Altered Carbon is little concerned with the philosophical implications of its incredible premise, preferring to put all its focus on the political aspects of its fantastical world. Written by Richard Morgan, this cyberpunk novel is not interested in how the characters deal with issues of memory and identity, but in how they manage to resist the constant oppression of a …

The Night of the Rabbit follows the classic formula of the point-and-click adventure genre: it tries to immerse us in a fantastical world, with a strong focus on story and atmosphere, while structuring the action around puzzle-solving. Here, Daedelic Entertainment presents a fairy tale – with talking animals and evil magicians – and is successful at building the narrative’s optimistic …

Affordable Space Adventures is a puzzle-adventure game that manages to make better use of the Wii U gamepad than any of Nintendo’s own titles on the system. Telling a story that confronts the exploitative practices of large corporations while offering innovative mechanics that create unique puzzles, the game only falters when it comes to its difficulty curve, which falls sharply …

Giordano Bruno (friar, philosopher, and the protagonist of Heresy) was persecuted by the Inquisition at the end of the sixteenth century for preaching the infinity of the universe and its heliocentric model, preceding even the famous Galileo. It is said that his last speech, when he was finally captured by the Inquisition in 1600 and sentenced to death for heresy, …

The traits of the classic Greek hero differ substantially from those of a contemporary one. While the latter is tied to the morality of their society, the former is barely concerned with notions of right and wrong: their vocabulary, instead, circles around the concept of glory. Kratos, the protagonist of God of War, is one of these heroes. He massacres …

The Lovecraft Project: Howard Phillips Lovecraft is the father of cosmic horror – the genre constructed around the notion that we humans are just a tiny, insignificant part of the universe, which holds much bigger, ancient, more powerful beings. We are nothing compared to what lies out there, beyond our reach and understanding. The plan is to write a few …

One of the most recurrent problems in fantasy novels concerns exposition, with the intricate world created for the story being described in too much detail, to the detriment of the characters and pacing. Sometimes, however, the opposite is true: the world is put aside for too long and so fails to capture our interest. In Gardens of the Moon, one …

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” the Happy Mask Salesman – his name both mocking and reinforcing his creepy disposition – asks Link, when we meet him in a strange world, cursed, spooked, and incredibly lost. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask remains to this day the most narratively ambitious game in the franchise: establishing an oppressive atmosphere …

Written by Clare Vanderpool, Navigating Early is a touching novel whose narrative is built on parallels and allegories, whose frequent mixing of fantasy and reality doesn’t quite land, relying heavily on bizarre coincidences to work. The story takes place in 1945, following a trip two boys undertake through a forest in Maine. Jackie, the protagonist, is a 13-year-old boy who …

Written by Josh Malerman, Bird Box is a post-apocalyptic horror novel about a world where people are haunted by unfathomable creatures that drive everyone who lays eyes on them mad. The book, however, fails to take advantage of this terrifying premise, unable to present compelling characters and scenes packed with tension. The protagonist is Malorie, a woman who finds herself …