"Wish I Was Here" Review - Written by Jim Herling

http://www.film-arcade.net/2014/07/wish-i-was-here-review-written-by-jim.html

Goodreads Book Review - Proven Guilty

Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Honestly, I finished this like four days ago and I'm ready up to my eyes in the next book, plus I've been reading so many of these in such a short time span that I don't have enough coherent thoughts at the moment to give this a review that would be long and sensible. What I will say is that I loved it. I loved the story. I loved the issues of faith brought up by it. I loved the softening of Charity's character into someone I don't wish would be eaten by a shark. And I absolutely love the idea of giving Harry an apprentice. I can't wait to see how that will inevitably backfire on him...



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"Long Live the Dead" Review - Written by Jim Herling

http://www.film-arcade.net/2014/07/long-live-dead-review-written-by-jim.html

Goodreads Book Review - The Sentinel

The Sentinel by Troy Denning

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It was Troy Dennings' Avatar Trilogy, which I completely loved, that got me into the Forgotten Realms a good twenty years ago, so every time I see a book from him in that setting come out I get a little excited. This book then was just a bit of a letdown. It certainly has it's strengths; after the last book in The Sundering series stepped away from the main plot this one steps back into it with a vengeance, which is nice. It also has very strong characters who all stand out, very exciting action scenes, and a plot that is fun and takes its fair share of turns. However, everything feels way too rushed. The book itself is shorter than average, but it's more than that. There are time jumps, sometimes massive, between just about every chapter after the first three or four, and it makes the growth in the characters' relationships feel unearned, which subtracts a bit from the emotional climaxes in the fairly rushed ending. Still, I enjoyed the book well enough and was pulled along deeply enough to knock it out in three days.



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"Snowpiercer" Review - Written by Jim Herling

http://www.film-arcade.net/2014/07/snowpiecer-review-written-by-jim-herling.html

Goodreads Book Review - Dead Beat

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Reading them all almost back to back like I've been doing, I've run out of things to say about Butcher and the Dresden Files that I haven't already said: great characters and character arcs, great world-building, great stories, etc., etc., etc. One original thing I can say about this story is that the climax involves a tyrannosaurus rex zombie, and that's just not something you see every day.



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"Transforme​rs: Age of Extinction" Review - Written Jim Herling

http://www.film-arcade.net/2014/07/transformers-age-of-extinction-review.html

Goodreads Book Review - Blood Rites

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I feel like I can't keep heaping praise on The Dresden Files books, which is hard because they keep getting better and better and Jim Butcher is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors... and not just because of the whole shared name thing, either. This book in particular really ramped things up, with all its revelations and changes to Harry's life. From an opening plot that seems pretty minor things escalate quickly. There's one major resolution and about five other brand new can of worms opened up simultaneously, and all it does is pull me right along into reading the next one right away. I'd always heard you had to give this series a few books to get off the ground to make reading them worth the effort, and as someone who liked them from the very first book I can definitely see where that comes from as things skyrocketed here and like I said, I can't wait to dive into the next one, Dead Beat.



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