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:
- Book written by Ransom Riggs
- Published in 2011
- Part 1 of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children
Using spooky vintage photographs, Ransom Riggs tells the story of a teenage boy, Jacob, who travels to a small island off the coast of Wales to learn about his grandfather’s childhood. Here, he finds the ruins of an orphanage, Miss Peregrine’s home for Peculiar Children. Who were the children who lived in the home? What was so peculiar about them? And why were they hidden away on the island?
This book series has a wonderful premise and especially the first half of the first book truly delivers. However, as with any mystery book, eventually some of the mystery is gone. Riggs still manages to tell a compelling story with interesting characters and a setting that is pretty haunting, but it doesn’t quite live up to the eerie cover.
I still thoroughly enjoyed these books and would recommend them to both young and older readers. It’s not typical fantasy but blends elements of (mild) horror and urban fantasy in a way that works rather well.
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- Book written by Robin Hobb
- Published in 2011
- Part 3 of The Rain Wild Chronicles
In part three of The Rain Wild Chronicles, the Dragons, their keepers, and the rest of the crew of the Tarman have finally found the legendary city of Kelsingra. Captain Leftrin has returned to the city of Cassarick to collect their rewards. Meanwhile, Elderlings Malta and Reyn Khuprus are expecting a child, but Cassarick isn’t as safe for those with scales as it once was.
After two installments where little of note happens, I was glad to see that City of Dragons brings back both some plot as well as beloved characters from the Liveship Traders trilogy.
I found this book significantly easier to get through, and I listened to the audiobook, so that’s saying something (not sure what though, perhaps just how much of a drag Dragon Haven was, or else that I’m glad that this book was much shorter).
Malta is one of my favourite Robin Hobb characters of all time, so I was absolutely delighted to see her return to star in this book.
This book features significantly less of the dragons, as the story is spread out over more characters, both because the characters are in different places, but also because Hobb brings back characters from previous books (in particular Malta and Reyn, and Alise’s husband Hest). It also means we spend less time with individual characters, which was quite a relief after the last book, which at times felt more like a reality TV show than a novel.
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- Book written by Robin Hobb
- Published in 2010
- Part 2 of The Rain Wild Chronicles
In the second installment of the Rain Wild Chronicles, we follow the dragon keepers, their dragons, and the rest of the expedition on their search for the ancient City of Kelsingra, where Dragons and Elderlings once lived in harmony. As they journey on, romances develop and plots thicken as the Chalcedeans need Dragon parts to cure their dying Duke.
This is the second part of the Rain Wild Chronicles, and honesty: not a lot happens. That is not to say that I did not enjoy the book, however. Sometimes a book can be more of a companion than something you get drawn into completely – I suppose it helped that I listened to the audiobook of Dragon Haven, meaning that the time I spent on it felt less precious than it might have had I read the physical book.
This book is very clearly a leadup to the following two books in the series. Very little of consequence happens.
Standout characters were Carson the hunter and Sedric. I find that Hobb writes very good redemption arcs, giving obnoxious characters growth that turns them into my favourites (like Malta in the Liveship Traders). However, her main characters in this series bore me. Alise in particular has little to nothing going on in this book, and Thymara’s entire story focuses on how all the Dragon Keeper boys want her so, so badly. Everyone in this book just wants to get it on, and I honestly feel like this novel could have been a lot shorter, and better, if this had been largely condensed.
I still enjoyed it! Hobb’s style flows nicely and I am intrigued by what the rest of the series will bring.
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- Book written by Robin Hobb
- Published in 2009
- Part 1 of The Rain Wild Chronicles
Dragons have hatched in the Rain Wilds, and they are nothing like the elegant creatures the Rain Wilders expected to crawl from the cocoons they had tended for so long. The Rain Wilds Council decides that they have to be escorted somewhere they can thrive. The destination is the legendary City of Kelsingra, where Dragons once lived in harmony with the Elderlings, who groomed and praised them.
Among the travelers we find Thymara, a young girl who is recruited to care for the Dragon Sintara, as well as Alise Finbok, a wealthy woman stuck in an unhappy marriage to a cruel man. Their journey is just beginning, and many hardships lie on the road ahead.
I am a big fan of Robin Hobb’s characters and style of storytelling. This book, however, is a little slower than her previous trilogies. I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters. Alise is a little annoying, and the Dragon Keepers are all basically children so that gets a little exhausting after a while. However, Hobb’s style of writing is pleasant, and the investment I have already made in her world by reading the last nine books made me more willing to invest my time in this series.
I would absolutely recommend starting The Rain Wilds Chronicles if you are a big fan of Robin Hobb’s books and have read the previous trilogies. In this book we get another glimpse of parts of Hobb’s world that we have not seen before, and the series will likely shed some light on its history, which I find really exciting.
However, if you have never read a book by Robin Hobb, I’d strongly recommend you start by reading Assassin’s Apprentice.
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- Book written by Becky Chambers
- Published in 2018
- Part 3 of the Wayfarers series
“From the ground, we stand. From our ships, we live. By the stars, we hope.”
When the Earth became uninhabitable, what was left of humanity sought refuge on the ships of the Exodus Fleet and left their solar system behind. Hundreds of years later, many of those humans and their descendants have settled on different planets throughout the galaxy and live there alongside other sentient species.
But some have remained on the Exodus Fleet, choosing to spend their life in space rather than on a planet. As more and more people decide to leave the fleet, the people who are left behind will have to decide what it means to them to live their life as part of this community.
I am a big fan of all of Becky Chambers’ books, but this one might be my favourite so far. As with the second book in this series, it is not a sequel to one of the earlier books, but it takes place in the same world and features one or two cameo’s from characters from the earlier books. It is similar in tone to the first two, but the narrative is very different.
Like all of Chambers’ works, this book considers the question of what it means to be human, while showing a deep belief in the ultimate good of humanity. Record of a Spaceborn Few looks at the traditions and beliefs that constitute a community and what these mean to the people in that community. It features a range of fantastic characters, whose experiences complement each other to form a picture of life on the Exodus fleet. The book is very wholesome while also managing to make you think. Definitely one to (re)read on a day when you’re feeling a bit down.
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- Book written by Christopher Paolini
- Published in 2020
- Stand-alone
During her work as an exobiologist on a newly colonised planet, Kira Navárez makes a discovery which accidentally sets off an interplanetary war. This is the beginning of a long journey for Kira as she desperately tries to minimise the damage her actions have unintentionally caused.
On the whole I quite enjoyed this book: it is pretty fast-paced and it has a cast of likable characters. However, there were a number of areas where the book fell short for me. None of the characters (except Gregorovich) are very original and the story on the whole did not particularly stand out to me either. With 800+ pages, it went on a lot longer than I felt it needed to. Especially the ending was drawn out far too much, becoming overly sentimental in places.
Pick this up if you feel like reading something engaging and easy to read (despite its length), but don’t expect too much from it. That said, Jennifer Hale does a very good job narrating the audiobook, with an impressive range of voices for the different characters. I would definitely recommend going for the audio version if that is something you enjoy.
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Review: The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell
Holly Sykes runs away from her parents to go live with her boyfriend, but that does not go as she expects. Hugo Lamb is a student at Cambridge, and an expert at cheating his friends. Ed Brubeck is a war correspondent who finds it impossible to settle down with is family in England. Crispin Hershey once wrote a good book and has been looking for that spark ever since. All of their stories are tied together by a secret war between two cults of psychic immortals.
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma to find himself alone on a starship in outer space. With the rest of his crew dead and his memory only slowly coming back to him, he realises he’s faced with an almost impossible task: saving the human race on his own. But Ryland soon realises that he’s not as alone as he thought.
Review: All That We See or Seem – Ken Liu
Julia Z is a privacy-minded young woman with a history. She is also a a hacker and really good at her job. When a man shows up at her doorstep to ask her help in finding his abducted wife, she is forced to leave her life of carefully constructed quiet obscurity behind her to find a dream-weaving artist that dreamt with the wrong man.
Review: The Island of Doctor Moreau – H.G. Wells
Edward Prendick is shipwrecked and ends up on an island where he is taken in by the famous Dr Moreau and his assistant Montgomery. Prendick soon finds the island is inhabited by a whole host of human-animal hybrids. Can it be that the famous physician Moreau built these creatures – and must Prendick fear that he will be the subject of Moreau’s next experiment?
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.
