Rise of the Planet of the Apes - A Review

Okay, so this film is a few years old now, but seeing as I've only just watched it - Having kids has certainly taken my finger of the pop culture pulse - I wanted to offer my thoughts.

Rise is clearly the start of a new run of Apes films. With Dawn having just gone through the cinemas, I felt it was time to watch it.

As the title suggests, Rise is the Apes book of Genesis.

In Rise, we get to know the first Ape - Caesar. Used in experiments to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, Caesar develops way beyond the expected intellect of a normal ape. This is handled well in the film, always highlighting the potential problems for messing with nature and science.

When Caesar's death is ordered due to an experiment going wrong, Will Rodman (played by James Franco), takes him home to live with him.

The inevitable happens and Caesar becomes a threat to society. This is when he's transferred to a sanctuary. Up until this point, I was invested in the story, cared for Caesar's plight and really wanted to see him make it through. But it was at the sanctuary where the film lost me.

While in the sanctuary, Caesar finds himself in the care of a worker who hates apes. The thing is, the worker doesn't seem to have any motivation for hating the apes other than his own inherent cruelty. While this sets up the tension required for the conflict that sees Caesar eventually pop, it makes the sanctuary worker hideously one-dimensional and unbelievable. It was like they'd drafted in a Scooby Doo villain to push the story forwards because they didn't know how else to create conflict.

As the title suggests, the ensuing drama leads to the rise of the planet of the apes.

Were it not for the weak middle this would have been a great film. I'll definitely watch Dawn and hope Draco Malfoy is nowhere to be seen. The annoying thing is, he would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky apes.

Rating - 6.5 out of 10.

A Review of Dead Hunger by Eric A. Shelman

Dead Hunger is book one in a series of books by Eric A Shelman - His author page on Amazon can be found here.

Dead Hunger is a zombie book, which I'm sure is pretty obvious from the cover image. We see the outbreak though the eyes of Flex Sheridan. The book starts with him rushing to see his sister, who is turning into a zombie while talking to him on the phone.

In my reviews I try to avoid spoilers where possible, so please forgive my talking around the plot without much specific detail.

Like all good zombie stories, this book has a core group of characters at the centre of it that I truly cared about. The story starts with the main character, Flex, introducing the group. Time is then rewound to the start of the outbreak, or at least Flex's first experience of it, before the group had formed. You see how the group came together. I thought this was an interesting way of telling the story and made the first appearance of each of the group members all the more powerful.

The first few chapters really pull you into the story, the behaviour of the zombies is human, yet alien at the same time. They're portrayed in a way that's truly unsettling.

Having read a lot of zombie fiction, the actual zombies don't usually affect me. However, in Dead Hunger I found myself suitably unsettled by how they acted. Especially Flex's sister. The horror is subtle in Eric Shelman's prose, it's layered and creeps up on you like a rising tide.

This is a well written book that sets up the series well. I look forward to reading book two.

A review of The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Okay, so this book probably doesn't need any more press, but I've just finished it and I thought I'd add my thoughts on it.

Before I read this book, I wasn't sure if it would be for me. I like young adult, but it's not a genre I actively seek out.

Unless you've been living in a cave, you've probably heard about this book. It's the story of a teenage girl, Hazel, who is terminally ill with cancer. While at a support group for people suffering with cancer, she meets Augustus, who is in remission, and so the love affair begins.

Hazel isn't self-pitying about her disease. All she's trying to do is live her life, respond to her emotions, and make the most out of the time she has left. It's this attitude that makes her life so engaging.

Hazel's love interest, Augustus (Gus), is witty and eloquent. At points I found him a little too eloquent and borderline pretentious, but those moments were fleeting. On the whole I loved him and his role in the story.

Getting to know these characters and see their love grow was a pleasure. Green manages to negotiate teenage love without making it feel like an over-emotional mess. It was well handled and captivating to read. This made the sad scenes all the more heartbreaking.

While reading this book, I felt so close to the action I could smell cancer and everything associated with it. The treatments, the hospitals, the drugs...

To avoid spoilers I won't take my review any further.

John Green is an amazing author, with a wonderful prose style. Incredibly conscious writing makes for an easy read, but a well crafted one.

This is a great book and one I would recommend to anyone. It's funny, heart breaking, and incredibly well told.  

Space Mullet, Chapter Two, by Daniel Warren Johnson -www.space-mullet.com

After reading chapter one last month, I've finally managed to find the time to return to chapter two, and I'm so glad I did. Following on from the first chapter, the plot reveals more about the space marines and Jonah's dark history with them. 

In a bid to avoid spoilers, all I'll say is the story gets darker and more complex, introducing new characters and depth to the narrative.

There are several twists and turns in the chapter, none of them contrived, and some of them made me giddy-the monsters so beautifully rendered. I wish I had some of these pages in my collection! 

The art is amazing. The story telling is such you can fly through the issue, transitioning from panel to panel smoothly. Although, each panel is so beautiful, it makes you stop and appreciate this amazing world. 

Fast paced, dark, imaginative, and beautiful, this is a must read, and is FREE to read. 

5 Stars.

Can we have a hardcover please Daniel?

A Review of Odium 2 by Claire C Riley

As the title suggests, Odium 2 is the follow up to Odium. Odium Origins is also available, which I'm yet to read.

The Odium series of books are about the zombie apocalypse. We start Odium well after the zombie outbreak with the main character, Nina, leaving the protection of the walled city she's living within. Sometimes taking your chances with the zombies is a better option than staying where you are.

The sequel follows on from the original, so Odium is essential reading before moving on to Odium 2.

Not only is the writing great in the Odium books, and the characters are well rounded and realised, but the thing that grabbed my attention more than anything was the settings the characters find themselves in.  I won't spoil the journey by listing them, but I found myself marvelling at the imaginative environments in which the characters ended up.

If you like well written zombie fiction, strong characters, and a strong female lead, then you can't go wrong with the Odium series. With intrigue from both the future and the past, I found myself hungry for more with every page turn.

My only complaint is that Odium 3 isn't ready yet!

A great series for anyone who loves zombie fiction. Tense, intriguing, funny, violent. What more could you want?

Keep up the great writing Claire.

For a full list of Claire's work, check her website out.

A Review of Critical Dawn by Darren Wearmouth and Colin Barnes

This review is written with the aim to avoid spoilers, so please forgive me if it's a little light on details. 

Critical Dawn is the story of an alien invasion on planet Earth. At the start, the book is narrated from the perspectives of two characters. Their situations seem impossibly far apart, and I found myself racing through the book to understand just how their lives would inevitably cross.

Playing cleverly with time, Wearmouth and Barnes manage to weave a compelling story of alien invasion that's truly horrific to imagine. Fast paced, brutal, and entirely compelling, Critical Dawn had me thinking about the story long after I'd put the book down. 

The characters are both well rounded and well realised. The individual personalities of each one shines through. 

For anyone looking for a strong Sci-fi tale, full of action and suspense, then look no further than Critical Dawn. 

Highly recommended. 

5 out of 5 stars. 

Links to Critical Dawn:-

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com.au

Space Mullet, Chapter One, by Daniel Warren Johnson -www.space-mullet.com

I first heard of this comic on Eleven O'Clock Comics. Skottie Young recommended it.

The premise of Space Mullet is a Space Marine has gone AWOL, although we don't yet know why. The story starts with the AWOL marine - Jonah - going on a mission. The leader of said mission seems reckless and unhinged, and Jonah is clearly uneasy with him from the start. 

The story then fast forwards a few years and Jonah is roaming through space, picking up work as a Space Trucker with a Zozobian named Alphius. If I'm looking for comparisons, I'm inclined to draw the obvious one between Han and Chewbacca.

In the first chapter we're told that Jonah has a dark past, one he's trying to free himself from. The suggestion is that something happened during the mission he went on at the beginning. We also find out that Alphius would follow him into the sun because he saved him - again this reminded me of the Chewbacca life debt.

The art is beautiful, the story flowing from panel to panel. The different aliens have great designs and the world building is amazing. The second we landed down on the first planet, I was transported into a rich world of poverty and violence. A world I wanted to know so much more about.

I don't want to spoil the story of the first chapter, but I would highly recommend this webcomic. Surely this story needs the Kickstarter hardcover treatment?

This is a great sci-fi comic with a fast pace and engaging worlds / characters.

Highly recommended.