Unapologetic Reviews

Hitchens is always brilliant. Even when I don't agree with him, he's still brilliant. It saddens me to think that he's no longer alive, because I always thought that had we meet, I would have had the pleasure of talking to someone who was my intellectual superior. It's so rare for me to meet such a person. Now on to the book. It's kind of short, but very precise, and to the point. It really doesn't need to be longer. I never knew much about Mother Teresa, though her policy on contraceptives and abortion greatly troubled me. I have also seen some footage before of her mission in Calcutta, and I have wondered why it's not in better condition, if she gets so much money. This books revealed it all to me, and as I am usually weary of religious charities, it just proved my suspicions. I recommend the book for everyone, not just as reading something on one subject, but also as a great example of why we should go after the truth of things ourselves, and not trust ev...

I actually listened to the better half of this book. I was busy with baking and other stuff, so I ended up listening to the audiobook. Therefore, I may not have caught all the details. This book finally breaks away from the "going to the games" format. I was actually glad for that, as it was getting a bit boring. It's hard to talk about the book without going into spoilers, but if someone read the second one, then it was obvious that there was going to be a war. The war is rather realistic, and unapologetic about it. People die. By the hundreds sometimes. Both sides do things that are cruel. I felt that was a very strong point of this book, that people get hurt, die, and sometimes those you care about. Towards the end the endgame was done really well. It showed us a glimpse of the world that I'm sure we all wanted to see, without breaking away from the main point of the story. I kept talking in my previous book reviews for the series about the genre, dystopia. The end...

The second installation of The Hunger Games trilogy is just as fast paced as the first one. It's the right speed for the young reader of today. The story picks up a little after the end of the previous book. Some flashback is unavoidable. We learn how Katniss' life changed after becoming a victor, and how she has to face that nothing will ever be the same again. She goes on the tour that was mentioned in the first book, but we don't see a lot of it. I did wish that part wasn't so glossed over. Of course, the threat of President Snow hangs over everything. Without revealing too much, life only gets harder for everyone. I did have a feeling about District 13, and I'm just going to say that it was justified. Katniss is 17. I have forgotten that, until Collins reminds me. She does develop more as the story progresses, but she is still not an adult at the end. Children that grow up too fast sometimes find it hard to grow up all the way, and she's no different. Though...

I have to say in advance that besides being a lover of the sci-fi genre, I also happen to love the original version. I thought the plot was very original, and the world interesting. Who can forget the hooker with three breasts? What disturbed me even before seeing it was that it wasn't 3D. I know I said the same thing about Batman, but in this day and age anything that is sci-fi or action should be in 3D in my opinion. It is what saves cinemas. It was first colour, then widescreen, surround sound, now 3D. The basics of the story stayed true to the original. It's still about a guy who doesn't know which memory is real or not. There was a hooker with three breasts. However, don't expect him to go to Mars, because he doesn't. The movie is still exciting, still full of action. It is mostly action, very little actual story. That lacked to me.  The change of planet was a bit odd. I won't be giving too much away when I reveal that it's on Earth because ...

I listened to this book as an audiobook. The story is about the Doctor trying to help people on a planet about to be eaten by a sort of space monster. It reminded me of how the Doctor and the monsters are never too far from each other. He genuinely wants to help, but of course, he ends up in a pickle. There are robots, talking wending machines and sunbeds. It's a rather fun story, but there are two things that bothered me about it. One was that in the beginning, when he arrives, the people are already preparing to leave. It may be the audiobook's fault, but it feels kind of strange that he stays. Not un-Doctor like, but clearly he is not wanted. The other thing is the ending, which made me ask; "Why didn't they do that in the first place?" It felt like the author wrote himself into a corner, and used the plan B to get out of it. However, it was such a plan B, that to any reasonable person it would have been plan A. The story is read by Will Thorp, who p...

I confess, I started the book because of the hype. I also wanted to read a big fantasy series. It also helped that I could get all five books at a discount. The fact that it's the first part of a series can be felt from the very beginning. The pace is often agonizingly slow. However, every little detail feels important, so even I, who tends to skip a few paragraphs, read every word. The way the story is told is very interesting as well, as it's third person limited. It would limit the scope a lot, if it wasn't told through the eyes of several people. It also shows a lot of planning as the author would have had to pick the main characters well ahead. The characters are very interesting. They are all grand personalities, not a dull person around. They are, however, not alike. They are different. You may not like them all. They are also not on the same side, which makes things even more interesting. I personally didn't like Sansa, but in the end I could still feel sorry fo...

I was really curious about the final installment of the Batman trilogy. On the one hand, I was interested in how they could end it. If you are familiar with the old movies, then you may know that those were sort of designed to never end. They also got worse and worse. On the other hand, I had been satisfied by the previous movies, and wanted to see the same level of achievement. When talking about this movie, probably for the rest of history, people will not be able to bypass what happened at a midnight screening in Colorado. The events are tragic, but when looking at the list of injured and dead, something un-understandable jumped out at me. How come there were small children and babies at a midnight screening of an admittedly violent movie? I really have no idea what they were doing there. Moving on, it did affect my viewing of the movie. I watched it at a mall, in the afternoon. I did have a bit of a bad feeling about watching it in a theatre. When someone s...