Welcome to the Escape Velocity Collection!
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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LATEST POSTS:
- Audio drama written by Joel Dane
- Produced by Realm
- Released in 2022
- Starring Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto
Lucan wakes up and finds himself crash-landed on a mysterious planet with no memory of what happened. Then sentient AI Ven pops up in his brain, trying to keep him alive, but dying itself. Will they save each other and find out who they are?
Off to a little cheesy start, this audio drama quickly grabbed my attention with its interesting premisse, early worldbuilding and action-oriented story. Marigold Breach used an interesting combination of inner dialogue (between Lucan and the AI Ven), external dialogue with other characters and descriptive passages by Lucan alone. It was at times a bit hard to distinguish between Lucan’s different ‘voices’, but overall I think it worked nicely.
It was equally great to see Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto (both from Netflix’s The Good Place) back as a couple, but as two completely different characters. It shows the range of these actors while profiting from their chemistry. However, I did not completely get why Lucan trusted (and loved) Ven from the moment they ‘met’ (having no memories of each other). I would have been a little suspicious at least. It made Lucan’s expressions of love feel a bit unfounded – though this is more of a script-problem than a performance-one.
I liked the snippets of worldbuilding that were offered in this audio drama, but never completely explained. It gave a sense of a much larger world behind the story, a world where other things were happening too, on a way larger scale. That said, there were also a few themes and events I would have liked to know more about, for example the competing views on colonialism and ‘the war’ that loomed in the background. Instead, Marigold Breach chooses for a fairly linear story of ‘there is a thing – get to the thing’ (and overcome the obstacles in your way).
The longer I think about it, the more I find that could have elevated this drama to a 5-star level. But let that not spoil the fun. My advice: don’t think about it too hard. Just enjoy the performances, the inventive story premisse and the worldbuilding, and have fun with Marigold Breach!
Reviewed by:
- Book written by Patrick Weekes, Sylvia Feketekuty, Jon Epler, Lukas Kristjanson, Brianne Battye, Caitlin Sullivan Kelly, Courtney Woods, Ryan Cormier & Arone Le Bray
- Edited by Chris Bain, Patrick Weekes, Matthew Goldman & Christopher Morgan
- Published in 2020
- Spin-off of the Dragon Age games
The world of Thedas is full of ancient horrors, mysteries and factions that are trying to make their mark on history. We’ve all heard of heroes like the Hero of Ferelden, the Champion of Kirkwall and the Inquisitor, but they are not the only ones.
Tevinter Nights is an anthology of stories that tell the tales of unknown champions. Stories of ordinary Grey Wardens, Antivan Crows, Rivaini Lords of Fortunes and Tevinter mages, living their not so ordinary lives. With a Qunari invasion and the Dread Wolf lurking in the shadows, the nights are darker than ever.
With the title of the fourth Dragon Age game – Dragon Age: Dreadwolf – recently revealed, it seems only appropriate that I finally finished this anthology. As I’m writing this, it’s been seven years since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s last DLC. Seven years! How is a fan supposed to bridge all this time? Well, reading Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights proved a worthwhile activity.
There are fifteen short stories in this book, each focusing on different characters, settings and scenarios. A few of these main characters will be familiar to those who played the previous Dragon Age games. Most of the other stories will at least mention characters or events we’ve come to love or hate. The writers took effort to drop many such Easter eggs between the lines. Most important, however, all the stories succeed in capturing the unique atmosphere of the Dragon Age universe, despite the different types of stories. Horror, heists and murder mysteries all highlight a different aspect of Thedas.
Is this anthology then merely a taste of what we already know? Certainly not. Many stories take place in locations we haven’t previously visited in the games, such as Tevinter, Antiva and Nevarra. We are also presented with some delicious new lore nuggets. And mayhaps some of your questions from the games might get answered here…
As for the writing, I’ll say that the overall quality was fairly good. The stories are enjoyable and easy to read (more or less within an hour). I deliberately paced myself during the reading process, so I didn’t race through the book. On the whole, there was only one story where I was bothered by how the story was structured/written.
Though I believe Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights could also be enjoyed by those without any previous Dragon Age experiences, I think they might struggle with some of the basic worldbuilding of the setting. Furthermore, the beauty of this book lies within the earlier mentioned lore nuggets. I have some new questions to ponder before Dragon Age: Dreadwolf arrives…
Tagged:
- Movie directed by Henry Selick
- Released in 2009
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Based on Coraline by Neil Gaiman
After moving to a new home, Coraline discovers a secret door. On the other side of it she finds a world that seems to mirror her own world, only stranger and more exciting. In this other world she meets her other parents, who are willing to do everything to make her happy. But once she is in their power, will they ever let her leave?
Coraline is one of my favourite book-to-movie adaptations of all time. It perfectly manages to capture both the wonder and the horror of Neil Gaiman’s sinister world behind the door. The stop-motion animation is beautiful and very well-suited to this particular story: the way the characters move makes everything feel slightly eerie, while the bright colours make you want to live there anyway.
Even though Coraline is marketed as a children’s book, I think people of all ages will enjoy this movie (although it might be a little bit too scary for very young children). Just writing about it makes me want to go back and watch it again, no matter how many times I’ve seen it before!
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Reviewed by:
- Book written by Robin Hobb
- Published in 2013
- Part 3 of The Rain Wild Chronicles
In part four of The Rain Wild Chronicles, the gang’s back together in Kelsingra. Legendary dragon Tintaglia has finally reached the city, but she is wounded and close to death. Only the silver that used to flow through the wells of the city can save her. However, she is not the only one who needs the silver to survive. Every single dragon and keeper is dependent on the silver if they wish to live the long lives they are supposed to. Meanwhile, Selden is captured by the duke of Chalced, who drinks the dragon boy’s blood to regain his health. He finds an ally in the Duke’s rebellious daughter, who is tasked with keeping him alive.
I’m really conflicted on how to rate this series. This book wasn’t fantastic. It was fine. I wish the series would have ended in a way that made the journey a little more worthwhile. After almost 2000(?) pages of this story, I’m just glad to be done. And still I gave it 3.5 stars! Let me explain.
I really enjoy Hobb’s books and her world. Her worldbuilding is fantastic, and she writes really good characters. I truly see not only this book as part of a series, but the series itself as part of a larger whole. I would never recommend this series to someone who has never read a book by Robin Hobb. I, however, have read all the books preceding it, and I know that having read this series will enrich my experience of reading the next books in the series.
I do have to note that I listened to the audiobooks of this series, and every book had a different reader. On top of that, this means that the interpretation of certain characters was heavily influenced by whomever was reading it.
Now let’s talk about some things I didn’t love.
- Malta’s role in the story. Women don’t have to constantly be strong, but Malta had nothing going on in this series. She is my favourite of the Liveship Traders, but here she was a glorified extra.
- Everyone gets a love interest! Even the dragons!!
- The ending feels very underdeveloped compared to the endlesssss unnecessary romances. With a couple of hours left I wondered how Hobb could possibly nicely tie together the ends of the story. Well, she didn’t really. Most of the ending is told through an epilogue.
- I just feel like this could have been a trilogy
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Hi all, and welcome to our update for May 2022!
At the end of the month, one of our curators looks back at what they’ve been up to over the past weeks and what we can (hopefully) expect from them in the not-too-distant future.
This month, Peter will take you through his experiences in the speculative genre over the past month. Curious what models are on his painting station or what books are on his night stand?
Read on!
Past month
Sometimes life just catches up on you all at once and overwhelms you, and it feels like a month has gone past in the blink of an eye – the past weeks have been like that for me – so it feels bizarre that it has already been more than a month since we visited Elfia.
Still, if I have to pick a favourite post from the past month, it has to be Lotte’s guide on how to play convention bingo. I’m not exactly sure who or how we came up with it, but it is absolutely a tonne of fun and a good reason to really drink in everyone’s costumes at the fair.
If you haven’t read the guide yet, be sure to give it a read now!
Furthermore, I’ve spent the past months convincing people to watch Neill Blomkamp movies with me, so I could feel like there was something of a red thread to my reviews for once.
I’ve watched all three of his big movies. They’re a bit of a mixed bag, but I feel especially District 9 may be worth seeing if you haven’t already. And if you’re just looking for a not-too-smart sci-fi movies with bullets pinging of the screen. you won’t go wrong with Elysium.
At the time of writing, all three are on Netflix!
Upcoming
As I said time went quickly last month, but I did have a few moments to spend on media I liked. look out for reviews and updates the coming month.
I needed a dumb video game to get my mind off of things, and boy I think I stumbled onto the king of dumb videogames. Vampire Survivors is a rogue-like survival game with gameplay so minimal it can hardly be called gameplay at all, but I have already spent hours upon hours on it – it might literally be the best EUR 2,50 I have ever spent.
I’ve painted a bit less than usual lately, but I have completed a couple of metal Uruk-Hai Scouts and I am planning on finishing them soon – you’ll see the pictures appear when they are done!
Same goes for the WotC Aasimar I’ve been painting with Robin – the sculpts are great but the casts are a bit disappointing. We’re making the best of it, and I think they’re turning out great – again, I promise pictures further down the line.
I just finished rereading Julian May’s The Adversary, wrapping up her Saga of Pliocene Exile (which I’ll be reviewing in due course), so now I have to pick which book from my shelf of shame is next. I’m mostly debating between diving right into May’s Galactic Milieu stuff with Intervention, or doing the socially expected thing and reading The Priory of the Orange Tree, which I borrowed from a friend. Also, I really want to start Hyperion.
Choices, choices.
And I finally got to American Gods! Now I understand why everyone was pushing me to read it. I think it is the best thing by Neill Gaiman I have read so far, I loved that it was just a tad darker than most of what he puts out.
I didn’t really read it, I secretly listened to the full cast audiobook instead. I really like full cast books, it really adds to the experience and I really hope it becomes more of a trend!
- Movie directed by Duncan Jones
- Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, Daniel Wu
- Released 2016
- Runtime: 123 minutes
With their own homeworld dying because of the dangerous Fel magic, all the orc clans unite under the warlock Gul’dan’s leadership to find a new home in the world of Azeroth. Here, they quickly come into conflict with the humans of Stormwind Kingdom.
While the champions of the human kingdom unite to stop the orc invaders, there are heroes on both sides of the conflict that begin realizing that there are greater dangers than the war between orcs and humans.
I was sick earlier this week. And, as I am often prone to do when I’m sick, I decided to watch a movie that I didn’t necessarily want to see but simply was curious about. Warcraft was the winner this time.
A small caveat: as a child, I enjoyed the Warcraft real-time strategy games, especially the intricate story campaigns. This means I had a basic understanding of the lore and characters in this universe when I went into this movie’s story. I suspect newcomers might be a little overwhelmed at first, though familiarity with classic fantasy tropes might alleviate this significantly. I couldn’t say how this adaption holds up for those familiar with the original deep lore of the Warcraft franchise.
I’ll admit, I had little expectations, and therefore wasn’t disappointed with what I got. Warcraft is an ambitious project, telling a story that’s a little too big for the scope of one movie. This is mainly apparent in the big cast of characters. While some of them come out well (I liked the execution of Garona and Durotan), most remain rather flat and underdeveloped. Even Ragnar Lothbrok, or rather Anduin Lothar (played by Travis Fimmel), doesn’t really grow beyond the ‘confident and skilful warrior who likes to joke’ archetype despite being one of the main characters.
Luckily, because it’s an ambitious story, there’s always something happening in your eyeballs. The special effects are more than sufficient, and the fighting scenes are enjoyable. Furthermore, there are some twists and turns that’ll keep you on your toes.
All in all, I wouldn’t say that Warcraft is a masterpiece. The plot and character choices are hazy at times. Still, it will entertain you for the better part of an evening.
See also:
Review: Terraforming Mars – FryxGames
In this 2-3 hour strategic board game, players get victory points for their contribution to the terraforming of Mars and for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system.
Review: The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine – KOSMOS
In this co-operative trick-taking game players set out as astronauts on a space adventure looking for a ninth planet.
Review: Bioshock – 2K Games
Review: The once magnificent Underwater City of Rapture is deserted, and as you make your way through its dangerous corridors, you slowly discover what happened to what was once Andrew Ryan’s Utopia.
Review: Sweet Tooth – Netflix
Ten years ago, a deadly virus spread through the world while pregnant women suddenly gave birth to hybrid babies, part human, part animal. Gus is one of the first of these hybrids, who, because of his sheltered life, is blissfully unaware of the brokenness of the world.
Curator Question: Fantasy Races
Time to get to know the curators from the Escape Velocity Collection! How? By asking them the questions that really matter! This week’s question is: From all the many fantasy races that exist, which one resonates the most with you? And why? Though I’d like to come up with something original, the simple truth is that I have a great fondness for dwarves. Something about their core (archetype) concept really speaks to me: Short but brave, creative and loyal, but often also prone to greed and unhealthy isolation. I think these traits lend themselves for perfectly tragic narratives, as well as great heroic stories. However, I also like dwarves when they don’t fit the above archetype, so perhaps I simply like their aesthetics and the idea of misleadingly small people that easily perform great deeds… Jop Key Hmm, I think I’ll choose wizards. They are not always a race, granted, but always mysterious and powerful. They are mostly calm and deliberate, but regularly mixed with a little (or a lot) of crazy genius. Not that I am mysterious or powerful, but I like to see my self as intelligently composed most of the time, and a little crazy and unpredictable some of the time. Of course, I can only hope to aspire to their wizardy wisdom. Ok, I guess I have to admit that I’m really just basic Elf trash. Like Jop, I wish I could come up with something original but this is all I’ve got. I’ll be honest: it’s mostly the aesthetic for me. The pointy ears, the fancy hair, the architecture… I feel like Elves are just like me but hotter? Though in D&D, I tend to gravitate towards half-elves. Is it just an aspirational enjoyment of rich fancy people in fiction? I’m not above admitting that. I guess I like Elves the way I liked Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Lotte Robin I find it hard to choose, but I definitely have a big soft spot for all of the woodland, Fae-like creatures such as Nymphs and Satyrs. I like their playful and carefree attitude, but also their mischievousness and the slight edge of danger that tends to cling to them. Above all I love the mystery that surrounds them. While I am convinced I would not enjoy running into one of the Fae, I do love reading about them when they are safely locked between the covers of a book. Without a doubt, the great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls! Jop and I share our loves for dwarves (we played two dwarven brothers in our first D&D campaign), though perhaps for somewhat different reasons – I have always loved the dwarves’ unshakeable stoic attitude in times of hardship, their unflinching steadfastness in face of danger, their unwavering stubbornness of grudges and grievances. Dwarves may be a bit predictable at times, but they’ll hold their ground and they’re tough as boiled leather and I’ve always loved that kind of grit. The fact that many tales cast those same immovable objects as artisans of the highest order only makes their story better. Peter Jasmijn I’m not sure which race is my favourite. There are so many to pick from and I can’t even name half of them. But if I had to describe a race that resonates with my soul the most, I think it might be something undefinable from the fey realm. It would probably have wings and no concept of time whatsoever. Darkvision is a must. And maybe there is a far ancestor that can be traced back to the sea since I always end up in lakes, rivers or oceans (sometimes on purpose). That’s it: another soul-searching question answered! Still curious? Visit each curator’s page to see what they’ve recently been up to!
Review: This is How You Lose the Time War – Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Two agents fighting on opposite sides of a time war start off a secret correspondence. Writing to each other from the different strands of time in which they are fighting their battles, they start to question what winning the war would really mean to them.
