The Crooked Kingdom Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Six of Crows Duology Book Two
Pages: 561

(Spoilers for Six of Crows are below).

Kaz Brekker and his crew have pulled off an impossible heist. But their financial backer Jan van Eck has refused to pay them. As an insurance policy he's captured Inej, and if Kaz doesn't surrender soon, she dies. The escape of Bo Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court has captured the attention of the world's most powerful leaders. As they descend on Ketterdam looking to find the man that is believed to know how to make jurda parem.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Book Review

by The Wanderer 

Author: J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne
Publisher: Pottermore
Genre: YA Fantasy
Series: Harry Potter Book Eight
Pages: 320

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(Contains spoilers for Harry Potter's 1-7, but lets be honest who hasn't read these books).

Albus Severus Potter, the second son of the famed wizard Harry Potter, has begun his magical education at Hogwarts. However, he's not the son Harry nor the rest of the world expected. Sorted into Slytherin, and best friends with Scorpius Malfoy, Albus looks to make a name for himself by changing the fate suffered by Cedric Diggory at the end of Goblet of Fire.

Consider Phlebas Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Iain M. Banks
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Culture Book One
Pages: 544

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The Culture is at war with Idrian Empire.

After a Culture ship is destroyed by the Idrian's, one of the Culture's Mind's escapes to Schar's World. The being's incorporating Schar's World will allow neither the Culture or the Idrian's on the planet. Bora Horza Gobuchul is a changer, a human who can change their body to impersonate anyone else, and changers were once stewards on Schar's World. Horza's hatred of the Culture finds him siding with Idrian's, and soon working with them to retrieve them missing Mind.

(Some spoilers in the review below).

Batman: Knight Terrors Comic Review

by The Wanderer
 

The New 52 Dark Knight Volume One

Authors: David Finch, Joe Harris, and Ed Benes
Illustrators: David Finch, Ed Benes, and Richard Friend

Publisher: DC

Genre: Superhero

Series: Batman Dark Knight New 52 Volume 1

Buy on Amazon!

The New 52 continues to disappoint, this time with DC’s greatest traditional hero, Batman. With the lack of a meaningful plot, and the absence of logic – which is kind of important for a story featuring the world’s greatest detective – Knight Terrors not only denigrates previous Batman stories, it denigrates good stories, period. It’s a shame DC can’t hire a detective to find themselves a decent writer. Or maybe it’s time they make Alan Moore or Frank Miller an offer they can’t refuse.

Freddy vs Jason Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Ronny Yu

Cast: Monica Keena, Kelly Rowland, Jason Ritter, Chris George Marquette, Lochlyn Munro, Ken Kirzinger, Robert Englund

Series: A Nightmare on Elm Street/ Friday the 13th (Crossover)

MPAA Rating: R

Length: 97 minutes

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Crossover Cash Grab

The final film in the Friday the 13th sequence and the Nightmare on Elm Street sequence, before each series was rebooted was this crossover disaster that each franchise would be better off forgetting ever happened.  Freddy vs Jason pits the invincible super strong machete wielding Jason against the dream manipulating clawed glove of Freddy.  The film looks to draw people in by asking which of these two popular slasher villains will come out on top?  I honestly could care less and as the movie dragged on the only thing I was wishing for was that all that terrible teen actors would just shut up and die.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Jack Sholder

Cast: Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, Hope Lange, Robert Englund

Series: A Nightmare on Elm Street

MPAA Rating: R

Length: 85 minutes

Buy on Amazon!

 

Crack That Whip …. Licorice Whip

(Spoilers for A Nightmare on Elm Street are below).

Hoping to capitalize on the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, was quickly put into production soon after. Wes Craven, the original director and writer opted out of this movie because he originally wanted Elm Street to be a standalone. Jack Sholder took over as director. Along with the switch in direction and writing, and none of the original cast returning except for Robert Englund, this film begins with little promise. By its end it had lived up to its underwhelming expectations.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Cast: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox
Series: A Nightmare on Elm Street

MPAA Rating: R

Length: 90 minutes

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Better Not Dream and Drive and/or Making This Movie

(Spoilers for the previous four Nightmare on Elm Street movies are below).

If A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 was a movie that signaled that the Nightmare franchise was in decline, then the fifth installment of this series all but confirms that decline has shifted to free fall.  

The Dream Child looks to take the franchise in a newer and darker direction, but it does so by ignoring a lot of the previously established rules in the franchise. Normally I wouldn’t care except they’re continue the story from Nightmare’s 3 and 4, so logically the rules should remain the same, or new differences should be explained.  This never happens, and along with some terrible acting performances this turns into one of the worst films in the franchise.

Beyond The Shadows Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Brent Weeks
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy
Series: Night Angel Book Three
Pages: 699

Buy on Amazon!

Spoilers for the previous two books in the Night Angel Trilogy are below).

In The Way of Shadows Brent Weeks told an entertaining story – I would equate it to being a summer blockbuster, but in book form. It had its flaws, but it was entertainment first, literary merits second.  It’s sequel Shadow’s Edge struggled greatly, especially with Kylar’s time outside of Cenaria and by introducing a number of secondary characters that added almost nothing to the story.  Bringing back Durzo Blint at the end was criminal, but the resolution of a few of the plot points like Vi’s ringing of Kylar made things interesting enough to warrant reading the final installment of the trilogy.

Beyond the Shadows goes completely off the rails.  The first two thirds of this novel are amongst some of the worst fantasy I’ve read – especially in regards to the secondary characters and the romantic pairings.  The final third starts to pull things together – at least from an entertainment perspective – but it ends by force feeding some imagery to the reader in a feeble attempt to shove some ideas about love and redemption that had been casually thrown around the series.

Homeland Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: R.A. Salvatore
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Genre: Epic Fantasy, RPG
Series: Dark Elf Book One
Pages: 271

Buy on Amazon!

It’s hard to be an enthusiastic fan of fantasy without hearing the name Drizzt Do’Urden, the drow elf from R.A. Salvatore’s take on the Forgotten Realms.  After appearing in eighteen books and on the New York Times bestsellers list, it’s safe to say Drizzt has made an impact on popular fantasy storytelling.  But to say he’s made a good impact is really stretching it.

Heartwood Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Freya Robertson
Publisher: Angry Robot Books
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Series: Elemental Book Wars Book One
Pages: 568

Buy on Amazon!  

(Disclaimer: Heartwood was won in an online contest and was not purchased).

(Personal Note: I just want to say after going to the author’s website and checking out what kind of person she was I have to say Freya Robertson seems like one of the coolest fantasy authors I’ve read about.  That being said, not liking this book, made this one of the hardest reviews I’ve had to write.  I respect the effort and time that goes into creating a novel, especially the personal nature of it, however I have to be honest with my reaction to it – which is the point of this site).

Heartwood has a lot of heart, and I’m not trying to be facetious by saying that.  The author, Freya Robertson, advocates for a number of ideas – equal treatment of women, the importance of nature, etc. – that many people should find easy to get behind.  A lot of the characters support or oppose these ideas, which makes them fairly easy to like or hate.

The problem is these meaningful topics lose meaning when the prose and language used to tell Heartwood is not up to par. There may be all these great ideas in this novel, but the way they are presented to the reader makes it nearly impossible to consume the book with any of the passion the author used to write it. In other words, the way Heartwood is told never allows the story to get off the ground.

Carrie (2013) Film Review

by The World Weary

Director: Kimberly Pierce
Cast: Chloe Grace-Moretz, Julianne Moore, Portia Doubleday, Judy Greer
MPAA Rating: R
Length: 99 Minutes

Buy on Amazon!

Now with 30% More CGI Pig’s Blood and Slow Motion!

Brian de Palma’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Carrie is one of my favorite horror films. With astounding performances from Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie and superb direction it became an instant horror classic upon its release. It also featured a legendary climax that is one of the most recognizable scenes in film history. Now, with a paltry offering of scares in theaters this Halloween season, MGM decided to greenlight a remake of the 1976 classic.

R.I.P.D. Film Review

by The World Weary

Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Ryan Renolds, Jeff Bridges, Mary Louise Parker
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 96 minutes

Buy on Amazon!  

 

Soul Too Stinky

Let me begin this by saying I know next to nothing about Peter M. Lenkov’s Rest In Peace Department comics. Maybe they’re funny. Maybe they’re interesting. Maybe there’s some heart and geniunely good storytelling within those panels. I couldn’t say. What I can say is, clearly, Hollywood is so desperate to cash in on the death throes of the comic book movie fad that they greenlit this piece of garbage without even looking at the script.