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The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (A Review)

     I may have gotten the meaning behind the title more if I had understood the baseball reference, but alas, I don’t know anything about many sports so I assumed it was going to be some strange child murder book (considering the rampant theme of child murder in every other book I’ve read of King’s), so I can gladly say I was relieved when it turned out to be a much more innocent, girl looks upto her idol type of thing. The short blurb focused around this girl being lost in the woods, so I instantly expected a very heavy supernatural/life altering experience theme considering most, if not all of King’s books deal with the horrific supernatural. While the supernatural did make an appearance, albeit in a fever type dream, I have to say I was disappointed with this book on a whole, but more on that later. 

     Initially the book appeared as a child’s nightmare of having to live in a home divided by grief, shouting and an upset mother while not being able to see the father she loves often. It seemed to be a child’s emotional journey through a divorce, something that happens almost everyday I bet, so I couldn’t really grasp at this point where the story was going. Until said child wandered from the path and magically got herself lost in the forest. Initially I thought maybe the child had just taken a wrong turn aiming to get back to the path, but rethinking it as I was writing, it occurred to me that this small girl was wise beyond her years, so taking a wrong turn doesn’t seem a likely thing to happen. This could be a supernatural element of something not wanting her to leave the woods, which adds another level of depth to the story, but I’ll go into that more in a moment. The main focus as this girl is lost seems to be the Walkman she uses to listen to the radio, specifically the baseball games involving her idol. They appear to help preserve her sanity for a little longer and as she says, this radio is her only link to the rest of the world, at least for now. 

     This book started out very slow, with half of the pages consisting of nothing but this lost girl wandering through the woods, following an old bit of information she heard saying that following the river would lead her out, at this point it basically just lead her far out of the search area but that’s not that important. The real element of fear doesn’t appear until halfway through the book, which is impressive for a book that’s just over 200 pages long! As much as this new player suddenly appeared, they didn’t seem to have much influence until the child ‘encounter this lost god’, I use the word encounters loosely, because at this point it could have been the child’s fever dream from dehydration, hunger and stress. But if this god was real, this ties back to what I said earlier, it adds a whole new level of fear because it could suggest that for some reason, this god wanted this child to wind up lost, and eventually dead, in these woods. For what purpose? I cannot say as I am unsure, but if I were to hazard a guess I’d say the lost god wanted her for nothing more than entertainment. If you thrive on the suffering, despair and eventual death of lost souls, then what could be more fun that a player who knows what they are doing and poses some sort of challenge? 

     Right at the end, the girl appears to fight this lost god in one last hurrah, and defeats it by throwing her Walkman exactly as her idol Tom Gordon, would throw his last all-or-nothing pitch. Added to the fact the Walkman turns into a baseball in this girl’s eyes and it’s either the supernatural has come to aid her, or she’s finally lost her mind. As it is stated by the man that found her on the edge of the woods, he saw her fight a bear and the bear to run away, wounded. While I don’t doubt a Walkman could do some damage, I doubt it could do that much, so the supernatural aiding the girl’s strength could be possible, but on the other hand it could be the strength you gain to fight when you know death is close at hand. Basically the book ends with the girl performing Tom Gordon’s signature point upto the sky move while she lays near dead in a hospital bed, and that’s it, it just says game over after that. As a gamer myself I can only conclude that this girl died of her injuries and the stress her body had been put through. However, each chapter in this book is named according to the progression of stages (couldn’t think of a better word there) in a baseball match, where game over just means the match is done, won or lost, and that it’s time to move onto the next one. So she could have lived to tell the tale possibly. I believe considering she had double pneumonia by the time they found her, it’s more than likely that after she fell asleep, she just didn’t wake up again. 

     Moving away from the plot now, the writing style used was simplistic and easy to follow. I thought the multiple references to baseball both in the chapter names, the appearance of Tom Gordon (fever dream I believe) and the eventual last fight against the bear were all well suited and well placed. While I possibly could have understood more of the references if I knew anything about baseball, I don’t think my lack of understanding impaired my ability to read and follow the story in any way. This book did not include very few accounts of P.O.V switching, which made it less mentally taxing to keep up with the story, compared to other works like IT where it takes a mental marathon to keep track of what year you’re currently in. It was also interesting to follow this child’s dilemma through the mind of the child themselves, to see and understand how they see things; that would have been my conclusion, but it almost seemed like you were following an adult most of the time, which subtracted from any insight into what a child would do. But this did fit with the theme that she is older in soul than in body, so I guess I can’t really complain. 

     Honestly, I found it very difficult to engage with this book, the story did not seem very gripping, especially when you’ve been reading other works by the same author where every chapter ends in a shocking cliffhanger. I only really continued to read out of my own stubbornness, as I don’t like to put books down halfway through, but I had complimented this a couple of times. But stubbornness won out and here I am, writing this review nearly a month later as it took so long to figure out where to start. I haven’t written a negative review before and wanted to take the time to figure out how to approach it. I suppose, on the plus side, that if you are a stubborn reader like myself and you do just so happen to pick up this book, then at least it isn’t a 1000 page long monster like IT, so you don’t have to suffer long. 

     As previously mentioned, there was a lot about this book that I didn’t like, but as I came to write this review, I realised that there could be more behind this simple story, maybe more involvement from the supernatural than I first realised. I believe the gripping parts of this story come not from the book itself, but from the discussions you can have surrounding what actually happened and why did it happen. Overall though, I wouldn’t read this again, and honestly, even thinking more into the story itself doesn’t make me feel any better about the time I spent reading the book in the first place. 

     Okay, I would rate this book at around a 4/10 mark, this is because despite the thinking, despite the unanswered questions, this book did not leave a good taste in my mouth, nor did it leave me with any sort of positive emotion when I had finished the book. However, I believe the redemption lies in the writing itself, it is consistent, easy to follow, makes for a quick and not confusing read and does stay true to it’s baseball heart so for that I have to give some credit. 

     Now for the final question, would I recommend this book to someone else? No, I wouldn’t, unless you have a strong urge to get into a debate with someone else who has read the book about their views then I would give this book a wide miss. There are many other King books that I believe are better, and to be honest, compared to the others, this book does seem like the odd one out almost. But if anyone has read this book before and wants to discuss it then let me know, I always love a good chat!

Bye for now ^-^ (oh and the next book in the backlog of things to write about is the more recent King book, The Outsider, which should be out tomorrow evening if I remember) 

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Stephen King - The Green Mile (A Review)

I finished this book quicker than expected, but I just couldn’t put it down for that long. While written in a polar opposite style to It, the green mile was gripping for so many different reasons. 

First, lets talk about the theme of the book, basically the people that have to carry out the death penalty, so a topic that does seem widely removed from the dangerous horrible other worldy creatures that usually lurk in a King novel (so I’m told), but there is still a large element of the supernatural in Coffey himself but I won’t spoil that here. There is certainly a more ‘down to earth’ theme with this book considering what it revolves around being so real and some aspects being so possible. King also manages to show the real situations during the depression and the corruption throughout the justice system. 

The description in this book was much less complicated/expressive compared to It, but still engages the reader in a more conversational style, which does make sense considering the point of view of the book being from Paul himself. I believe there was more of a first person style to this book and that does help the reader to connect more to the story. 

As for the original release of the book being in serialised chapters, I don’t believe I would have been able to finish the story, considering my own tendency to forget or lose interest if I am unable to finish a book/series, but the way each chapter is ended does give rise to many cliff-hangers and I believe would fuel an individual’s desire to read, to want to know what happens next. 

I do believe the Green Mile to be a good book worth a read, but in my honest opinion, I believe the expressive imagery of It was better, and the more supernatural theme as it felt more disconnected from this reality and I could keep my own emotions from interfering with my reading and capability to enjoy the book to it’s fullest. 

Right the book I am currently reading is called THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, which is a shorter novel so it should be out soon, also look out for some board game reviews soon and please message if you want to start a discussion about anything, I’m always open for discussion. 

Bye for now! ^-^

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Stephen King: It - A Review

I decided to give this book a read after seeing all the hype surrounding the film and its plot as I don’t do horror films. However, after reading some plot points about the film and being annoyed at the minor small changes made for example, the circumstances surrounding Gerorgie’s death. 

As the first King book I’ve read, the style of writing did seem to confuse me, in terms of trying to wrap my head around the timeline considering all the switching back and forth between past and present for all characters. After beginning to read and reread, I was able to wrap my head around the style of writing and began to really enjoy how different it is to the linear timeline books I tend to read. Although I wouldn’t recommend if you are easily confused by switching P.O.V’s with little announcement of such switching. I believe the style of King’s writing would have been suited well to film or especially a TV series adaptation, but alas, a fully accurate depiction will probably only exist in my own sweet nightmares. 

Moving away specifically from the style of King’s writing to the content specifically, there is almost a flowery way of fantasy in the words used to describe anything, but what hit me most was the simply descriptions of brutal deaths that made my skin crawl. Unfortunately sometimes I did require a dictionary for some words, but that could just be my own lack of knowledge rather than ‘tough’ terminology, but I’d recommend a phone beside you with chrome on hand just in case. 

The layout of the writing, the use of new chapters to end a previous sentence but also switch the scene or decade was artfully used and didn’t feel forced so the story still flowed, despite the constant switching. In addition, the occasions where an interrupting thought would appear in brackets added to the breaking and starting on new lines really had this feel of your own reading flow being interrupted and added another depth to my own reading experience. 

In terms of the plot, the story was gripping and despite some obvious spoilers as to characters fates written down prior to deadly occurrences, there was a want and almost a need to know more and how this fate comes about. It is a writing technique I’ve not seen pulled off well previously but somehow King does it spectacularly! 

Look forward to a lot more King reviews! The next book I’ve decided to read is THE GREEN MILE, which based on synopsis I’m very much looking forward to, a little less occult by definition but should be good all the same. 

Bye for now! ^-^

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Writing off of Writing prompts #1

‘After the dust has settled and he seemingly returned from the dead, he came to her to apologize and all she wanted to do, was hurt him for the way he made her believe she had lost him.

But she was so tired all she could do, was turn around and leave.’ - the prompt (from creativepromptsforwriting) 

There he stood, just over the road. Building still crumbled, but just like a cheesy action movie they never hit him. Every hair still perfect on his head. Each step just made the rage I felt burn, an all consuming inferno. Watching him saunter over like nothing had ever happened, as though he hadn’t just disappeared all those years ago; presumed dead in the same type of explosions that were now occurring all around the city. 

“Hey” he shouted, and waved as he crossed the street toward where I stood.

I didn’t even respond, just held a hand up in the air and hoped he’d get the message. All the things I could do. The revenge I could take. How dare he leave me, how dare he destroy me. He knew how much he meant to me and he just left me to crash in burn in a hole deeper than Hell itself. I wanted to hurt him, I really did. Be it physically, emotionally or psychologically. All of which he did to me. The hours I spent carving into my own skin with anything sharp I could find, the hours sitting in front of a headstone weeping until my tear ducts dried up; the multiple hospital trips for when the clowns in the white coats decided I was a danger to myself.

I wanted to hit him, destroy his face until I could look at it and it not remind me of him. Until it would be nothing more than pulp on the pavement. I could rip open all my scars and bleed out in front of him, let him know what it feels like when your lover is dead, except there’s no return. No miraculous reappearance. Isolate him from his family, make him lose precious time like I did when I was too deep in my own sorrow to pay attention to those around me. 

“Angel.....Angelica can you hear me! I’m sorry, they wouldn’t let me tell you anything. I never wanted to leave you” I registered the hands shaking my shoulders and the deep blue eyes bearing into mine.

I felt nothing, after all that’s happened today, the explosions, the murders, the pain, the fear. I was too tired to feel anything. All thoughts of revenge faded like leaves being blown down stream. So I did the only thing I could. I walked away

To this day, I never looked back. 

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Okay, I really enjoyed doing this and I hope you guys enjoy reading this :D If you want me to do more with this story, flesh it out, make it into a longer piece then let me know and I’ll get back to you!

bye for now! ^-^

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Game Review: Fire Emblem Heroes

I adore the fire emblem franchise, so when I heard about heroes, I couldn’t wait! But well I had too, but the wait was worth it! Initially I expected the game to cost at least a little, but I was pleasently suprised when I found out it was free.

The game has it’s good and bad points, just like any other game. But I’d like to start off with an overview, and then the good, followed by the bad. This game is basically fire emblem involving everyone you have met and those you haven’t fighting yet another war they don’t theoretically belong in; with Anna role filling again. Essentialy usual fire emblem, but the map is smaller and there are a lot less players on the field.

Positive points: it’s another good fire emblem game, with the usual war torn world focus. The layout and all the characters are nicely designed and in my experience, all the animations in game were smooth. The story managed to use all the different worlds and characters effectively, and tie them together in an albeit simple, but nice way. The game feels similar to other fire emblem games, just simplier, but still retains the strategy aspects that make these games so much fun. You don’t need to worry about equipment or money which is a nice burden to be lifted. And the level up system is still similar to previous games, so there isnt anything shocking or wildely different to have to adjust to. There are multiple modes aside from story mode, which offer different challenges and different rewards. You can earn new people instead of having to rely on chance in a summon, if you don’t mind them being a lower rariety of course.

Negative points: compared to other mobile games I’ve played and reviewed, I think this one has the least amount of negative points. The usual negative point of it being a free game but needing to spend money if you want the goods still stands. In this respect, it relates to summoning heroes. If you really want that limited time event hero, you either need the luck of the gods, or a lot of cash in hand and the willing to spend it on a mobile game. The other thing is space, this game increasingly takes up so much space on my phone that I end up having to delete other apps everytime there ends up being an update, but this could just be my phone specifically.

To sum it all up, I really enjoyed playing this game, despite all the times I felt like I needed to spend money in order to get the strength to blast through the game. But I like the strategy challenge so it never bothered me too much.

So, who’s your favourite hero? For me, it’s either Camilla or Thaja just because I love their personalities. What’s your favourite level, if it’s possible to pick one as they all seemed very similar to me. Comment/message me and I’d love to chat more about the game!

Bye for now! ^_^

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3DS Games: Pokemon Picross

I love me a good picross, so when this was announced I was estactic! After playing the game however, I couldn’t be more disappointed in what I got. Maybe I should have expected it, with it being a free game from the store; but I got my hopes up and had them dashed, quite expertly.

First off, I loved the puzzles, and picross is one of my favourites, as everything is logical and nothing needs to be guessed. I usually got so engrossed in the puzzle that I never spent time pondering what pokemon I might be making here, but it would sort of jump out at me right at the last moment as I completed the puzzle.

I also enjoyed trying to complete the challenges that came with each puzzle, and make it my goal to complete all of them. And made it my aim to complete every puzzle in the game, but that was never to be realised.

And now we move onto the bad things. For one, collecting the in game currency, picrites, was a nightmare. You would barely get any for each puzzle and need to play everyday just to get the few extra from the daily training; which was based on speed. That one thing I’m not good at. So it would take a heck of a long time to unlock any new areas, and god forbid if you wanted the mega pixel pen, which cost 500! I don’t even want to work out how long that would take to earn, considering you need to keep spending to unlock new areas to keep earning more, and it just ends up a vicious cycle. I believe that while the game was free, these little elements is where the money making comes into play, especially for those that don’t have a lot of paitence or want to experience the whole game quickly.

In addition to this, it only being avaliable on the 3DS meant it was difficult to carry it everywhere I went, compared to my phone. So I would often go days without playing, and then lose heart at the thought of how much currency I had lost in those days. This eventually led to me just deleting the game just so I could free up blocks on my 3DS for other demo downloads.

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Mobile Games: Pokemon Shuffle

I have restarted this game so many times, both on DS and phone! But I still find it infuriatingly fun. I’ll post my views on both the 3DS version and the phone version.

3DS Version: This is the one I got first (as it wasn’t released for phone until later) and I quite enjoyed it. I’ve always liked the repetitive matching games just to pass the time so it fit the bill quite well! I enjoyed the layout of the game on both screens as it was pleasing and not overly crowded. The music was quirky and quite happy sounded, so it always brigtened my mood a little. The only negative I can really say about the 3DS version specifically is that because the 3DS is a little clunky, it was quite the chore to carry it around and load it up all the time.

Phone version: The phone version was free which is always a bonus! I liked this one more because my phone is always on me, and the game seems quicker to load, meaning I can spend more time playing on the go. Everything seems to be a bit smaller (smaller screen), which makes the game look a little more cramped. But the attacking pokemon still appear in good size and detail at the top of the screen, and the map is still nice and spaced out. It also strikes me as odd that the great balls appear to cost 1000 more money on the phone version, making it feel as though it takes a lot longer to earn the money to buy upgrades or greatballs.

I have two main greviances with this game as a whole. The first is that while the game may be free, it feels as though the only way to progress quickly is to spend money. Whether that be on hearts or on money for pokeballs. Only being able to get a max of five hearts and one heart taking 30 mins to recharge means spending a lot of time waiting, considering I can go through five hearts in around five minutes. The second is capture rates. While some pokemon are easy to catch, others are b*tch difficult, meaning I can spend days on the same level just because I want all the pokemon. Ah the woes of being a collector. Also the cost for great balls is quite high compared to the money you get for first clearing levels, which drops significantly on repeat clearances. I’m also not completly sold on the idea of ‘super catch power’ either, it’s just too random and unpredictable, even though I’m sure that’s what it’s intended to be.

My favourite pokemon so far is mega Altaria, just because it looks so fluffy and cuddly and I would love a plushie of one!

Bye for now! ^-^

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Apologies

Well would you look at that! I’ve been offline for a week, not because I don’t enjoy this but because I’ve been far too busy.

But anyway, things should be back in buisness this week, although as I’m now home and don’t have my PS4, we will be lacking in the game reviews for the next couple of weeks.

On a plus note, reviews start again tomorrow, with a focus on mobile games this week!

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Manga review: DEAD tube

First manga review, so here we go! I found this while scrolling through the horror section and the cover caught my eye, so I thought why not give it a go. I finished reading it quite recently (today) and thought I’d give you all my thoughts. This is going to be a no spoiler review because I really don’t think I want to get into the details of this particular ‘plot’. 

First impressions: From the cover I actually thought it was going to be some sort of horror romance cross but I was very very wrong. Small things in the first few chapters struck me as odd or weird, and I didn’t really know what to make of things at all! I was very tempted at many points during reading to just put this down and pretend I’d never read it. But, I’m not a quitter, so I persevered. 

Characters: Without going into spoilers, the characters are very....colorful, but most of the time just covered in red. At first it was confusing to really understand how all the characters related to one another, but it does become clearer the more you read. Mashiro Mai (the girl on the cover), is an interesting character with a bit of backstory, but many other mysteries are left unsolved which gives me chance to theorize. Tomorhiro is the other character on the cover, this boy struck me as a minor character at first. He didn’t really have a lot of presence or seem to make a big impact on anyone. But never judge a book by it’s cover because all that seemed like a facade after chapter 2. 

Plot: I won’t write a lot here (no spoilers remember), so all I’ll say is that this is one of those reads that really starts to make you question morality. Not everything is as simple as black or white it seems. I think it also really shows the corruption in the higher up powers, or in the services that are made to protect people. However, it is also a very gruesome and explicit manga with an awful lot of sex in it, with not all of it being consensual. There was also a lot of torture included as well. This is definitely not a manga for the faint hearted. There are a lot of chapters left on cliffhangers, which I think is a really good technique to use, it definitely left me wanting to read more. 

Series completed?: Okay I looked at Wikipedia for this one, and with eight volumes so far, it is still listed as an ongoing series. I don’t really have any predictions for how long this series might be, but considering the point in the story I've read up-to; I don’t think it would be longer than 15? Unless they are planning to really drag the story out. 

Thoughts on author: The author is Mikoto Yamaguchi, There are some finished series such as Gun x Clover, but none that I can say I have read before or heard of. But I may give them a try just to see Mikoto’s other works are anything like this one. 

Would I recommend?: Only really if you like heavy gore, a lot of nudity and sex and general gore horror. Other than that, I’d advise you to stay far away from the series. Considering horror is one of my favorite genres, this disturbed me more than anything I’ve read. 

Next week I’m hoping to get a more varied lot of reviews out, as I know this week has been a lot of book reviews but; reading is pretty much what I’ve spent all my free time doing recently.

bye for now! ^-^

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Orcs: Legion of Thunder

This will be a shorter review, but the spoiler warning still stands. I don’t have as much to say on characters but I’ll try and focus more on character development. I’m writing this now because I just finished reading the book before writing and decided to get it all out before I forgot the plot. I won’t do a first impressions section because I think it isn’t really needed here as this is a second book not a first.

Characters: I said I wouldn’t talk about characters as such, but there is more on Adpar in this book. I think Adpar is interesting, as she seems so similar but so differnt to her sister Jennesta at the same time. She’s hellbent on conquering though bloodshed but doesn’t seem as derailed when controlling her army compared to Jennesta. I didn’t expect her to die so quickly though, I thought the tear at the end really showed she was very similar to her sister at heart. I am curious on how it didn’t seem that Adpar knew it was Jennesta. This makes me wonder whether Sanara is at risk too. But I was really hoping for a physical confrontation between all three sisters, but alas, I’m now hoping for a match between two out of three siblings. Speaking of siblings, Sanara seems almost the polar opposite of the other two sisters, and I do wonder what bigger role she plays in all of this. I’m hoping she’ll be the one to strike down Jennesta though.

Plot: I still don’t know what the instrumentalities are for or where the last one is. To see Jennesta more actively taking a role in this fight is interesting, as she doesn’t seem to be one to get involved in anything. To me this just screams desperation for the instrumentalities, meaning I’m nearly certain she knows how to use them and I’m sure it would destroy the land more than the humans already have. I also really don’t know what the storyteller, Sepharim is about, but I doubt that’s his real name. He’s not human and part of me wonders whether he is a guide of some sorts for Styke. Maybe to act as a guardian as Styke has noble intentions.

My thoughts on what will happen next: The centaurs will turn on the orcs when they return as they will possibly bring Jennesta with them. The dragon rider will turn rouge and go into hiding seperate from the Wolverines. I think Sanara has the last instrumentality. I would have said Sepharim could have it, but his comment to Styke that he could have taken them but they belong in another’s hands makes me feel less confident about that theory. I think the instrumentalities might be the key for Jennesta’s line’s downfall as her parents caused this mess in the first place. But I think it will cause magic to return to the land and the humans to be forced out of it. Or it will force out all other elder races and the orcs will have the land to themselves, just like in Styke’s visions.

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Book review: Orcs (Stan Nicholls)

I’ll be reviewing this one book at a time (as its just a short triliogy), then an overview of the series as a whole. The first book is: bodyguard of lightning. Thinking back on it, I can’t give a reason as to why the book is called this. There’s nothing that jumps to mind that explains it either, so I’ll just swiftly move on. This review will have spoilers so please don’t read on if you want to read the book, I do highly recommend it.

Why did I pick this book up: I knew absolutly nothing about this book, the cover just caught my eye. Reading the blurb, I was heavily intrigued by the line ‘This book will change the way you feel about orcs forever’; especially as in a lot of fantasy books I have read, orcs are the ‘bad guys’ so to speak. The way the blurb was written in first person pulled me in, it made me feel as though I was listening to someone else tell a story. The book isn’t as much in the same first person perspective. As much as you get to read the inner thoughts of characters, the book prefers to use names or gender instead of I. Not that that’s a bad thing!

First impressions: The opening scene is so vague in that all you know is there is a bloody battle occuring between orcs and humans. It was really difficult to abandon the conceptions I have about orcs from other souces and see this in any other way than watching the fight from the bad guys perspective. But because there seemed to be a reason for the fight, not just bloodshed, I wanted to keep reading. Over the rest of the book, character’s intentions are just vague enough that you get a general sense but you do have an opportunity to think about reasons rather than the book just giving you them. I think this is good because it makes me feel like more than just a passive reader of a story.

Characters: Hate Jennesta. Nothing else to say really. As much as I don’t mind grusome characters, her use of sex and unicorn horns is grotesque to say the least. She’s pretty much just a power hungry bitch that blames everyone but herself for failure. I think it will come back around later though, most likely in the form of Sanara with the combined power of the orcs and instrumentalities. For favourite characters I’m torn between Alfray and Coilia. I like Alfray just because for what the orcs are made for (following orders and slaughter) his temperment and healing job just scream that he’s different and special in some way. I think he’ll probably end up being killed in battle later on, only because he’s a loveable character. Coilia is the only female battling orc that is seen. She’s also smart in a way the others aren’t, and is the first to begin really questioning what orcs should do. Her simple acts of speaking are rebellion, and I like that. I think Coilia might go down later to save Styke’s life but I’m not sure. Styke himself is a great protagonist, a strong leader and willful. His dreams are something to consider and I wonder if they are linked to either the instrumentalities or the pellucid. Haskar is an interesting character who I think suffered a lot, but this could just be karma for his attitude. I believe the stars (what the orcs call the instrumentalities) affected him possibly because he was less strong willed compared to Styke in what he wanted for the group and himself. Either that or the stars will drive those without pure will to madness, maybe because his intentions were to take the stars to Jennesta. Although I don’t understand how driving him mad would help the stars not fall into the wrong hands. Jup intrigues me simply becaue he’s a dwarf. I’d like to read more on his backstory to understand how he got where he is before I can really make a judgement. To me it seems he is loyal and wants nothing more than to prove that because of the misconceptions of orcs toward his race.

Plot: I think the plot is simple but also complex. It’s simple in understanding that Jennesta will hunt down and torture the Wolverines (the orcs band), to get what she believes stolen from her. It’s also simple to understand the Wolverines won’t let themselves be caught or go down without a fight. What to me seems more complex is what exactly the orc’s intentions are, how the religions (uni and mani) play into this and how the instrumentalities are supposed to be used; or rather what there purpose is. I can see the majority of the second book being about the Wolverines attempting to gather the rest of the instrumentalities, and a major encounter between Jennesta and Styke.

Writing style: I don’t belive myself to have the most active imagination, but this book gives plenty of opportunities to image the scenarios or just stand back and take in the surroundings. Some terminology used to describe the surroundings didn’t make sense to me, but I could have easily used Google to find out. The writing is simple and not overly cluttered with metaphors or fancy writing techniques. Every word is a necessay piece of description.

Final thoughts: I may have confused some aspects as I’ve already started to read the second book, but I don’t think I’ve confused anything. Overall, its a good read and each book by itself is only around 200 pages long, so its not too long or overly complex (like game of thrones for example); but its nice sit down and read smaller sections at a time. I actually think the names of the books might be more related to Styke’s band and something to do with the Wolverine name they have but that was a random thought. I would recommend this book to others, especially if you like stories more centered around mythical races and magic, compared to human centered stories.

And that pretty much finishes up my first book reivew. Don’t worry, I’ve got loads more books to talk about eventually! Let me know what you think about this review in particular or about the book series or the author himself, espeically if he’s written anything else that I’m not aware of. This is the first time I’ve heard of him actually.

Bye for now! ^-^

[perfectfoxstudentdoesreview-blog]

My thoughts on League of Legends

I only started playing during uni as my partner pretty much begged me to try and play, so I’ve been playing since the middle of season six. I don’t love or hate the game specifically, but there are aspects I prefer and those I dislike.

What I like about League: I love the variety of champions avaliable to play and the free week definitly helped me out early on when I didn’t have as much IP for champions. Now, with the introduction of hextech crafting (even though it is time consuming) I don’t have to spend money on league at all! I occasonially spend money to but my partner skins but not for myself. Mainly because I don’t see the reason to spend money on a game. I like the differing game modes that you can get and the fact that random game modes are rotated in. I also like the myshop for the fact that I can get skins for the champs I like at lower prices.

What I don’t like about League: Despite there being a variety of champions, not many of them strike me as having an amazing stand out feature from all the others. The first champ released after I started playing that struck me as different was Illaoi. This was mainly because I was fasinated by how she interacted with her God and how he was different from Gods in terms of not being nice. I also really liked her voicelines and her appearance as being very physically strong. Although I like the differing game modes, I don’t like how infrequently they appear and how short the durations of them are. Or the fact that for long stretches of time there may be no rotating game mode at all! The myshop recently has bugged me as I’ve gotten skins for characters I haven’t played for so long or just generally not had the best deals. For the most recent my shop I got nothing I actually liked, despite liking the champions I played.

Ranked: My first ranking I got low Silver which then dropped to bronze and I’ve been stuck since. I will admit that there are certainly game mechanics I can improve on and are trying to. But I also think there are a lot of other factors that come into play. Firstly, I can really only play support. I started off playing adc but this gradually continued to get worse so I tried to change roles. Since then I’ve been really struck trying to change to a different role. The most likely role I would change to is mid lane. In addition to this issue with roles, I also have a very limited champion pool, partially due to the fact that I haven’t had enough IP and now have no where near enough blue essence to buy new champions and you can’t play the free week champs in ranked matches. A third problem is that as a support, I don’t really think I can do as much to influence games, so even if I’m having a good game, it doesn’t mean I can help my team win. Another issue I’ve seen in a lot in games is a lack of team conversation and communication. As much as I try to communicate and help out my team, I can’t do a lot if other team members are flaming each other and refusing to communicate.

Champions: I really like the variety of lore avaliable for champions and the introduction of the league universe site was good. It is easy to navigate and with all the stories are detailed and wonderful, giving extra insight into champions and the relations between characters. The first champion I played was Miss Fortune and I kept playing her for a long time, and then included Ashe and Sivir in my list. When I swapped to support I played a lot of damage with Lux and since branched out to Lulu, Karma, Janna and most recently Leona and Blitzcrank. I prefer to play champs with a lot of range shots just so I can stay safe and hopefully not get killed in five seconds. Getting killed so quickly was the reason I started playing champs like Leona and Blitz.

Pro scene: I don’t really keep up with the pro scene so I can’t say I understand a lot of what goes on. The only thing I do know is what is popular to play in the pro scene as those are always the champs that end up recieving nerfs the next patch. The only pro thing I usually watch is the World Championships and yes watching SKT get knocked off the top was entertaining...until I saw their faces afterward and felt really bad.

I don’t get to play league as often now (thanks to dissertations and stuff) but I do still enjoy playing when I can. I’m nice to play with and to talk to so feel free to add me! My name is FacelessAdept and yes that is a Skullduggery reference you see there.

Have a picture of what is still one of my favourite skins:

This post will mark the beginning of what will soon be a long series of posts revolving around me talking in depth about single characters.

Bye for now ^-^

[perfectfoxstudentdoesreview-blog]

Studio Ghibili (Howl’s Moving Castle)

This is the first Ghibili film I watched and that was only recently. I watched it over the Christmas break when the dubbed version was on so that will be the specfic version this review will be based on. I would also really like to read the novel the film is based on but I don’t believe it is avalible in English. Please correct me if I’m wrong!

First impressions: I missed the first 10-15mins ish the first time I watched it so I didn’t exactly why this old woman was trying to hide her oldness or kept complaining. I have rewatched it since and my first impressions were positive. It was a film I wanted to keep watching and kept getting annoyed everytime ad breaks interupped the story.

Characters: I will admit that Howl annoyed me sometimes with his whole ‘mopey teen’ act and the Witch of the Waste for her ‘he’s all mine’ act. I really didn’t like the Suliman but I always thought she was a character you were supposed to hate. It was more her way of doing things that irritated me. Sophie struck me as a really good character who is good at adapting (and complaining!). My favourite character is Calcifer just because who doesn’t love a magical talking fire created out of the soul of a young boy? I was so happy that despite all that happens, that Calcifer still survives at the end.

Plot: I thought the plot of the film was simple yet elegant and was delieverd in a good paced structure. I won’t say much about the intricate details as I wanted to avoid spoilers as much as possible. I mean, the only bit I found really strange was that no-one seemed to realise that Sohpie had either gone missing or undergone such a transformation. I believe the only reason her mother realised was because she had been told in order to deliver the slug thing, otherwise she wouldn’t have realised.

Would I recommend to others: Yes, very much so, I thought it was a delightful little film; that on the surface does not seem to be as dark and depressing compared to some other Ghibili titles. I do think that if you want to look for deeper meaning that it is there however. Also accordin to Wikipedia (I’m not certain on the correctness of this) that the book differs quite a lot to the film.

Final comments: I really enjoyed this film and I would and do continue to go back and watch it frequently. I do prefer the dubbed over the subbed but that’s possibly influenced by the fact I saw the dubbed first.

I have watched more Ghibili films and will continue to watch more and continue to share my thoughts with you guys. As always, have a lovely picture of my favourite character: Calcifer! And may all your bacon burn!

Bye for now ^-^

[perfectfoxstudentdoesreview-blog]

ClassSpect Quiz (Homestuck)

I LOVE doing these just because every quiz I’ve done has given me a different answer. What I’ll be doing today is just running through a quiz quickly, and then telling all you lovely folks what I got. After that I’m going to discussion around the class and aspect (most likely using wikis which I’ll put the links in for) and then some discussion of how I might play a role in a sburb game. The discussion may not be accurate as there are many aspects of the classpect left undiscussed. A lot of it is left to personal speculation. 

Anyway, now that the rambling is done, lets get started! Firstly I’m going to do the official test from the extended zodiac as that will tell me both my lunar sway and my aspect. This could possibly also be considered cannon as Hussie created it, but I could be wrong. But here’s the quiz: http://hs.hiveswap.com/ezodiac/begintest.php

The given information basically describes a Derse dreamer as knowing more about oneself than the world around them. To me, this means being in tune with myself and maybe more content within myself rather than with the world outside. 

For my aspect I got rage, which is now a lot of purple! Other quizes I’ve done usally come back with either heart or breath. According to the quiz, my aspect can be summed up as: causing change through destruction and enjoying chaos and lies. 

This leaves my true sign as Tauriborn. Note that initially you have to select one of the 12 zodiac classes which are based on your date of birth. Mine is May 15 making me a Taurus. Now that I have all three parts, I have a little more info on how my lunar sway and aspect feed into each other. 

My understanding of my sign is that while a Tauriborn may not initially come across as a nice person or want company, the polar opposite it true. They also crave stability and like nice things which they will fill their home with. For me that would be a nice walk in room filled floor to ceiling with bookshelves and games. They also like animals and I would definitely have a lot of cats and dogs to keep me company. It also says that Tauriborn can be quite needy lovers which in my case I prefer the company of my partner to being without. Overall I think this is pretty accurate. The influence of my lunar sway suggests a practical problem solver, while my aspect suggests that truth is important and I would destroy/destabilize anything that threatens the truth. 

Unfortunately this quiz doesn’t include the class that my character would be, so I used this quiz: https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rvalle/hsquiz/hsquiz.html . I have used this quiz before and found it to be quite informative, however I cannot speak for the accuracy or how it would line up with the official quizzes. On this quiz and another one I quickly looked at but didn’t put here because it loaded up a lot of adverts, I got Mage.

A Mage of Rage, has a nice ring to it I think. Coupled with being a Derse dreamer. For the rest of my analysis I’m going to be using the official Homestuck Wikia: http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Class

My class is one of the six genderless ones and not much is known at all about them. By the looks of the speculation, this class is the active class and partner to the passive seer class. I think being an active class means I use my aspect in order to achieve a goal. In this case it could be something like leading coplayers toward or away from rage/destruction. It also says a mage may forfeit their aspect in order to gain knowledge. I can only interpret this as my character losing their sense of rage or love of destruction in order to gain knowledge about the destruction surrounding the session.

Due to which classpect I got, I can’t really fathom anything about what my player planet would be like. Going on what I got, it seems as though from a problem solving aspect, I could be a useful player in a session however if I come off as being not nice, then interaction with other players could be a barrier meaning the problem solving wouldn’t be as useful to others. Being a rage player could cause problems later but if I were to lose part of my aspect to help players avoid destruction it could be useful. I don’t know how a loss of rage could impact my fighting capabilities though, I suppose that would be dependent on if rage was my reason to fight. I’d like to think my weapon specibus would either be a whip or possible a bow and arrow, nothing that means I have to be up close and personal to any enemy. 

I think my amount of usefulness in a session would be dependent on how my class interacts with my aspect and what I can do as a result of that interaction.

But thanks for joining me on this long post. Comment or share with what your classpect is and if you want I can do my own discussion around them!

Bye for now ^-^ (enjoy a picture of my favourite rage child)

[perfectfoxstudentdoesreview-blog]

LADYSTUCK TAROT · MAJOR ARCANA

( 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / card meanings & interpretations )

XII. The Hanged Man by @ghostpressure XIII. ​Death by @villainveins XIV. ​Temperance by @rose-ebottles XV. The Devil by @lime-time

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Next week schedule

Right I thought if I tried my best to lay out my plans each week then you guys know what to expect from me. I’d like to keep doing daily posts but I think because of the rates I finish things at and how busy I am it would be to much to do. Instead I’ll be post every other day. 

Tuesday: Classpect Quiz (Homestuck)

Thursday: Studio Ghibili Film (I’ll keep quiet about which one specifically ;) ) 

Saturday: My thoughts on League

For now the hope is that I’ll be able to get my reviews out at 9pm (GMT time) as this should leave me enough time in the evening to be able to sit down and write. 

Anyway, enjoy this picture of my waifu (Esdeath from Akame ga Kill)

Bye for now ^-^

[perfectfoxstudentdoesreview-blog]

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