More Posts By Peter
Review: The Farthest Shore – Ursula Le Guin
A young prince is sent to the island of Roke to warn the masters of the School of Wizardry of the disappearance of magic from the shores of Earthsea. Alongside the boy, the Archmage Ged sets sail to find the source of the mysterious illness that is draining magic from the land.
Review: The Tombs of Atuan – Ursula Le Guin
A small girl is taken to the temple complex of the Tombs of Atuan to be inducted as the high priestess of the Nameless Ones. Said to be the reincarnation of the previous high priestess, the young girl must take on the arduous and sometimes gruesome tasks of her office alone. The child’s loneliness and isolation only grow when she finds an intruder has penetrated into the great labyrinths underneath the Tombs.
Review: A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin
After a magic talent helps a young boy protect his village from a savage attack by sea-born raiders, the boy is sent of to learn magic from an ancient mage living on a nearby island. It is the start of a series of adventures across the many islands of Earthsea, in which the boy does not just learn about magic, but also about the dark side of himself and the emotions that will show him that side.
Curator Question: 2025 Resolutions
Our Curators discuss their 2024 New Year’s Resolutions – what is on their to be read/watch/listen/play list for the coming year?
Yearly Wrap-up: 2024 in Review
Our curators look back at their 2024 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: Consider Phlebas – Iain M. Banks
In a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Culture, a post-scarcity human civilisation, and the Idirans, an empire of proud, reptilian three-legged warrior giants, one of the Culture’s artificial super Minds is nearly destroyed and hides on the forbidden planet of Schar’s World. Both the Culture and the Idirans send their agents after it. Bora Horza Gobuchul, a shape-Changer, is hunting the Mind on behalf of the Idirans – but it is a long way to Schar’s world in a war-torn galaxy, and his Culuture nemesis Perosteck Balveda, is on his heels…
Review: Annihilation – Alex Garland
Lena is a professor of cellular biology with a past in the army. When her husband leaves on a mysterious mission and doesn’t come back, she is heartbroken. But when he suddenly reappears, her life takes a turn and she, too, is dragged into the exploration of the Shimmer, a mysterious and slowly growing phenomenon from which no expedition has previously returned.
Review: The War of the Rohirrim – Kenji Kamiyama
200 years before the War of the Rings and the other events of the Lord of the Rings, Helm, king of Rohan, slew a Dunlending lord who sought a marriage between his son Wulf and Helm’s daughter Hera. In the ensuing war between the Rohirrim and the Dunlendings, not just Helm but also his daughter Hera will make a name for themselves that will go down in history.
Review: Annihilation – Jeff Vandermeer
A biologist is part of the 12th mission to discover the secrets of the mysterious Area X, an abandoned and poorly documented zone now overtaken by wilderness. From the moment she wakes up from the trance necessary to cross the mysterious border, the seemingly tranquil Area X feels oppressive. Tension between the mission member rise as they discover an unmapped feature: an underground structure with mysterious writing on the wall…
Review: Spiderlight – Adrian Tchaikovsky
A group of adventurers sets out to defeat the Dark Lord – meticulously following each of the steps foretold by the prophecy. The adventurers’ relationships are tested and their faith in the Light is challenged when their quest requires them to welcome a new member into their party. A creature of the Dark, transformed, bound to help them – but a creature of the Dark nonetheless. But if Darkness helps to fight Darkness, and the Light does not always shine so bright – where does that leave the quest, and what does the ever-lasting war between Light and Dark mean?
Review: The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens, Bod for short, orphaned as a toddler, grows up in a graveyard, raised by the dead in a cosy mausoleum. His vampire guardian brings him food, teaches him, and protects him from any threats from the world of the living. Though the world outside the graveyard is foreign and odd to Bod, as Bod grows up and makes friends, his urge to learn what is out there becomes difficult to resist. But he was not orphaned without motive, and he lives with the dead in the graveyard for a very good reason…
Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller Jr.
A collection of three short stories set in a post-apocalyptic world, A Canticle for Leibowitz follows the story of the abbey of the Albertian order of Leibowitz. The monks of the order are the guardians of a collection of pre-war scientific texts that their patron saint Leibowitz saved from the chaos and anger following the so called flame deluge. As time progresses, society is rebuilt, the scientific texts are again understood, and humanity falls into old patterns.