Lör K.'s Blog, page 3
March 30, 2017
The Blood King - Keith Ward (2016)
Spoilers throughout
Madness wears a crown
In The Blood King, Keith Ward has created a stunning world of dark fantasy and war that I just need more of it.
We’re introduced to a world in trouble, ruled by Lord Fathim. He’s a malicious, sociopathic murderer, not caring that his kingdom is in drought and the people just outside of his castle are starving. He has entire villages slaughtered for their children, only to bathe in their blood to further his own health. He has children sacrificed to further his own life against the law and their families wishes. He’s truly scum in human form, having lived over 200 hundred years through transfers.
Transfers – transferring the soul of a human baby to yourself in order to absorb their life span. The problem? Fathim has come down with transfer sickness and it’s sending him insane. The only cure? Another Transfer with another baby, and Mavel, a Span Seer who is one of the only people who can do the Transfers.
Honestly, this is a stunning piece of fiction. I was hooked in within 5% of the book, and I couldn’t read it quick enough. It ended too quickly and I need more of the world that has been created in only 77 pages. I want more of this universe and some more of the story of Lord Fathim.
The writing was fantastic. Ward has amazing skills behind a pen, his craftsmanship, stunning. The description that Ward writes with is more than enough to invigorate the mind and create vivid, beautiful (and sometimes, horrific) imagery in your head. I could close my eyes and see everything he wanted us to see right behind my eyelids. The suspense in this gave me goosebumps so many times, I lost count. The amount of shivering I did gave me back twinges.
I cannot put into words just how perfect this was for dark fantasy. It’s definitely something I need more of and Keith Ward is definitely an author I’m going to be looking into more.
Madness wears a crown
In The Blood King, Keith Ward has created a stunning world of dark fantasy and war that I just need more of it.
We’re introduced to a world in trouble, ruled by Lord Fathim. He’s a malicious, sociopathic murderer, not caring that his kingdom is in drought and the people just outside of his castle are starving. He has entire villages slaughtered for their children, only to bathe in their blood to further his own health. He has children sacrificed to further his own life against the law and their families wishes. He’s truly scum in human form, having lived over 200 hundred years through transfers.
Transfers – transferring the soul of a human baby to yourself in order to absorb their life span. The problem? Fathim has come down with transfer sickness and it’s sending him insane. The only cure? Another Transfer with another baby, and Mavel, a Span Seer who is one of the only people who can do the Transfers.
Honestly, this is a stunning piece of fiction. I was hooked in within 5% of the book, and I couldn’t read it quick enough. It ended too quickly and I need more of the world that has been created in only 77 pages. I want more of this universe and some more of the story of Lord Fathim.
The writing was fantastic. Ward has amazing skills behind a pen, his craftsmanship, stunning. The description that Ward writes with is more than enough to invigorate the mind and create vivid, beautiful (and sometimes, horrific) imagery in your head. I could close my eyes and see everything he wanted us to see right behind my eyelids. The suspense in this gave me goosebumps so many times, I lost count. The amount of shivering I did gave me back twinges.
I cannot put into words just how perfect this was for dark fantasy. It’s definitely something I need more of and Keith Ward is definitely an author I’m going to be looking into more.
Arrival (2016)
This was advertised as the “best sci-fi movie of the year”. We have maybe, halfof the best sci-fi movie of the year.
Arrivalpromised from the trailer an amazing alien landing film, with the leads of Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams watching them. We expect from this, action, horror, violence and world domination. We got something much different. It was a chance well taken, pulling alien sci-fi out of the tropes it has been left to rot in. There were a lot of different routes it could have taken and this one was well chosen, Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners – 2013; Sicario – 2015) definitely made the right choice.
However, my issues with this film, lie within the cinematography. The shaky camera frames, the silent soundtrack, the hearing everything as Louise heard it as things were happening were all extremely disorientating. The film could have been made a lot better without these things, and with less experimental techniques to make the film unique – the plot alone was unique enough. The plot of this film, as before said, was amazing. Humans teaching aliens their language, and vice versa. It was highly unique, and showed great techniques.
The unfortunate thing about this film was that it didn’t kick off until an hour and ten minutes into the film. It was a total let down and a shame. However, it was a heavy trudge through to get to the action in the film.
It was a shame, truly, that this film was advertised so big and for it to be such a let down in the first half; I’m only being rating it six out of ten.
Arrivalpromised from the trailer an amazing alien landing film, with the leads of Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams watching them. We expect from this, action, horror, violence and world domination. We got something much different. It was a chance well taken, pulling alien sci-fi out of the tropes it has been left to rot in. There were a lot of different routes it could have taken and this one was well chosen, Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners – 2013; Sicario – 2015) definitely made the right choice.
However, my issues with this film, lie within the cinematography. The shaky camera frames, the silent soundtrack, the hearing everything as Louise heard it as things were happening were all extremely disorientating. The film could have been made a lot better without these things, and with less experimental techniques to make the film unique – the plot alone was unique enough. The plot of this film, as before said, was amazing. Humans teaching aliens their language, and vice versa. It was highly unique, and showed great techniques.
The unfortunate thing about this film was that it didn’t kick off until an hour and ten minutes into the film. It was a total let down and a shame. However, it was a heavy trudge through to get to the action in the film.
It was a shame, truly, that this film was advertised so big and for it to be such a let down in the first half; I’m only being rating it six out of ten.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
An eloquent, classic romance renewed
26 years after the classic Disney film was released, Bill Condon directs Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
This film was absolutely stunning. I sat and watched my childhood on screen with real people for the first time in my life, and I am not ashamed to admit I shed a tear once or twice. I grew up watching Emma Watson as Hermoine, so seeing her on screen as my all time favourite Disney Princess was highly emotional.
The cinematography in this took my breath away. Every frame of this film was stunning. The cinematography was beautifully done. The costume designs were so expertly done, they all looked like they were direct from the animated film. The casting was done so stupendously it was like the original animations had just stepped out of the film and began waltzing across the screen.
The only two qualms I had were
- It seemed to take Emma Watson a while to warm up to singing. It was very rough in the first song of the film, and then she seemed to get better as it went along.
- The pacing of the film seemed quite rushed. I understand they were pretty much copying the original animation, but I feel like it could have been paced out just that little bit better. I felt a little out of breath watching it, whizzing from one point to another.
Those qualms aside, this still took my breath away. It definitely deserves the hype it got. This was a wonderful retelling of such a classic tale. I hope that this generation of children may enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the original growing up. They deserve a movie like this, full of love, hope and romance. And of course, the age old moral, don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
26 years after the classic Disney film was released, Bill Condon directs Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
This film was absolutely stunning. I sat and watched my childhood on screen with real people for the first time in my life, and I am not ashamed to admit I shed a tear once or twice. I grew up watching Emma Watson as Hermoine, so seeing her on screen as my all time favourite Disney Princess was highly emotional.
The cinematography in this took my breath away. Every frame of this film was stunning. The cinematography was beautifully done. The costume designs were so expertly done, they all looked like they were direct from the animated film. The casting was done so stupendously it was like the original animations had just stepped out of the film and began waltzing across the screen.
The only two qualms I had were
- It seemed to take Emma Watson a while to warm up to singing. It was very rough in the first song of the film, and then she seemed to get better as it went along.
- The pacing of the film seemed quite rushed. I understand they were pretty much copying the original animation, but I feel like it could have been paced out just that little bit better. I felt a little out of breath watching it, whizzing from one point to another.
Those qualms aside, this still took my breath away. It definitely deserves the hype it got. This was a wonderful retelling of such a classic tale. I hope that this generation of children may enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the original growing up. They deserve a movie like this, full of love, hope and romance. And of course, the age old moral, don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
