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We are an opinionated group of friends reviewing all sorts of fantasy and science fiction media. Don’t forget to get to know the curators and visit our curated Collection, where we discuss the stories that never cease to transport us to another world.
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Listened to the full-cast audiobook with Kirsten Pitter, Arthur Morey, John Lee, and Dylan Moore. Well read, though perhaps this was not the book that was improved most by the full cast performance.
Borderline 2,5-3 stars. The bottom line of this review is that I did not not enjoy my time reading Sea of Tranquility but I also read it a couple of weeks ago and I already forgot that I did – I only remembered when I saw I noted it on my to review-list.
Sea of Tranquility is the kind of novel that I could have really loved. It has a time travel plot that is neatly slotted together (if not particularly sophisticated or unexpected), with interlinked and intertwined stories – that is the kind of book that tickles my fancy.
And there are other positives too – the book is character and emotion focussed and even though the separate stories mean that you don’t spend as much time with each of the characters as you might in another novel, I connected with them well. The prose is atmospheric, good at establishing a vibe in all the scenes.
On the other hand, it all remains pretty vague.
For example, the book takes place over different timelines and geographic locations, but I feel the effort to differentiate them fell a little flat. The one person we properly meet in 1912 happens to be the one who opposes colonialism, so we St John Mandel never really needs to portray a true denizen of the antebellum and get into their mindset. When we get to the 2200’s, the characters are still discussing sexism and the division of task in raising children between husband and wife.
I am not saying that those might not have been or might not be topics of discussion in those far away times, but it is obvious that these are discussions from today that are projected on distant characters with no apparent effort to place them in their (imagined) context.
The same goes for the small details of worldbuilding. Are people going to be doing a physical book tour selling physical books in the 2200s? Is it ever really going to be feasible to commute from the earth to the moon? Why are people traveling in time to begin with again?
All in all, the strongest sections of Sea of Tranquility are those taking place in the here and now, where the relatively mediocre sci-fi elements don’t get in the way of enjoying a good emotion-driven scene.
In conclusion, I am on the fence. At its best, Sea of Tranquility is a nice atmospheric and emotional drama, with a properly designed if a little cliché time-travel puzzle on top. At its worst, Sea of Tranquility is a poorly executed Cloud Atlas-clone that doesn’t get what makes that book so impressive. Make of that what you will.
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- Novel written by Arlette Krijgsman
- Published in 2025
I don’t read a lot of (read: any) Dutch Fantasy. I picked up Web van Angst (Web of Fear) because it was written by Arlette Krijgsman, a member of Het Papieren Zwaard. HPZ strives to encourage and promote Dutch Fantasy. I’ve read some of their story bundles, and they feature really good Dutch Fantasy stories. So when I heard Arlette had her book traditionally published after winning a writing competition, I obviously had to pick it up.
Web van Angst is a Young Adult novel, which is clear in some ways, but I would say it exceeds the age bracket in others. The cover features stunning art by Tara Spruit, in a style that does seem more geared towards younger readers, featuring the three main characters facing the front (though there’s plenty of downright cartoonish covers hiding extremely smutty adult books these days – so I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover). The writing style is very accessible as well, and while the book deals with heavy topics, they are handled in a very respectful way.
The story itself is an exploration of such a heavy topic. In a world where fear turns into literal monsters, there’s lots of space to explore how we (should) handle fear and anxiety. The Daimons are hardly a subtle metaphor, but as a concept, they work really well, and I’m interested to see where Krijgsman takes the metaphor in the sequel(s).
The worldbuilding of Web van Angst is solid. There’s a lot going on, but it never becomes confusing. The characters are easy to relate to and feel very real. There’s definitely a lot still unsaid with regard to their backstories, but then the story isn’t over yet.
I’d definitely recommend Web van Angst if you speak Dutch and want to check out some Dutch Fantasy!
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- Movie directed by Denis Villeneuve
- Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
- Starring Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Harrison Ford, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, and others
- Released 6 October 2017
- Runtime: 163 minutes
- Sequel to Blade Runner
I don’t think its a secret that I am a big fan of Denis Villeneuve. I love how his sci-fi movies focus on slower scenes and visuals. I love how good the visual design is his movies. It is exactly what I want from sci-fi cinema: high production value, great visuals, ideas beyond the action.
It’s no different in Blade Runner 2049. I think picking Villeneuve to revive this 40-year-old-franchise was a great choice. His style fits with Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner very well: the same slowness to it, the same focus on visuals.
I think the visuals of 2049 even improve upon the original. It might just be that filmmaking has come a long way since the 80s, but 2049 is just a little more polished. The establishing shots, the contrast between clean and clutter, the coloured lighting, the focus on the rain – everything seems just a little more refined.
Blade Runner 2049 does lose a lot of the weirdness that was in the original and replaces it with more gravity. But I don’t mind. I have always found the weirdness of the original Blade Runner a little off-putting – it was the one thing you hoped people could get over when you sat down with them to watch the movie. And a movie as good as Blade Runner 2049 is allowed to take itself a little seriously.
Like the original, 2049 asks the viewer what makes a character human and what separates them from the replicants, focusing not on empathy but on love and on memory. Interestingly, by introducing the memory-element, 2049 actually nods another of Dick’s stories, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.
One area where 2049 loses out to the original is in moral ambiguity. There is more than enough in 2049 that the viewer can wonder about. But the original Blade Runner left it up to the viewer to decide who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, and it adds a layer of depth to that movie that 2049 (and even Dick’s original Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) is missing. In a way, 2049 is more traditional Hollywood that way: the actions scenes are action filled and you know who you’re supposed to root for.
So movie is not quite perfect – I don’t like Jared Leto’s performance (I didn’t find his gravity credible), I am not a huge fan of K and Deckard’s fist fight and I think the water action sequence at the end is a little too long. I wonder whether the android revolution theme introduced in 2049 is the right hook for a sequel. But those are minor points in a movie that also has shots that take your breath away, and character moments that wrench your heart.
I think Blade Runner 2049 is a great movie. It looks gorgeous and it oozes emotion, it has a coherent story with enough depth that it keeps you engaged, and it is paced at a leisurely cruise that allows you enough time to process it.
For me, Blade Runner 2049 showcases the perfect style for a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. So free up an evening this week and join me on the Denis Villeneuve bandwagon!
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- Movie directed by Ridley Scott
- Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
- Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos
- Released 25 June 1982
- Runtime: 117 minutes
- Followed by Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner is undeniably one of the most influential films in sci-fi. Arguably, it is one of the two pieces of media (alongside Neuromancer) that launched cyberpunk as a genre. It is praised into high heaven by Reddit nerds and successful directors alike.
That begs the question: is it any good?
I would argue that it is, but if you disagree, I can’t really fault you.
Blade Runner is a surprisingly slow and surprisingly weird movie to have gained such prominence. For a movie supposedly about a bounty hunter tracking down his targets, it defies expectations by focusing on visuals and conversations basically all the way until the last sequence between Deckard and his final prey. That final action scene is a series of quick bursts of action interspersed with dialogue and tension – and the rare action sequences we do get before that are more confusing and crowded than exciting.
‘Confusing and crowded’ is actually also a good way to describe Blade Runner’s visual style. The screen is constantly filled with clutter, be it on the crowded streets or in Deckard’s apartment. In many of those scenes, I would find myself trying to figure out where to look, constantly a little distracted from the scene’s focus by all the other things going on in the background – if Scott doesn’t explicitly place those ‘things in the background’ center shot.
But that slowness and weirdness is likely also why Blade Runner still hits home after more than 40 years. It was never intended as flashy and clean, and so it didn’t age half as poorly as a more conventional version of the story might have.
And so Blade Runner takes the time to develop Deckard’s relationship with Rachael and to showcase Sebastian’s dusty apartment full of mechanical marionets. And in doing so, it raises interesting questions: How does one distinguish between a human and a machine? What essential quality separates them?
Those are questions that are not dissimilar to those Dick asked in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, though in Dick’s version of the story it is never in doubt that empathy is that quality. Blade Runner is an adaptation that takes some liberty, but I don’t mind the ambiguity Scott introduced. A movie has less space to delve into diverse themes than a novel. Scott chose to focus on one of them, and to leave the viewer more space to come to their own conclusions.
So I like Blade Runner, but I do think it might put some people off. Still, it is such a classic – why not give it a shot?
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- Novel written by Philip K. Dick
- Published 1968
- Standalone
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Philip K. Dick, where I really want to like what he writes but I often struggle to just a little actually enjoy reading his work.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep fits that picture very well.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Dick creates an interesting world, with a history, religion, a crumbling society – all with a few throwaway lines. I have praised a sci-fi writers’ ability to do this at length and it was one of the reasons I enjoyed Neuromancer so much.
Moreover, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep has a surprising amount of depth. It revolves around the real versus the fake, around human empathy, and around the distance created between people by artificial distinctions.
A good example of this depth is the fact that all humans are supposed to demonstrate their empathy by caring for an animal. But since these are so expensive, some have a ‘fake’ electric animal instead (a source of great shame, and thus kept secret). Nevertheless, the humans love these electric animals with all their heart as their society and religion requires of them. But when it comes to ‘fake’ humans – the androids – humans are supposed not to have a shred of feeling for them. It is this paradox that the protagonist Deckard is struggling with.
And that is a great theme! Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep just feels a little like Dick went into it without too much of a plan. As a result, there are poignant moments, but not a particularly strong overarching structure. There are great ideas and little vignettes, but some of these are discarded after use in a single paragraph.
Most importantly, however, is Dick’s prose, which is best described as very blunt. I don’t need flowery prose to enjoy a story, but in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I found Dick’s presentation rather jarring at times.
In a book that revolves around empathy, Dick leaves basically all of the feelings to the reader. That has advantages – the reader is free to project their own thoughts and feelings onto Deckard and his wife and to judge their relationship by those standards.
That also means, however, that Dick has written a novel without much of an actual message, since the reader can basically make of it what they wish. The rather disjointed ending adds to this feeling.
So. I like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It is full of interesting ideas and has great theme. But I don’t think Dick knocked it out of the park with these ingredients. It makes me wonder what we could have gotten if some other, more empathetic writer had taken Dick’s outline and built a story with it.
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- Movie directed by Paul Verhoeven
- Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, and Ronny Cox
- Released 1 June 1990
- Runtime: 113 minutes
I’m having a really tough time rating this movie in stars, so I would recommend you mostly forget about those and read the review instead.
This is a typical Verhoeven movie, where on the surface its just a mind numbing orgy of violence and some sex, but the more you think about it, the more you realise Verhoeven may have thought about it, too. Allow me to explain.
Let’s start with the bad: a lot of the movie’s runtime is taken up by long, gory action scenes in which Arnold Schwarzenegger violently murders his way through most opposition.
I would describe his acting as downright poor, and he’s not the only one who suffers from wooden dialogue in this film.
I’ve read somewhere that Total Recall was one of the most expensive movies made at the time, but the effects have aged really poorly. That might be because very little thought seems to have been put into the visual style: many of the movie’s sets and props very much look like they’re made out of flat cardboard (probably because they are), and while a handful of scenes do show some nice expansive shots, many more appear to have been filmed in cramped studios. The lighting is flat and there is just a weird amateurish air to it all.
That sounds pretty bad (and it is), but like other Verhoeven movies, it also feels like it is a parody of itself. It almost feels like it is intended to show the watcher just how stupid and violent Hollywood movies can get.
And if you look at it as something of a satire, a comedy, it actually becomes pretty enjoyable – perhaps not to watch too intently, but good with popcorn and beer for a corny movie night.
But really, there’s even an interesting layer beyond that. I don’t want to give it all away, but from the moment Quail, Schwarzenegger’s character, enters Rekall for his memory-implantation procedure and they select ‘Blue Skies on Mars’, you should start questioning whether what you see on screen is intended to be real. Even at the end of the movie, if you’ve paid any attention, you are left scratching your head.
I don’t think it’s the sick mind-melting mystery that some online fans seem to think it is (though admittedly, any online following of a thirty five year-old mediocre action movie is going to be at least a bit delusional), but it’s a neat twist that shows that Verhoeven’s film is smarter than it lets on.
Overall – if you’re bored some time, give it a shot and see for yourself. Maybe you can’t see past how terrible it is, but if you can, Total Recall is surprisingly good goofy fun.
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Review: Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
An early 20th century minor noble is exiled to Canada for his progressive ideas. A woman in the 2020s is trying to find out what happend tot an old friend. A writer in the 2200s is struggling to balance family life with a book tour. A detective in the 2400s is trying to resolve an anomaly in time that ties their stories together.
Review: Web van Angst – Arlette Krijgsman
In the city-state of Agathon, citizens must take a daily drug called peras to suppress their fear. This is vital because the fears of the inhabitants of Agathon manifest as Daimons: shadow monsters that can only be controlled by “Apaten”. At the prestigious Ataraxia Academy, Clara is training to become an Apaat, until one night she and her friends find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and her whole world is turned upside down.
Review: Blade Runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve
In 2049, androids have replaced humans as blade runners – androids are now hunting their own kind. When K is sent to retire a particular android, a peculiar find under the roots of dead tree sets him on the trail of something equally impossible and dangerous: an android that was born. Over the course of his investigation, he finds out about his own origins as well.
Review: Blade Runner – Ridley Scott
Rick Deckard is a blade runner, a bounty hunter tasked with seeking out – and taking out – rogue androids who have infiltrated society. When he is faced with a particularly dangerous group of the newest models, his conscience starts troubling him when he begins having difficulty telling them apart from humans.
Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Philip K. Dick
In a radioactive dust-covered, post-apocalyptic LA, Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter, charged with ‘retiring’ a series of androids, fake humans who are hiding in plain sight in society and who can only be found by testing them for their lack of innate empathy response. Deckard dreams of using the bounty money to replace his fake electric sheep with a real animal so he can demonstrate his own empathy to his neighbours. But these androids are of a new type – and Deckard must carefully control his own feelings toward these non-humans.
Review: Total Recall – Paul Verhoeven
Based (rather loosely) on Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, Verhoeven’s 1990 cult classic is a weird amalgamation of senseless violence, aged effects, mediocre acting and a thought-provoking concept.
