All Forms of Art

  Like the previous books from the saga, A Feast for Crows holds your attention from the very beginning.  The story is filled with strong characters. It avoids the cliche of damsels in distress and perfect shinny armor knights coming to save them. The characters are not stereotyped, and you can feel their anger, their fears, their love. You care about them (or you hate them). In either way, they look alive.  Reading the Books vs. Watching The Show No matter what you do, you cannot ignore the massively successful show produced by HBO. That brings a few issues. After watching the show, you cannot undo the image of the characters in your head. At least, not easily. I will always listen to the voice of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau whenever Jaime Lannister gives an order. The bitterness in Cersei’s remarks will always be Lena Headey ’s. Yet, reading is different and, once more, better. Richer in details and emotions, it makes a lot of difference to access the characters feelings a...

  I picked up this book at someone else’s library, and I started reading it because I was bored. After a couple of pages, I couldn’t stop. Sapiens is a fantastic reflection of humanity and its place in this world. It is an accessible history class, written in a compelling novel fashion. You can either agree with Harari or find it a little reductionist (thousands of years in a few pages can have that impact); you won’t be able to ignore it.  Are WE that special? For many years, we thought that we were special, near-divine. According to Harari, we are just another animal that happened to control the world for several reasons. It seems that a series of random events led us to this point. One of the most curious things I found in this book was that I thought man’s evolution was a sort of continuum line where one single species evolved, step by step. Apparently, like with any other animal, there were different "kinds" of humans sharing the world. At some point, all the others wer...

Since the first time I watched the trailer, I was eager to watch this movie. Yet, I must confess, it disappointed me a little bit. Kristen ’s character is annoying. At some point, I just wanted to tell her some non-pleasant truths.   Good actors are not enough The movie structure is good, but I would like to see more details about the decision to go on the cruise anyway.  The movie was filled with some big names. Good actors and a few good scenes make it watchable. Yet, it needed something more. Many scenes were quite predictable. It is a [comedy] drama The story is dramatic; it’s sad. No matter how many jokes and stupid accidents you may throw in the middle of it. If you’re truly watching it, you can’t ignore how sad it really is. Indeed, it is a comedy-drama, so a few jokes were said here and there, and that’s good. An occasional laugh is always good. I have a problem though: the dramatic scenes. They lacked some emotional depth.  The actors tried to do their best,...

  Humanity is on edge. A nuclear war ended the world as we knew it, and the survivors settle a colony in space. Now, they face the possibility of extinction. Again. Their only chance? 100 teenage criminals. One hundred revolted teenagers have humanity fate in their hands. What could possibly go wrong? Life on Earth The kids are sent down to Earth without knowing if the air was breathable. If the planet was habitable at all. As soon as they put their feet on the ground, they realize that that wouldn’t be a problem. Everything else is.  How can a bunch of teenagers, locked in a space ship since the day they were born, manage to hunt, fish, build a shelter? How can they survive in an unknown world? Fighting deceases, wild animals… and people. After all, people are living on earth—a lot of people in different clans and tribes. In the Ark, they lived in peace (did they?), but here, it seems that there is a permanent war. How far will they be willing to go for survival? Surviving tr...