Favourites
Books/ Shows/ Comics I love
Worm — Wildbow
I have found that some of the best literature is free on the internet. Worm is a web novel, and for me, it is the best thing the superhero genre has produced.
What if you had an incredibly well-built world with almost no plot holes, where every character uses their powers to their absolute fullest? Where characters are intelligent, have depth, and can solve problems in ways that make you think, of course, that's how you would use that power.
And then put all of that around one of the best protagonists I've read.
That's Worm.
Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin
There are probably a million Harry Potter fanfictions. Most of them are terrible. Some of them, though, are much better than the original.
Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin is one of those.
This book completely spoiled Harry Potter fanfiction for me. After reading it, I found it extremely difficult to find anything that I liked more. I think the best way to read it is to go in completely blind.
TV Series
Mr. Robot
The ending of a TV show matters a lot to me, and Mr. Robot is almost perfect.
I love its anarchist streak and its ideas around fighting concentrated wealth and power. I haven't found many shows that explore those ideas in quite the same way.
Season 4 is a piece of art.
The Wire
One of the classics.
I can never quite explain why The Wire is so good. Maybe it's the incredible character writing. Maybe it's how real the world feels. Maybe it's simply the atmosphere the show creates.
Whatever it is, it has a very particular vibe that I haven't found anywhere else.
Anime
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
The show that radicalised me.
It has almost everything I look for in a story: amazing characters with strong personalities, an ambitious plot, and incredible worldbuilding.
More than anything, I love how seriously it takes its characters and their competing ideas about how society should work.
Cowboy Bebop
I think I measure how good a story is by three things:
- How I felt while watching it.
- How I felt when it ended.
- How I feel about it more than three months later.
If all three keep getting better with time, I think you've landed on something precious.
Cowboy Bebop is one of those stories.
Manhwa & Manga
Sweet Home
Horror done right.
It has the same things I look for in the stories above: excellent characters, strong worldbuilding, and writing that keeps the tension and suspense alive without making it feel forced.
I wish I could read something like it for the first time again.
The author's other works are worth checking out too.
Pluto — Naoki Urasawa
Urasawa is, in my opinion, one of the best mystery writers.
I've experienced some of his other work in different mediums, but Pluto sits in a sweet spot for me. It has the mystery, atmosphere, characters, and complexity I like, without requiring me to reread the entire story multiple times just to understand what happened.