Some of My Favourite Media:
Key's Latest Highly Rated:
KEY
Although I love to immerse myself in another era or world, interesting characters make whether I stick to a story or not (although I am not very good at not-finishing a story I started). I can appreciate a thoughtfully constructed narrative where the reader is left wondering for a while until everything falls into place. I am not great in visualising stories, so long descriptions of places or clothing are not for me. I want to feel the world more than I want to hear about it.
Like most people, I do not read as much books as I should. I work with texts in my working life and find myself looking for other means of entertainment in the evenings and weekends. Instead, I use every silent minute to listen to podcasts, mostly audio drama’s. Naturally I listen during walks and chores, but even while aisle-browsing in the supermarket or walking from office to the toilet. I gravitate towards the horror/thriller sci-fi genre. Besides consuming podcasts and books, I am a euroboardgamer and incidental player of narrative videogames.
Historical themes
Character driven stories
Realistic or grimdark settings
A bit of gore that makes your skin crawl (especially in audio)
Stories that hold you at the edge of your seat without using cheap cliff-hangers
Tightly written plots and well-foreshadowed plot twists
When the story structure itself wows you
Writers that trust their readers to figure it out by themselves and do not feel to need to explain every detail
Evil characters who have a point
Stories that show me life from another perspective (without explicitly explaining it)
Stories with excellent premises and ideas that miss the mark and leave you frustrated with the feeling ‘they could have done so much better’
Intertexuality (unless I get it :P)
Flat characters
Actions taken not in line with character motivations but ‘for the plot’
Really competitive games
Poor writing
Love triangles and sappy romance
Board games based on luck
Pet Peeves
Unsubtle info dumping
Cheap cliffhangers
Anachronistic character motivations
Strawman feminism where the bad guy is so cartoonishly sexist that you can easily frame your boring protagonist as a woke girlboss (© Curator Lotte)
Superheroes
Recent Contributions
Curator Question: What is the coolest bit of worldbuilding you’ve encountered recently?
Our curators share some awesome tidbits of worldbuilding from their recent ventures in the speculative genre!
Review: The Great Chameleon War – Justin Hellstrom
Welcome to the Nesting Zone, where someone who calls himself The Amanuansis poetically records his travels through a surreal dreamscape full of huge ancient lizars.
Review: Narcissa – QCODE
Sid and her family have spent years trying to protect her true identity as a ‘reader’, but this becomes harder and harder when for the first time in years, a string of murders takes place.
Curator Question: What did you think of the first episode of The Rings of Power?
Our curators watched Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings show The Rings of Power, and share their first impressions!
Review: Oats Studios – Neill Blomkamp
This assembly of short (and some really short) films by Neill Blomkamp is not a series so much as an assemblage set of cinematographic thought experiments that gives some insights into what moves Blomkamp as an artist.