Some of My Favourite Media:
ROBIN
Hi, I’m Robin! I’m a twenty-something year old who loves all things bookish. As a child, I liked nothing more than to disappear completely into the magical worlds of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and so many others. While the bulk of my reading right now tends to be in genres other than speculative fiction (mostly contemporary fiction), I still regularly love to dive into a good Fantasy or Science-fiction book to take a break from real life.
The one thing that really makes or breaks a story for me are the characters. I can accept pretty much anything from a book as long as the characters are well written. Because of this, I tend not to be a very picky reader: I can appreciate almost all genres (except horror/thriller), and I am rarely put off by flaws that others might consider quite major (like plotholes). However, if I can’t connect to any of the characters in a story, I will have a hard time engaging with it no matter how well-crafted it is.
While books are definitely my main area of expertise, I do also love to play board games, listen to audio dramas, and watch a movie or tv-show whenever I can find the time. I am not a gamer, so you probably won’t be seeing many video game reviews from my end. Luckily we have several other curators who can fill in that gap!
I think that’s everything you need to know about me for now. I hope my reviews will help you find something you enjoy, because life’s too short to read bad books!
Diverse representation
Fantasy blended with real-world mythology
Intertexuality
Natural settings/elements
Strong (realistic) female characters
Beautiful book covers
Stories with little or no plot that focus only on the characters
Graphic violence
When scars/disfiguration are used to mark a character as evil
Depressing characters with no redeeming qualities
Endless and needlessly detailed fight/battle scenes
When a conflict between two characters is caused by an obvious misunderstanding that would be solved by a simple conversation
Dust jackets
Reviewing common Fantasy/Sci-fi tropes
- The Chosen One – ★★★ – Overdone, I know. And yet, even now there remains something alluring about the idea of being chosen for greatness, so I cannot bring myself to really hate this trope.
- The Mentor Character – ★★★★★ – It’s hard not to love someone whose sole purpose is to guide the main character to fulfil their true potential. If only real life could be that simple and comforting.
- The Evil Overlord – ★★ – I prefer my villains to have a bit more depth and ambivalence.
- The Quest – ★★★★ – A trope so classic it goes all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia, and yet a good quest still never fails to satisfy.
- Enemies to lovers – ★★★ – While you can often see the ending coming from a mile off, it is still far better than the kind of instalove where two people can’t bear to be separated after knowing each other for like five minutes.
- Damsels in distress – ★ – I don’t think it is necessary to elaborate on this one any further.
- Sentient spaceships – ★★★★ – Yes, please! What is even the point of a spaceship if it doesn’t talk?
- Found family – ★★★★★ – Heart-warming, every time.
Recent Contributions
Curator Question: How well would you survive in a zombie apocalypse?
How well do the curators think they’d thrive in a zombie apocalpyse?
Review: Willow – Lucasfilm
Over twenty years after the defeat of Queen Bavmorda in the movie Willow, six adventurers set out on a dangerous rescue mission. Accompanied by the legendary sorcerer Willow himself, they must journey to far-off places and face their inner demons in order to defeat a great evil.
Collected: The Kingkilller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
COLLECTION: The Name of the Wind tells the story of how a boy called Kvothe came to be one of the great legends of his time.
Review: The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Book 1 of the Kingkiller Chronicles – The Name of the Wind tells the story of how a boy called Kvothe came to be
Review: The Fifth Season – N. K. Jemisin
The world is ending, but not for the first time. It was ended many times before, by earthquakes and volcanoes and famine. Seismic events can be controlled by Orogenes, people who can manipulate the kinetic and thermal forces of the earth to still quakes and bend the earth’s energy to their will.