Monday, 3 November 2014

Reading with Chuckles #11


Welcome to Reading with Chuckles! This is where I fill you in on what I'm reading each week-what it is, where I got it or heard about it, what I think of it, if I'm continuing with it or abandoning it and any special offers I'm aware of where you can try the book yourself. Comments are welcome but no spoilers please! It's not fair to other readers!

I've been attacking different series that have been sitting on my shelves for years, getting them read and ready to trade online. I've also re-read a few and have decided to part with them so I finally have some decent space on my shelves again! So here is the latest on what I've read or abandoned this week.

Firstly I went back to the Anna Strong series by Jeanne C Stein. I gave book one three stars when I read it first and my opinion stayed the same, despite it being a bit slow. I went on to read book two but it never really grabbed me so I put the whole series into my trade pile and sent it to a friend in England this week. I went on to the Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk plus two other series she wrote but again, there was just something missing in the books for me. I tried Keri Arthur's Nikki and Michael series and found it too slow, tried CE Murphy's  Negotiator series and just didn't like it, and read a few others that I didn't want to keep. The little book of the end of the world was a book I reviewed for an author friend.



   




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Sunday, 2 November 2014

What's on Chuckle TV #9 Halloween Special


Welcome to Chuckle TV! 
Every week I will be talking about what I have been watching in the world of TV, be it sport, documentaries, TV series, films, soaps or interesting news items. I'll be talking about favourites from the past and all the great sounding stuff that I haven't watched yet. Believe me, there are a lot of popular series that I haven't had the chance to see! Let the Count and I be your guide in the world of entertainment! Comments are welcome on what I'm currently watching but no spoilers please or your comments will not be published!

This week I was concentrating on reading as much as I could that I didn't really get anything watched from Sunday-Thursday. However on Friday I had my Halloween filmfest day and got a pile of scary favourites watched, just for fun!

First up was the original version of The Fog. I loved the creepy soundtrack, the cheap but effective glowing fog slithering along the streets to kill anyone it finds and the people you care about are running for their lives as it chases them. This is a classic horror film, designed to make you jump. I love the tension and atmosphere of this film and I watch it every Halloween.  
Return of the Living Dead Part 2 is not a film to be taken seriously. It is a slapstick zombie horror comedy with cheesy one liners, stupid humour, and dumb ass characters but it is also fun to watch from time to time. The scenes where the zombies are climbing from their graves is funny, and the Michael Jackson scene is also very good. If you want a bit of a laugh with your zombies, check this out.
I still regard Resident Evil as one of the best zombie films out there. This has the tension-the computer defences that kill all the people trying to leave or enter The Hive, the intriguing mix of characters, a strong plot, excellent special effects and lots of hungry zombies and strange creatures! Add in the pulsing soundtrack and you can't ask for much more. The added bonus is that the people in it can also act, which you find lacking in a lot of zombie films these days. Sadly I was not a fan of any of the sequels that I have seen which is a bummer. Still, this one was good and I watch it pretty often.

This is widely regarded as one of the best zombie films out there and I bet it scared the crap out of plenty people when it first came out. The shambling zombies may not look that threatening but they do creep up on you to take a chunk out of a careless arm or leg if you aren't paying attention. I like the zombie action and the thought of living in a shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse is very appealing from a survival point of view. The film does get a bit slow in the middle but the end sequence more than makes up for it with blood and gore and the bad guys getting eaten for their troubles.

I have loved shark films since I first saw Jaws as a kid. That shark theme still scares me when I'm in a swimming pool...Deep Blue Sea got mixed reviews from the critics at the time but I love it! The acting was excellent, the special effects were good especially the very scary ass sharks, strong and exciting plot and plenty of action to enjoy. 
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Saturday, 1 November 2014

Scariest Moments in Cinema

Well, seeing as it was Halloween last night, I started thinking about the scariest and most atmospheric moments in horror films. So here are my 5 top moments in film!

5- An American Werewolf in London
OK I wasn't a great fan of this film to be honest but that scene where the werewolf is stalking the man in the Underground station really creeps me out! Every time I travel on the Glasgow Underground, I get the shivers just thinking about it. I think it's because you don't really see anything, and the scene is quiet and creepy that it really works. You know its there, stalking!

4-The Fog
I'm talking here about the original film, not the crappy remake. It is the sequence where Stevie is on the radio telling everyone where the Fog is. We get the pounding creepy music which is like an out of control heartbeat, and the Fog is slithering its way down the streets. My favourite bit is when she turns to look out of the lighthouse window to see the Fog come crawling over the cliff and down towards her. Lovely!


3-Halloween
The classic slasher film on a cheap budget! Who would have thought that a guy standing out on the street wearing a William Shatner mask could be so damn scary? The creepy soundtrack is just perfect for the film. But my creepy bit is when Laurie thinks she has killed Michael and send the kids out to get help and she has her back to the body-and he sits up and turns his head towards her. Shudder! That really freaks me out!

2-Salems Lot
Another classic film, based on the Stephen King book. Mr Barlow has to be the scariest damn vampire since Nosferatu himself. But the creepy bit is when the boy is in his bedroom and his dead best friend is floating around outside his window, scratching at the glass and demanding to be let in. That freaks me out. Any time I hear a noise at my window, this is what I think about!

1-Demons 2
Without a doubt the two Demons films are the scariest I have ever seen and I won't watch them at night-EVER. What scared me is that the film talks about Nostradamus predicting the coming of the demons which makes you wonder if it could come true. The demons themselves are horrific zombies who can sprint and jump, giving you little chance to escape them. But there is a scene in Demons 2 that scares me shitless. The birthday girl is watching TV, watching a programme about the demons. She watches the demon chase the actors and then it suddenly stops and turns its head to look right at the TV. And you KNOW it sees you. It then runs to the screen and climbs out the TV to attack the girl. I swear, the moment when that demon turns to look at the screen, my heart starts thundering with fear. That is why it is top of the scare charts!
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Book Review: Antigoddess by Kendare Blake


Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health. Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

My Review:
I feel that there are not enough books out there making the most of the rich stories of Greek mythology. Recently, it has crept into YA and adult paranormal which I had thought was a good thing but there have been very few good ones to speak of. Ken Mooney's 'Godhead' was one of the best examples of how to weave mythology with modern life. Antigoddess was not.

Antigoddess was a pretty apt name for the book, considering that this was the opposite of what I was expecting and the opposite of most gods mythology books that I've read. It's a pity that I don't mean that in a good way.

It just did not work for me on any level. I didn't like any of the characters at all. Not a single one. Cassandra was a snotty cow with a superiority complex, seeming to think she was better than all her classmates, with her snide comments and observations. Yet she earns money by cheating them. Nice girl. The line up of gods and goddesses feature asshats, bitches and weirdos, all acting like stroppy teenagers and destroying the world in their petty fights over nothing. I was hoping they would all just die but no such luck. It is vital for me that I care about the characters and I have to like the MC or I'm never going to sign up for the full journey. When you don't like anybody, it becomes really tough to engage with the story at all.

The idea for the plot was interesting enough, and the author obviously did some research into Greek mythology so I'll give marks for that. I like to see something a bit different, which was why I picked this up in the first place. That and the fact that it was the free one in Waterstones 3 for 2 offer. But the actual delivery of the plot wasn't great. We have endless sections of our heroes wandering through the world exchanging the most boring conversations known to man, and spitting feathers at regular intervals. Literally. Don't ask, I'm not even going there. Then we switch to snotty Cassandra and her date mad classmates. Then the endless journey. Then Cassandra moaning and bitching again. It was never ending and boring with little of interest happening. I really don't enjoy books that take forever to get to the point and this was so slow it was going backwards.

The switching POV got annoying and was sometimes confusing. At times the whole plot felt like a dream sequence from a Hades nightmare, it was so confused and strange. it just didn't work for me and I wasn't enjoying it so I abandoned it and went to find something else.

This is the second series I have tried by this author and I won't be trying any more. It's obvious that her work just isn't for me personally. 
star rating photo: 1 star orange-1star.jpg
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Stacking the Shelves #56


Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords.
                  
Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress. 

This week has been another busy book week for chuckles. I am roaring through my tbr, tackling all the series that have been sitting there for ages unread. I'm also re-reading books that I gave three stars to when I first started on Goodreads to see if I still like them enough to keep, and to see if I wanted to continue with the series. The results were surprising and in 3 weeks, I have moved about 80 books from my shelves into the trading pile, which is GREAT! The tbr has went from just over 800 down to under 750 for the first time in over four years!!! Yea! My tbr are the books that I physically own on paperback and ebook and it includes encyclopedias and stuff that I haven't looked at since I bought them. Still, I feel as if I'm getting things under control a bit. I have about a hundred books split between my Kobo and Kindle so about 650 are physical books. Most are in series that I have still to complete ie The Morganville Vampires, The Elm Creek Quilting series etc and a pile of Indie books still to sample! The plan is to trade for the next week or two so I can get more space, spend the winter catching up on the series I've started, then once the holiday season is over mid-January, get stuck into the Indies and other tbrs that I might trade if I don't enjoy them. I have a cunning plan! 

But of course that doesn't stop me adding cool stuff that I want to wishlist and picking up books that I've been looking for. I mean it's RUDE not to buy a few isn't it! I've got one review book this week and I'm expecting a couple more in the next two months but it's great not to be overloaded with them. This time last year I was so stressed with book deadlines that I had to take a step back and stop taking on so many reviews. And I feel much better for it. I'm enjoying my reading a lot more now. 

Some of these books were held over from last week's horrorfest haul as you can see with the Edward Lee stuff. I read part one of Gameland a few weeks ago and thought it had enough potential for me to get the omnibus cheap to take a look at. The bought paperbacks include two books about the Deadliest Catch tv series which I'm addicted to, and the other is the concluding part to a trilogy that I've been waiting for. Cool!

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