Ever since the movie versions of Lord of the Rings appeared, I've been living in hope more epic fantasy novels will roar to life onscreen. I love the LOTR movies so much, will never be tired of them. They represent everything I most love about the fantasy genre (and value in life) -- adventure, discovery, … Continue reading Shannara isn’t perfect, but gives me hope
Yes. Pride and Prejudice. With zombies. It's a thing. I first tried reading Seth Grahame-Smith's alternate version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice a number of years ago. I hated it. With. A. Passion. Not because I'm a purist -- I thought the idea sounded cool -- but because I found it clunky. So much … Continue reading My thoughts on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Festivities Almost 20 years ago, I made a Christmas Advent calendar. I spent hours on the decoration, which is created from cut-up pieces of coloured paper, and it came out better than I ever imagined. Behind each door is a compartment for little daily surprises in the lead-up to Christmas. For the past decade or … Continue reading Journal ~ Festivities, finishing and The Force Awakens
I'm in the middle of a nice little creative phase at present. The dayjob work levels went from one extreme to the other, and the latter half of November has presented lots of lovely time for me to catch my breath. And lots of lovely time to work on finishing the second draft of this … Continue reading Journal ~ update on words, song, Mockingjay
And so we come to the third and final installment of The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies, which wraps up this humble little story well. In the context of the first two Hobbit movies I was not disappointed. It's always wonderful to sit back and experience a few hours in Peter Jackson's … Continue reading Thoughts on The Hobbit – Battle of the Five Armies
As a huge fan of the Peter Jackson et al movies set in Middle Earth, I once again rocked up to the latest installment of The Hobbit hoping it would be wonderful. Once again I enjoyed the movie -- the lavish and dedicated depiction of Tolkien's fantastical world, the rousing adventure, the eye candy in … Continue reading Thoughts on The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug
I loved Catching Fire, the movie. A lot more than I did the book. Which is unusual. My major complaint with the book was that it seemed to repeat the same story and themes as the Hunger Games (the first book in the trilogy). It suffered from a lack in progression of the overall story … Continue reading My thoughts on Catching Fire
Last week I saw Riddick, the latest Vin Diesel blockbuster movie, and reviewed it for Festivale Online Magazine. To summarise, I liked the opening (first 20 mins or so) a lot. The rest, not so much. Click through to read the full review! Above is an image from the part of the movie I liked. … Continue reading Movie review: Riddick
I recently saw The Conjuring, a new thriller/horror movie about a family which moves into a haunted farmhouse, and . . . well you can probably guess what happens next. It's based on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators around 40 years ago, who were also involved in the well-known Amityville … Continue reading Movie – The Conjuring
Last year, I gave my nine year old niece the first Harry Potter book for her birthday. She wasn't much of a bookworm... in fact, she preferred books on science or the natural world. Nonetheless, I decided to impose my love of Harry Potter on her and crossed my fingers that she would like it. … Continue reading But what if Hogwarts really does exist?
E V Gregory 