More Posts By Peter
Curator Question: Which fantasy/sci-fi character would you like to go on a date with?
Our curators consider dating characters from their favourite fantasy and sci-fi stories. With whom would they want to have a cozy rendezvous?
Review: The Original – Brandon Sanderson & Mary Robinette Kowal
Holly wakes up in confusion, a chunk of her memory missing, only to find out she is a clone of herself, her original having murdered her husband. She is given less than a week’s time to track down her original, kill her, and take her place.
Review: Rogue Protocol – Martha Wells
Part 3 in the Murderbot Diaries – Following the revelations of Artificial Condition, our Murderbot travels to a far-flung orbital mining facility to further investigate the crimes of its former owners. It infiltrates an expedition sent there to assess the condition of the facility before a full salvage operation will commence, by making friends with a robot who has a relationship with their owner unlike any the Murderbot has encountered before.
Review: Artificial Condition – Martha Wells
Part 2 in the Murderbot Diaries – Following immediately after the end of All Systems Red, Artificial Condition follows our GenZ Murderbot as they stowaway on an interstellar transport to a far-flung mining station in an attempt to figure out more about the incident in which they went rogue, which caused them to hack their governor module and become a free agent in the first place.
Curator Question: 2024 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: 2023 in Review
Our curators look back at their 2023 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: The Golden Fleece of Thule / Het Gulden Vlies van Thule – Thea Beckman
Part 3 in the Children of Mother Earth Trilogy – Elvira is the daughter of the Badener vice-governor of Uppernavik, one of the Annexed Territories in Thule. Life in the annexed territories is primitive, in no small part due to constant sabotage by Thulenian terrorists. When she resolves to learn the Thulenian language in an attempt to understand the foe, she could not have foreseen the path that that decision would set her on.
Review: The Test – Sylvain Neuvel
In order to obtain UK citizenship, a man sits a difficult immigration test. Before he finishes, though, the session is disturbed by some unexpected visitors and the afternoon takes a grim turn…
Review: The Last of Us – HBO Max
Global society collapsed after a fungus turning people into zombies spread like a wildfire. Joel is a world-weary smuggler used to a life out of sight of what remains of the authorities. Ellie, on the other hand, is a sassy teenager growing up in a dreary post-apocalyptic world, whose importance neither she nor Joel can grasp. When Joel is tasked to take Ellie on a dangerous trip across country, he is (understandably) less than thrilled.
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…