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Archives for December, 2015
The Force Awakens [Film Review] – #NoSpoilers
The Force Awakens (AKA Star Wars Episode VII) is probably the only movie I've been to see twice in the cinema. I saw it the first time on the Sunday after The Force Awakens was released. I'm not an obsessive Star Wars fan, at least not compared to some of the people I know (like my 10-year-old son), but I have seen all the movies multiple times (on DVD) and in my twenties I ran a Star Wars roleplaying campaign. So I know the material pretty well, and I enjoy it. Star Wars is Fantasy Han Solo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Star Wars is not science fiction, it's fantasy with a space opera theme. This is an important distinction, because it directs how we should suspend disbelief when watching it. You can test this easily, fantasy confuses space and time to suit…
Fight Another Day by J.M. Langley [Book Review]
Fight Another Day. Langley by J M Langley My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fight Another Day has been sitting on my shelf for years, right next to MI9 (which I only realised was co-authored by J M Langley). I'm not sure why it took me so long to get round to reading it. It fits my usual preferences in a number of ways. It's a first hand accout by an infantry officer, it's about escaping from a POW camp, it's about organising secret agents to work in nazi-occupied Europe. Any one of those would have got Fight Another Day onto my to-read list. Fight Another Day Fight Another Day tells the story of Jimmy Langley from his enlistment in the special reserve of the Coldstream Guards. He gets mobilised in August 1939 and goes to France, and we are…
Felix Chronicles by R.T. Lowe [Book Review]
The Felix Chronicles: Freshmen by Lowe My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Felix Chronicles is a bit like a grown up version of Harry Potter. It has a shadow magical world in the real world and it's a thumping great tome of a story, but that's where the similarities stop. The Felix Chronicles is darker and more realistic. The Felix Chronicles The protagonist of the Felix Chronicles is an 18 year old college student with all the things that go with that. He's surrounded by a group of four other students, his reality show roommate, his childhood friend, her roommate and her roommate's best buddy from home. Felix is an only child and has recently been orphaned by a freak fire at his family home. He has no idea that he is a sourceror (magic is referred to…