As far as novels of the apocalypse go (or perhaps the coming of an apocalypse), Snow definitely stands out. I had never read an apocalyptic horror novel where the bringers of doom come in the snow. Typically, I think of snow as serene and peaceful (at least when it first lays and hasn’t turned brown). Not this snow. In this novel, some sort of creatures or entities in the snow take possession of human bodies and kill everyone in their path. Whether these snow creatures are some type of aliens or supernatural entities, it is never revealed, but whatever they are, it certainly makes me think about snow in a whole new light.
When a flight is grounded, Todd Curry and three others foolishly decide to drive through a Midwest snowstorm to their destination. They reach a stranded hitchhiker who leads them to a town that has been under attack by these snow entities. After that, it’s a desperate fight for survival as they find other survivors and attempt to live through the night and escape this town, not knowing if this has spread to other towns.
Besides the innovative concept of the horror in this novel, it was also well written and laced with tension. The main protagonist is easily relatable. He is a flawed person who is desperate to make up for past mistakes and be with his son for Christmas. Any father can understand how that would drive someone to do foolish things, like drive through a massive snowstorm. The horror elements were strong, and overall this was an enjoyable novel.
When you’re on the twentieth installment (slight exaggeration) of a movie franchise, I’m not exactly expecting a masterpiece. I expect the movie to be cheesy and formulaic, but I don’t expect it to be a complete and utter trainwreck, yet Halloween Kills was just that. Cheesy and stupid doesn’t begin to describe this movie. It was at a whole another level of idiocy.
All of the survivors of the previous Halloween movies (besides the one that didn’t actually involve Michael Meyers) have banded together in Michael’s home town of Haddonfield. The lust to kill Michael Meyers has spread through Haddonfield like wildfire. Now, I would think that you might want to flee this unstoppable maniacal killer, but not Haddonfield. Instead they are driven into this insane frenzy to the point where they kill an innocent person. I’m not even sure what the point of this movie was. The most ridiculous part of a silly, pointless movie is near the end when Laurie Strode and Deputy Frank Hawkins reflect on how unstoppable Michael Meyers before he escapes an impossible situation and unleashes seven kinds of hell on his opposition. Perhaps even more ridiculous is that they rewrote the ending of the original Halloween in this movie.
If you are tempted to watch this movie, please don’t. It’s just not worth it.
I enjoyed the first Venom movie and appreciate the character in the current superhero landscape. Venom is a smart-alecky, violent, antihero, portrayed well by Tom Hardy. With my thorough disappointment in recent movies and television shows presented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I was glad to have a change of pace with this movie. Although I generally liked this movie, it didn’t quite measure up to the first one. Venom was still Venom, but part of the novelty of the character was gone. There were still funny lines and good action, but Carnage was overacted by Woody Harrelson. It was of an over the top portrayal of the character. Also, there was no explanation of Frances Barrison, the other villain in the movie, of who she was and how she got her superpowers and how it fit in with these two characters.
It’s hard to pinpoint where this movie fell short of the original yet still felt enjoyable. For one thing, it wasn’t always easy to tell who was who when Venom and Carnage were fighting each other. There were things that I enjoyed about the movie. One of my favorite parts was after Venom separated from Eddie Brock, he went to a rave party and was the hit of the party and was able to conceal his identity since everyone there just thought he was wearing a costume. I also like the character of Dr. Dan Lewis, who brought some comic relief with his interactions with Venom. I would recommend this movie as a fun two hours, even if it doesn’t quite live up to the original.
Oathbringer is yet another good book in the Stormlight Archive series. The story and characters continue to evolve. I have enjoyed each of the first three novels, but this seemed to be a bit better than book two in the series. It suffers from some of the same flaws. It’s a very long novel that drags in places and could use some trimming, but it’s hard to complain too much because the novel holds a lot of intrigue and drama. What I thought was better in Oathbringer was that the stakes and tension were ratcheted up a notch. The deck was further stacked against the protagonist, and there were times when I wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of these difficult situations.
I also thought the author made better use of flashbacks in this novel. There seemed to be more of a purpose to these flashbacks, especially as it pertained to Dalinar Kholin’s journey. It also served to answer many of the questions that to this point had gone unanswered, whereas some of the past ones seemed to only exist to fill space and for character development. Although there were definitely parts of the novel that dragged, it built to a strong conclusion, and then set up the finale of the series quite well. I look forward to reading the next novel in the series, and if you liked the first two novels, this will not disappoint you.
Blood of Empire wraps up what was really an enjoyable, entertaining, and compelling trilogy. Even though the novel was quite long, there wasn’t much fluff to it. There was a strong buildup, both in this third entry and the series as a whole. For the first time, the trilogy goes to Dynize, which I thought was an interesting change, since the reader was able to see not just the Dynize invaders but also their homeland. It gave these invaders a more human aspect.
This novel and series has a little bit of everything. There was lots of fighting, magic, spycraft, treachery, and the threat of a formation of a new god. I think one are where this story suffers is that there is a very large cast of characters, and although most of the main characters are well done, some of the secondary characters are far less well developed. The novel builds well to a climax, but the finish and the actions described were a bit confusing. I didn’t really quite follow what happened toward the end. The last part could have been improved, but overall I was pleased with not just this novel, but the trilogy as a whole. I especially liked the setting and the whole powder mage thing, which was quite different. I would recommend this trilogy to anyone who enjoys fantasy. You can purchase a copy on Amazon.
