Escape Velocity

A curated Collection of Fantasy and Science Fiction Media

Search Results for: Isaac Asimov

Review: I, Robot – Isaac Asimov

In I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, a collection of short stories, the famous robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin reflects on the history of robotics and how it changed the lives of humankind forever. What is the meaning of the Three Laws of Robotics and how do these laws work in practice? What can we learn from our interactions with robots? And what can they learn from us?

Second Foundation

Review: Second Foundation – Isaac Asimov

Part three of the Foundation Series – Both the Mule and the Foundation go on a search for the Second Foundation, a mysterious organisation supposedly existing at the other end of the galaxy.

Foundation

Review: Foundation – Isaac Asimov

First part of the Foundation Series – The scholars of the Foundation try to prevent a long dark age after the fall of the Galactic Empire guided by psychohistorical statistical predictions of future events.

Review: Exit Strategy – Martha Wells

Part 4 in the Murderbot Diaries – The Murderbot reconnects to the feeds when it returns from its self-imposed intelligence gathering mission to find that one of its favourite humans has become caught up in inter-corporate politics, and the Murderbot may have accidentally played an important part in the corporate anger against her. When the Murderbot figures she may have been kidnapped, it reluctantly turns off space-Netflix once again to save the day.

Review: Rogue Protocol – Martha Wells

Part 3 in the Murderbot Diaries – Following the revelations of Artificial Condition, our Murderbot travels to a far-flung orbital mining facility to further investigate the crimes of its former owners. It infiltrates an expedition sent there to assess the condition of the facility before a full salvage operation will commence, by making friends with a robot who has a relationship with their owner unlike any the Murderbot has encountered before.

Review: Artificial Condition – Martha Wells

Part 2 in the Murderbot Diaries – Following immediately after the end of All Systems Red, Artificial Condition follows our GenZ Murderbot as they stowaway on an interstellar transport to a far-flung mining station in an attempt to figure out more about the incident in which they went rogue, which caused them to hack their governor module and become a free agent in the first place.

Yearly Wrap-up: 2023 in Review

Our curators look back at their 2023 resolutions, and their favourite fantasy and science fiction media of the past year. Which media on their to be read/watch/listen/play piles got their attention? And what else did the year bring?

Review: Disenchanted – Disney

In ‘Enchanted’, former storybook princess Giselle leaves her fairy tale life behind to find a happily ever after in the real world with a single dad and his pre-teen daughter. In this movie, Giselle has a baby of her own and a now gloomy teenage stepdaughter. To try and escape an existence in a rut, Giselle makes her family move to a small suburban village. Furthermore, she uses a magic wand to wish a fairy tale life for her family. Alas, as often tends to happen with wishes, things don’t work out as she intends…

Review: The Test – Sylvain Neuvel

In order to obtain UK citizenship, a man sits a difficult immigration test. Before he finishes, though, the session is disturbed by some unexpected visitors and the afternoon takes a grim turn…

Review: Ex Machina – Alex Garland

When Caleb, a nobody programmer at a Big Tech firm is invited to the isolated home of the company’s CEO, he has no idea that he will serve as the examiner in a test of an advanced artificial intelligence developed by the CEO. Will Caleb believe that AI is capable of thoughts, feelings and consciousness even though he is aware it is artificial? As Caleb and the AI get to know each other, a bond forms that will set in motion a sequence of events going much further than the CEO had anticipated.