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 ]
End-of-year titles, from wild science fiction to road-tripping memoirs, make promising presents. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-12-03 18:10:36 UTC ]
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The Massachusetts-based translator has done more than anyone to bridge the gap between Chinese science fiction and American readers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-12-03 10:00:21 UTC ]
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Chinese science fiction is a rich world of diverse, engaging stories that expand one's mind. But with all that is out there, where should you start? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-11-27 11:39:41 UTC ]
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There were too many to choose from. Our reviewers explain their picks, from “The Hanging Artist” to “The Night Tiger” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-21 14:12:00 UTC ]
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In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reads the first novel in Isaac Asimov’s juvenile science fiction series Science fiction set in our own solar system arguably began with Lucian, the classical author whose short satirical piece True History paved the way for... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2019-11-15 15:00:55 UTC ]
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The dense, interconnected network charts decades of collaboration and research. Nature, the multidisciplinary scientific journal founded in London in 1869, celebrates its 150th anniversary this week. Known for its innovative approach to publishing original research across all sorts of scientific... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2019-11-11 08:00:45 UTC ]
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This past summer, I stumbled across a link on social media to Chris Marker’s 1962 science fiction film La Jetée. For those who don’t know it, Marker’s miniature masterpiece—its running time is 28 minutes—mixes black-and-white stills with narration to tell the story of a man who circles back in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-07 09:49:34 UTC ]
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CIXIN LIU IS having a moment. The recent publication in English of his Three-Body Problem trilogy has been rightly hailed as a sea change for Chinese science fiction in translation, garnering myriad awards and receiving wide acclaim — including an endorsement from Barack Obama. The Wandering... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-29 17:00:45 UTC ]
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With enough time, the technological challenges of sending humans to Mars and beyond are solvable. But psychologically, we’re not ready to leave our home. In 1945 British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke—now best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey—correctly predicted the invention of... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2019-10-22 00:00:30 UTC ]
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In his latest book, Michael S. Heiser illustrates how the popular science fiction series can teach us about the Bible and God’s love for humanity. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Read these spine-tingling works of science fiction and fantasy at your own risk. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-10-18 19:00:09 UTC ]
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Battelle technology that can drop drones from the sky has been acquired by a San Francisco startup specializing in defense against unmanned aerial devices. Dedrone has acquired the assets to DroneDefender for undisclosed terms. Looking like a science fiction blaster, the device disrupts... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-10-08 16:38:06 UTC ]
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Our new columnists highlight the works of NYi-Sheng, Fernando A. Flores and more. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-08 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Translating one medium into another is tricky. Music is music and art is art and dance is dance; to try to convey the power of another art in fiction is its own sleight-of-hand. My own first novel takes on that challenge. In A Song For A New Day, musician Luce Cannon was on the cusp […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-07 11:00:15 UTC ]
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These new science fiction and fantasy titles will be your perfect fall companions. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-10-04 10:36:35 UTC ]
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Authors look to Africa and its diaspora and find the fantastical and futuristic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near. Here’s what new SFF has to say about it. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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E.V. Odle’s 1923 science fiction novel stars a most unusual — and fascinating — character Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-25 20:52:59 UTC ]
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Earth can be an exhausting place, so let's look beyond our planet and explore these science fiction books about space and other worlds. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-09-24 10:35:51 UTC ]
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If the idea of saying goodbye to epic sci-fi worlds fills you with sorrow, check out this list of great YA science fiction series and read on! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-09-17 10:31:05 UTC ]
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