to fend off the worst storms, and to calm the fire that lurked deep inside the mountain.
Or, at least, the others did, and I hoped soon I’d find my focus too.
Midori pulled a little ahead of me, and I pushed my feet faster. I was the only one to have been born in the palace in as long as my honorary auntie Ayame could remember. She loved sharing tales of my birth even more than she did those of heroes and sages. “It was a blessing for our chosen rulers,” she’d told me. “When your mother and father announced they were expecting, the celebrations lasted for weeks.” The parties commemorating my birthday weren’t anywhere near as extensive, but kami still traveled from far abroad to pay their respects. Surely while my parents were thinking of how much I meant to them, they’d recognize how much this request meant to me?
In a few minutes, Midori and I had left the town behind and started up the forested slope. An odd quiet filled the pine woods we dashed through. No animals stirred, except for a couple of squirrels that rushed this way and that as if in alarm before scurrying away. I slowed, forgetting the race as I peered amid the branches for the owl kami who normally maintained the harmony in this part of the forest. “Daichi?” I called. There was no sign of him.
He must have already headed up to join the party. I’d mention my observations when I saw him in the palace.
I directed a fresh rush of ki through my legs. As I ran on, my feet hardly touched the ground. Farther up the mountain, the rustling of moving bodies and the lilt of birdsong reached my ears. Nothing was terribly wrong, then.
“Sora!”
The voice brought me to a halt. Midori settled on my hair. A tall figure was striding toward us through the trees. My heart skipped a beat.
“Takeo,” I said, trying not to sound as breathless as I felt after that run.
Takeo stopped a few paces away and dipped into a low bow. He was wearing his fancier uniform with the silver embroidery along the jacket’s billowing sleeves. In contrast with the deep green of the fabric, his mahogany-brown eyes gleamed as brightly as if they were made of polished wood. With his shoulder-length hair pulled back in a formal knot, the lacquered sheath of his sword at his hip, and the arc of his bow at his shoulder, he looked every inch the palace guard. But he smiled at me, warm and open, as a friend.
If I’d had a camera like the ones the tourists carried, I’d have captured the look he was giving me for keeps. Although then I’d have to explain why I wanted to, and I hadn’t worked up enough courage to confess these new feelings yet. He might see me as a friend, but before that I was the daughter of his rulers, a child he’d been assigned to watch over and teach since I was seven years old, when he’d arrived at the mountain barely out of childhood himself, seeking to serve.
What if he couldn’t think of me as more? Just imagining him telling me as much, struggling to let me down gently, made my stomach tie itself into knots.
I pushed those thoughts aside. I had another goal tonight. Takeo was the only kami close to my age I knew, and he had been training in all the skills of the kami since he was much younger than me.
“I was a little worried when I couldn’t find you in the palace,” Takeo said. “But then I remembered your favorite place to visit. You were in town?”
“Yes,” I said. “Is something wrong?”
“Only that Ayame is looking for you. She’s fretting that she won’t have enough time to get you ready. You know how she is.”
With a wisp of amusement, Midori cast an image into my head of Ayame calling in her usual frantic voice, “Where is that girl?” I wasn’t late, but unlike humans, who might be panicking one moment and easygoing a few minutes later, kami were much more strict in their natures. It was Ayame’s nature to fret over absolutely everything.
“Hush,” I said to the dragonfly with a suppressed groan. She wasn’t the one Ayame would be fussing over when we got back. “I’m sorry,” I added to Takeo.
“It’s no problem at all,” he said, his smile widening. “I’m pleased to escort you home.“Is everything all right with you?” he asked as we continued up the mountain. “On your birthday, I’d have thought you’d be too busy to leave the palace.”
The question reminded me of the niggle of doubt that had drawn me to the Nagamotos’ house so I could steel myself to challenge Mother and Father’s judgment tonight. “I just needed to get away from the busy-ness for a bit,” I said, and bit my lip. “Takeo, do you think if I ask my parents to let me start learning the sacred practices, they’ll say yes?”
“Of course,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “They’ve avoided giving me any responsibility—haven’t you noticed? Last year Kaito offered to teach me the way of the rain, and the year before that Manami suggested I accompany her to her shrine, and both times Mother and Father said that I shouldn’t have that sort of pressure on me before I’m fully of age. But I’ve been able to best you with ki since I was twelve—I nearly beat you with a sword last week. I know every inch of this mountain. Isn’t it time I learned our actual duties?”
“You should tell them that’s what you want,” Takeo said, ducking under a branch. “I’ve never known your parents to be anything less than understanding. They’ll find the right answer.”
The worries I’d squashed down in Mr. Nagamoto’s house surged back up. What if the answer was that they had good reason not to trust me with responsibility? Grandfather always said, “The one truth I know is, we can’t help but be the way we are.” Which meant if I were capable, it should be as clear as Ayame’s fretting, as Mother’s cool collectedness, as Father’s indomitable compassion.
So much of the time, nothing inside me felt clear at all. I could believe with every fiber of my being that I was ready, and a moment later be completely uncertain again. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe my parents had seen that strangeness in me and decided I was… inadequate. I’d never heard anyone else in the palace mention feeling so jumbled up, so I’d tried not to show it, but it had only gotten worse in the last few years.
I glanced sideways at Takeo. “Did you ever…” I said, and hesitated. “Have you ever felt you needed to do something, but at the same time you weren’t sure you could do it, and—”
My voice broke when he turned his head toward me. His handsome face was puzzled.
“If there’s something I can’t do, I leave it to those who can,” he said. “None of us can do everything.” His smile returned, softer this time. “But I think you’re strong enough to accomplish just about anything you decide to attempt, Sora.”
Even though he hadn’t understood what I’d been getting at, his smile steadied me. Was it really so unexpected that Mother and Father might want their only child to relish her youthful years before turning toward duty? “If you give enough to the Earth, it gives you joy in return,” Ayame liked to say. “You are the joy it gave your parents.” Every time my parents called me their “gift,” every time the other kami bowed to me, every time I stood on the mountainside with its power echoing through me, I remembered those words. The Earth itself had brought me into being to do its work. I was meant to be here, to fulfill that promise. I needed to keep my mind on that and not these ridiculous fears.
For a few dazzling seconds, I let the full force of my ki rush through me in a hum of light. The landscape blurred around me. Midori’s grip on my hair tightened as she sent me a glimmering thrill of exhilaration.
Then I reined myself back. At my fastest, I’d leave Takeo behind. I dodged the pale trunk of a birch—and nearly darted right through a ghost.
“Oh!” I said, jerking to a halt. “Excuse me, Miss Sakai. I didn’t see you.”
The filmy young woman bobbed her head to me. Wan and wide-eyed, Miss Sakai had been floating around this part of the mountain for several months. I’d gotten it out of a maple kami that her boyfriend had been walking with her along the paths and pushed her over one of the sharper inclines. She’d broken her neck. “I imagine she’s stuck around to give him a piece of her mind,” the maple had added, but Miss Sakai always seemed calm when I saw her.
Not today, though. I schooled my gaze away from the space partway down her legs where, as with all ghosts, her translucent body dissolved completely, leaving no knees, calves, or feet beneath her. Her ki was jittering. She stretched her mouth into an over-wide grin.
“I wasn’t watching either,” she said, too brightly. “So sorry.” Her eyes darted from me to Takeo and back. “I should be wishing you a happy birthday, shouldn’t I! The big party is about to start?”
“Thank you,” I said. “Yes.”
I wondered if I should invite her to join us, but she spun around before I could say anything else. “Have a wonderful time!” she said, and shot off down the slope. In a few seconds, she’d disappeared amid the trees.
“That was strange,” I said.
“It’s unusual for the spirits of the dead to cling to this world at all,” Takeo pointed out. “I suppose that can’t help but affect their minds.”
We crossed the spring that babbled just below the palace’s entrance and stepped through the grove of cherry trees to the shallow cave on the far side. Any human who happened upon this spot would see nothing more than a small hollow. But when we walked through the cool stone, which tingled over my skin as if I’d passed under a waterfall, we emerged into the main hall of the great palace that housed most of Mt. Fuji’s kami.
Inside, I released the energy that had held me invisible and settled back into my more comfortable corporeal form. At once, my surroundings felt more solid too: the wooden floor smooth beneath my feet, the muted sunlight that gleamed through the ceiling panels warming my long black hair. On either side of us, sliding doors painted with images of flowers and sweeping branches broke the dark wood of the walls. The thrum of the mountain’s ki washed over me in welcome.
Farther down the main hall, two palace attendants were leading a group of guests toward the large public rooms. The smell of the grand dinner being prepared filled the air—kami could take all our nourishment directly from the Earth when we needed to, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying good food. Frolicking music filtered through the walls. My mouth watered and my feet itched to dance, but as Midori flitted over to join the early merrymaking, I turned in the other direction, where the private apartments lay.
I’d only taken one step around the corner toward my parents’ chambers when a high, nasal voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Sora!” Ayame cried, tearing across the hall with her spindly arms waving and her hair billowing around her petite frame. “Look at you, child. Bare-faced, dirt on your clothes… Augh, I can’t have you seen like this, not on your birthday.”
“I need to speak to Mother and Father first,” I said as she tugged me toward my rooms.
“You can go when you’re properly prepared.”
Well, it might be wise to look my best when I made my appeal. I relented.When we reached my inner rooms, Takeo hung back. “Wait for me?” I said. Takeo’s protection was merely a formality at my age, but I’d feel more confident approaching my parents with his steady presence at my side.
“Of course,” he said.
Ayame shoved the sliding door shut between us. Her assistants—one human-shaped like Ayame and me and the other three kami in the forms of a robin, a crane, and a monkey—were waiting in the bathing room. I was scrubbed and rinsed with water scented with cherry blossoms, then powdered and combed and lotioned and powdered again. Finally I was allowed to get dressed, in a silky robe more flowing than any humans ever wore. The pale blue fabric danced with golden butterflies.
“Ah!” Ayame said, clapping her hands together. “Magnificent.”
“Am I done, then?” I asked as the monkey tied the sash around my waist.
Ayame made a dismissive sound and launched into a tirade about my hair. I stared longingly at the door. If I didn’t distract myself, I was going to burst.
As the robin started coiling my hair and Ayame brought out her make-up palette, I exhaled, sending out a stream of ki shaped into a kite. At my mental nudge, it drifted through the door. Takeo and I had played this game since I was first learning how to use the energy inside me, but these days I offered it as a challenge.
The kite was caught by an impression that was purely Takeo, gallant as one of the mountain’s young pines. I drew it back. His ki resisted, dragging the kite toward him, and the corners of my mouth twitched upward.
“Hold still!” Ayame said.
Quieting my expression, I reeled the kite in against Takeo’s pull. At the last instant, Takeo whipped it away. It took all my self control not to lunge after it physically. I clung on with sharpened focus and yanked. The kite shot straight to me, Takeo’s connection snapping. In the room outside, he laughed at his defeat. Ayame shook her head.
“So strong, my Sora,” she murmured. “All right, you’ll do. Walk carefully—and keep your hands away from your face!”
I hurried with Takeo down the narrow hall that separated my rooms from my parents’. The lamps along the wall were starting to flare on with the fading of the sun. Around us, an anxious tremor rippled through the mountain’s ki. I glanced at Takeo, startled, but he showed no sign of concern. That must have been my anxiety, trembling out of me.
My pulse beat faster as we came to a stop at the door to my parents’ private chambers. Takeo tapped on the frame and announced our presence, and Mother’s voice answered.
“Come in.”
She and Father were sitting on crimson cushions by their low ebony table. A light sandalwood scent wafted from the incense burner set in an alcove. Takeo eased the door shut, staying on the other side. I padded across the finely woven rush of the tatami mats to the other side of the table.
Because kami age so slowly once they reach adulthood, Mother and Father both looked as young as humans of about twenty, but otherwise they were each other’s opposites. Mother was thin and lithe with ivory skin, while Father was broad and bulky and ruddy complexioned. The way they smiled at me matched their temperaments perfectly: Mother soft and bright, Father wide and warm.
“We were about to send for you,” Mother said. “You look beautiful, Sora.”
I blushed, lowering my eyes. Strong, I reminded myself. Strong and capable.
“I can’t believe you’re already seventeen,” Father said in his rumbling voice. “Three more years and you’ll be all grown up.” He sounded strangely sad.
“It isn’t so short a time,” Mother said gently, as if I might someday leave for college or other far away places like the Nagamotos’ children.
A distant shout reached my ears. Mother frowned, glancing toward the hall. Kami usually got along, but occasionally there were disputes between the guests.
The faint silhouette of Takeo’s form moved away from the door’s translucent panel. He must have gone to see what was the matter. I drew my mind back to my goal.
“I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare,” I said.
“Let’s not worry about that,” Mother said before I could go on. “Tonight is one of the few occasions we can think of celebration instead of duty. Your father and I wanted to give you your birthday present.”
She nodded to Father, who lifted a long rectangular object from the floor behind him and set it on the table. It was a lacquered case with a leather strap and a gold clasp. “Open it,” he said, grinning.
I leaned forward and pushed up the clasp. As I raised the lid, my breath caught. “Thank you!” I said, staring at the instrument inside. “It’s wonderful.”
It was a flute made of polished bamboo, so carefully crafted I could feel how pure its sounds would be just by running my fingertips over the wood. I picked it up and brought it to my lips. The scale hummed through me as if I were as much an instrument as the flute. Each note expanded into the quiet like a flower bud unfurling. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever heard—and it was mine.
I set the flute back in its case, closed the lid, and hugged it to me. “Thank you,” I said again. “I’ll play it tonight.” I’d meant to use my old flute, the one they’d given me when I’d started lessons years ago. But this was a true musician’s instrument. One for a woman, not a girl. Maybe they knew I was ready to finally find my place among the kami.
I slid the case’s strap over my shoulder. As I opened my mouth, another shout carried through the wall, followed by a heavy crash that shocked the words from my throat. Footsteps thumped down the hall outside. Takeo pulled open the door, and one of his fellow guards stumbled to a halt on the threshold, his breath rasping.
“Your Highnesses,” he said, “forgive my intrusion. We’re under attack.”
Although there were some parts of this movie that had potential, I didn’t really feel it lived up to the first movie.
I didn’t get as confused with the characters as I did with the first film, which gave the impression that this movie was more scripted, rather than the improvisation that seemed to exist in the first movie.
I felt that this movie severely lacked in subtlety. It didn’t generate the same feelings of fear of the unseen as the previous movie did… and it lost quite a bit of the fear it generated when it showed the violence, rather than leaving it to the viewers’ imagination.
I felt that the camera was a bit disjointed, especially seeing as it seemed to randomly switch between the different cameras used by different characters.
I thought there was a lot in this movie that didn’t seem to really go anywhere, like the time disorientation. And one of the violent things that happened was really quite stupid and didn’t really seem to be used for anything other than a jump scare.
There were a few link-ins to the original movie that were good to see, but I was disappointed in this movie. The atmosphere didn’t really seem to make a lot of sense and although it was good to see James was a paramedic, I had no idea what the other characters did… or how the four of them could just randomly camp in the woods. There were references made to the history, but not a whole lot explored.
I didn’t find most of this movie particularly scary and I felt there were too many characters and not enough detail about them and how they related to each other. I wasn’t all that concerned with what was happening to them… and for most of the film, I felt they were making appallingly bad choices.
Having watched and been entertained by the first season of this, I was quite eager to watch the second, even if it did take me a little while to get to it.
My favourite character in this series was probably Audrey. I felt she had a lot of depth to her and I enjoyed seeing her relationships and interactions with the others in the Lakewood Six. I also particularly liked Brooke and Noah. Brooke was a much nicer character than her popularity really indicated… and I especially liked being able to see her relationship with her father, as well as her feelings for Jake.
The first episode did a really good job of drawing me back into the series. There was a lot of tension and a lot that was disturbing about this series. It was particularly good to see the kind of games the killer was playing with the victims.
Although it had been a while since I watched season one, I didn’t find it difficult to be engaged with the plot and the characters again. I did, however, find Emma a bit of an irritating character in this series. While it was understandable she was affected by what had happened before, I did feel she made a lot of really bad choices.
It was interesting to have the opportunity to find out more about Piper’s history and the history of the town with Brandon James. I liked being able to see the conflicts with Maggie and the other adults in town, particularly in regards to the new Sheriff. I did like seeing his relationship with his son, though.
I was a bit disappointed in regards to Zoe. I noticed a lack of ethnic diversity in the town and the character in the previous season who was of a different ethnicity ended up dead.
I liked Noah and seeing the way he and the others were coping with the massacres. This series was much more violent in terms of the death than the first… but the games the killer was playing put me on edge; and there were other conflicts, in particular between Kieran and Eli, that did a good job of that.
There were a lot of red herrings in this series, but I felt there were a few too many of those. I did find the series entertaining, though, and there were still some answers I wanted… even though it was good to see some of the conflicts resolved and the strength demonstrated in many of the characters.
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia
Rate: 4 out of 5 stars
Synopsis:
The planet is dying. Centuries of abuse have damaged the earth beyond repair, and now all the authorities can do is polish the surface, make the landscape look pretty to hide the disease within. Two prominent yet mysterious businessmen couldn’t fix it, either, but they did something even better. Together, they invented Chimera, the most complex and immersive virtual reality video game the world has ever known. The Cubes in which Chimera is played quickly became a fixture of this landscape: part distraction, part hospital, and almost wholly responsible for holding up the failing world economy.
Miguel Anderson is also dying. He isn’t the only one who plays the game–everybody does–but Miguel has more reason than most: When players leave their Cubes for the day, the upgrades and enhancements they’ve earned for their virtual characters leave with them. New lungs to breathe poisoned air, skin that won’t burn under the sun are great and everything… but Miguel, born as broken as the earth, needs a new heart–and soon–if he wants any hope of surviving just a little longer.
Then the two Gamerunners announce a competition, with greater rewards and faster progression than ever before, and Miguel thinks his prayers have been answered. All he needs to do is get picked to lead a team, play the game he’s spent years getting good at, and ask for his prize when he wins. Simple, really.
At first, things seem to go according to plan. Mostly, anyway. Inside his Cube, with his new team–including his best friend–at his back, Miguel begins his quest. He plays recklessly, even dangerously, for someone whose most vital organ could give up at any moment, but his desperation makes him play better than ever. The eyes of the world are on him, watching through status updates and live feeds, betting on his chances. With greater rewards, though, come greater risks, and the Gamerunners seem to delight at surprising the competitors at every turn. As he ventures deeper into a world that blends the virtual and the real to an unsettling degree, Miguel begins to wonder just why the game was invented at all, and whether its stakes could be even higher than life and death.
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I really liked the plot of this book. It was interesting to see a world that actually could exist in the future… not only with a video game being the obsession of everyone, but also with the world dying. I found it really intriguing to see that things like libraries, so common in the world now, were virtually non-existent by the time it got to Miguel’s time.
Speaking of Miguel… I found him a likable character, even though I did feel he made some bad choices at times… and I wasn’t sure I really trusted him by the end of the book, even though I could understand a lot of his actions. There was one particular act that I felt was really unforgivable.
I really liked the idea of humanity gradually changing to become more machine-like, although I would have liked to see a bit more in the way of the upgrades people got and how exactly they worked. They were more obvious in the new version of Chimera… though I did think that the name of the game was a really clever one.
It was interesting to see Miguel having to get used to working with real people and not computer-generated helpers, but I found the whole balance thing to be a bit confusing. It seemed a bit like the secondary characters (with the exception of Nick) didn’t really have a lot of depth to them. I would have liked more detail about what they were all hoping to get out of the game. The balance thing could have come into play a better way, I felt.
I really liked the fact that Miguel had his own goal to work towards and it it was interesting to get something of an insight into the way the Gamemakers worked and thought. However, by the end of the book, I was left with a lot of questions… and there were events that impacted the world that didn’t really seem described too well, giving it a very surreal feeling.
I did find the book interesting to read and it did engage me throughout. I was also intrigued enough to want to read the next book/s in the series.
Character Interview
1) What is your main goal? To make it to the end of Level Twenty-Five, get a new heart, and stop worrying that the one I have is going to crap out at any second.
2) What do you like to do for fun? Play Chimera! The heart’s not the only reason I go into those Cubes. The game is better than the real world, that’s for sure. But I can’t play all the time and other people want their turns in the gaming rooms. When I have to stop, I hang out with Nick and Anna at the park, or alone down by the river. At night, when I can’t sleep, I work on something on my computer. Nobody can know about what I’m doing then, though.
3) Who are the people you feel closest to? Nick and Anna, for sure. Anna and I aren’t really together anymore, but she still knows me better than most people. Nick’s been my best friend forever. He gets me more than anyone else does, even Anna. He knows why I do everything I do.
4) What would you consider your greatest strength? I don’t give up. I’m not sure if that’s a strength when giving up would mean I’d die. I think it’s all I’ve got. Oh, and I’m really good at Chimera. I’m good at figuring out the puzzles, working out what the game wants me to do next.
5) What makes you angry? Zack bragging that he’s better than me at the game. He isn’t.
6) What makes you happy? Thinking of what’ll happen once I pass Twenty-Five. Or what will happen after the thing that’ll happen. Once I have my new heart, I’ll be able to do anything. People will stop telling me not to overexert myself, or that I should go and rest. It’s going to be amazing.
YA sci-fi/cyberpunk writer. Fan of words and music and chocolate. Represented by Brooks Sherman of FinePrint Literary Management. My first novel, CODA, will be out Spring 2013 from Running Press Kids, and its sequel, CHORUS, will be released the following year.
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Despite watching so many horror movies, I had yet to see this movie until a couple of days ago, as I plan to see the sequel later this week.
As the first found footage movie, I thought this was a really neat idea… but at the same time, I felt it was quite tame. It did feel very much like a documentary… but although the real horror was supposed to be in what you didn’t see, it didn’t really seem that scary.
I thought the most interesting part about this movie was the conflict between Heather, Josh and Mike. It was really easy to see and experience their desperation as they became lost, quite apart from what was going on. And I did think the camera angles worked really well. It was good that there was quite a bit of tension… though I couldn’t quite figure out how they’d been able to survive for so long; then again, it seemed like the days all seemed to run together… especially as they seemed to get cabin fever.
It was interesting to learn the legend of the Blair Witch and I felt the locals seemed to add a new dimension to the movie, especially since they seemed to feel like real people, as opposed to just actors playing a part.
This movie was disjointed, but I felt that helped to add to its authenticity. It was easy to care about Heather in particular, but the scenes where they made camp just weren’t as scary as they could have been. The ending was really only the scary part… but that worked with the unseen being the most effective. And there was a good link-in to the earlier scenes.
I still intend to watch the sequel, but I hope it will be more like this with the found footage aspect… even though the trailer seemed to suggest part of this movie would be mirrored.
When I saw this series advertised on Netflix, I was immediately intrigued. I thought the idea was a really intriguing one… and a new twist on the zombie genre, even if they do seem to be going the same way as vampires when it comes to the dark, brooding paranormal hero.
Although Liv didn’t really seem like a very interesting character in the first episode, after the massacre, I felt she had a lot more depth to her. I liked seeing her trying to cope with the admittedly rather disgusting job of eating brains… and it was good to see the different ways she tried to cope with her dietary needs.
It was an interesting twist to see Liv (and the other zombies) get visions from eating the brains. I liked the fact that Liv took on traits of the person whose brain she ate… and it was cool to see how good the actress was at showing those different traits Liv took on.
I especially enjoyed seeing Liv’s relationships with the people around her, though I had some mixed feelings about Clive. It was good to learn about him as the series went on, but I couldn’t help the feeling he had some kind of hidden agenda.
I did really like Ravi. I enjoyed seeing his friendship with Liv, even though he was her boss, and it was easy to believe in him wanting to find a cure.
I found the way the zombies changed quite interesting, though it would have been good to get a bit more detail about their physiology. I also liked the fact that, although there was a common thread running through the series, each episode had its own individual storyline as well.
I really had no idea what to make of Blaine at first, but I didn’t like him very much as the series progressed. Lowell was an intriguing character… even if I was really unsure of him for a while. It was awesome to realise where I recognised the actor from, though.
I would have liked to see a bit more of Liv’s relationship with her mother and brother. Even though I wasn’t especially keen on her mother, I did get the impression she cared about her children… despite being overbearing.
It was good to see how much linked together during the series and there was a lot that kept me involved in this series. It didn’t take itself too seriously, but there was a lot of depth to the characters and the relationships. It’s gory in parts, but a bit more like CSI than true horror.
The trailer for this movie left me intrigued, although I felt the blurb actually gave away more than the film itself actually did, as it seemed to put a different spin on what the brothers were trying to do.
While I did like seeing the relationship between the brothers… I actually really disliked Tanner. I thought Toby seemed to come across as a more sympathetic person, even though there were hints about their pasts that might have given his brother more depth if they’d been followed through on a bit more.
It was interesting to see the relationship Toby had with his sons and ex-wife, though I would have liked some more details about the history between them. While there was some time spent on showing the relationships between Toby and Tanner and Marus and Alberto, I felt there was more time spent on the action and shootings than on character development.
I didn’t really like Marcus very much for a lot of the movie and I couldn’t really figure out why he and Alberto were partners. It wasn’t until towards the end of the movie that I even had the impression Marcus even cared about Alberto.
There were some intriguing secondary characters in this film, but I felt that a lot of the potential subplots didn’t really go anywhere. I think this movie would have benefited from being a bit longer and maybe even a bit more focused on the parallels between the brothers and between the partners. But it was good to see the irony involved with Marcus in particular.
There were quite a few tense scenes in this and although the ending wasn’t much of a surprise, I liked seeing the kind of planning going into the robberies and it was good to see Toby as the more ‘think things through’ brother.
This movie was entertaining to watch and it was interesting to see a Western set in the modern day, with smartphones and computers. I just felt that the movie was missing something.
I haven’t seen the previous version of this movie, or read the book this is based on, but seeing as I enjoy watching movies set in the kind of time period this one was set in, I was immediately interested in watching this.
I liked that this movie started with the conflict between Judah and Messala. While I didn’t know then why their relationship was fractured, the first scene did succeed in drawing me in from the start… and then it was good to be able to have the opportunity to see how things progressed.
I liked being able to see the relationship between the brothers, though I was a bit confused about why Judah’s family had adopted Messala. I would have liked a bit more detail about that kind of history between them.
I did have a lot of sympathy for Messala and I could see why he didn’t feel like he fit in with Judah’s family. There were some hints of conflict in the household… but some of those hints didn’t really go anywhere; such as Judah’s relationship with Esther. Despite mention being made of the differences in their stations, there were no obvious problems.
I liked seeing the clear differences in the brothers, with Messala a warrior and Judah only fighting back when his family was threatened. I did feel that he was a bit naive at times, but considering his status in Jerusalem, I could understand why he wouldn’t necessarily see things the same way as people like Esther did.
Even though this movie had a low age rating (I was surprised to see it was only a 12A), it was good to see it didn’t shy away from showing the violent tensions between the Jews and the Romans. And as a Christian, I was very happy to see the historical figure of Jesus appear… even though he wasn’t the main focus.
I did feel this movie didn’t use the ethnicity that should have existed in that time… and I also had the impression Judah was wearing jeans during one scene. But although those problems were noticeable, I didn’t feel they really detracted from the movie, even if they did give me pause.
There were a lot of good moments of tension throughout and by the time the movie was finished, I wanted to watch it again. I would definitely buy this movie on DVD.
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I was really happy to have the opportunity to read this latest book in the series. I couldn’t remember all of Rhys’ group from the previous books, but it was nice to see him interacting with Enza… and I liked that this book was longer, which made me more engaged with the romance and the storyline.
I did kind of think that Enza was putting herself in dangerous situations, but I admired that she had a lot of courage and spirit. I could, however, understand why Rhys was so suspicious of her at first… and although their attraction was fairly obvious to begin with, it was good to see that there were a lot of other things going on at the same time. And it was good to have a very clear image of Brenin in my head.
What I also liked was the opportunity to see more of the other supernatural creatures, such as the werewolves and the nymphs. It was nice to see a bit more depth to some of the nymphs and I liked that the ending involved them.
It was good there were some hints to their pasts scattered throughout this book and I found it easy to empathise with the characters. I would have liked the opportunity to see more of Enza’s interactions with her mother and grandparents, as I didn’t get a good idea of their relationship and there was a bit too much summarising in the scene that did involve them.
I liked being able to learn bits and pieces of both of their pasts as the book went on and it was also good to see something of the bond between the Watchers, even though I wasn’t sure who was who for a little while. And the part with the soccer mom and Brenin did make me roll my eyes and get irritated on his behalf.
I liked seeing the friendship between Enza and Meena and it was nice to see something of what went on in the bakery. There was a lot of action and good tension in this book and it really engaged me and kept me reading throughout. I did feel sorry for Enza, being thrown in at the deep end… but I did like her relationship with Rhys and I would definitely like to read more books in this series in the future.
Ink of Blood 