Book Reviews Photo by Aideal Hwa / Unsplash If reading Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg’s Robot (Penguin Classics, 2021), translated by Tomasz Mirkowicz, makes you think about Stanislaw Lem’s work, you’re not alone. Indeed, both Robot and Lem’s His Master’s Voice (published in Polish just a few years apart) take up the fascinating but insoluble problem of whether or not we’re alone in the universe. One might even call Robot surrealist science fiction and liken it to Kafka’s work, or even Lem’s Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, since the main character spends most of his time wandering around the halls of an underground shelter, unsure of his own identity and his place in the community that has formed following an apocalyptic event on the surface. His identity confusion derives from his “birth” on an assembly line under a kind of bell jar. Given instructions by a mysterious Mechanism to study the people living in the shelter, the protagonist proceeds as if he is a living machine given a modicum of free will (as explained by the Mechanism). Much of the novel focuses on the protagonist figuring out why those around him are living underground and why many of them believe that he is a physicist named Poreyra. Encountering strange “statues” that weigh several tons in one of the shelter’s rooms, he eventually moves through a mirror there into a replica of the stricken city, where time moves at a fraction of the speed experienced in the shelter.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-10 20:14:00 UTC ]
Many years ago, I heard a teacher of mine, the late John Gardener, once say that there are only two plots in all of literature: you go on a journey or a stranger comes to town. Or, as Stanley Elkin put it even more succinctly (in reference to science fiction), you go there or they […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-08 08:47:33 UTC ]
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Get to know the fantastic and thrilling world of the DINOSAUR TRAIN series, a shining example of science fiction for early readers. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-06-02 10:35:52 UTC ]
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Penguin Classics is to launch a new series of world science fiction "to challenge stereotypes about the genre". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-28 09:00:55 UTC ]
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A NUMBER OF RECENT ESSAYS and articles have revisited classic literary texts that depict disease pandemics, scouring them for ideas and strategies that might prove useful in our current predicament. An essay in The Boston Review examines Boccaccio’s Decameron (1353), which emerged out of... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-05-27 19:00:30 UTC ]
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Robin Sloan, the author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, discusses his new short story for The Atlantic. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2020-05-15 13:00:00 UTC ]
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For about two months in 1970, ITV aired episodes of a bonkers science fiction comedy series based (oh so very loosely) on Miguel de Cervantes’ literary classic Don Quixote. The show, entitled The Adventures of Don Quick, follows an astronaut named Don Quick (Ian Hendry) and his sidekick, Sam... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-12 17:39:44 UTC ]
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Looking for your new favorite science fiction podcasts? We've got you covered, from sci-fi podcast dramas to podcasts about science fiction books. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-11 10:39:41 UTC ]
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If you are currently living out your quarantine with an argumentative reader of fantasy and science fiction (possibly this person is your child, who knows), or if you aren’t but would like to be, you may get a kick out of this new video series from Penguin Random House, in which noted authors of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-07 14:08:45 UTC ]
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Congratulations to the winners of the 6th Annual Self-Published E-Book Awards! Grand Prize Steel Hand, Cold Heart by Rachel Menard (rachelmenard.com) Fantasy First Place Willow of Ashes by Ellie Raine (ellieraine.com) Honorable Mentions Fog & Mist: The Canens Chronicles,... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2020-05-05 14:08:04 UTC ]
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Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels, Christopher Priest’s “The Islanders” and more Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-04 14:00:00 UTC ]
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This 1956 article by renowned science-fiction writer Richard Matheson explains his thoughts about the limitless possibilities in the genre. The post Richard Matheson: Science Fiction Is Unlimited by Amy Jones appeared first on Writer's Digest. Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2020-04-30 10:57:16 UTC ]
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These 20 feel-good science fiction books will suit different tastes and moods, but they’re all comfort food of some variety. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-04-14 10:34:55 UTC ]
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Today, the finalists for the Hugo Awards, as well as for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, were announced by CoNZealand, the 78th Worldcon. The prestigious Hugo Awards, first presented in 1953 are “the longest-running fan-voted awards in science fiction and fantasy,” and they recognize... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-07 20:51:28 UTC ]
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IN HIS FOREWORD to Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy’s An Ecotopian Lexicon, acclaimed science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson notes, “people playing with language can help bring things and events into sharper cognitive focus.” Indeed, since familiar objects and ideas often... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-04-04 19:00:34 UTC ]
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Taking a look at some of the most magical cities in science fiction and fantasy books for your next trip across the page. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-03-26 10:42:56 UTC ]
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Don't miss exploring the magical cities of these fantastic urban science fiction and fantasy books hitting the shelves this year. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-03-26 10:41:17 UTC ]
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I often talk about how I created A Phoenix First Must Burn, my anthology of fantasy stories by black women authors, for my younger self, a girl who loved fantasy and science fiction and so desperately wanted to see herself in those worlds. It’s a strange experience to create the thing you wanted... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-03-25 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House UK has announced a new partnership between its audio division and Rebellion, a publisher of comic books, fiction and video games, in response to increasing demand for science fiction audio. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-18 22:09:16 UTC ]
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Fall into the matriarchal worlds of these science fiction and fantasy books for Women's History Month and beyond. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-03-16 10:34:17 UTC ]
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N.K. Jemisin’s science fiction novel wastes no time with preliminaries. It’s a ferocious parable of modern race relations. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-03-12 21:01:56 UTC ]
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