Unapologetic Reviews

The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley has been on my to-be-read list for a while. I've read a couple of great reviews, but I've recently burned myself with a book like that, and I was afraid that this would be the same. However, I've just finished A Song of Ice and Fire series, and I've read somewhere that if you like that, you're going to like this. Therefore, I picked it up. The beginning was weird. For a while, it just made no sense. Then there was a discussion, and finally, I realised how it was tied to the story. The story itself is about three siblings, who are the children of the Emperor. They all grew up away from each other, under very different circumstances. Adare is the oldest, and the sister. I have read that the author got complains that her story seemed to be the less interesting one, but he assured everyone that it would change in the later books. She is a bit naive, but growing up in the palace does that to a person. Most of her learning co...

I haven't read any of The Iron King by Julie Kagawa for a long while. In an attempt to cut down my Currently-reading list, I gave this another go. It didn't get better. The thing is, the whole time I was reading it I felt like I've read this before. I even knew what was going to happen in certain situations. I even thought at one point that maybe I've read it, but that's impossible. However, in a way I have read it. I always loved fantasy, fairy tales that have princes and princesses. I still do. I occasionally watch fairy tale movies intended for kids. In my 32 years, I've seen a lot of stories. That's exactly the problem with this book. It's good if the reader is a young person, just switching over from the Grimm fairy tales to something else. This will feel familiar. However, to me, I've read this all. There is just nothing new or surprising, or witty about the story. It's like a mish-mash of things that I've read before in count...

The only reason why I managed to finish this monster book of monsters is because I went over to the audiobook version . I'm not sure if I should recommend it though. While the man does the male voices well, the female voices are a horror to listen to. The rest of the text is read as if the man was half drunk. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin is the last published book in the series. Obviously, it's hard to keep it spoiler-free. I'll try my best though. Most of it is taken up by characters that were not in the previous book. Therefore, the people who were in that book are not in this one, at least, the first half. Most notably, Sansa is not in it at all, and Brienne just makes a sudden appearance. Most importantly, Daenerys features a lot in the book. The story moves along the usual pace, at the envy of a snail. I love the world, and I love reading about intrigue , but this is the book where you skip a lot. I don't care which four men went to the meet with...

The first story is Cocaine Blues , and in accordance with the title, cocaine does feature in the story. I was a bit apprehensive about how the famous drug will participate, but it wasn't in a positive light, thankfully. Having seen the series adaptation of the books, I couldn't help comparing the two. The series has an air of the 20s about it, part of what makes it so great. The book does as well. I tried to remember if I'd seen the story itself in the series, but I couldn't remember. However, the first season was over a year ago, and my memory concerning crime serieses is notoriously bad. It does allow me to see one episode multiple times though. The TV show has a lot of sexual elements, and the book didn't disappoint in that regard. The story itself was a lot of fun. It wasn't unsolvable, there were no clues hidden from us. What I also liked was how there wasn't just one story in the book, but several running simultaneously. You have Phryne ent...

I have finished The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan some months ago, but only got around to reviewing now. This is the last book in the series. I was saddened by this, because I had really grown to love the characters. I did like the ending though. However, I wouldn't mind short stories about them like five years down the road. Some story lines had a rather abrupt ending, I felt. The story branched off in this book as well. I was very glad to see Nico have his own voice. He had been a favourite of mine for some time. Overall, it's very hard to talk about this book without spoiling the others. I am glad that I read all five books together, because they came together as one more than the previous five. They were also more adult than the previous five. While both end in battle and some deaths, this was different. In fact, there were more than one battles, and all of them were unique. The talents of the different demigods were used in complex ways, and there wasn't just ...

I sat in to see Insurgent with mixed feelings. I was pretty bored by the first movie, and I wasn't sure if I would be more entertained by the second. In the end, it was okay. Unlike the first movie, which had an interesting beginning, boring middle, and more exciting ending, this movie had a steady pace. While I wasn't at the edge of my seat, it was interesting enough to not cause me to start creating dishes for my other blog in my head. However, it wasn't exciting enough to actually make me feel. In the review of the previous movie I had a few questions. Now let's see if they were answered. What is the wall for? - We sort of get an answer. What is the rest of the world like, and why isn't anyone trying to find out? - We sort of get an answer for the first part, but not the second. It still doesn't make sense to me why people just take at face value that the world beyond the wall is terrible. On some of the shots there were clearly forests beyo...

Jupiter Ascending reminds me of one of my favourite sci-fi movies of all time, The Fifth Element . Mostly, because when I saw it, I thought it was one of the most gorgeously shot movies I've ever seen. This was the same way. I keep remembering pictures from it, environments that I kind of wanted to melt into, and be in that scene. The space ships were majestic. The dresses that Jupiter wore , I want all of them. They were intricate, beautiful, and sleek. Kym Barrett is a goddess. The concept of the world I liked. It was intricate, and well-thought-out. The way they meddled with genes and technology gave it a good variety, and also a great range to play with. Without spoiling the story, the Earth origin story was believable, and it gave a good explanation to what we saw. The story itself was good. There were some humorous moments, like the bureaucracy. There wasn't much of a twist, the "mystery" element was quite obvious after the first about 30 minutes. The act...