Birds Without Wings

300 [based on the book] by , dir. by

I have a feeling that how you feel at the end of seeing this film will be hugely coloured by your mindset before the film began. Personally I loved it. Wonderful visuals and a great story. Wasn’t overly impressed with the characterisation, but you can’t have everything.

The film begins with a voice-over, and this narrator pipes up throughout the film, sometimes describing the action that we are watching on screen. I have no doubt that some will find this redundant, but, given the ending and who the narrator is I think this device actually works really well. Plus he does add to the melodramatic, over the top atmosphere that make this such a good film.

Suite Francaise by

Author: Irene Nireovsky

Two novellas and some appendices make up this book. The two fiction pieces were intended to be part of a series of books about France during World War II, but the author, Irene Nemirovsky died in a concentration camp in August 1942, and that is what makes up the non-fiction element of this book. Of course the real like story of Nemirovsky, and how this book came to be published makes up a large element of the media coverage surrounding the novel, but the fiction element alone deserves attention. The background, and fact that it was written as these events were taking place, adds to the work as a whole.

The Rest Falls Away by

ISBN: 9780451220073 #1 in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles See also: ColleenGleason.com ; SSD review ; Quixotic’s review His footsteps were soundless, but Victoria felt him moving. She grasped the bark of...

The Three Evangelists by

The first Vargas book I read was Seeking Whom He May Devour, which I loved, and the reason I picked it up was because I liked the cover, well, this one doesn’t have quite such a gripping cover, but it really did grow on me. It is quite simple, just a tree picked out by a shaft of light in a garden, everything else is half hidden in the darkness. It really suits the story.

As I’ve mentioned before characters are what make, or break, a book for me. And this book has great, if slightly odd, stars. Eccentric is probably the polite term.

Friday’s Child by

ISBN: 0099468042 ; Wikipedia entry “Do not, I beg of you, my lord, say more!” uttered Miss Milbourse, in imploring accents, slightly averting her lovely countenance, and clasping both hands at...

Black Powder War by

Book 3 in the Temeraire ISBN: 0345481305 ; Wikipedia entry ; aarti chapati I can’t say very much about the plot of this book without giving away plot details from Book...

Throne of Jade by

Book 2 in the Temeraire series ISBN: 0345481291 ; Naomi Novik’s LJ ; Sandstorm Reviews In the first book of this series Novik introduced the slightly alternate Napoleonic world she had...

An Infamous Army by

ISBN: 0099465760 Bab Childe, renowned beauty, is in Brussels along with many a fashionable person. Britain had been isolated by Napoleon’s earlier campaigns so many took the chance to travel and...