Michael Scott may have a good one up his sleeve with his highly entertaining The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.
Spanning six books I recently got hold on four of the titles namely The Magician, The Sorceress, The Warlock and The Necromancer.
As a whole the series is great. For your standard child reader (like me) it has enough magic and even factual history to keep him or her engrossed and then run to Google or grab an encyclopedia to check if what he read was true. Another interesting thing is that aside from the two main protagonists (heroes to you) everyone else is either an an actual historical person like Nicholas Flamel and Dr. Dee. Even Shakespeare got tangled up in the whole thing (though I was rather disappointed in the way he was portrayed. He is a personal hero of mine Yes I am geek so just finish reading this.) One more noteworthy thing about the books is how seamless the "magical world" is put together as it is made up of every main mythological reference there is. As a reader you'll get to meet gods from Egypt, India, Greece, Ireland and even Sumeria and all of them are locked in a bitter struggle over what to do with humanity.Character wise I like what Mr. Scott has done. You can never really know who to trust as the reader but there is one character you'll intensely dislike even after reading the first book alone and no, it isn't Dr. Dee. And speaking of Dr. Dee, Scott's villains are, well, there's only one word for it, cool. They're like spies, only they don't use guns but highly cool magic moves.
Overall its a nice read but not as fascinating nor truly deep as other books I read. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel offers a few good reading hours however and I recommend it for everyone who is suffering Post-Potter Syndrome.
Enjoy!
(P.S I know I know it took me awhile to update the blog but school has been eating me up lately but at least I was able to read up on a lot of other books as well so look out for a more posts as the weeks go.)
As embarrassing as it sounds I only got to watch ONE movie this summer.
Just to be clear I do not live under a rock or something like that, it was just most of the movies that are being “campaigned” didn’t really catch my interest. Sure “Thor’s” trailer was interesting and stuff but there wasn’t any movie trailer that really got my attention. I spent more time browsing 888 Chinatown for DVD copies of my favorite American TV series instead of going to the cinema and watch a summer flick or two.
Then ‘lo and behold came X-Men: First Class.
Sure the trailer was bad (and I really do mean BAD except maybe for the bit where good old Magneto lifted a sub from the sea ‘cause that was EPIC) and all but I was prodded to watch the movie after several of my friends began blasting on their Facebook walls how effing cool the movie was and all so I hiked off to the movie and watched.
Before I continue my review let me get this straight. First I liked the first X-Men movie. The second wasn’t so bad either but the third could have been better. Like way WAY better.
First I had issues with the storyline. Sure it was cool that Jean Grey got all bad-ass and all but c’mon I think she was too good of a character to waste and killed off (and I would KILL to have her telepathic and telekinetic abilities).
Second, that mutant kid, whose power can neutralize other mutants’ powers should have been used as a weapon against Jean Grey aka Phoenix to SAVE her. It’s simple really, Wolverine distracts Phoenix, he stabs her with the kid’s blood or whatever stuff it was that shut off a mutant’s powers and ‘wala!!! Famke Jansen gets to be in another X-Men movie.
Lastly, X-Men 3 felt more like Wolverine’s movie rather than the X-Men as WHOLE.
Having said that I went to the movie house without much enthusiasm that I would most certainly display come July 15th for Harry Potter 7 Part 2. So I watched the movie and boy did I WATCH the movie.
Scene after scene was cleverly put together, and for once the story wasn’t so bad, in fact the story was good like chocolate and ice cream on a warm waffle (sorry for the food analogy, I’m hungry).
In fact it was so good I’m fairly sure now that I’m a telepath as well (or at least for a couple more weeks until HP 7 brings me to tears).
And here are the top 7 reasons why X-Men First Class is totally worth your bucks:
1.) Magneto’s Bad Ass Displays of Power
From those anchor chains he used to demolish Sebastian Shaw’s ship to that epically awesome submarine lifting to that majorly epically divine moment where he stopped all those missiles, Magneto has now earned my respect as one of my favorite fictional baddies of all time. He’s so cool….he’s magnetic.
2.) Mystique’s History
Though I still have no idea who the heck Mystique’s mother is, seeing her as a child was nice enough and why her character is so attached to Magneto is even worth a couple more minutes of airtime. Movie mavens may hate a little history but I myself LIKE it.(Why though does Mystique have a thing for everybody? Xavier? Magneto? Beast?)
3.) Beast goes Beastly
I’d never thought that Beast and Mystique would have once upon a time have a little “attraction” there but since they’re both blue, might as well right? And just imagine how their kid would be like! A super smart shape shifting powerhouse baby, but alas Mystique had to go all dark side on Beast so there there.And who could forget when we’d finally see his signature blue fur? And most of all, Beast can make costumes? What is he a part time designer?
4.) Mutant Slamdowns
As with all X-Men movies your two hours would never be complete unless there’s a little hard-hitting action here and there. From that aerial fight between Angel and Banshee, to Havoc and that teleporting dude, to Magneto versus Shaw and a whole lot of other fight scenes it was good old testosterone filled fun.
5.) Emma Frost
Hey everyone loves a bad girl especially if she turns into a walking, talking diamond statue THAT can read minds AND she’s pretty as hell as well. But just like the saying “Not all that glitters is gold’ or in this case diamonds, Emma is as cold as her diamond form. She gives a new meaning to being an “ice queen”.
6.) The Cameos
Cameos are fun especially if they’re from the original cast members like Hugh Jackman himself. Yeah “Fuck off” I’d say.
7.) Prof. X is Suddenly Cool
Since I was little Prof. X has only been that telepathic dude in a wheel chair but under James McAvoy’s hands, Prof. X was suddenly WAY cool to me. Who knew he was smooth with the ladies and that telepathy can be really AWESOME? From that mind control thing to freezing a person in his tracks, Prof. X had me pressing my fingers on my temple as well, well after the movie has ended.
Telepaths? Yeah I am one, and I can read your mind just right now.
So go and watch ahead or like in my case, watch it all over again, because X-Men First Class is truly first class.
And fellow mutants here's the trailer and forget that i said it was bad.
