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 ]
A Foodie Rom-Com, the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, a Bollywood Mystery, and More in Today's Best Book Deals Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-17 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Set your phasers to fun! Fly into this week's latest in science fiction and fantasy releases, plus a pair of can't-miss backlist titles. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-16 15:45:00 UTC ]
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This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-08-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-08-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The winners of the 2024 Hugo Awards—one of science fiction and fantasy’s most prestigious awards, decided by the popular vote of WorldCon members—were presented this weekend at the 82nd WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland. A hearty congratulations to all of the winners as well as all of the finalists... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-12 14:32:13 UTC ]
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New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention. Hum by Helen Phillips Robots have become a regular fixture of the workforce, and humans are losing their jobs to AI. Climate change is wreaking havoc on the planet. It’s getting harder and harder for the average person to... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-08-10 19:43:55 UTC ]
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Add four excellent new science fiction and fantasy titles to your TBR this week. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-09 15:15:00 UTC ]
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Good morning, Boston. Happy National Root Beer Float Day. Here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your Tuesday, before you go get that Black Cow. The biggest business news of the day — unless you include the continuing Wall Street meltdown — is the finding by... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2024-08-06 10:16:18 UTC ]
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A business out of science fiction — a robotics repair workshop — is now in Houston, aiming to provide automated workers to local businesses. Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2024-08-02 19:28:12 UTC ]
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Travel into this week's new science fiction and fantasy books, as well as two compelling portal fantasy reads. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-02 15:00:00 UTC ]
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In “The Future Was Now,” former Entertainment Weekly film critic Chris Nashawaty explores the significance of the summer of 1982, which featured the release of eight groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy films Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2024-08-01 22:54:26 UTC ]
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This week's new science fiction and fantasy reads include two that explore fantastical worlds about literature. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-07-19 16:00:00 UTC ]
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Dive into this double dose of new science fiction and fantasy releases out this week. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-07-12 16:15:00 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Science fiction has reinvented the Robinsonade – a narrative based on the scenario described in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe – on numerous occasions and in a variety of ways. We’ve had individuals stranded on a whole planet rather than a mere... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2024-07-10 14:00:26 UTC ]
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An epic fantasy inspired by Nigerian mythology, a found family wuxia fantasy, a historical fantasy set in the 1920s, and more of today's best science fiction and fantasy deals. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-07-01 14:30:00 UTC ]
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Science fiction and technological innovation feed off each other in an ongoing back-and-forth that can play out over decades. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-06-28 12:18:28 UTC ]
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What are your favorite science fiction novels that have yet to see a film adaptation? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-27 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Get to know the Nebula Awards for science fiction and fantasy writing, with outstanding, must-read examples to pick up right now. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-21 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Photo by Arturo Villarrubia Science fiction writer Ted Chiang has won the 2024 PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. The award is given each year to a writer who has “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form.” Ted Chiang has published two... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-12 14:52:48 UTC ]
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In which Robin Sloan writes Moonbound—a science fiction book about science fiction—and our writer writes his way into total insanity. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-06-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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