My Favorite Things with Alice Reeds

They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Alice Reeds, whose latest book, Echoes, comes out tomorrow, August 7th, from Entangled Teen!

What does Alice love when she’s not working on her latest book? Spoiler alert: a video game that feels all too real, a science fictional concept album, a television show that backs its fiction with science, another television show that demands every bit of your attention, and life-changing anime. Interested? Read on to learn more!

I’ve always been a fangirl. Obsessing over bands, shows, songs, games, reading fanfiction, and immersing myself completely in fandom, I’ve done it all and loved it. Ask me about my favorite anime or some K-Pop band I recently fell in love with and you can be sure I’ll never shut up again, so when I was invited to write this post I was overjoyed to get the chance of sharing some of my recent favorites.

When I sat down and thought about what to talk about exactly, I didn’t really have any sort of theme in mind, yet I think you’ll very quickly find that I ended up having one after all. Well, at least until the last point, which goes off the rails and diverts from the theme. Oops.

Anyway, without further ado, lets get started!

Favorite video game: It’s hard to get me obsessed with a video game since I tend to just get bored of them after a few days. Sure, I’ve been playing The Sims since I was like 8 but currently it’s more watching Let’s Plays of Sims 4 (if you’re looking for a good channel to watch I highly recommend TheSimSupply) than actually playing myself. But a game I recently saw and immediately got sucked into and completely obsessed with was Detroit: Become Human. It’s a story-based game that’s influenced by the decisions you make, and offers an abundance of different outcomes and endings to make every experience and play through different. Overall it deals with questions like if an android and AI can be so highly advanced that a machine becomes human (hah), if and what differences there are between them and actual people, if it’s okay to keep humanlike (almost sentient) androids as your servants without a life of their own or if, at a certain point, they can be seen as just another species that deserves to have rights and normal lives as well.

Photo Credit: Playstation

This is the type of sci-fi story that I love the most, one that actually makes you think and feel, and dives deep into psychological questions while having a futuristic backdrop that doesn’t overshadow the story but offers it the perfect stage. There is no war, unless you decide to start one, no over-the-top technology like flying cars or artificial food coming from magical dispensers or is 3D printed, and while it does offer plenty of futuristic technology, the focal point are the androids with highly futuristic AIs. They look basically just like any other person, even more so when they put on normal ‘unmarked’ clothes and remove the shiny circle on their temples (see the picture for clarity on what I mean), yet they are far smarter (depending on the model) than an ordinary person. Many parallels can be drawn between actual historical events, as well as a social commentary that feels almost too real at times and holds a mirror in front of humanities face to show its ugliest sides. I loved the main characters and their different backgrounds. Kara, who eventually escapes her owner to save a young girl from her abusive father; Markus, whose owner has a very progressive mind and sees him as his equal instead of just a thing, and Connor, the most advanced model working for the police and is tasked with hunting down rogue/sentient androids. I felt for them and even cried a few times because some of the imagery and scenes were incredibly powerful and marvelously crafted. Honestly, it’s been a while since a game impressed me as much as this one. I’d even go as far as saying that it was better than any movie I’ve seen in the past year, hands down.

Favorite album: I’ve loved Years & Years since I heard “Real” on BBC Radio One back in 2015, so when their new album came out July 6th 2018, you bet I was on it the second it turned midnight and it went live on Spotify. Palo Santo follows a kind of sci-fi/futuristic concept of a genderless dystopian android society that keeps humans as form of entertainment, which I find fascinating and very creative. It’s so rare to see artists follow a theme with their entire albums as well as the music videos and build a story around it instead of just random music videos that have nothing much in common with each other. The last time I remember something like this were the Young Blood Chronicles from Fall Out Boy for their album Save Rock and Roll in 2013 and Beyoncé’s LEMONADE, but that’s right about it. Palo Santo contains 14 songs that are perfectly matched and still have that unique Years & Years sound I fell in love with on their debut album.

Favorite TV shows: Continuing the sci-fi theme, a show I watched toward the beginning of 2018 and absolutely loved was Mars from National Geographic. It’s a beautiful blend of real life science with speculative fiction and follows two storylines. On one side, the fictional one, we follow a crew that’s supposed to establish the first colony on Mars and their struggles, the progression of their mission and the future technology they use. On the other side we follow stories of real space science in a more documentary type style, actual plans for visiting Mars one day, missions to the ISS to see how we can work there and the ways in which our bodies react to being in space for extended periods of time, and learn about the technology and possibilities we currently have. I love space, the idea of space travel, and the science involved, so this was the perfect type of show for me.

Another show I haven’t seen anyone talk about, which might be because it’s a Netflix Germany production, was a show called Dark. The story is set in a fictional German town called Winden and is set mostly in 2019, even though we also travel to 1986 and 1953. It follows characters from four different families, their darkest secrets, the different ways in which they are connected, and a mystery stretching across three generations. It was, as the title might suggest, a very dark story and the type of show you can’t just have playing in the background while on your phone or doing something else, but rather have to follow along attentively to not miss any of the details and clues. It isn’t a show everyone will like, doesn’t have any classically likable characters, but it was very creative and unique showing that German shows can be amazing as well.

Favorite anime: Like so many I grew up watching and loving Sailor Moon. It was the perfect mix of a girlier aesthetic (that truly catered to girls without ridiculing it) with action, female friendships, and strong characters fighting different types of evil. It is one of my favorite anime of all time, and I’ve recently finally finished watching the new version, Sailor Moon Crystal, which follows the manga much closer, but my favorite anime is a much more recent one: Yuri!!! on ICE. Saying I was obsessed with it when it came out, and in the months that followed its airing, would be an understatement. For me it ended up being much more than just an anime, which might sound strange, but it’s true. It rekindled my love for figure skating both in terms of watching competitions and also skating myself and wanting to participate in the adult competition one day. And isn’t that something that shows just how good and impactful a anime (or story in general) is, when it changes your life and gives you something that stays with you much longer than merely while you’re watching the episodes?

The animation style was perfect for the story and the care with which it was told, the love and attention to detail, the mood and pacing, relationships and passion, was outstanding. It also broke several barriers when it comes to depictions of LGBT relationships in Japan, with the producers having to fight for the right of showing certain scenes that were crucial to the relationship of the two main characters, Yuri and Victor, even though, for our American or European standards, they were still very vague. Recently while watching the livestream of the Yuri!!! on ICE Concert, the first time something so international was happening outside of the airing of the anime itself, I was blown away by the heart the producers and the orchestra put into the show, how they tried their best to make it as special as they could for the fans. It exceeded all my expectations by a tenfold, and when they announced the title for the movie at the end, I definitely needed a moment.

So while I can say that I love Sailor Moon, it hasn’t influenced me the way Yuri!!! on ICE has, though both were exactly the types of stories that I needed at the time. You can be a girl and still be strong, fight monsters and have strong friendships (something that was usually branded as more of a “for boys” type of thing with tons of shows featuring male protagonists and alike), and also that it’s okay to be different, to accept yourself for who you are, embrace what makes you unique and have the courage to fight for what you believe in, to follow your dreams unapologetically.

And that’s it! Do any of these make your list of favorites as well? If so, tweet me @Alice_Reeds and lets chat about it, or tell me about some of your favorites. I’d love to discover some more amazing stuff to fangirl over.

Alice Reeds was born in a small town in Germany but spent her first eight years in Florida, USA. Later on, she moved back to Europe, where her family moved around a lot. She was raised trilingual and has a basic understanding of Russian, read and spoken. After getting her International Baccalaureate Diploma, Alice is studying English Language and Literature at University. During high school Alice used to be a dancer taking classical ballet classes five times a week along with several other types of dance. Unfortunately a knee injury ended her chances of taking her passion for dance any further. In her free time Alice mostly writes, reads, figure and/or roller skates, or watches countless Let’s Play videos and figure skating videos.

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