Film Review - Transformers- Age of Extinction By Director Michael Bay

Five years after the Deception invasion of Chicago, the Autobot's have gone into hiding after the government deemed all Transformers to be threats.

 In Transformers- Age of Extinction the government is aided by another transformer who is searching for Optimus Prime. Cade Yeager is a truck mechanic and robotics expert who buys an old truck thinking it maybe a transformer. On closer inspection it is Optimus Prime who turns to Cade and his family for help with the remaining Autobots. This action packed sci-fi adventure has great special effects and is a great escape movie to watch. Anne

Film Review - Outlander By Creator Ronald D. Moore

In Outlander the series follows the intriguing story of Claire Randell a combat nurse from 1945 who mysteriously ends up back in time in 1743. Being accused of spying and longing for her husband she has to quickly adapt to life in this era.

 She has a new love interest in a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior. Claire's heart ends up being torn between two men in two completely different lives.
An interesting series which includes drama, romance and sci-fi. Anne

Book Review—The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

America is in the middle of an economic collapse, with all the social turmoil and unrest that goes with it. Unemployment, homelessness and crime are all up, and even those with once promising careers and lives are caught in the downturn. Stan and Charmaine are part of the many, now living in their car and surviving on a single, menial income. But things look up when they get into the Consilience/Positron program, a social experiment in a closed off community. In Consilience they get a comfortable house, jobs, and purpose. But every second month they swap with their ‘Alternates’, another couple with whom they share their new prosperity, and for this second month Stan and Charmaine live separated lives in Positron, a prison around which this community is built. The truth behind the gleaming façade soon comes to the fore, and Stan and Charmaine become entangled in the sleazy, gruesome underworld.

The stability they craved becomes the very thing that leads Stan and Charmaine wayward. Both seemingly adapt, but transgression becomes the ever present focus of their minds. And despite being marketed as the ideal community, neither Charmaine nor Stan establish bonds with anyone else in Consilience. Apart from the ever declining interactions between themselves they make no connections, save for the forbidden cavorting with their ‘Alternates’. There is a pastiche of other dystopic works, with hints of The Stepford Wives, a debt to Never Let Me Go, and a dose of Brave New World for good measure. This, along with the Yuppie-inspired Newspeak and plethora of pop culture references, does crowd the narrative. And while the recurrence of 1950s style and icons is effective, with its prim and proper gleefulness covering repressed lust, greed, and longing, the use is far from original and loses much of its ironic heft.

It may not have the bite or depth of Atwood’s earlier works, but The Heart Goes Last has involving characters, enjoyable dark humour, and an entertaining plot.

Andreas