Books
It’s High Noon: The Dark Tower Movie Review
My childhood was a rather odd one; while other children were reading more kid friendly books like One Fish, Two Fish. I was hunkered down in my parents library reading their Stephen King Novels. Perhaps this explains why my teachers often gave me odd looks when they read my stories or essays.
I also watched the movie adaptations including the clown fear inducing IT miniseries and have many fond memories of my cousin taking down all her clown pictures in her room before going to sleep.
I was excited when they announced that The Dark Tower was going to be made into a television series, perhaps even getting picked up by HBO. However any attempt to make a film version of the series was met with disappointment as they never came to fruition. When it was announced that once again The Dark Tower would be made into a movie I didn’t even bat an eyelash. I assumed like all the other attempts this one would fall into production hell never to be seen again.
Then they announced the cast, a trailer followed, and fast forward to the release I was sitting in my local cinema waiting to see a movie many waited so long to see.
For those non readers The Dark Tower series is King’s magnum opus. It follows a gunslinger Roland Deschain as he pursues the mysterious Man In Black to strange Dark Tower. Roland’s world has as many put it ‘moved on’ aka the apocalypse happened. Now it is a barren wasteland of monsters and mutants. Eventually characters from our world join Roland in his quest forming what is known as a Ka-tet. With the Ka-Tet Roland is able to defeat the ultimate evil and scale the tower, only to start the whole cycle all over again.
The writers for Dark Tower promised they were not going to retell the novels. Instead the movie picks up at the end of the novels. Roland’s attempt was successful and he is gifted the horn of eld a magical horn once missing from his world.
While Roland wanders the wastelands, in our world a young boy Jake is plagued by nightmares of monsters, the man in black and the tower. The Tower links all of King’s stories into one universe and if the tower fall hell on earth will be unleashed. Of course no one believes Jake thinking he is suffering from mental illness, when escaping the man in black’s captors Jake finds a portal and is able to transport himself to Roland’s world. Jake meets Roland and convinces him to come back to Earth to save it from the Man in Black.
Idris Elba plays Roland the Gunslinger, while many took issue to the casting choice Elba proved he could pull off Roland. Sadly I was not impressed with the casting of Matthew Mcconaughey as the Man in Black. Mcconaughey cannot pull off being a sinister evil person. Jake played by Tom Taylor played the role of sidekick quite well. I was sad however to not see the other members of the Ka-Tet as the movie focused on the bond between Jake and Roland like it does in the novels.
The special effects and imagery were spot on as well as the fight scenes in the film. If you’re a King fan you’ll be able to spot all the fun easter eggs in the film calling back to King’s other works. The Horn of Eld is also featured in the film and if you’re keen eyed you’ll see it.
If there is a sequel to this movie, perhaps we might get to see the final big bad The Crimson King, a role I would love to see Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, Dr Strange) take on.
Now to wait on Stephen King’s IT to make a new generation fear clowns.
Books
Bloodborne: A Song Of Crows Comic Cover, Release Date, Price
It has been a while since FromSoftware released the critically-acclaimed PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, with fans still clamoring for a sequel to this very day. However, despite that apparently not being on the horizon, fans have still been able to keep the good times rolling thanks to a comic series based on the popular game.
This new comic is called A Song of Crows, and Amazon has recently posted their product page for it that reveals lots of information. The following is an overview:
“Discover the twisted story of Eileen the Crow in the continuing comic series spinning out of Fromsoftware/Hidetaka Miyazaki’s critically-acclaimed Bloodborne videogame!
The City of Yarnham is buried in snow.
Eileen the Crow buries the Hunters. But one eludes her. Poisoned and overcome with beastly senses, he prowls Yarnham causing misery and havoc. Meanwhile the bodies mount, reality shakes, and strange things are amiss in Byrgenwerth. On the hunt for the Hunter, Eileen struggles with her own sanity and the disturbing change that a glimpse beyond reality brings.
Blood and death pervade Yarnham and those who travel in its wake. Follow the quest of Eileen as she looks to uncover the truth of the city, and her most inner turmoil.”
Bloodborne: A Song of Crows will release on August 20th, 2019, with the price being set at $16.99. You can check out the cover of the comic below.
Books
LitRPG Books That Will Get You Hooked
LitRPG is the up and coming new genre in science fiction and fantasy. But where’s a good place to start if it’s something you might be interested in diving into? There are several really good series by various authors out there. There are even a lot of Russian authors who have had their stories translated into English. So here are the best LitRPG books for beginners.
The Land is an interesting tale about a gamer, Richter, who is transferred to another world. The premise is that humans are in fact what would be called Chaos seeds. This is important because it plays a dramatic role in The Land. Being a chaos seed allows the protagonist to have some interesting powers and make choices that are often not available to everyone else. This is because the entire foundation of chaos is free choices. So the protagonist is allowed to make choices where anything can happen. And it in fact often does.
Play to live follows the premise of merging alternate realities. The character is actually terminally ill, but is allowed a second chance to live by essentially downloading himself into a game. This is a fairly common situation in this world and makes it an interesting story as the protagonist and his friends actually end up back in the real world as their player characters. D. Rus is one of the Russian authors and manages to add in a complex battle between nations within the game world in the story.
The Gam3 diverges a bit from most other LitRPGs. Whereas many of them are set in fantastical worlds where knights and magic exist, The Gam3 takes place in a science fiction based world. Cosimo does a phenomenal job of making an interesting character with original powers in an interesting world. It follows the tale of a lowly boy working to make money in the game, but he must first pay off his debt to the man who supplied the equipment to get into the game.
As with all genres, there are many more quality books out there to read. The best advice is to get out there and find the ones that interest you personally. I wouldn’t write it off though if you find a few that stink. The subgenre is relatively new and so quality can range widely, especially with the easily available self-publishing we have with digital technology.
Books
Dresden Files TV Series being rebooted by FOX21
In a report by Deadline, a new live-action tv series based off of the Dresden Files book series is in the planning process. Fox 21 has the rights to the story and plans on rebooting it as a tv series. Right now there are very few details in regards to where the studio is planning on taking the show. Fans of the book are excited about the possibility of seeing their favorite series on the small screen.
There was a previous Dresden Files tv series airing in 2007 on the Scifi channel which lasted a single season before being canceled. It is possible that the show will run for more than one season due to its popularity and mass of material. There are a total of fifteen books which combine the elements of a noir detective novel with urban fantasy. Dresden Files is not the first series to combine these elements. But it has had success in the literature industry and easily made the transition to the small screen once before.
Fans had long wanted a Netflix adaption. An unknown employee of Frederator Studios, which contracted Powerhouse Animation, looked into doing an anime adaption similar to the Castlevania.
Fans reached out to the minds behind the animated Castlevania series hoping to see Harry Dresden return tot he screen in some form. The Castlevania Anime on Netflix had seen widespread success since its creation in 2017. Fans thought that perhaps the Dresden Files could do well as an animated series. Unfortunately for Frederator and Powerhouse Creative, it seems that Fox21 beat them to the punch. Although the details of the series are few, fans can expect updates in the near future.
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