Novosti iz sveta Fantastike

[PTY]

  >What's Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism about?

   Eutopia is a story set around the time that the eugenics movement was getting going in the United States - by odd co-incidence, exactly 100 years back from the time of the book's release. It's the story of two men - Andrew Waggoner, a black physician who finds himself working in Eliada, a mill town built on Utopian principles in northern Idaho; and Jason Thistledown, a young man who is the only survivor of a mysterious plague that wiped out his community in rural Montana. Jason arrives in Eliada, accompanying his aunt who rescued him from the plague town. Germain Frost is an early eugenicist, who's traveling America looking to catalog the weak, insane and criminal. Jason and Andrew uncover some very sinister goings-on in and around Eliada - monsters both human and otherwise.  In the end, they find things that could have near-apocalyptic implications.


   > Eutopia deals with some heavy subject matter, eugenics and racism.  Was it a difficult book to write?


   It was difficult to write, as any novel is - but not because of the heaviness of the subject matter. I've always found eugenics to be a fascinating science - in part, because it really isn't a science. Its fundamental premise - that the fact that we can and do breed for certain traits in plants and animals means that we ought to be able to better our own species by doing the same with humans - is deeply flawed, and also deeply alluring. Who wouldn't want to make things better for us, the same way we make things better for cows?

Of course, when we breed cows to be bigger and fatter and more docile, we're not making it better for the cows - we're making things better for we who eat the flesh and drink the milk.

We can breed cows and get away with it because they're a commodity. The idea that we can treat human beings as domesticated animals and do better that way marks a fundamental misreading of Darwinism - and it represents an even more fundamental moral blindness. I found this fascinating from the get-go, as I did the racism that really went hand-in-hand with the eugenics movement.

The racism was tough, but only inasmuch as I had to face the fact that if I was going to write about racism, I was going to have to write racist characters. Which meant employing some pretty ugly language. So far, nobody's complained -- but still, I flinch at that kind of talk.

 
> What's the appeal of writing horror?


   I have been asked this question before, believe it or not. My stock answer is that horror's not - or shouldn't be - a genre; it should be an emotion that we invoke, when we write stories that are otherwise about people and the drama of their interactions in the world. So the real question is, why do I like invoking the emotion of horror in my stories about people and the world and so forth. And I think it's because horror is such a deliciously complex emotion; it's more than just being frightened at a shadow, or a tableau of gore.  It's a profound unease -- a sense that the world that we know is slipping away -- and something else is there underneath. And in experiencing that sense, I think that we open ourselves up to insights and epiphanies, that otherwise wouldn't be apparent.  



Eutopia, A Novel of Terrible Optimism



(Najtflajere, imaš li kakav insajd info o ovome? Ovaj deo intervjua sa autorom mi najavljuje intrigantan roman... )

[PTY]

It's always fascinating when we read about classic science fiction novels headed for the screen...even though it doesn't happen often. Adaptations of beloved science fiction novels come with huge audience expectations, and huge budgets, so perhaps understandably, it's rare that they actually make the transition to the big screen. We know that Morgan Freeman has a long-simmering adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" in development, while visual effects master Richard Edlund and filmmaker Ridley Scott are adapting Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War".

The lastest sci-fi novel stirring up dust is Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" series. In a recent interview on Charlie Rose, actor Bradley Cooper said that he's interested in adapting the books and has already approached Graham King Productions with a treatment that he and his friend, Conal Byrne, wrote together.

[PTY]

Game Over: Google Insists on Linking to Pirate Sites

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt dealt authors and publishers a staggering and possibly fatal blow by declaring he opposed any effort to curtail Google's right to link to piracy websites like Pirate Bay.  And he said it in such unequivocal terms that any author cherishing a shred of hope for the protection of his or her rights is spitting in the wind.

Josh Halliday of The Guardian reports: "Speaking to journalists after his keynote speech at Google's Big Tent conference in London, Schmidt said the online search giant would challenge attempts to restrict access to the Pirate Bay and other so-called "cyberlocker" sites that encourage illegal downloading – part of government plans to fight online piracy through controversial measures included in the Digital Economy Act."

[Nightflier]

Ma gluposti. Prvo, većina knjiga se ne deli preko WWW-a, a drugo - ko mi brani da idem direktno na PB ili Demonoid, pa da tražim preko njihovog endžina?

[PTY]

istina, ali, eto, principi su u pitanju pa to mu je... 

nego, SFSajt izbor čitalaca za 2010:


10. (Tie)  Changes: The Dresden Files, Book 12 by Jim Butcher
(Roc / Orbit, April 2010)



Butcher is still going strong with his series The Dresden Files. This one represents the 12th book following the adventures of your favourite wizard detective, Harry Dresden. It features explosions and vampire kidnappers, crime lords and Mayan elder gods, dimensional rifts, wizard duels, and a giant regenerating centipede. The ending is quite a shocker (to Harry as much as to the reader) leaving us all clamouring for the next volume, which is scheduled for release in July 2011.

   
 
Saltation Saltation by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
(Baen Books, April 2010)




Liaden is an ongoing space opera series, popular since its inception in 1988. This is the 10th book in the series, and focuses on the character of Theo Waitley in her training to become a starship pilot. It's a direct sequel to Fledgling (Baen, 2009) and is clearly the middle book in what will be a trilogy of books in the overarching series. Lee and Miller have previously shown their talent for writing characters to keep the reader engaged, and Theo's ordeals at the academy are more than enough to maintain interest that will carry readers into the next book.






9. Bitter Seeds Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis
(Tor, May 2010)



An impressive first novel, beginning a new series: The Milkweed Triptych. During the Second World War, British secret agent Raybould Marsh discovers the Nazis are making use of people with unusual abilities, including a man who can walk through walls, a woman who can turn invisible, and another who can see into the future and use that knowledge to influence the present. Marsh enlists the aid of the secret warlocks of Britain to counter the planned Nazi invasion, but magic never comes without its price. And in this case, the price might just be higher than the price of losing the war...



8. (Tie) Cryoburn Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
(Baen Books, November 2010)



Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga has been enormously popular for more than 20 years. In this latest addition to the series, Miles Vorkosigan is tasked by the Emperor to investigate the expansion of a cryogenic facility franchise into the Barrayaran Empire. What he finds is bribery, corruption, conspiracy and kidnapping -- all in the name of attempting to cheat death. And during his visit to New Hope, the planet where they routinely freeze sick and dying people, Miles must himself cheat death in order to get to the bottom of what's really going on -- and to get out again.



How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (Pantheon, September 2010 / Atlantic/Corvus, October 2010)



Another first novel on our top 10. This one is about a guy whose father walked out years ago, and who's now stuck in a dead-end job as a repairman for time machines. Until he gets caught up in a time loop, striving to avoid a paradox in which he may cease to exist. At the same time, he strives to repair -- or at least better understand -- his relationship with his father, who turns out to have been instrumental in the development of the time machine.



7. Blackout All Clear Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
(BO: Spectra / Subterranean, February 2010 / AC: Spectra, October 2010 / Subterranean, January 2011)



This longer work was published in two parts, as a pair of books which, together, tell a complete story. The Oxford University time travel program was established by Willis in her previous novels, The Doomsday Book (Bantam, 1992) and To Say Nothing of the Dog (Bantam, 1998). This time, time-travelling historians visit London during the Blitz, where they become stranded. The level of historical detail included in these two novels brings war-time London vividly to life for the reader, even as the historians from the future struggle to find their way out of their predicament.


6. Half-Made World The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
(Tor, October 2010)



Gilman's third novel is a weird western, with an edge of steampunk. In this world, a gunslinger is only as good as his gun. And if your gun is inhabited by a demon, that can make you supernaturally good at beating the other guy to the draw. This is the story of a land torn apart by war between two factions: the Gun, a cult of terror and violence, versus the Line, paving the world with industry and enslaving the population in the process. A doctor of psychology, the new science, travels to a spiritually-protected mental institution in the wilderness of the west to learn the secrets of how to fight the Gun and the Line from those already driven mad by the attempt.



5. The Quantum Thief The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
(Gollancz, September 2010)



Yet another notable debut novel for our top 10. Jean le Flambeur is a criminal and con artist, whose various selves are serving sentences for past crimes, undergoing the endless mental torture of the Prisoner's Dilemma -- forced to play that cruel game with copies of himself. One day, Jean (or at least one version of himself) is offered the chance to win his freedom. To do this, he must return to the moving cities of Mars to complete the heist that ended his criminal career in the first place.

[PTY]

4.  Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
(Orbit, October 2010)




The latest in Banks' long-running series of The Culture follows a war in heaven. Some civilizations in the galaxy have created a simulated afterlife in which the mind-state of the deceased is tortured. There are pro- and anti-hell worlds. While The Culture is opposed to the notion of hells, they have agreed to abide by a ruling to be determined by the outcome of a war-game in a simulated environment between pro-hell and anti-hell factions. But the pro-hell faction is cheating to gain the upper hand, and plans to bring the war into the real world.



3.   Under Heaven - Roc/Viking edition Under Heaven - Harper/Voyager edition Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada/Roc/Harper Voyager, April 2010)




Kay's latest is set in a fantastical version of 8th century China. At the passing of his father, a great general, Shen Tai sets out to lay the ghosts of 40,000 dead to rest by burying the bones of soliders from both sides of a battle, left unburried for 20 years. A princess, in recognition of his efforts to honour the dead, gifts him with 250 of the finest horses the world has seen. This overwhelming gift catapults Shen Tai into the middle of a complex tangle of political intrigue, dynastic struggle and military rebellion, all of which will challenge his personal desires and obligations to his family.



2.   Kraken - Del Rey edition Kraken - Subterranean edition Kraken by China Miéville
(Macmillan, May 2010 / Del Rey, June 2010 / Subterranean, August 2010 / Pan, November 2010)




For Billy Harrow, a curator at the British Museum, his pride and joy is a 40-foot specimen of a giant squid which the public loves to gawk at. Until one day it is mysteriously, impossibly gone. Then a human corpse is found folded and preserved in a smaller version of the squid's bottle. London is a far stranger place than Billy every realized, and someone or something is willing to kill in order to liberate the Squid God, or keep it hidden. What follows is a strange and dangerous chase through London, with Billy variously running from and aligning with cultists, ghosts, supernatural criminals, London's version of the X-files agents, ancient deities, the ordinary police, and some people or beings who defy explanation.



1.   The Dervish House - Gollancz edition The Dervish House - Pyr edition The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz / Pyr, July 2010)



This is a novel of near-future Istanbul. It begins with a suicide bomber on a crowded tram, and follows the lives of 6 very different people whose lives are all affected by this incident, and whose paths intersect. One witness to the bombing thereafter begins to see djinni and saints; a young invalid witnesses the event through the eyes of a BitBot monkey, and witnesses someone else also spying remotely; this boy shares his concerns with a disgruntled professor who has been forced into retirement; another woman is delayed by the blast in her effort to get to a job interview and consequently takes a job that involves her in a nanoware company; an antique dealer is set on a quest to find a man mummified in honey -- something that may exist or may be mere legend -- while her boyfriend is planning a stock-market scheme of unprecedented proportions. The tightly plotted story takes place over a brief period of time in a confined setting, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. But it is McDonald's writing and his handling of character that led SF Site readers to choose The Dervish House as the best book of 2010.

[Perin]

Bučer je super za opuštanje. Volim Dresden Files serijal, super mi je to urban fentezi

[PTY]

Future Shock
By Paolo Bacigalupi
Hiroshi Nomura/Stone
More from OnEarth

Science fiction writers ask if climate change is transforming Earth into the ultimate alien planet

Welcome to the Greenhouse
Edited by Gordon Van Gelder
OR Books, 348 pp., $17




If you run your hand down the shelves of a bookstore, you'll find a wide range of contemporary fiction, categorized by reader fetish and with genres kept carefully separate. This one is "mystery," that one a "romance," another is a "thriller," and that one over there? Well, it's "literary." But whether we're talking about dragon tattoos or Da Vinci's codes or fraught Thanksgiving reunions, contemporary novels all seem to share a certain binding principle. Even as they try mightily to distance themselves from one another, in fact, they're all the same genre. They're historicals.

While we debate what constitutes fictional trash and hash over the trendiness of present tense, great events are afoot. Carbon dioxide concentrations are rising. The world is changing. The stories that purport to describe our contemporary world are becoming a bit like mammoths in glaciers. They're nicely detailed, but they're also extinct. Even as these novels explore families and politics, landscapes and nature, murders and liaisons, global mean temperatures continue to jag upward. Permafrost melts. The ocean turns acid. Polar bears mate with grizzlies. Bark beetles chew their way north to new timber.

The tide creeps up the beach and over the dikes.

[mac]

Ovo bi moglo da se uveze.

[PTY]

TOC: 'Halloween' edited by Paula Guran


Prime Books has posted the TOC for their upcoming anthology/collection Halloween edited by Paula Guran. Here it is (alphabetically by author):







    "The October Game" by Ray Bradbury
    "Tessellations" by Gary Braunbeck
    "Memories" by Peter Crowther
    "Universal Soldier" by Charles de Lint
    "Auntie Elspeth's Halloween Story (or The Gourd, The Bad, And The Ugly)" by Esther Friesner
    "Struwwelpeter" by Glenn Hirshberg
    "Pranks" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
    "By the Book" by Nancy Holder
    "The Sticks" by Charlee Jacob
    "Riding Bitch" by K.W. Jeter
    "On the Reef" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
    "Memories of el Dia de los Muertos" by Nancy Kilpatrick
    "The Great Pumpkin Arrives at Last" by Sarah Langan
    "On a Dark October" by Joe R. Lansdale
    "Conversations in a Dead Language" by Thomas Ligotti
    "Hallowe'en in a Suburb" by H.P. Lovecraft (poem)
    "The Vow on Hallowe'en" by Dorothy Macardle
    "Pumpkin Night" by Gary McMahon
    "The Halloween Man" by William F. Nolan
    "Monsters" by Stewart O'Nan
    "Three Doors" by Norman Partridge
    "Ulalume" by Edgar Allan Poe (poem)
    "Night Out" by Tina Rath
    "Hornets" by Al Sarrantonio
    "Tamlane" by Sir Walter Scott (poem)
    "Mask Game" by John Shirley
    "Pork Pie Hat" by Peter Straub
    "Halloween Street" by Steve Rasnic Tem
    "Tricks & Treats: One Night on Halloween Street" by Steve Rasnic Tem
    "The November Game" by F. Paul Wilson
    "Sugar Skulls" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

[PTY]

Big Deal :




In this moving debut from Hugo-winner McIntosh, the prosperous world of 2023 ends not with a bang but with a crackle, the sound of genetically engineered bamboo growing overnight and destroying roads and buildings. Naïve college graduate Jasper struggles to trade charged batteries for food as his "tribe" wanders the Georgia countryside, dodging local cops and designer diseases. Settling in Savannah, they try to find some stability in a crumbling city beset by anarchist gangs and the "scientist-rebels" who release tailored organisms to hasten societal collapse. In the end, each member of the tribe must decide what to give up in order to survive. The novel, expanded from a short story, shows some unevenness in tone, but McIntosh strongly delineates his characters and makes Jasper's struggles very affecting. Though it may be soft, this apocalypse has plenty of sharp edges.

(prvo što su mi rivjui prizvali u sećanje bio je Vindamov Dan Trifida... ) 

[PTY]

Dobra vest za dragog Miću; žanr naučne fantastike će najzad da prigrli & pod okrilje uzme onaj saj-faj izrod poznat kao "Planeta Majmuna"  :

[Gaff]

I da povežem prethodni post s Darylom Gregoryjem:

[PTY]

Liptak i ja se ponovo nalazimo na istoj talasnoj...


REVIEW SUMMARY: A disappointing, but interesting re-imagination of Russian Folklore.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A 20th century re-imagination of Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna.





MY REVIEW:

PROS: A well written, imaginative novel.
CONS: Slow pacing threw everything off, and the story felt as if it was lost for the language.
THE BOTTOM LINE: I think Catherynne Valente and I are completely incompatible. I really want to like her books: The Habitation of the Blessed was a highly anticipated book for me, and I couldn't get past the first hundred pages before putting it aside. With Deathless, I'd hoped for another chance, but quickly found that it was a chore to read.


Set in the background of the rise of Stalinist Russia, Deathless takes the tale of Koschei the Deathless and re-imagines it for a new time and place. For the unaware of Russian folklore, it's an interesting and informative exercise, one that's peaked my interest in some of the background stories that have helped to inform it.

This story follows Marya Morevna as she watches her sisters wedded off to men who've sprang from birds, and who marries Koschei the Deathless, who's hidden his own death from himself, and Marya's own fall from grace with Koschei and her recovery with the naïve soldier Ivan. I have a difficult time remembering some of the finer points of the story, because often, I found myself focusing extensively on the language, rather than the story.

To be sure, Valente has crafted a well-written tale, one that uses repetition and some excellent language to carry the story across. But it comes off more often than not as pretentious, and frequently, I had to go back and revisit passages. By the end of the story, the book simply wasn't something that I was reading for entertainment, but was something that I found myself working to get through simply to finish the book, never a reaction that I want to have when I read something. It's a shame, because the book has quite a bit going for it: the modernization of a story, set in a relatively modern time, but with a real bit of imagination behind it.

At the end of the day, I'm not entirely sure why Deathless wasn't for me: I've come across books with excellent, dense and ponderous writing that I've greatly enjoyed: Suzanne Clarke's fantastic novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell springs to mind. Maybe it's this particular brand of storytelling and alien background when it comes to folklore, or maybe the writing itself. Whatever the reason, I was relieved to reach the end, if anything, so that I could get on to my next book -- which bothers me greatly. Maybe her next novel will suit me better.

[PTY]

Q: What F/SF authors should be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature?



Here's what they said...




Will Shetterly

Will Shetterly is the author of 10 fantasy novels and numerous short stories.

I'm a firm believer that it's a greater honor to be nominated than to win, because there are usually better reasons to quibble about the winner than the nominees. Therefore, my first thoughts on nominees, in no special order: Jane Yolen, Ursula LeGuin, Samuel R. Delany, John Crowley, and Gene Wolfe. If she was still alive, I would include Diana Wynne Jones.



John Ginsberg-Stevens

John Ginsberg-Stevens is a writer, anthropologist, and bookseller whose has loved all forms of SF and Fantastika since he was a wee lad. He is married to a red-headed fiddler and father of an infant geek-in-training who is slowly perfecting her Jedi mind tricks. He is working on a novel and several short stories, is a biweekly columnist for Forces of Geek and a monthly blogger for Apex Book Company. He has taught anthropology and writing at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and several other fine institutions. At parties he participates in improv poetry competitions as Iron Poet Scandinavian Saga, whose lengthy eddaic paeans to the dust-bunnies beneath Odin's throne often extend the celebrations until dawn.

As I started thinking about this question, my first reaction was rather ambivalent: the idea of a writer of fantastika winning the Nobel Prize for Literature was not far-fetched, but seemed at once improbable and, more importantly, unnecessary. What would it do for the allied genres if a "real" writer of SF or fantasy or horror took the honor (and doesn't 1987 Worldcon GoH Doris Lessing count for something)? Would there be a sudden renewal of interest in fantastic literature? What does the Prize do for the field of literature anyway?. The Prize is an odd creation, funded rather ambiguously by the estate of the man who patented dynamite and who was prematurely excoriated as a "merchant of death" when his brother's death was confused with him dying. The Prize was to be awarded "to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction," an instruction that has its own peculiar history of interpretation. It is a strange honor, one created by privilege and granted by a tiny elite, to acknowledge something that is, as the award's history itself demonstrates, rather subjective, leading one to wonder just what is being lauded in its giving.

For these reasons, I think that the question is interesting not as one of speculation, but as one of rumination about what strengths we find in the works of genre authors that exemplify fantastika's broader artistic and contemplative values. Looking for such nominees is like looking for our Jose Saramago or our Nadine Gordimer, but it's also like looking for our Sully Prudhomme or Roger Martin du Gard; what was resonant fifty years ago may not be today. As Gene Wolfe once noted about the Nobel, winning it is no guarantee of enduring importance or admiration, especially as its standards have shifted over time. A given writer's legacy is rarely influenced by winning the Award, nor is it predictive of enduring eminence. But the question of which authors in fantastika come to mind as contenders can start a conversation about what we think fantastic literature has to offer authors as well as readers.

Wolfe would, perhaps not surprisingly, be my first nominee. As our gracious host noted himself on Twitter a few weeks ago: "It's my contention that Gene Wolfe is one of the few core genre writers who could plausibly get a Nobel Prize in Literature." A quick search on Goggle turned up many conversations about this possibility, touting Wolfe's gifts as world-class and deeply literary. He fits many of the preconceptions we have about what makes an author worthy of the Prize: his work is written with precision and profundity, his novels are often capacious and labyrinthine, with subtexts, depths of interpretation, and philosophical intricacies. They have aesthetic flourishes and meticulous structures, and they often have a lot to say about human nature. Wolfe reflects, for a number of readers, all of the qualities that we think a Nobel Laureate should possess.

And yet, I wonder if he is the best name to put forth. Wolfe is one of my favorite writers, and hugely influential, but I can't help but think that he is too easy a choice to advocate. In some ways, Wolfe's work fulfills certain expectations of what "literature" should be; dense, sometimes overly verbose, stratospherically intellectual, headily erudite. This makes him a fine candidate, but I think there are other authors who, for somewhat different reasons, are as good if not better nominees.

Ursula K. Le Guin comes to mind immediately. Her work often has those literary qualities I have described for Wolfe, but she has also demonstrated a wider range, writing YA fiction, criticism, and even a re-interpretation of the Tao Te Ching. She has addressed political topics, social issues, and the very idea of story itself in her work. Her range is stunning, and her ability to create works that can be simply deft or exactingly sophisticated demonstrates a gift for adaptation that arises precisely from her grasp and utilization of the fantastic and the mythic as her inspiration. Her literary heights might not dizzy us as often as Wolfe's do, but she can ground us or make us soar in our minds with a shift in phrase or notion. In her work we see much of the potential of fantastika to serve the author's talents and skill.

Samuel R. Delany would be another candidate of equal value. Delany too creates works with amazing depths and ornamentations, provokes emotion and reflection with power and sophistication. But, moreso than Wolfe or Le Guin he plays with the form of narrative, with the use of words, with the meanings that are possible in the structure and linguistic relationships within a story. His experimentations are legendary (if lamented by some), and his knowledge of literature, of the building blocks of signification, make his stories into a different sort of wonderland that can dishevel and delight, can ask hard questions and provide sobering answers. Delany fearlessly writes about himself as well, and while occasionally indulgent (as almost all autobiography is), his purpose is to reflect on how the words and experiences and ideas that influence his thoughts and actions, particularly from SF, can themselves be rendered on the page to provoke the reader and explicate matters that may not be easily grasped straightforwardly. He is one of our most powerful literary critics, and frequently takes great chances with his work (as those who have read or heard him read excerpts from his new novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders can attest). Fantastika is both toolbox and contemplative garden for him, and he has created a literary legacy that few can match.

My last nominee, which should also be unsurprising, is Joanna Russ. I have written about her influence on me personally, but as the outpouring of tributes for her work demonstrate, her influence was mighty and pervasive. She precipitated a shift in thinking about some of the essential conceits of SF, of the production of literature, and of the ongoing struggle to crack open the potential of fantastika to discover new ideas, to look at our assumptions from different angles, and to construct stories that did not assuage the reader, but that forced them to reflect on what they knew. As she has passed away she is technically ineligible for the Prize, but as a writer I reserve the right to change the rules a bit; if there is an author of the fantastic who fulfills the idea of "ideal direction," it is Russ.

One closing thought: these are not just nominees as "SF authors" but as authors who write fantastika that are more than worthy of such a Prize, odd as it is. Their work is not just technically proficient, not merely "literary;" it touches lives, reverberates through the field of fantastika and beyond, asks questions that demand a response in the reader, tells us that there is more to the world than what we see, than what others tell us is there. It does what I feel that literature should do: shake us, enrapture us, make our days strange and wonderful, tear at cherished notions and force us to defend them, perhaps question them, perhaps discover something new and stronger within them. I wish there was a prize for that.


Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. Card also writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts.

Nobel Prize for Ray Bradbury. By no means does Ray Bradbury represent the main tradition of science fiction or fantasy, if only because he is inimitable. Instead, his stories, at their best, represent the finest literature of their time. Today it is only Fahrenheit 451 that schoolchildren read -- which is a shame, since it is not even close to being his best work. It is for Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, The October Country, and I Sing the Body Electric that he has earned a place in world literature worthy of permanent recognition.

If there is a runner-up, then it must be Harlan Ellison. Like Bradbury, his greatest work has been in the short story form; in addition, his personal essays and generous collaborations add luster to the body of his work. "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Tick-Tock Man" and "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" pulled him to the forefront of science fiction, but the more of his work you read, the more richly you are rewarded.


Elizabeth Hand

Elizabeth Hand is the multiple-award-winning author of numerous novels and short fiction.

My candidates (in alphabetical order):

    John Crowley
    Samuel Delany
    M. John Harrison
    Gene Wolfe



Gary K Wolfe

Gary K. Wolfe, Professor of Humanities and English at Roosevelt University and contributing editor and lead reviewer for Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field, is the author of critical studies The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction, David Lindsay, Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever (with Ellen R. Weil). His Soundings: Reviews 1992-1996 (Beccon, 2005), received the British Science Fiction Association Award for best nonfiction, and was nominated for a Hugo Award. A second review collection, Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001, appeared in April 2010. Wolfe has received the Eaton Award, the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and, in 2007, a World Fantasy Award for criticism. A collection of essays, Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature, is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. He is also well known in the speculative fiction community for the Coode Street Podcast, in conjunction with Jonathan Strahan.

Which SF/F Authors should be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature?

Offhand, I can think of three different ways to answer this question, all based on the assumption that we're talking about living writers with substantial long-term careers, which is allegedly what the Nobel Prize is for.

Answer #1: None of them. I'm tempted to say that our very best SF/F writers deserve better than to have their names appended to a list that is in substantial part made up of writers such as Sully Prudhomme, Grazia Deledda, and Pearl Buck. If you only recognize one of those names, that's sort of my point. Like most awards, the Nobel has a spotty record of identifying awardees whose works are still read, or readable, more than a decade after the prize is awarded, and it might be just as well for us to stop obsessing over these very traditional forms of mainstream recognition. Whether we like it or not, SF/F is perceived as genre literature, and the only genre which has been occasionally recognized by the Nobel committees is historical fiction. That should tell us something right there. SF, almost by definition, is forward-looking, and the Nobel, almost by definition, is backward-looking.

Answer #2: It's already happened. If one makes only a slight change in the question--from asking about SF/F writers to asking about writers who have written SF/F in one form or another, then the Nobel history doesn't look quite so bleak, from Rudyard Kipling to Hermann Hesse and William Golding to, most prominently and recently Doris Lessing, who has offered some very public and spirited defenses of SF as a legitimate mode of writing. Even Philip Roth, who is perennially listed as a candidate the last several years, has at least one fantasy (The Breast) and one alternate-history novel (The Plot Against America) in his bibliography. Of course I'm being a bit coy about this, and it's quite likely that Lessing, for example, received the prize in spite of her SF rather than because of it.

Answer #3: OK, I'll play the game. Since the Nobel committees don't like to recognize genre literature as anything other than a temporary illness which serious writers just ought to get over, we probably ought to look at writers whose careers are seen as somewhat broader than genre, even though genre may make up the bulk of their work. In this sense, the most likely living candidate, and certainly one of the most deserving, is Ursula K. Le Guin. If the committee were ever to look inside the genre, to see what richness and complexity can be accomplished within that framework, then I'd add Gene Wolfe to the list. Both are richly deserving, I think, though both suffer from the handicap of being Americans and having a substantial degree of popularity.

There is a long list of writers in comparatively early stages of their careers who might become reasonable candidates in a couple of decades.


Stina Leicht

Stina Leicht's debut novel Of Blood and Honey, a historical Fantasy with an Irish Crime edge set in 1970s Northern Ireland, was released by Night Shade books in February 2011. She also has a flash fiction piece in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's surreal anthology Last Drink Bird Head.

This was a tough question, largely because I feel that the award itself is so important. Whether or not it's true of the prize for literature, I associate it with works that aren't only beautiful or entertaining but are also ethical somehow. So, I'll stick with SFF literature that comments on the human condition. (Again, whether I've interpreted the question correctly is a whole other thing.) Anyway, here are my thoughts. Daniel Keyes is my first choice. Flowers for Algernon is an amazing, powerful work. Not only does Keyes present interesting scientific concepts, but he also creates heartbreaking characters. Charlie is so real and so tragic. In many ways, he's all of us. We're all destined to live those stellar moments of clarity and beauty and then pass into nothing through no fault of our own. Next, I'll name Margaret Atwood. A controversial one, I know, but The Handmaid's Tale has stuck with me every bit as much as the others I'll name. Regardless of whether Atwood was willing to admit its status as a SFF work or not, it's a great book and an important one. Whenever I hear someone downplay the contributions of female writers to the genre, Atwood is one of those names who comes to mind as a defense. I'd also throw down with Ray Bradbury, but then someone else is bound to toss his name into the hat. And well, that needs no explanation, really. All I have to say is Fahrenheit 451, and we're done.

Enough with the older stuff. What about newer works? In a way, I'll admit my choices aren't fair because I'm not as up to date these days as I'd like. However, a few things have snuck past my mountain of research. I was fascinated with the concepts and the world of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl. Bacigalupi poses some fantastic questions about where we're headed with genetic engineering. Granted, it's the same question Mary Shelley posed with her novel Frankenstein, but it's a question we human beings should never forget to ask. Lastly, I'm going to go with Libba Bray. There are some amazing things going on in young adult fiction, and in particular, young adult SFF. Bray is definitely a part of that force. Going Bovine was a stunning surrealist piece and Beauty Queens is far more weighty than its title and tongue-in-cheek introduction implies.

[Perin]

E, a skontaj, dva imena koja meni padaju na pamet su upravo Džin Vulf i Ursula Legvin. 

[Gaff]

Ursula Legvin bi, svakako, bila i moj izbor. Kao i Batlerova.

[PTY]

Slažem se, pogotovo za Batlerovu, ali potpuno me (prijatno) iznenadilo koliko se Dilejni visoko kotira.

[Perin]

Men je i Atvudova okej, ali smatram da je ona mejnstrim pisac.

[PTY]

Tjah, ja sam po tom pitanju beznadežno aut-of-sink...   meni ti je Atvudova nekako u rangu sa Uelbekom, i ja ti tu nisam u stanju da dočitam niti jedan jedini naslov...  ali opet, upravo mi to potencira izvesne razlike između "onda" i "danas": recimo, sećam se vremena kad su domaći doktori književnosti nosali pod miškom subverzivnog Balarda, Barouza, Sterdžena, Spinrada ili Rusovu, i zato stvarno ne mogu da pojmim kako to mogu da nadoknade Uelbek ili Atvudova. Mislim stvarno, to meni niti je žanr niti je mejnstrim, to mi je prosto kvazižanrovska bezvezarija. A koliko vidim iz ovdašnjih opaski, i Išiguro mu je tu negde.    

[Perin]

Nisam čitao Išigura

[Gaff]

Za Sterdžena baš i nisam siguran ali su Balard, Barouz, Spinrad i Rusoova, ako ništa drugo, jedinstveni kako po stilu, tako i po temama koje obrađuju. Atvudova je (po mom mišljenju) slab pokušaj imitacije unikatnosti prethodnih.
Međutim, ni jedan (ma koliko specifični da su) od gorepomenutih ne predstavlja žanrovske autore koji zaslužuju Nobela (ponavljam, ma koliko da su specifični ili jedinstveni).

(ni ja nisam čitao Išigura)

[PTY]

Pa sad, okej, možda cela ta ideja 'za Nobela' i jeste malko prežestoka, ali Sterdženu garant treba malko rehalibilitacije, ipak je čovek morao da palpom plaća kiriju, isto kao i Dik... 

[angel011]

Tjah, ja sam po tom pitanju beznadežno aut-of-sink...   meni ti je Atvudova nekako u rangu sa Uelbekom, i ja ti tu nisam u stanju da dočitam niti jedan jedini naslov...  ali opet, upravo mi to potencira izvesne razlike između "onda" i "danas": recimo, sećam se vremena kad su domaći doktori književnosti nosali pod miškom subverzivnog Balarda, Barouza, Sterdžena, Spinrada ili Rusovu, i zato stvarno ne mogu da pojmim kako to mogu da nadoknade Uelbek ili Atvudova. Mislim stvarno, to meni niti je žanr niti je mejnstrim, to mi je prosto kvazižanrovska bezvezarija. A koliko vidim iz ovdašnjih opaski, i Išiguro mu je tu negde.    

Atvudova ima sjajnih stvari, ali nežanrovskih.

[PTY]

Mira Grant i njeni zombiji:


A trailer for Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant

[PTY]

Our question for this week's fearless panelists:

Q: What Civilizations and cultures are neglected as inspirations in Fantasy and Science Fiction?
Here's what they said...

Daniel AbrahamDaniel Abraham is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. His work includes the International Horror Guild Award winning and Nebula nominated "Flat Diane" and Hugo nominated "The Cambist and Lord Iron." His Long Price Quartet novels are published by Tor in the US and Orbit UK, along with editions in half a dozen other languages. Daniel's latest novels are Leviathan Wakes (which he co-wrote with Ty Franck under the shared pseudonym James A. Covey) and The Dragon's Path

Almost all of them are under-used and almost none of them are utterly ignored. And there are reasons for both of those things to be true. Most fantasy and science fiction is less in conversation with real history and culture than it is with other fantasy and science fiction literature, so there winds up being a feedback loop in which fantasy is about faux-medieval quasi-Europe because it's all in the shadow of Tolkien (rather than because of some particular virtue of faux-medieval quasi-Europe). And at the same time, genre writers try new things and reach for the unfamiliar in a way that encourages experimentation with non-standard cultures. Barry Hughart's The Bridge of Birds, Ian McDonald's River of Gods, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood books, and Who Fears Death? by Nnedi Okorafor all come to mind. All of them are bringing something to the table that broadens that conversation within the genre, but none of them have yet brought that so much into the mainstream that their settings have become standard.

If I got to pick what cultures and civilizations got more stage time in our genres, I'd like to see more of India, especially in the era of the East India Company. I think having a fantasy set in a similar place and time would open up some really interesting possibilities. I'd also like to see more use of eastern Europe and Russia of the kind that Ekaterina Sedilla and Catherynne Valente have been doing.

More than particular civilizations and cultures, though, I'd be very interested in seeing more stories set in contexts of poverty. Class is the third rail of American culture, and when I see what noir does with rural poverty in something like Winter's Bone, it makes me interested in seeing something similar in other genres.


Justina RobsonJustina Robson is the author of Silver Screen, Mappa Mundi, Natural History, Living Next-Door to the God of Love, and the Quantum Gravity series (Keeping It Real, Selling Out, Going Under, and the upcoming Chasing the Dragon - all from Pyr). Given that so much of our genre has historically been the product of a narrow band of human beings with a relatively narrow area of interests I'd say without actually surveying it that the answer to this must be MOST of them. Whether you regard said inspiration as plundering or reinvigorating is probably another question, but given the way writers operate it won't make any different - everything is grist to the mill and the mill grinds what it will. Now that the internet is here making it so much easier to have access to previously-tough-to-find anthropological information I guess things will change and anything with a relatively rich fabulism will find itself put to new use.


Rene SearsRene Sears has been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy for as long as she can remember. She is the slush reader/ editorial assistant at Pyr. You can find her on Twitter as @renesearsOne thing that's so exciting about SF/F right now is that many writers are exploring cultures that aren't as well-trodden in the genre. In no particular order:
Nnedi Okafor's powerful Who Fears Death is set in a post-apocalyptic Africa, but very much draws from contemporary issues, and despite some extremely grim events manages to be hopeful.

I'm seeing more stories now with Asian settings as well. Cindy Pon's YA books Silver Phoenix/ Fury of the Phoenix are set in Xia, an alternate China, and employ hunger-inducing descriptions of food as well as creepy monsters. Richard Park's Lord Yamada stories at Beneath Ceaseless Skies are set in Japan. I don't know of any SF/F set in Korea, either historical or contemporary, but would love to see some.

I'm very much looking forward to Elizabeth Bear's forthcoming Range of Ghosts, which will have cultures analogous to those of the Central Asian steppe. One of our own forthcoming books, Blackdog by K. V. Johansen, is not directly analogous but has a similar steppe-culture feel.

There have been several books out recently set in or drawing from various periods of Russian/ Soviet history. Jasper Kent's Danilov Quintet begins with Napoleon's invasion of Moscow in 1812 and follows the Danilov family to 1917 in a Russia suffering the depredations of the vampires it invited in and can't get rid of. Cathrynne Valente's Deathless combines the Russian folktale of Koschei the Deathless with a Soviet-era setting, while Ekaterina Sedia's Secret History of Moscow is set in the 1990s. Ken MacLeod's forthcoming Restoration Game takes place in a near-future informed by the collapse of the U.S.S.R.

I'd love to see more books set in contemporary South America, and more books drawing from Native American/ First Nations culture, both past and contemporary. I would be thrilled to read stories set in Hawai'i, as well as Australia and New Zealand-- I'm aware of Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead, which has Maori elements, but have yet to read it. I'd welcome suggestions about any books or stories I'm missing.

I'm also interested in books that take several cultures and give them an alternate history together. Kate Elliott describes Cold Magic as "an Afro-Celtic post-Roman Regency novel." I haven't read it yet, but that description is certainly enticing. Fusion history sounds as fun as fusion cuisine.



James MacdonaldJames D. Macdonald is an author of over 35 fantasy and science fiction novels, often in collaboration with his wife Debra Doyle.Under-used world cultures and settings?

Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong places, but while there's tons of stuff in temperate zones, I don't see a whole lot set in the tropics, particularly urban Latin America (Panama through Colombia). And for world cultures, non-medieval Spanish cultures aren't being done a lot. I'm not talking about Castenada nor about the magic realists, but the current folklore and society of around 7% of the world's population.

Spain has a vibrant science fiction tradition, but I'm not seeing it translated, or used, in the English-speaking SF world.


Karen LordKaren Lord was a physics teacher, diplomat, part-time soldier, academic and traveller (some of them at the same time). She is now a research consultant and writer in Barbados. Redemption in Indigo, winner of the 2011 Crawford Award, is her debut novel. You can find her on twitter (@Karen_Lord) more often than not. The old places are too familiar: sci-fi set in MegaMetropolis, fantasy in pseudo-mediaeval country. New locations sometimes arise, but they remain unique, or, if they generate sufficient appeal, they can spawn enough imitations to win a subgenre label. Our fictional cultures and civilisations are reused and recycled, just as Hollywood has developed a peculiar demographic and aesthetic that little resembles reality. We live in the real world, but we prefer to step into the Matrix for our fiction.

It would be interesting if we could scale back the Hollywood and absorb some influences from Bollywood, Nollywood and wuxia. But, given that they too have their flaws, it would be even more interesting if our new fictional worlds were not obtained second-hand from old fiction, but primary-sourced from the real. The real is complex, changing and surprising. Its truths are vulnerable when documented by the hostile, uncomprehending, or fetishising researcher. In spite of (and because of) these challenges, quality, not quantity, should be the aim. Why list underused cultures and civilisations when we can't even do justice to the ones we've already have?


Lyda MorehouseLyda Morehouse is the author of the AngeLINK series, which won her a Shamus in 2001 and the Philip K. Dick Special Citation for Excellence in 2004. Despite this critical acclaim, she now writes romance and urban fantasy under the pseudonym Tate Hallaway. Tate's most recent release is Almost To Die For, a YA vampire novel (August 2010). Lyda returned to the AngeLINK universe in March 2011 with the publication of Resurrection Code by Mad Norwegian Press. You can find Lyda and Tate all over the web, but feel free to star at: www.lydamorehouse.com or www.tatehallaway.com.For science fiction, clearly: white male scientists! In fantasy: Ireland.
In all seriousness, my first impulse was to say Africa, but I think that more and more authors are turning to Africa for fantasy and science fiction settings -- particularly authors like Nnedi Okorafor and Stephen Barnes among others. I used North Africa, specifically Egypt, for the setting of my new science fiction novel _Resurrection Code_. Very likely, however, we could still more science fiction, in particular, that uses Africa as a setting.

My next guess was going to be the Arab world, but Saladin Ahmad had been taking up that setting quite nicely. In fact, I just discovered and really enjoyed a couple of his short stories: "A Judgment of Sword and Souls" a fantasy that I listened to at PodCastle, but which was originally published in IGMS, and a science fiction story "A Faithful Soldier, Prompted" which appeared in the all-Arab/Muslim issue of Apex Magazine last November. He will have a new novel set in the Arab world _Throne of the Crescent Moon_ coming out in February of next year from DAW.

What about American Indians? I remember being really struck that the actor who played Helo on the new "Battlestar Galactica" was a First Nations actor, and that's not something you see a lot: Native Americans in space/in the future. Of course, there was Chakotay on "Voyager," so maybe I'm wrong. There is also Eleanor Arnason's "Mammoths of the Great Plains" is a lovely science fiction/alternate history (with a fantasy feel) novella.

So what setting or culture is completely untapped? I'm not sure, but, focusing on science fiction, I would like to see more Latino/Latina characters represented. I feel like Mexico and South America could use a bit more attention, though my friend and fellow writer Barth Anderson set his near-future novel _Patron Saint of Plagues_ in Mexico City. He followed that book up with a fantasy that takes place partly in Central America, _The Magician and the Fool_.

As far as cultures go, I'm still always up for more queerness in science fiction and fantasy. I know that, for me, finding echoes of myself in science fiction stories like Theodore Sturgeon's "World Well Lost" and fantasy like that written by Elizabeth A. Lynn were critical to my survival. I'm not entirely being hyperbolic there, either, because growing up in a small Wisconsin town in the 1970s, science fiction was, in point of fact, my version of "It Gets Better."

I know that things like "Race Fail" have made white authors like myself a little nervous about writing characters of color, but I think that's mistake. The far bigger mistake is to dismiss/ignore a future of color or claim a future "beyond race." Because what we say about the future is what we say about ourselves. I continue to hope that "it gets better."


N.K. JemisinN.K. Jemisin's short stories have appeared in Baen's Universe, Strange Horizons, Postscripts, and elsewhere. Her fantasy novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Orbit) has been nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Here latest novel is The Broken Kingdoms.

Everything outside of the British Isles/Atlantic Archipelago.


Guy Gavriel KayGuy Gavriel Kay is the author of Under Heaven

"I'm never contrarian (!) but it does feel a bit wrong to imagine writers cynically prowling in search of underexploited real estate in fantasy. (Maori! Toltec!). The key, surely, is to work from within, let research be guided by what engages, animates; for authors to be steered not by claim-staking but by passion. I am happier reading, say, another Renaissance-inspired work if it is genuinely inspired, rather follow a writer who has done routine due diligence on some apparently under-used time and place purely because there was no one else exploiting it. If a writer's intense engagement steers them to new settings, that's wonderful - for all of us. But intense engagement + talent will give us something wonderful, even in areas covered before."


Ian McDonaldIan McDonald is a British science fiction novelist whose novels include the Locus-Award-winning Desolation Road (1988), Out on Blue Six (1989), the Philip K. Dick Award-winning King of Morning, Queen of Day (1991), Ares Express (2001). His widely acclaimed, BSFA-Award-winning novel River of Gods (2004) introduced readers to a future India of 2047. His follow up novel, the BSFA-Award-winning Brasyl (2007), was also well-received. His collection of short stories, Cyberabad Days, is set in the same future India. His latest books include Desolation Road, Ares Express, and The Dervish House,a finalist for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
I can't really answer that much for fantasy, though I could imagine a dearth of South American-inspired -and-located epic fantasy. Science fiction is indeed more my area. There the landscape is a little different --there's always been the tradition of the 'one-culture-planet' in which one Earth nation has enetirely settled one extrasolar planet and written the homeland extemely large across the stars. One of the funkiest examples was Richard Lupoff's 'With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Li'l Ole new Alabama', which, IIRC, featured a spacewar betwen New Alabama and New Haiti --and some very cool zombies.

I set my novel ;River of Gods' and the story collection 'Cyberabad Days'in India because it seemd to me that it was a global culture that had been largely overlooked by Western Science Fiction. Likewise, I'll never (but then again, never say never) set a novel in China becaiuse it's too obvious and too much the default state of the imagination when we in the West think of 'Asia'. I've been reading about Central Asia recently (not Fantastika) and it's fascinating and pretty underrepresented -- I can think of Geoff Ryman's 'Air' and that's about it. 'The Dervish House' is set in Turkey --or, more specifically, Istanbul, because it seemed to me that here was a major country undergoing an economic and political boom withan inteersting Imperial past that had really featured in SF before,

North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa --particularly West Afruca, which is where I suspect the next global boom will happen-- seem poorly represented. Indonesia and the Pacific nations --though I'm thinking a little about them for the putative Next Novel. Germany! And, where I'm writing this, at a convention in Stockholm, Sweden and Scandinavia (though Norse myth is one course one of the preferred fuels for fantasy). I've been visiting the former Yugoslavia in the past year and it's one of the most interesting places I've ever been. Of course, my own home country of Northern Ireland is a tad neglected --but then again there's Stina Leicht's 'Of Blood and Honey'. Writers from all over the planet are looking around them at the world and engaging sensibilities with geopolitics. That's exciting.


Steven SilverSteven H Silver is the editor of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus, the publisher of ISFiC Press, editor of three anthologies for DAW Books, and the author of several short stories. He recently edited a two volume collection of Lester del Rey's short fiction for NESFA Press.Because the majority of speculative fiction in the English language is written by and for people whose culture is based on Western Europe, the majority of cultures represented in the field are based on those civilizations, whether Roman or Celtic or Greece. However, even when an author turns their attention to a non-Western civilization, in writing about it in (or using it as the basis for) a work of speculative fiction, they have a tendency to view the culture through the lens of that same Western civilization which informs so much of the average reader's world view. Several science fiction authors over the years have explored other cultures, and although there have been some egregious examples (Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan stories spring to mind), other authors have been able to write about different cultures with respect and accuracy, using foreign cultures to tell their stories, from Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts's Korean based Empire Trilogy to Kara Dalkey's Indian-based Blood of the Goddess trilogy. Other authors have made good use of their own cultures as the basis for their speculative fiction, whether it is Nalo Hopkinson or Tobias Buckell using the Caribbean, Somtow Sucharitkul's use of Thailand, Nnedi Okorafor and Nigeria, or Ekaterina Sedia and Russia.
In a lot of cases, a potentially interesting historical culture has only left behind tantalizing hints about day to day life and beliefs, nothing tangible enough to form the basis of the type of culture needed to create the background for a work of speculative fiction. Therefore, the Angkor Wat society, or Timbuktu traders, or the Clovis culture (a moniker which always makes me think of Merovingians in America), are not ripe for fully realized settings in science fiction or fantasy.

One problem with writing in a foreign culture is the potential for cultural misappropriation, especially when there are people who belong to that culture who feel that an author's use of their heritage is disrespectful or outright incorrect in its representation. For this reason, writing about long-dead, or extremely altered, historical cultures provides a degree of safety for the author. When writing about any culture that isn't one's own, the author should be careful to do their research and treat the culture with respect. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward offer a writers workshop, Writing the Other, and have an accompanying book, Writing the Other: A Practical Guide to help authors with the complexities of writing in a foreign culture. (http://www.sfwa.org/members/shawl/other/)

But the focus on the Mind Meld is supposed to be on some of the under-represented cultures, which are legion, that speculative fiction could make use of. Some intriguing cultures which spring to mind include the Basques, the Armenians, any of a number of different African and Asian cultures. While certain major cultures around the world do find themselves used in various ways, including India, Brazil, and Russia, many of the different cultures surrounding those areas are overlooked. There isn't a lot of SF that draws from Bangladesh, Uruguay, or Kazakhstan. And, of course, each of those and so many more cultures can draw from history. The only stagnant culture is the dead one (and even then, our understanding can continue to change).

[Dacko]

Mislim da je Išiguro ipak previše Britanac za nindžu... možda samo neka krajnje džemsbondovska varijanta  

A inače, meni se ova knjiga, kao što rekoh, dopala, stvarno je izuzetno napisana, posebno ona evokacija detinjstva i ljubavni trougao i, uopšte, psihologija njih troje, ali mi priča jednostavno ne pije vodu na nivou opšte koncepcije, dakle kako? kada? zašto? Čitava ta ideja o načinu uzgajanja klonova, o njihovoj upotrebi odnosno životnom toku, procedura transplantacija - sve mi deluje krajnje neuverljivo a ja, pritom, nisam nikakav lekar ili biolog. Ili kad se jednoj ličnosti omakne: "Kako da ukinemo klonove kad živimo u društvu gde je rak izlečiva bolest?" Znam da će me sad neko klepiti po ušima, ali otkad se metastaze leče transplantacijom?
Naravno da je jasno kako autor sve moguće "tvrde" detalje izostavlja kao nebitne i da ne bi remetili priču, ali da prostite, nije svejedno šta kada i kome vade, da li bubreg ili rožnjače. Pitanje kompatibilnosti davaoca i primaoca nije ni okrznuto. I na kraju, moram da priznam da mi je najveća mana bila jedna čisto psihološka začkoljica - nikada, ni u jednom trenutku, ne vidimo nijednu osobu koja pomišlja na nekakav beg, ilegalu, ili makar na krajnje ljudsku reakciju u stilu one Mujine iz vica "Neće vala od moje kože doboš!" da se namerno zaraze nekom polnom bolešću, nasrnu na heroin ili nešto slično. Svi se mirno i rezignirano pokoravaju, uz eventualne pokušaje da se nešto uradi preko nadležnih instanci - a to nešto nije čak ni oslobođenje nego puko odlaganje. I tu se meni onaj predivan stil i nostalgična atmosfera osamdesetih sa audokasetama i uzvišena rezignacija poslednje rečenice smuče svi zajedno i ja počnem da mašem rukama i prskam pljuvačkom. (Izvinjavam se.)

Tek sad procitah knjigu, a ovaj mi se post odavno vrti po glavi, pa prosto moram da dopišem ponešto iako s ovolikim zakašnjenjem.
Elem, pitanje je da li je prava ljudska reakcija zaista pobuna ili ipak pomirenost sa sudbinom i instinkt krda. Tako je mene u detinjstvu stalno kopkalo zašto se onoliki ljudi koje su Nemci streljali nisu pobunili, pokušali da pobegnu, da makar ugrizu najbližeg Nemca, ali ne... Bilo je mudrih ili patetiènih poslednjih reèi, dostojanstvene smrti, ali ne i spontane pobune, bar sudeæi po svim onim prièama o konc-logorima, o Šumaricama, Bubnju i ostalim stratištima. Ili zašto su onoliki crnci slušali robovlasnike cak i kad ih je bilo sto na jednog? Pa onda pogledajmo da li se mi danas bunimo zbog bilo cega što nam se dešava, a svašta nam se glupo dešava, pa da li smo stvarno sami oterali Miloševica ili su oni iz Otpora morali debelo da se potrude da razmrdaju ljude da uopšte izaðu iz kuæa i šetaju, a šta li bi tek bilo da je bila potrebna neka oružana pobuna... I što to se to nije desilo mnooogo pre ako je ljudima u prirodi da se suprotstavljaju. Suština je da se lepo dresirani ljudi ne bune, kao što se ni mi ne bunimo protiv onog što smatramo normalnim i što se prosto dešava oko nas, ma koliko bi to možda iziskivalo pobunu ako bismo ga osmotrili s distance ili ako bi nas neko na nju podstakao. Stoga mi deo o pomirenosti klonova sa sopstvenim mestom u svetu nije nelogican, baš to mi je bilo dirljivo i... ljudski. Bune se i izazivaju promene u svetu samo oni koji vec imaju nešto ili èak svašta, nikad (ili neverovatno retko) oni koji nemaju ništa.
A Išigurova knjiga mi se, zacudo, dopala mnogo manje od filma po njoj, koji me je bukvalno naterao u plac iako sam znala da su te scene namerno tako smišljene, i posle tri meseca još uvek mi izlaze pred oci. I svaki put kad ih se setim, naježim se i imam potrebu da ljudima koje volim to i kažem, da ih zagrlim ili oprostim ako su me nešto iznervirali. U filmu nekako nelogicnosti u zapletu nisu toliko bitne koliko neverovatan splet prikazanih emocija i savršeno docarani likovi. I kako je samo prikazano ono što je u knjizi precutano, to kako izgledaju davaoci posle nekoliko donacija, i kako se doktori prema njima ophode... Ne znam za drugi slucaj da je film toliko nadogradio knjigu po kojoj je stvaran, obicno uvek više volim da procitam nego da pogledam neku pricu, ali ovo su uspeli da snime bolje nego što bi meni pošlo za rukom da zamislim, i mnogo potresnije... Pogledajte film.

[Mme Chauchat]

  Pa, nažalost sam u letnjem režimu rada i neću skoro sesti da opširno odgovorim, ali - čak i u konclogorima je bivalo pobuna, što spontanih i neorganizovanih koje uglavnom nisu doprle do nas ni u vidu priča jer su odmah zatrte, što onih zaista suludo herojskih kao u varšavskom getu. Naravno da je instinkt krda i poslušnosti dobrih građana bio ono što je sve to omogućilo, kako u istoriji tako i u ovom romanu, ali meni se čini da su Išigurovi junaci previše slični standardnoj razmaženo-sebično-nepokorno-samostalnoj deci današnjice, bez tragova ozbiljnog dresiranja i ispiranja mozga koje bi baš ovolika pasivnost zahtevala.

[Dacko]

Ima još dosta mudrih ljudi koji zbore kao ti, upravo povodom ove knjige i filma, no sigurno tumačenje zavisi i od toga gde i kako živimo i kakve ljude srećemo, bar sam se ja od buntovnice sa razlogom ili bez njega skoro pa pretvorila u dobru građanku jer su mi pobune ispale jalove i nikad nisu naškodile ni sistemu ni ličnosti protiv koje bih se bunila, i sad ćutim i kad uđem u autobus čiji vozač razgovara mobilnim ili kad vidim da neko baca kesu u reku, pa čak i kad vaspitačica moga sina kaže pomarandža a ja je nagonski ispravim, posle mi bude krivo jer ona to neće naučiti ni od mene ako nije dosad, nego će samo biti uvređena. Ili da skroz banalizujem koliko ljudi lakše trpe nego što se bune: kada mi je mesar isekao neke masne šnicle, a ja tražila da iseče nove, besprekorne, sugrađanka do mene odmah je uzviknula kako su njoj dobre, i neka ih da njoj, iako je svejedno morala da sačeka da ja prvo dobijem ono što želim. A nije bila nestašica mesa i šnicle su stvarno bile bljak... Što li je to učinila, da li joj je mesar je autoritet pošto ima mantil i glavni je u radnji, je li htela da mu se dodvori, ili samo da mu stavi do znanja kako njoj uvek može uvaljivati šta hoće, ili samo da ocrni onog ko se izdvaja tj. mene, koja sam se usudila da prekršim nepisano pravilo da o tome šta kupujete ne odlučujete vi i da je svaka pobuna neukusna i spada u kršenje pravila lepog ponašanja...
I među decom današnjice ima mnogo izuzetno pokornih pravilima društva (koja možda nisu naša pravila), da krenemo samo od toga šta sve pod pritiskom okoline školarke rade po školskim WC-ima. Ako deci koja rastu u internatu, bez roditeljske pažnje i bez ikakvog izdvajanja iz mase koje bi doprinelo razvijanju ega, kažemo da  nešto mora biti ovako ili onako, verujem da će ona to prihvatiti i usvojiti zasvagda, po onoj jezuitskoj ideji o lakom oblikovanju dečjih umova.
Drugo su ova naša razmažena i prezaštićena deca koja preispituju roditeljske tvrdnje i pametuju i raspravljaju se otkako progovore – to čine jer ih mi podržavamo u tome, sami smo ih tome naučili, u stilu: neka to rade, daj bože da takvi budu i kad im vršnjaci budu predlagali kako da žive, a drugo su deca iz romana koja su od početka odgajana kao posebna, kao manje vredna, kao drugoklasna, gde je to ispiranje mozga vrlo suptilno sprovedeno, ono ,,kažu im i ne kažu", s gomilom tabua, s temama o kojima ni međusobno ne govore, o svrsi koja se shvata kao nepromenljiva. Uostalom, i naš kraj je nepromenljiv, i mi znamo da ćemo neminovno umreti, pa bunimo li se zbog toga, bežimo li, borimo li se, radimo li išta pametno sem što živimo dan za danom dok ne okončamo, sem ono malo umetnika i njihovih pomagača koji ispunjavaju život tako što istovremeno ulepšavaju naš.

[PTY]

Phoenix Pick nudi za julsku besplatnu knjigu "Solis", A.A. Attanasio.
kupon šifra je 99922191, pa ko voli...

Mr. Charlie is a brain without a body, revived after being frozen for a thousand years.
Charlie Outis has no idea of what the world might be like in the far future after he decides to have his brain frozen with the slim hope of it being revived one day.

But even a thousand years from now, brains are a valuable commodity--even brains without heads. But who does the brain belong to? And who controls a mind without a body.

Solis is a thought provoking and original exploration of what it means to be a sentient being by the author of the highly acclaimed Radix Tetrad, and an author, the Los Angeles Times calls "a truly amazing, original talent."

[Mme Chauchat]

A Išigurova knjiga mi se, zacudo, dopala mnogo manje od filma po njoj, koji me je bukvalno naterao u plac iako sam znala da su te scene namerno tako smišljene, i posle tri meseca još uvek mi izlaze pred oci. I svaki put kad ih se setim, naježim se i imam potrebu da ljudima koje volim to i kažem, da ih zagrlim ili oprostim ako su me nešto iznervirali. U filmu nekako nelogicnosti u zapletu nisu toliko bitne koliko neverovatan splet prikazanih emocija i savršeno docarani likovi. I kako je samo prikazano ono što je u knjizi precutano, to kako izgledaju davaoci posle nekoliko donacija, i kako se doktori prema njima ophode... Ne znam za drugi slucaj da je film toliko nadogradio knjigu po kojoj je stvaran, obicno uvek više volim da procitam nego da pogledam neku pricu, ali ovo su uspeli da snime bolje nego što bi meni pošlo za rukom da zamislim, i mnogo potresnije... Pogledajte film.

Da nastavim gde sam manje-više stala: pogledaću film makar da vidim kako je rešen ključni problem: meni je nedostajala upravo ta nadogradnja, jer Išiguro prećutkuje maltene sve u vezi sa donacijama, i kako se izvode, i kakvi su lekari, i kakav je odnos između lekara, pacijenata i donatora. Praktično mi je nezamislivo da se ne uspostavi kakav-takav odnos između lekara, donatora i negovateljica, i velika je rupa što se u romanu taj aspekt preskače. Jasno mi je da je to namerno urađeno kako bi se suzio fokus, ali to u suštini - bar meni, bar gledano sa SF a ne, štagaznam, alegorijskog stanovišta - deluje kao varanje.

I drugo: prva asocijacija je svima holokaust, druga, eto, robovlasništvo, i sve je to tačno, postojali i postoje sistemi u kojima je to sve moguće, ali pripremni radovi, da ih tako nazovem, krajnje su obimni. Nije se antisemitizam rodio 1933. u Nemačkoj, nego znatno ranije, i bio je toliko raširen i u određenim slojevima prihvaćen da su nacisti sve što su radili mogli da rade očekujući nekakvu podršku i prihvatanje svojih nebuloznih doktrina. Kod Išigura mi nikakva obrazloženja o tome kako klonovi nisu ljudi ne dobijamo. OK, ja svakako ne očekujem da mi se kompletna izmišljena stvarnost servira na tanjiru, ali nagoveštaji koje dobijamo su jadni i protivrečni kao i ovi za donacije, naprosto nedovoljni i neuverljivi ako čovek stane i razmisli. Dosta toga proizlazi iz pozicije pripovedačice, ali kad se setim kako je taj problem rešen npr u Sluškinjinoj priči Margaret Etvud, ne mogu a da ne poželim nešto na tom nivou.

[Mme Chauchat]

no sigurno tumačenje zavisi i od toga gde i kako živimo i kakve ljude srećemo,

Nešto ne mogu da stanem s pisanjem, dakle: možemo da pretpostavimo kako živimo u sličnoj, da ne kažem istoj okolini?  Recimo: eto, ti si reagovala drugačije nego ta građanka kojoj je stalo da se dodvori mesaru. Mantil je jak faktor, bio na mesaru ili na lekaru, ali ne za svakog. I meni je nedostajao taj neki minimum raznolikosti. Nije morao baš Spartak da se pojavi  ali, uh, neko dovijanje u okviru sistema, ne znam, neki donator koji bi se dosetio da lekaru ponudi seksualne usluge ili ma šta drugo u zamenu za odlaganje donacija? Nema. Nema ničeg. I to mi je nekako neuverljivo. Kao što su mi inače neuverljivi filmovi u kojima se dugogodišnja dresura, ubeđenja, religije, očas posla odbace jer film, eto, traje samo sat i po, a treba junaka ili junakinju osloboditi od predrasuda i još srušiti robovlasničko društvo, pa se nema vremena za finese.

Uostalom, i naš kraj je nepromenljiv, i mi znamo da ćemo neminovno umreti, pa bunimo li se zbog toga, bežimo li, borimo li se, radimo li išta pametno sem što živimo dan za danom dok ne okončamo, sem ono malo umetnika i njihovih pomagača koji ispunjavaju život tako što istovremeno ulepšavaju naš.

Pa da, slažem se sasvim, to i jeste poenta knjige, barem jedna od mogućih, povlačenje paralele sa našim kaobajagi slobodnim životima, i zato me je knjiga i dirnula i ovoliko brndžim i zagađujem topik, mesecima već. Ali ofrljizam u konstrukciji SFa, ma koliko umjetničkog, ne opraštam. 

[Dacko]

Da ne ispadne kako sad nešto branim knjigu, našla sam joj razne mane, samo eto taj nedostatak pobune nije među njima, a dosta sam razmišljala o tome jer sam istu zamerku pročitala i u kritikama filma (koji već branim jer me je baš dotakao, mada ja i ne znam bogzna šta o filmovima, naivna sam gledateljka). Mi zapravo ne znamo je li bilo nekih pobuna jer sve saznajemo iz Ketine perspektive, pa kako ona samo nagoveštava da su drugi klonovi imali mnogo gori tretman nego hejlšamski, moguće je i da za eventualne pobune i ne zna ili ne mari. Da ne gnjavim sad o Čehovu i nekim ljudima koji se takođe prosto ne bune, samo se nadaju da će se jednog dana odmoriti od svega, na šta su mene ponajviše podsetili Keti i drugari.
A Išiguro jeste štošta zbrljao i preko mnogo čega preleteo, ali po prirodi posla toliko gluposti pročitam da sam sklona da sve to oprostim ako mesec-dva posle čitanja knjige još uopšte pamtim o čemu je bila. Dobro, ovde ću pamtiti film, ali pošto ga ne bi bilo bez knjige, opet plus za Kazua.

[PTY]

The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1 - Ellen Datlow

[PTY]

Asimov's has posted the TOC for the August 2011 issue:

NOVELETTE

"The End of the Line" by Robert Silverberg
"Corn Teeth" by Melanie Tem
"Paradise Is Walled A Garden" by Lisa Goldstein

SHORT STORIES
"Watch Bees by" Philip Brewer
"For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not Be Back Again" by Michael Swanwick
"We Were Wonder Scouts" by Will Ludwigsen
"Pairs" by Zachary Jernigan

POETRY
"Bribing Karma" by Danny Adams
"The Music of Nessie" by Bruce Boston

DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: The 2011 Dell Magazines Award by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Earth Is the Strangest Planet by Robert Silverberg
Thought Experiments: Celebrating Isaac by James Gunn
On The Net: James Patrick Kelly: Writing Lessons

[PTY]

I još jedna kontroverza međ' knjigama... 


Maul – product placement
July 3, 2011 — tonykeen46



Many commentators, most recently Sebastian Faulks, have noted the manner in which Ian Fleming validated James Bond as a character through the brands he used.  It was important to Fleming to know, and to let the reader know, what cigarettes Bond smoked, what vodka he drank, what golf balls he used.

Something similar is going on in Maul.  The bloody gunfight that precipitates much of the action in the maul occurs not just in an upmarket clothes boutique, but in Lord & Taylor.   Sun and Alex have sex in the stockroom not just of an electrical goods store, but of Sharper Image.  Other shops are mentioned – Godiva, Toys-R-Us, etc.  Sun's existence seems defined by the brands she uses – she doesn't wear perfume, she wears CK1.  When she finds a packet of cigarettes what registers is Benson & Hedges.  The only significant thing that is not referred to by its brand, interesting, is Sun's gun.

Sullivan does this for authenticity.  This may not be a mall in our world, but it is a mall in something that is a close enough approximation of our world to be recognisable.  Americans, and most Brits (certainly anyone who'd ever seen The Blues Brothers or Dawn of the Dead) would have an idea of a mall in which trading names are prominent.  Sullivan herself, who grew up in New Jersey in the 1970s and 1980s, no doubt spent some time herself in such places (though hopefully she never ran into a running gun battle). So Sullivan's maul needs to have same quality of commercial branding – anonymous stores or invented ones just won't cut it.

Something similar is going on in the future strand.  Of course, there the  brands are made up, but commercial interests clearly still loom large in this world.  The Mall  game Meniscus is a product of NoSystems.  Madeleine Baldino works for Highbridge.  Some of the names, however, are not invented.  Dunkin' Donuts is still going, as is Play-Doh.  Clearly, Meniscus' world is not that far into the future.

I've talked in the previous post about how Maul is a novel about violence and gender roles.  But the use of brand names suggests to me that it is also a novel about commercialism, and the way that can wreck lives.  It is not just about the fetishisation of violence, but its commodification.  It truly is an SF novel for the way we live now.

[PTY]

John Carter of Mars -- Official Movie Trailer 2012

[Mica Milovanovic]

Grešiš:
Đžon KARTER sa Marsa

[PTY]

 

a kako se to izgovara?

[Gaff]

Đ-Žon! Šta ti tu nije jasno?!

[PTY]

Elem, da se podsetimo malo na onu akciju žene u žanru od 2001 do 2010, s naglaskom na prepoznavanje novih klasika:

The Future Classics: the top ten from 101 sets of nominations
1 The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
2 Maul by Tricia Sullivan
3 Natural History by Justina Robson
4 The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
5= Spirit by Gwyneth Jones and Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
7 Life by Gwyneth Jones
8 Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin
9 Farthing by Jo Walton
10= Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones and City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

Komentarisanje se sad već razgranalo na desetine mesta, pa sve postaje prilično zahtevno za praćenje, ali ovo je cener koji definitivno vredi overiti, pa ga neka odve za podsetnik.  

[PTY]

Đ-Žon! Šta ti tu nije jasno?!

ah, vi mladi, vazda i sa svime lako izađete na kraj... 

[Gaff]

ah, vi mladi, vazda i sa svime lako izađete na kraj... 

Mda...
Da mi penzija nije ovolika kolika je, ja bih ovu knjigu odma' kupio! Al' meni je i 250 dinđži mnogo!

[PTY]

a ja sam uvek smatrala da će se sinijor sitizens lakše oprostiti sa parama kad su ovakvi kurioziteti u pitanju... 

Elem, sfsignal slavi osmi rođendan... 

[PTY]

Bryan Singer, he of X-Men and The Usual Suspects fame, has a new post-apocalyptic web series on the horizon. Here's the description:

+: The Digital Series takes viewers on a journey into an apocalyptic future where technology has begun to spiral out of control...a future where 33% of the world's population has retired its cell phones and laptops in favor of a stunning new device - an implanted computer system called H+.
This tiny tool allows the user's own mind and nervous system to be connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. But something else is coming... something dark and vicious... and within seconds, billions of people will be dead... opening the door to radical changes in the political and social landscape of the planet -- prompting survivors to make sense of what went wrong.


H+

[Gaff]

Izašao je treći nastavak serijala Terra Incognita, pod nazivom The Key to Creation Kevina J. Andersona.

Kevin J. Anderson has been nominated for multiple literary awards, including the Nebula Award and the Bram Stoker Award, and as of 2003 held the Guinness World Record for the largest single author book signing.

Brave explorers and mortal enemies across the world clash at a mysterious lost continent. After long voyages, encountering hurricanes and sea monsters, Criston Vora and Saan race to Terravitae, the legendary promised land. Saan's quest is to find the Key to Creation, a weapon that may defeat Uraba's enemies, and Criston wants vengeance against the monstrous Leviathan that ruined his life long ago.

Back home, two opposing continents and religions clash for the remnants of a sacred city, unleashing their hatred in a war that could end both civilizations. Queen Anjine and Soldan-Shah Omra are driven by mutual hatred, heaping atrocity upon atrocity in an escalating conflict that only their gods can end.

Meanwhile, the secretive Saedrans. manipulating both sides, come ever closer to their ultimate goal: to complete the Map of All Things and bring about the return of God.

[PTY]

So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut's Classic SF novel 'Slaughterhouse Five' Banned from Missouri Public High School Library Shelves! 

[Mica Milovanovic]

Da deca ne krenu u krstaške ratove...

[angel011]

So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut's Classic SF novel 'Slaughterhouse Five' Banned from Missouri Public High School Library Shelves! 

Pa zamisli da neko dete pročita kako je rat gadan (ili da američko dete pročita o Amerikancima koji bombarduju nemačke civile), kako onda da ga regrutuju u vojsku i pošalju da bombarduje ljude širom sveta i da im ono veruje da time štiti svoju zemlju?

[Mark]

MissourAH!