Escape Velocity

A curated Collection of Fantasy and Science Fiction Media

Some of My Favourite Media:

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy
Frank Herbert's Dune
David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas
Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Games Workshop’s Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game
Tonke Dragt’s Brief voor de Koning (Letter for the King) - the book. The Netflix show sucks
Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher
2K’s BioShock game series
Nickelodeon’s Avatar: the Last Airbender
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PETER

Welcome to my curator page!  

While I spend most of my waking hours slaving away as an attorney for a large commercial law firm, I like to spend my free time escaping from reality in all sorts of stories and games – fantasy, sci-fi, horror, you name it. When I’m not reading, writing, or painting miniatures, I like to hit people (or more likely, get hit) with a sword.

In my speculative fiction, I like plot-heavy stories that still make you connect with the characters, and world building that is not just interesting and exotic, but that actually works on a historical, geographic, economic or scientific level. I like stories that put your brain to work. I’m a sucker for the classics and love to read older stuff to get an idea of how genres and tastes evolved over time. I like games that have a strong narrative element – even in board games, I like the ones that give you the feeling you’re setting up a colony on a distant planet over ones that may be more balanced but feel less alive. 

Nowadays, what with my job and life in general getting in the way, I don’t spend nearly as much time gaming or reading as I used to, but I still listen to as many audiobooks as I can and I try to make time for everything else. But sometimes, everything that is out there that I would still like to see or read or play is overwhelming. If you feel the same, please look around! Your time is precious, and we all want to spend it on the very best the genre has to offer!

Realistic or grimdark settings

 

Characters getting punished for their mistakes

 

Tightly written plots and well-foreshadowed plot twists

 

When magic is a mystery (and you sometimes wonder whether it is magic at all)

 

When the story structure itself wows you

 

Realistic economic and geographical worldbuilding

 

Writers that trust their readers to figure it out by themselves and do not feel to need to explain every detail

When the stakes in a story grow beyond the point where it is relatable

 

Love triangles and sappy romance

 

Superheroes

 

When stories or games take way more time than they have any right to

 

Whiney main characters

 

Really competitive games

 

Poorly executed politics

Pet PeeveS

Historical inaccuracies in medieval fantasy settings (especially in combat)

Humanoid aliens in sci-fi

Characters inexplicably having really modern mindsets/sensibilities in settings where that makes no sense

Needlessly edgy characters in order to make things ‘dark’

The thing where the dainty woman always has to be the archer even though shooting a 100+ pound warbow takes far more strength than properly wielding a sword

Characters that do dumb stuff but get away with it

Writers coming up with a new name for their orc-race despite the fact that they are clearly just reskinned orcs

Fantasy names with a bunch of open vowels and unexplained ‘ä’s or ‘â’s

Recent Contributions

Review: Bookshops & Bonedust – Travis Baldree

Prequel to Legends & Lattes – when orc barbarian Viv gets wounded in the search for a dangerous necromancer, she is sent to a local seaside town to rest and recover while the mercenary company continues the hunt without her. In the town, Viv befriends the local bookseller, who runs a dilapidated shop on the verge of bankruptcy. When Viv discovers the joy of reading, however, she makes it her mission to help the bookshop back on its feet.

Review: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor – Hank Green

Andy Skampt, April May’s closest friend, struggles to find meaning in his life after April’s death and the disappearance of the Carls. When he receives a mysterious text message and finds a mysterious book of instructions, he is dragged into an equally mysterious game. When he finds out an old nemesis has grand plans, he and April’s other friends are forced into action once again.

Review: Legends & Lattes – Travis Baldree

Veteran adventurer and orc barbarian Viv decides to throw in the towel and live a peaceful life instead. She has an idea for a shop selling a dark exotic brew she once tasted on one of her adventures… called coffee. But how to convince people to buy a drink they don’t even know exists?

Review: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing – Hank Green

April May – an otherwise unremarkable girl – runs into an immovable statue on her walk home one night, standing unmoving on a sidewalk in New York. April shares a video of the statue online, dubbing it ‘Carl’. The video goes viral and April becomes a celebrity overnight as Carls appear in cities around the world. April is dragged into the world of internet fame and even politics as the Carls turn out to be much more than they initially appeared, and she suddenly has a voice in an emerging global crisis.

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.