Bookish Wednesday: Future Tense by John Van Stry

This week for Bookish Wednesday I’m covering the final entry of a series I’ve covered in the past. It’s Future Tense, Days of Future Past Book 3, by John Van Stry!

Plot: The plot is pretty great and it rounds out the series very well. I honestly wasn’t expecting this series to end the way it did, but I’m not upset that it did since so few stories these days can truly surprise me.

Characters: We finally get introduced to the series antagonist, Aybem, in this entry and I have to say it was a surprise to see who it really was. I won’t say more because that’s super spoilerific, but needless to say it was very well played by Mr. Stry.

Overall: A good ending to a solid series, if you enjoy Sci-Fi mixed with Fantasy at all you’ll most likely enjoy this series and it’s final book in particular.

Movie Monday: About Time

Hey all I’m back with a movie I watched about a month ago for this week’s Movie Monday. It’s About Time!

Plot: The plot is alright, there are some serious plot holes when it comes to the time travel powers that are a key plot device in this film, but overall I found the movie to be very fun to watch. It had enough moments of comedy that I didn’t mind the the drama at all, and enjoyed the movie despite the plot holes. I won’t say what those plot holes are, because they are obviously super spoilerific, but you could find them online in the movie’s Wikipedia page easily.

Casting: Dohmnall Gleeson is our lead actor portraying Tim Lake and he does an outstanding job in that role. Honestly the entire cast was well done, though Rachel McAdams portraying the female lead Mary was probably my favorite character.

Cinematography: There are no special effects that are particularly outstanding or noteworthy so I’ll just say that the camera work wasn’t ever so poorly done that I found it to be a problem.

Music: The musical score was as equally mediocre as the cinematography.

Overall: A fun, if flawed, film. If you are hankering for a Romantic Comedy with little romantic melodrama, but more comedy About Time will suit your needs very well.

For those who like: Romance, Comedy, Drama, Great Cast, Decent Plot.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: TimeSplitters

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with a game that is quite unremembered. It’s TimeSplitters!

Plot: The game really didn’t have any plot, other than “Stop the TimeSplitters!”. Granted that when you get down to pretty much any story it boils down to something along those lines, but still the fact that that was pretty much the entirety of the plot wasn’t great.

Gameplay: Thankfully this was a really fun game, which considering it was made by people from Rare, who made GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Multiplayer was the big draw of the game, and since this was made in the heyday of local multiplayer you had to be careful of the other players screen watching you, and trying to do the same to them without them knowing.

Art: The art has aged poorly, but in the day it was pretty impressive, and considering it was a PlayStation 2 launch title you can bet it’s graphics were really hyped up.

Music: I don’t remember it, as I was dealing with trash talking to my friends and them doing the same to me.

Overall: A great game if you played with others for multiplayer, but otherwise a lackluster single player game.

For those who like: Multiplayer, FPS.

Not for those who don’t like: Either of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Ape Escape

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with a real classic that truly deserves another game in the series. It’s Ape Escape!

Plot Synopsis: The story begins when Specter, a white-haired monkey who is well-known at his home in a monkey-themed amusement park, puts on an experimental Peak Point Helmet created by a Professor, which increases his intelligence beyond that of a regular monkey, but also twists his mind, turning him evil. Imbued with this new power, Specter gives Pipo Helmets to all the monkeys in the park and sets them loose, having them take over the local laboratory where the Professor and his assistant Natalie are currently building a time machine…

Plot: This was a truly revolutionary game and the story wasn’t half bad. It wasn’t super intense or detailed like a Final Fantasy game, but for a platformer the story wasn’t all that bad. I’ve definitely seen and played worse games.

Gameplay: The gameplay was the first to require the DualShock controller due to the necessary use of both analog sticks to control both Spike and his tools. I had tons of fun, and frankly this was a one of the best platformers on the original PlayStation, if not the best.

Art: Sadly the art hasn’t aged particularly well. Maybe they’ll do a remake/remaster of the game sometime soon with updated graphics and possible additional features.

Music: I don’t remember much of it, but it was pretty fun to listen to from what I can remember.

Overall: If you’ve never played it, you really ought to.

For those who like: Platformers, Sci-Fi, Good Plot, Awesome Gameplay.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Bookish Wednesday: A Power Renewed by Robert W. Ross

This week for Bookish Wednesday I’m covering the first entry in an Urban Fantasy series I ran across recently. It’s A Power Renewed, Book 01 in the Sentinels of Creation series, by Robert W. Ross!

Plot Synopsis: Out of the smoldering ruins of the war in heaven Archangels Raphael and Michael cannot believe the agreement made between God and His Morning Star, Lucifer. Unwilling to either destroy the fallen Angel or leave him with a free hand upon the world, God sets in motion a struggle that will span the millennia from creation to present day. Two Sentinels are invested with the ability to bend the laws of creation to their will and each represents the primal forces of Order and Chaos…

Plot: The plot is pretty good, and it’s also filled with tons of pop culture references which is awesome. It’s not the best Urban Fantasy I’ve read, maybe touching on the quality of Jim Butcher’s work, but not nearly as good as The Demon Accords by John Conroe. Mostly because while the characters are snarky, they just don’t get the same quality and amount of snark out that even a single line of Lydia’s can bring to bear.

Characters: The entire cast is pretty interesting, and while I’m kind of sad that Michael is depicted as an asshole, angels are described that way in lots of the Old Testament. Kellen our main character is irreverent and witty, but it sometimes feel forced with him. The rest of the cast is okay as well, but there are times when I wanted them to stop spouting pop culture references and just get on with the tasks at hand.

Overall: A good, but not excellent, Urban Fantasy series. If you are needing an Urban Fantasy book to read, you could worse than A Power Renewed. You could also do better though.

For those who like: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Time Travel, Magic, Good Plot, Interesting Cast of Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.