Unapologetic Reviews

The Barque of Heaven by Suzanne Wood takes place during 3rd season . You definitely need to know the series up to that point, but not the previous book. The story itself is pretty exciting. As can be seen from the summary, they are going from planet to planet in a test. It's very hard to stop reading, because you keep wondering how they are going to get the address and password to the next gate, and when they go through, what's going to be the next challenge. Though there are more exciting planets than others, but if we were talking about actual people, then they would be all dead halfway through. The characterization is generally good, but O'Neill feels a bit off. On the one hand, he says these nicknames that I can't remember him doing in the show. He calls Daniel "Danny" sometimes, and Teal'c "T". I took off half a star for that. My actual rating is 3.5 stars. What it also lacked for me was Carter . She seems to be sometimes forgotten. The...

Before I go into the review of the book, I have to tell you about my "love affair" with Stargate SG-1 . I can't remember when I started to watch it, but the movie I did see in the theater, and it was absolutely great. It combined my love for sci-fi, and Egyptian mythology . The series got me hooked right away, but for some time there were problems, because in my country they wouldn't screen it past season 2. However, for some years that has changed. There is a channel, where they have an episode on every evening at 7.20pm, and they have for years. If they reach the end, they just start again. That actually happened last week, and I realised that some episodes I've seen almost every showing of, some almost none, so now I want to watch every episode again. Then I happened on a collection of almost all the books, and yesterday decided to try them out. I'm glad I did. Sacrifice Moon by Julie Fortune is an interesting book for fans. It fills a gap between episod...

I didn't watch Ender's Game at a theater because I don't want to financially support the author. I'm against his homophobic views. I still didn't pay for it. The reason why I watched it, was because a lot of people love the story. I hated the book , it was very boring. The whole training was repetitive and ridiculous. I was hoping on screen it would be better. At the beginning they hammered in the whole "we barely survived last time, but for the hero commander" thing too much. The battle game rules weren't explained. It's been a while since I've read it, so I was confused at times. Mercifully, the Battle school part was a lot shorter than it was in the book. That was where I gave up, so I was glad. However, the part after that feels a bit hurried, and it's over before you know it. The story of the movie was fine. It wasn't great, though the ending was a bit moving. What was missing was connecting with the characters. It f...

Cress by Marissa Meyer is the third installment in the Lunar Chronicles . The first two I read in a few days, and I was thankful that they were both out. I had been waiting for the next book for several months. Was it worth it? Oh yes. It's not as fast paced as the first two. Those also felt more together. Perhaps because there were fewer characters. What it doesn't lack is events. There was a lot going on. The main focus of the story, if it can be called that, since it wasn't that pronounced, was Cress. I kind of loved her. She is fragile and strong at the same time. Capable and lost. I love her dreamworld . In a way I could identify with that, because I do make up stories in my head with me as the central character as well. I was alone a lot too, though not as much as her. The other characters developed through the story. Mostly Cinder , of course, since she has the most on her shoulders. Thorne has also grown, and I was happy to see more of him in this story. It is ha...

I really can't remember what I expected from I, Frankenstein . I'm pretty sure it wasn't what I got though. I checked the trailer again, and I think I wanted a movie that had good visuals, solid action, and some sort of a fantasy-based story line. I sort of got it, but it all fell flat. The background is basically a snippet of Christian mythology . It reminded me how much people forgot about the rich mythical background that Christianity had in the Middle Ages . Back then it had a rich story background, with angels, demons, spirits and the like. I'm not a Christian, but I love good fantasy stories, and myths to me are that. However, the talk about god and things just felt awkward. I live in a country where there are a lot of atheists, and all the god talk made a lot of people snicker in the theatre. The gods in Percy Jackson felt more rational. The visuals were well done. Seriously, people turning into gargoyles looked cool. The way demons and gargoyles died was ...

Platina Data is a Japanese thriller / sci-fi / mystery. I mainly watched it because Kazunari Ninomiya was in it, but I also found the premise of the movie interesting. In the movie, Japan is developing a DNA database that has everyone in it. The main goal is to be able to solve crimes more easily. However, already at the beginning we can see that they have taken DNA profiling to the next level. When people closely related to the program die, a surprising series of events start. More would be spoilers. I found the movie interesting. The story had me glued to the screen. Though frankly, I knew who the killer was halfway through. It's usually the case with me. I probably watch too many crime shows. What did keep me watching was Nino's character, whose story was an integral part of the movie. The cinematography was excellent. Some pictures I was tempted to pause, because it spoke of so much. Silence is always more difficult than dialogue. The main character is ...

I started reading World After by Susan Ee right after finishing Angelfall . The pacing of this book is different from the first one. In a way, it reminds me of Lord of the Rings . There the first book was mostly about the journey and finding out about the world. In the second, you find out more, and the building blocks of defeating the foe emerges. So the third would be the big battles. We'll see. There isn't an easily progressing story in this one as in the previous book. It may be the reason that people feel the pacing is different, but now that I think about it, not so much. A lot of things do happen, but Penryn mostly just floats from happening to happening. It feels a bit forced, and too incidental. Of course, if I think about it, and take into account what Paige 's goal was all along, things make more sense. The random events feel no longer so random, except for a few. The characters stay mostly the same. The whole thing is just about two or three days, so no wonde...