More Posts By Peter
Review: The infernal paradise/Het helse paradijs – Thea Beckman
Part 2 in the Children of Mother Earth Trilogy – Several years after the failed expedition of the Badenfelder, the Egon of the expansionist Great Badener Empire equips a new fleet of five steam-powered warships to once again set out for the mythical land of Thule. Young linguist Kilian Werfel is attached to the fleet to facilitate intercultural communication. But from the moment the Badeners’ new fleet draws near the paradise island nation, things start going south rapidly.
Fiction Fix: the Live Action Ghost in the Shell
LONG FORM -Peter was disappointed in the Scarlett Johansson version of the animated classic Ghost in the Shell – and vented his frustration in a 4.000 word essay. What went wrong? What could’ve been done better?
Review: Metro 2033 – Dmitry Glukhovsky
The Moscow metro is home to the last survivors of the human race after a devastating nuclear apocalypse. Artyom’s home station is threatened by attacks from mutated ‘dark ones’ coming from the irradiated surface, and he has to travel to the centre of the metro to find help to save his home. This sends Artyom on an Odyssey through the entirety of the underground system, leading him past stations with people from all walks of life and perhaps even to the dreaded surface…
Curator Question: What book’s cover made you want to immediately read it?
Our curators share their experience going against conventional wisdom and judging books by their cover… Risky business!
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.
Review: Ghost in the Shell – Rupert Sanders
Major Mira Kilian is a cyborg, a human ghost in an android shell, who hunts for terrorists as part of Section 9, a shady special ops force of the Japanese government. She remembers little of her past before her brain was transplanted, but when she goes after a cybercriminal who is hunting the very scientists who created her, Major is confronted with some uncomfortable questions on who she really is.
Review: Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir
“Gideon the Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir is a sci-fi/fantasy/horror novel set in a decaying universe ruled by necromancers. The story follows Gideon Nav, a sword-wielding cavalier, who is forced to join forces with her lifelong nemesis, the powerful necromancer Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Together, they are summoned to Canaan house, a derelict palace on a foreign planet to compete in a deadly trial. As they navigate dark secrets, mysterious deaths, and treacherous alliances, Gideon and Harrowhark must put aside their animosity and unravel the truth behind the ancient necromantic conspiracy that threatens to destroy the empire.
Review: He Who Drowned the World – Shelley Parker Chan
Part 2 in the Radiant Emperor – Zhu Chongba having become Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, and shown her desire to the world, she must now find a way to take Dadu, the Yuan capital, and take the title of Great Khan for herself. She is not the only one fighting for this position, however. General Ouyang, the eunuch general who betrayed the Great Yuan, is still out for the ultimate revenge. Madame Zhang is looking for a means to put her husband – whoever he might at that time be – on the throne. And Wang Baoxiang, the new Prince of Henan, has dark plans of his own. As the power struggle in court and on the battlefield reaches a fever pitch, the question becomes: will it be worth all the sacrifices made along the way?
Collected: Primordia by Wormwood Studios
COLLECTION: Primordia is a beautiful and atmospheric point-and-click-game, following the story of Horatio Nullbuilt, an android living in a crashed ship in the desert wasteland, who has his life turned upside down when a hostile robot steals his ship’s power core. Horatio is determined to scavenge the post-apocalyptic wasteland for a new core, but Crispin, his self-built sidekick, suggests that perhaps it would be easier to find one in Metropol, the city of glass and light…
Review: Blue Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
Part 3 in the Mars Trilogy – With the terraformation of Mars well underway and the Earth recovering from a series of apocalyptic floods that reshuffled the deck of power, tensions between the planets start to rise as overpopulated Terra views the the unsettled lands of Mars with jealous eyes. Once more, the members of the First 100 must play their part in the politics that ensue to save the Red Planet from a wave of Terran imigration that will swamp the ambitious Utopian project on Mars.
Review: Children of Mother Earth/Kinderen van Moeder Aarde – Thea Beckman
Part 1 in the Children of Mother Earth Trilogy – Following the nuclear apocalypse of World War III and a resulting shift in the Earth’s axis, the formerly ice-covered island of Greenland has turned into the lush paradise of Thule. Its inhabitants are determined to build a society that will not devolve into the violent cauldron of pollution and hatred that was 21st century civilisation. Pacifistic, matriarchal, and deliberately not-industrialised, the culture of Thule rejects everything that led to the destruction of the previous world order. But when Thule is ‘discovered’ by steam-powered warship from the Badener Empire that arose out of the ashes of former Europe, all of Thule’s beliefs are challenged.
Review: The Peripheral – Amazon Prime
Flynne’s brother is hired by a shady company out of Columbia to beta-test the most real sim videogame ever played. Flynne subs for him, and can hardly believe what she is playing. As her suspicion towards the simulation grows and she pushes to speak to their ostensibly Colombian employers, she learns that this is no mere simulation. This starts a process that will rock Flynne’s perception of the world she lives in to her core.