129,864,880! to samo do nedelje...

[Джон Рейнольдс]

Ево како ћеш. Кликнеш на reply (дакле, не она quick варијанта) и онда кад хоћеш да убациш сличицу кликнеш на иноницу испод иконице за болд (личи на слику). Отвори ти се прозорче enter image location, ту прекопираш линк и ево...



Слика се појави одмах, пре него што постујеш.

Улетела Анђела. 

[PTY]

[PTY]

Dakle, kad to uradim ja ne vidim sličku nakon postovanja... Ne znam da li vi vidite...

[angel011]

Ne vidim, moguće zato što imaš dva http u linku.

[PTY]

.... Vidim samo mali kvadrat, ali potpuno prazan...







Evo opet...

[angel011]

Kad klikneš na ikonicu, obriši http:// koje je već u prozorčetu, pa onda ubaci link.

[PTY]

Kad se vratim u post preko "modify" opcije, ne vidim kod, tako da ne znam da li ima dupli http ili ne.
Vidim samo ono kako inače izgleda već kad je postovano, dakle ili vidim prazni kvadratić ili apsolutno ništa.

[angel011]

Edit: ulete PTY. 

[PTY]

Hvala ennži, tvoj predlog funkcioniše...

[angel011]

 

[PTY]

Nego, za sve vas ljubitelje Ann Leckie, ako niste do sad našli link ka njenoj novoj priči smeštenoj u isti univerz koji je tako silno poharao žanrovskim nagradama, evo ga ovde:




http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/06/nights-slow-poison-ann-leckie

[PTY]

a evo i nekih od septembarskih noviteta:


They call it Company Town – a Family-owned city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes.

Meet Hwa. One of the few in her community to forego bio-engineered enhancements, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig. But she's an expert in the arts of self-defence, and she's been charged with training the Family's youngest, who has been receiving death threats – seemingly from another timeline.

Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city's stability – serial killer? Or something much, much worse..?



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1472533550/sfsi0c-20
Religion in Science Fiction investigates the history of the representations of religion in science fiction literature. Space travel, futuristic societies, and non-human cultures are traditional themes in science fiction. Speculating on the societal impacts of as-yet-undiscovered technologies is, after all, one of the distinguishing characteristics of science fiction literature. A more surprising theme may be a parallel exploration of religion: its institutional nature, social functions, and the tensions between religious and scientific worldviews.

Steven Hrotic investigates the representations of religion in 19th century proto-science fiction, and genre science fiction from the 1920s through the end of the century. Taken together, he argues that these stories tell an overarching story—a 'metanarrative'—of an evolving respect for religion, paralleling a decline in the belief that science will lead us to an ideal (and religion-free) future.

Science fiction's metanarrative represents more than simply a shift in popular perceptions of religion: it also serves as a model for cognitive anthropology, providing new insights into how groups and identities form in a globalized world, and into how crucial a role narratives may play. Ironically, this same perspective suggests that science fiction, as it was in the 20th century, may no longer exist.



The final installment of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy

It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown—navigating new terrain and new challenges—the threat to the outside world becomes more daunting. In Acceptance, the last installment of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound—or terrifying.




A man is about to kill a cow. He discusses life and death and his right to kill with the compliant animal. He begins to suspect he may be about to commit murder. But kills anyway...It began when the animal rights movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights. But what is an animal that can talk? Where does its intelligence end at its machine intelligence begin? And where might its soul reside? As we place more and more pressure on the natural world and become more and more divorced, Adam Roberts' new novel posits a world where nature can talk back, and can question us and our beliefs. Adam Roberts is an award-winning author at the peak of his powers and each new novel charts an exciting new direction while maintaining a uniformly high level of literary achievement.



An insane, broken pulp-art painter gets chance at redemption in a phantasmagoric science fiction wonder from a true master of the weird

Before his stroke and the onset of old age, Frank Lazorg was the king of the fantasy illustrators—with an ego to match. But he can paint no more. That is, until he starts taking a bizarre new drug that promises to restore his creative powers. Unfortunately, artistic reinvigoration comes with a steep price tag: addiction and madness. With his rage and jealousy unleashed and his grasp of reality severely compromised, Lazorg is led to commit an unspeakable act, and, in turn, is led . . . somewhere else. Suddenly naked and helpless, the artist finds himself in a world of abiding strangeness, filled with monstrous things that seem to mock, yet oddly mirror, Lazorg's previous reality. And here is Crutchsump, a remarkable creature possessing great love and rare compassion, who could possibly aid in Lazorg's ultimate salvation as he spirals downward through the Cosmocopia and ever-closer to the Conceptus.

Arguably the most inventive force in science fiction since Philip K. Dick in his heyday, Paul Di Filippo outdoes even Paul Di Filippo with his remarkable Cosmocopia. Outrageous, ingenious, nightmarish, funny, provocative, and utterly unforgettable, this is a glittering testament to the towering heights science fiction can achieve.




Following a terrible fight with her mother over her boyfriend, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her family and her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.
 
For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly's life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.




Cent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the only people in the world who can. This is not as great as you might think it would be—sure, you can go shopping in Japan and then have tea in London, but it's hard to keep a secret like that. And there are people, dangerous people, who work for governments and have guns, who want to make you do just this one thing for them. And when you're a teenage girl things get even more complicated. High school. Boys. Global climate change, refugees, and genocide. Orbital mechanics.




Last Plane to Heaven is the final and definitive short story collection of award-winning SF author Jay Lake, author of Green, Endurance, and Kalimpura.

Long before he was a novelist, SF writer Jay Lake, was an acclaimed writer of short stories.  In Last Plane to Heaven, Lake has assembled thirty-two of the best of them. Aliens and angels fill these pages, from the title story, a hard-edged and breathtaking look at how a real alien visitor might be received, to the savage truth of "The Cancer Catechisms." Here are more than thirty short stories written by a master of the form, science fiction and fantasy both.

This collection features an original introduction by Gene Wolfe.

[PTY]

Dakle, dobila sam ovu knjigu na poklon ima tome iahahaj rođendana, a zvanična preporuka je bila da se Disturbia bavi omladinskom sociopatijom na način vrlo blizak Paklenoj pomorandži, što mi je već onda bila pomalo dubiozna preporuka, ali ipak, rečena koleginica je rođena i odrasla u Londonu, pa ko velim, ako iko zna...


I dobro sad, ima donekle tu materijala za rečenu pretpostavku, mada ja ne bih išla naš toliko daleko, u samom poređivanju. S druge strane, ni sam Burgess nije smatrao svoj roman toliko impresivnim koliko se nas dojmio, naprotiv, smatrao ga je prilično slabim, to pogotovo u varijanti bez famozne 21ve glave. No ipak, neke paralele jesu neminovne i donekle stoje, mada ja baš i nisam neko ko bi ih mogao argumentovano ustoličiti.


Fowler, kao prvo, nije jezički virtuozo da izdrži takvu paralelu. Dalje, nije ni stilski, tek da ne bude zabune. A i po pitanju samog zapleta otvorena je tu diskusija, tako da... Ne znam šta bih ja to zapravo i mogla da iskoristim u svrhu argumentovanja.


Karakterizacija, recimo, ali i to samo do određenog stepena. Fascinirajuća prezentacija ne samo Londonske istoriografije nego i savremenog beznađa za onaj njegov istorijski naprivilegovaniji društveni i kulturni segment.


I tako. Umerena preporuka i solidne ***.

[PTY]

Here's the cover and synopsis for the upcoming novel Persona by Genevieve Valentine.




In a world where diplomacy has become celebrity, a young ambassador survives an assassination attempt and must join with an undercover paparazzo in a race to save her life, spin the story, and secure the future of her young country in this near-future political thriller from the acclaimed author of Mechanique and The Girls at Kingfisher Club.

When Suyana, Face of the United Amazonia Rainforest Confederation, secretly meets Ethan of the United States for a date that can solidify a relationship for the struggling UARC, the last thing she expects is an assassination attempt. Daniel, a teen runaway-turned-paparazzi out for his big break, witnesses the first shot hit Suyana, and before he can think about it, he jumps into the fray, telling himself it's not altruism, it's the scoop. Just like that, Suyana and Daniel are now in the game of Faces. And if they lose, they'll die.

[PTY]

Dakle, Scalzi.






Paralelno sa velikim uspehom njegovog Redshirts, Scalzi je prošle godine objavio i novelu pod naslovom "An oral history of Hadens syndrome", i odmah se videlo da je u pitanju odlična worldbuilding konstrukcija koja prosto vapi da se afirmiše u romanu, i to ponajbolje u romanu koji bi ujedno i bio prvi dio trilogije. A kako je Scalzi vrlo profi pisac koji naprosto nije u stanju da spiska dobar materijal, za ciglih par meseci isporučen je i Lock In.




I odlično je to urađeno, nema tu zbora.


Jedna od lepših strana Scalzijevog pisanja je njegova sposobnost da vešto koristi nama već generalno poznate žanrovske ideje, koncepte i trope tako što ih ovlaš otrese od prašine i vešto ukomponuje u vlastitu konstrukciju. To je svakako oznaka posvećenog pisca koji zajedno sa čitaocem spada u poznati i omiljeni žanrovski pejzaž u kom se nalazi mnogo toga lako prepoznatljivog, ali ipak serviranog sa individualno specifičnim garniranjem. Scalzijeva Agora je unikatna varijanta lako prepoznatljive kiberpank virtualnosti iz, recimo, pera Pat Kadigan; Scalzijevi mehanički roboti su leb&kajmak žanrovske stare garde poznijeg zlatnog doba; Skalzijev neuralni interfejs je kamen temeljac rane faze žanrovske transhumanističke platforme a njegov detektivski aspekt triler-zapleta daje na znanje da ćemo mi i dalje biti mi, bez obzira na sve tehnološke i ine transformacije.


A to jeste ohrabrujuće, taj neuništivi mehanizam sa kojim esef palp gvirka u blisku nam budućnost. Odlična priča, odlična ideja i odlična žica zdravog humora i generalne dobrostivosti. Scalzi je pisac čija proza sa lakoćom ulepšava tmuran dan, pa malo li je to?




Ali pre no što se dohvatite samog romana, overite noveletu na Torovom blodu, pošto je neka vrst funkcionalnog prologa i worldbuilding okvira ujedno.




http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/05/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi

[PTY]

Book Description
Release date: March 3, 2015


This is an extraordinary new novel from the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize winning The Remains of the Day. 'You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay...' The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge and war. "Kazuo Ishiguro is an original and remarkable genius". (The New York Times). "A master craftsman". (Margaret Atwood, Slate). "The best and most original writer of his generation". (Susan Hill, Mail on Sunday).

[PTY]

I, naravno, Lock In se vec merka za adaptaciju:

Legendary TV Buys John Scalzi Novel 'Lock In' (EXCLUSIVE)
http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/legendary-tv-buys-john-scalzi-novel-lock-in-exclusive-1201306307/

nadajmo se samo da od knjige nece napraviti mlakast i bljutkast produkt tipa Surrogates (2009).

[PTY]

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the long-awaited new novel—a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan—from the award-winning, internationally best-selling author Haruki Murakami.

Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.

[PTY]

In the twenty-second century, a future in which mortaline wire controls the weather on the settled planets and entire refugee camps drowse in drug-induced slumber, no one-alive or dead, human or alien-is quite what they seem. When terrorists manage to crash Coral, the moon, into its home planet of Ribon, forcing evacuation, it's up to Dave Crowell and Alan Brindos, contract detectives for the Network Intelligence Organization, to solve a case of interplanetary consequences. Crowell and Brindos' investigation plunges them neck-deep into a conspiracy much more dangerous than anything they could have imagined. The two detectives soon find themselves separated, chasing opposite leads: Brindos has to hunt down the massive Helkunn alien Terl Plenko, shadow leader of the terrorist Movement of Worlds. Crowell, meanwhile, runs into something far more sinister-an elaborate frame job that puts our heroes on the hook for treason. Crowell and Brindos are forced to fight through the intrigue to discover the depths of an interstellar conspiracy. And to answer the all-important question: Who, and what, is the Ultra Thin Man?



Here's a job description the U.S. Air Force won't be mentioning in recruiting ads anytime soon:

Wanted: Experienced pilot willing to observe lives in close proximity for hours on end, possibly before killing them and then surveying the grisly aftermath for hours longer. You will do this from a risk-free location thousands of miles away while seated for eight hours at a time in a chilly windowless work station in which you will monitor four video screens, operate a stick and rudder, and type messages and commands onto two keyboards. Up to five supervisors will watch your every move while communicating their own requests. Shifts will rotate, ending at midnight, 8 a.m., and 4 p.m. Stateside posting means you will commute home just like any other suburbanite, although due to the job's classified nature you will not be permitted to discuss it with friends, family, or neighbors. Apply today to get in on this new and exciting opportunity!

     Now there's a scrumptious recipe for stress, burnout and depression. But for a novelist in search of a compelling character, what's not to like? And that's pretty much what inspired me to write Unmanned, a tale in which drones – or, more to the point, their pilots – are at the center of the action.

     No, it is not a techno-thriller, nor will I ever write such a book. As I've said elsewhere, any novel that lavishes more attention on the workings of machines than on the doings of its characters is a cold and empty place indeed. Wake me when the last gizmo dies.

     It's the people operating drones – their heart and soul, if you will – that intrigue me more. Not to mention all those other folks living and laboring (and sometimes dying) under the unrelenting gaze of these remote-controlled aircraft.

[PTY]

ROBOTS HAVE NO TAILS by Henry Kuttner

"[A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full of ideas." —Ray Bradbury

A complete collection of his Galloway Gallegher stories from the Hugo nominated master of science fiction.

In this complete collection, Kuttner is back with Galloway Gallegher, his most beloved character in the stories that helped make him famous. Gallegher is a binge-drinking scientist who's a genius when drunk and totally clueless sober. Hounded by creditors and government officials, he wakes from each bender to discover a new invention designed to solve all his problems—if only he knew how it worked...

Add in a vain and uncooperative robot assistant, a heckling grandfather, and a host of uninvited guests—from rabbit-like aliens to time-traveling mafia lawyers to his own future corpse—and Gallegher has more on his hands than even he can handle. Time for a drink!





THE BEST OF HENRY KUTTNER by Henry Kuttner

"[A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full of ideas." —Ray Bradbury

From the renowned, Hugo-nominated titan of science fiction comes a collection of his best short stories.

In seventeen classic stories, Henry Kuttner creates a unique galaxy of vain, protective, and murderous robots; devilish angels; and warm and angry aliens. These stories include
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" — the inspiration for New Line Cinema's major motion picture The Last Mimzy — as well as "Two-Handed Engine", "The Proud Robot", "The Misguided Halo", "The Voice of the Lobster", "Exit the Professor", "The Twonky", "A Gnome There Was", "The Big Night", "Nothing But Gingerbread Left", "The Iron Standard", "Cold War", "Or Else", "Endowment Policy", "Housing Problem", "What You Need", and "Absalom".


Here's how you can get these two great titles for one low price — but act fast! This offer expires in two weeks...


DIGITAL BUNDLE

[PTY]

From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami—a fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library.

A lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plot their escape from the nightmarish library of internationally acclaimed, best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination.

[PTY]

It is not ofter that you encounter a book that you feel will be read with same fervour 100 years on but Albert Sanchez Pinol's fourth novel, an ambitious historical epic novel "Victus: The Fall of Barcelona" instantly feels like you are reading a classic novel. It's hard to pinpoint why. There's a lot going against it. It is absolutely huge so it'll take a significant amount of your time once you start. It is magnificent in scope and details, and deals with a historical event which at the moment will be interesting to few. However, this historical footnote is becoming increasingly relevant now as it will undoubtedly be in the future because described fall of Barcelona directly lead to fall of Catalonia, an event which today still resonates heavily in Spain. Just this year the Catalan government has announced its intention to hold a referendum on possible independence from Spain in 2014. When you combine that with the fact that in his native Spain, Albert Sanchez Pinol has often been compared to other greats such as Roberto Bolaño and Carlos Ruiz Zafon, it's easy to understand my feelings about it.

Victus is narrated by Martí Zuviría, an 98 old man who best knows what happened in that fateful conflict. He was actually the person who betrayed Barcelona and played crucial part in Catalan annexation to Spain on September 11, 1714. Destinies of Marti, Barcelona and Catalonia have always been intertwined together and Pinol decides to reflect all three sides of the story against each other. Marti's humble beginnings lie in early 1700s when he was a cherished military engineer fighting in wars against France. Marti is presented as the worst kind of engineer becoming politician. He's frighteningly able, technical and ambitious but lacking in morals. It's as if he seems people and political landscape as mere cogs in machinations of life. A problem to be solved. As he increasingly rises in powers Marti is elevated through ranks and soon finds himself in the position to change the course of history. And this he does but now with the death knocking on the door he still going back to those few days wondering what actually happened and why?









No one does gut-wrenchingly bleak like Zoran Drvenkar. "Sorry" was one of those novels that you just had to read even though you were perfectly aware that it'll disturb you and that you'll have nightmares for nights on end. His second novel "You" has just been published in the US by Knopf and judging by the synopsis and the opening few pages it looks like we're in for another dark tale. With chilling detachment its beginning recounts a tale about a man known as "The Traveler" who during a snowstorm in the 90s goes on to kill 26 drivers on a German A4 highway between Bad Hersfeld and Eisenach im Stau. The scheme is simple. Due to storm lots of drivers are forces to spend the night on the road and in the morning some are simply found dead because the killer simply walks against the traffic and does its thing. Reading the sorry affair sent shivers down my spine. The whole this is written so vividly that at one point I went to Google and tried to find the actual event.
The sense of detachment and drama is masterfully nuanced by telling the entire story in second person voice. This disorienting experience when combined with an complex plot would in the hands of lesser author lead to a bewilderment but Drvenkar strikes the balance early on so by the time I've reached the conclusion I was once again hopelessly hooked up with his darkness. And the ending is completely worth it. It is dark, unsettling and completely unexpected.

Over the course of these two translated novels Drvenkar has already established himself as one of the most exciting contemporary European writers and I'll waiting with impatience for his other works to come out. A disturbing and fascinating book.

[PTY]

Out of the entire Save the Story series, The Story of Don Juan by Alessandro Baricco probably surprised me the most. Completely erroneously I've thought I knew all about Don Juan and his legendary adventures filled with debauchery and countless women he seduced and left behind. However, it turns out I knew next to nothing. Similarly to various fairly tales which in their initial form were much darker affairs, it transpires that Don Juan was originally told as a much darker and symbolic tale and it is these grim beginnings that form the basis for Baricco's retelling. The story itself starts predictably enough as Don Juan enters into a bedroom of a young woman and tricks her into believing he's her fiancé. When she realises the mistake, he flees only to encounter her father, the Commendatore, who he eventually kills in a duel. To make things even worse, Don Juan soon learns that an angry mob is on his tail. A band of brothers of a woman he married only to escape the very next day and they won't stop until he's dead and buried. And as if that wasn't enough, and not to put a fine point on it, ghost of the Commendatore is also back and is seeking revenge. Confident in his endless cockiness, Don Juan survives the first day by invitign all three to a party hoping that the situation will somehow resolve in his favor but it was not to be.

Alessandro Baricco's retelling made me want to check out other versions of Don Juan so you might say that this installment in Save the Story series definitely fulfilled its intention. I'm really happy it did because Alessandro Baricco is a hero of mine. He's the editor of the Save the Story series and the founder of the creative writing school Scuola Holden which originally published it in Italy. To make things even better, The Story of Don Juan is illustrated by haunting and beautiful drawings made by Alessandro Maria Nacar which server only to improve and to enhance this glorious reading experience.

http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/review-the-story-of-don-juan-by-alessandro-baricco

[PTY]

V.M. Giambanco is an exciting new crime author and her second novel The Dark is just about to come out in hardback from Quercus. It is a second novel in the series featuring Homicide Detective Alice Madison and her partner Detective Sergeant Brown. First novel in the series, "The Gift of Darkness" was published last year but since I've read both books in the sequence I've decided to revisit the debut before continuing to review "The Dark".

Story opens up as twenty-five years ago three boys are kidnapped in the woods near Hoh River in Seattle. One of the boys never comes home. Back in the present a family is found murdered with words thirteen days scratched nearby. The crime scene is particularly horrific but mercifully it seems that kids and wife were killed quickly. Husband was not so lucky. Through a check found on the scene Homicide Detective Alice Madison and her partner discover a link leading back to these all but forgotten case. Alice believes the two cases are connected and must go back to the woods and revisit the old case to solve the new one. In doing so her abilities are stretched up to her limits and all she can do is to follow her instincts. This is particularly hard because Alice just came out of training and her both her methods and experience are almost non-existent. And the time is running out...

Setting it apart from other, more frantic, crime debuts of recent years, "The Gift of Darkness" is strangely slow burning. It is also very long and filled with, some would say, too much details. However, it's quick to incite interest and I was easily hooked with it's characters and mystery. I've loved the dynamic between Alice and Brown and I've thought the elements of the case have been done crackingly well. After these two books Giambanco is slowly turning out to be one of the most interesting names in crime fiction. She's knows how to scare and to fascinate her readers while at the same time offering plenty of uniqueness to be memorable even after you finish the final page. Very enjoyable.




Bête is set in a world where green activists (or terrorists - depending where you stand on the story's events) develop a microchip that allows animals the power of speech. Although the initial wave of 'cunning' animals is small, the chips are easily replicated and passed on - before long, hundreds of thousands of 'Bêtes' on are on the prowl. As well as the expected results (our protagonist, a cattle farmer is suddenly out of a job as Britain goes vegan), there are great repercussions: what does it mean to be 'human'? Or a 'citizen'? To be represented, and, quite literally, heard?

Roberts is one of the modern masters of 'big idea' science fiction - a single concept, extrapolated and explored through all its various ramifications and permutations. And the talking animals of Bête are no exception - but like his literary predecessors, Roberts cleverly limits the story to something more manageable. Bête is, for example, a quintessentially British novel - along the lines of After London or even the works of John Wyndham, one gets the impression that the world extends only so far as the ocean. Graham Penhaligon, farmer-cum-poet is an archetypical throwback to the cosy catastrophes - perplexingly overeducated and mildly conservative. Bête is also a deeply personal novel, in that this is a book not about the world - or about Britain - as much as it is a focused on the significance of a single person, Graham. Nor does our protagonist ever waver from his self-interest: even when he engages with larger social or political movements, it is with a certain reserve. He is not a man for causes - even with 'humanity' at stake.

Instead, despite the sweeping scale of the core concept, Bête is essentially one man's journey - literally and figuratively. Graham wanders peripatetically throughout the countryside, often alone, often with a single companion. He is a stranger to man and beast, and, most importantly, a complete outsider to society. Graham essentially checks out of the apocalypse - dipping in and out of an increasingly-fragmented civilisation to buy beer. Instead, his is the story of occasional, but deeply meaningful, interpersonal contact: with another man of the road ("Preacherman"), with a strong-willed and charismatic lover (Anne) and occasionally with a particularly infuriating talking cat. Although the comparisons to Animal Farm are obvious, Bête is probably a closer relation to Down and Out in Paris and London. This is only tangentially a novel about sweeping societal changes and incidentally a science fictional quest - Bête is about fleeting but meaningful relationships, the aching loneliness of the outsider and, ultimately, the challenge of transcendental, all-consuming love. Graham filters his emotions through literary allusions and ceaseless sarcasm (q.v. Britishness), but there is no disguising their intensity.

Readers fond of Roberts' chillier hard science fiction may be disappointed by the latest turn in his work. Although the sweeping idea is still there, underpinning the setting, Bête is, instead of a removed think-piece, a deeply affecting and characterful narrative. Graham is an irascible, reluctant, foul-mouthed throwback to an earlier era of fiction - and Roberts' best character yet. Bête is ferocious, powerful and Roberts' best yet.

(deo Jaredovog rivjua)

[PTY]

THE REVOLUTIONS is a fantasy of the occult scene in fin de siecle London, the celestial spheres, and mystical Martian exploration. It follows two young lovers separated by the schemes and blundering of rival occultists, from the drawing rooms of spiritualist societies, through shady enterprises in Deptford warehouses, and magical war on the Isle of Dogs, and out to a hallucinatory, doomed Mars drawn from the fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the imaginings of Aleister Crowley, and the speculations of Victorian astronomers.



People are keeping secrets from Oli. His mum has brought him to stay with his aunt and uncle in the countryside, but nobody will tell him why his dad isn't with them. Where is he? Has something happened? Oli has a hundred questions, but then he finds a secret of his own: he discovers the creature that lives in the attic.



Eren.


Eren is not human.

Eren is hungry for stories.

Eren has been waiting for him.


Sharing his stories with Eren, Oli starts to make sense of what's happening downstairs with his family. But what if it's a trap? Soon, Oli must make a choice: learn the truth - or abandon himself to Eren's world, forever.


It's a classic old-fashioned haunted house story - set in a big box Swedish furniture superstore. Designed like a retail catalogue, Horrorstor offers a creepy read with mass appeal-perfect for Halloween tables! Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Bracken glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofabeds-clearly, someone or something is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-til-dawn shift-and they encounter horrors that defy imagination. Along the way, author Grady Hendrix infuses sly social commentary on the nature of work in the new 21st century economy. A traditional haunted house story in a contemporary setting (and full of contemporary fears), Horrorstor comes conveniently packaged in the form of a retail catalogue, complete with illustrations of ready-to-assemble furniture and other, more sinister accessories.


Set in the future - a world where the past is a dangerous country, not to be talked about or visited - J is a love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying.


Two people fall in love, not yet knowing where they have come from or where they are going. Kevern doesn't know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a world starting with a J. It wasn't then, and isn't now, the time or place to be asking questions. Ailinn too has grown up in the dark about who she was or where she came from. On their first date Kevern kisses the bruises under her eyes. He doesn't ask who hurt her. Brutality has grown commonplace. They aren't sure if they have fallen in love of their own accord, or whether they've been pushed into each other's arms. But who would have pushed them, and why?


Hanging over the lives of all the characters in this novel is a momentous catastrophe - a past event shrouded in suspicion, denial and apology, now referred to as What Happened, If It Happened.

[PTY]

naslovi u pripremi:


The first adult novel in more than four years from the bestselling author of the Fairyland books

Radiance is a decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood—and solar system—very different from our own, from the phenomenonal talent behind the New York Times bestselling The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets. Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe.

But her latest film, which investigates the disappearance of a diving colony on a watery Venus populated by island-sized alien creatures, will be her last. Though her crew limps home to earth and her story is preserved by the colony's last survivor, Severin will never return.

Aesthetically recalling A Trip to the Moon and House of Leaves, and told using techniques from reality TV, classic film, gossip magazines, and meta-fictional narrative, Radiance is a solar system-spanning story of love, exploration, family, loss, quantum physics, and silent film.





You think you know all the fables that have ever been told. You think you can no longer be surprised by stories. Think again. With origins in myth, fairytales, folklore and pure imagination, the stories and poems in these pages draw on history that never was and worlds that will never be to create their own unique tales and traditions... The next generation of storytellers is here.

Here's the table of contents...

1."Twelfth" by Faith Mudge
2."The Love Letters of Swans" by Tansy Rayner Roberts
3."Bahamut" by Thoraiya Dyer
4."The Village of No Women" by Rabia Gale
5."The Lady of Wild Things" by Jenny Blackford
6."Rag and Bone Heart" by Suzanne J. Willis
7."A Cold Day" by Nicole Murphy
8."How the Jungle Got Its Spirit Guardian" by Vida Cruz
9."Kneaded" by S.G. Larner
10."The Ghost of Hephaestus" by Charlotte Nash
11."The Seventh Relic" by Cat Sparks
12."The Nameless Seamstress" by Gitte Christensen
13."Scales of Time (poem reprint)" by Foz Meadows
14."Illustrations Scales of Time" by Moni


I nastavak Sierra Waters time travel serijala:


Sierra and Max arrive in 2062, and find the world has somewhat changed. Joe Biden was President from 2009-2017, and train travel is much more prominent. Was this due to the scrolls that she rescued from the Library of Alexandria? Heron's Chronica, which describes how to building a time travel device and was one of the texts Sierra saved from burning, has not yet been published, and Sierra soon realizes that Heron is doing everything in his lethal power to prevent that from happening. Her attempt to safeguard the Chronica, which she left in William Henry Appleton's keeping, takes her to the end of the 1890s, where she interacts with John Jacob Astor IV, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, J. P. Morgan, film pioneers William Dickson and Edwin Porter, and other denizens of The Gilded Age.

[PTY]

Naslovi sad u oktobru:




The sequel to Ancillary Justice, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, British Science Fiction, Locus and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.

With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would a agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew - a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.



A reclusive couple's power goes out and they are forced to use their scarce survivalist supplies to live off the grid.



An original thriller from bestselling author Christopher Fowler that reinventing the haunted house story.

Newly-married architect Callie and her wealthy husband Mateo move to Hyperion House, a grand old home in southern Spain. It's an eccentric place built in front of a cliff: serene and beautiful, but eerily symmetrical, and cunningly styled so that half the house is flooded with light, and half – locked up and neglected – is shrouded in darkness. Unemployed and feeling isolated in a foreign country, Callie determines to research the history of the curious building.

But the past is sometimes best left alone. Uncovering the folklore of the house's strange history, Callie is drawn into darkness and delusion. As a teenager Callie was afraid of the dark, and now with her adolescent nyctophobia returning she becomes convinced there's someone in the darkened rooms. Somewhere in the darkness lies the truth about Hyperion House.

But some doors should never be opened.




Rebecca Hardwick wants nothing more than to start a family with her husband. But when a series of tragedies occur, she is left unable to have children by natural means.

Jane Nurelle is in an abusive relationship filled with beatings, drinking and drugs. But when she learns of her pregnancy, she is determined to turn her life around, even if it means resorting to violence.

Through an unlikely series of events, these two women come face-to-face with a notable scientist who has perfected a way for couples to have biologically matched children through the process of human cloning. But his service comes at a price...and the women share more in common than they ever thought possible.

Surrogate is an unforgettable tale of life, love, revenge and maternal instinct.



A young man at loose ends finds he cannot look away from his new lover's alien gaze. A young woman out of time seeks her old lover in the cold spaces between the stars. The fleeing worshippers of an ancient and jealous deity seek solace in an unsuspecting New World congregation. In a suburban nursery, a demon with a grudge and a lonely exorcist face off for what could be the last time. And when a big city mayor who delineates his mandate by the slash of a blade faces an unexpected challenger, it turns into a struggle that threatens to consume everything. In Knife Fight and Other Struggles, David Nickle follows his award-winning debut collection Monstrous Affections with a new set of dark tales that span space, time, and genre.

[PTY]

Finalist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize

"J is a snarling, effervescent, and ambitious philosophical work of fiction that poses unsettling questions about our sense of history, and our self-satisfied orthodoxies. Jacobson's triumph is to craft a novel that is poignant as well as troubling from the debris." —Independent (UK)
 
Man Booker Prize–winner Howard Jacobson's brilliant and profound new novel, J, "invites comparison with George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World" (Sunday Times, London). Set in a world where collective memory has vanished and the past is a dangerous country, not to be talked about or visited, J is a boldly inventive love story, both tender and terrifying.
     Kevern Cohen doesn't know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a word starting with a J. It wasn't then, and isn't now, the time or place to be asking questions. When the extravagantly beautiful Ailinn Solomons arrives in his village by a sea that laps no other shore, Kevern is instantly drawn to her. Although mistrustful by nature, the two become linked as if they were meant for each other. Together, they form a refuge from the commonplace brutality that is the legacy of a historic catastrophe shrouded in suspicion, denial, and apology, simply referred to as WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED. To Ailinn's guardian, Esme Nussbaum, Ailinn and Kevern are fragile shoots of hopefulness. As this unusual pair's actions draw them into ever-increasing danger, Esme is determined to keep them together—whatever the cost.
     In this stunning, evocative, and terribly heartbreaking work, where one couple's love affair could have shattering consequences for the human race, Howard Jacobson gathers his prodigious gifts for the crowning achievement of a remarkable career.



Mike Allen has put together a first class collection of horror and dark fantasy. Unseaming burns bright as hell among its peers.
--Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

Everyone in the world awakens covered in blood-and no one knows where the blood came from. A childhood doll arrives to tear its owner's reality limb from limb. A portal to the spirit realm stretches wide on the Appalachian Trail, and something more than human crawls through on eight legs. Words of comfort change to terrifying sounds as a force from outside time speaks through them. The buttons in the bin will unseam your flesh to bare your nastiest secrets.

Opening with "The Button Bin," a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and culminating with its sequel, "The Quiltmaker," which Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson Award winner Laird Barron has hailed as Mike Allen's masterpiece, this debut collection gathers fourteen horror tales that, in the words of Barron's introduction, "rival anything committed to paper by the likes of contemporary masters such as Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, or Caitlín Kiernan. This is raw, visceral, and sometimes bloody stuff. Primal stuff."

More praise for Unseaming:

Throughout Unseaming, reality is usually in bad shape right from the start-and from there things proceed to go downhill. Such is the general background and trajectory of life in Mike Allen's fictional world. More could be said, of course, but there's one thing that I feel especially urged to say: these stories are fun. Not "good" fun, and certainly not "good clean" fun. They are too unnerving for those modifiers, too serious, like laughter in the dark-unnerving, serious laughter that leads you through Mr. Allen's funhouse. The reality in there is also in bad shape, deliberately so, just for the seriously unnerving fun of it. The prose is poetic, except it's nonsense poetry, the poetry of deteriorating realities, intermingling realities, realities without Reality. And all the while that unnerving, serious laughter keeps getting louder and louder. Are we having fun yet?
--Thomas Ligotti, author of Teatro Grottesco and The Spectral Link



Hello Devilfish! is a first-person (or first-fish) account of a giant blue Japanese movie monster stingray's attack on contemporary Tokyo and his tragic morph into human form. Using elements of Japanese shock-pop and the infamous Hello Kitty meme, the story is told in comic narrative from the stingray's point of view as he gleefully creams Tokyo into rubble. The stingray is soon pursued by Squidra, a love-struck giant squid. She demands love; he refuses. In an epic waterfront battle, she traps him in a human-growth hormone bath that changes him into a puny human — a reverse metamorphosis — monster to man. Refusing to accept his humanity, the stingray acts like his former giant self while trying to find food, shelter, romance — and avoid the destructive rampage of his stalker squid love interest. Hello Devilfish! is told in a readable, comic narrative occasionally spiced with Manglish words. Funny and very readable, underneath the outlandish plot is a truly fresh critique of contemporary culture and mainstream literature.



Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job he's supposed to do—a job Flynne didn't know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: work a perimeter around the image of a tower building. Little buglike things turn up. He's supposed to get in their way, edge them back. That's all there is to it. He's offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.

[Mme Chauchat]

Super za En Leki!

Ali ovo

The first adult novel in more than four years from the bestselling author of the Fairyland books

priziva sve užase brzog pisanja, na toliko načina odjednom

[PTY]

Bogami, jeste. I mada smatram da nije pošteno autorima spotčitavati prolifičnost (osim ako je ista baš očigledan uzrok slabog kvaliteta proze, naravno), priznajem da me je upravo to oduvek pomalo odbijalo od Valentice. (To, i donekle njen pretenciozni stil.)

A obaška što mi se čini da i inače imamo previše žanrovskih pisaca koji nam dosta toga obećaju ozbiljnim prvencem a onda se pokupe da na sitno prebiru vodu u YA bazenčiću... kao Baćigalupi, recimo. Istina da ne pratim YA pomno, ali ako je suditi po nominacijama i rivjuima, rekla bih da su tamo uglavnom prosečni, pa je jadac otud i dvaput gori.

[PTY]

Evo nešto za Jevtropijevićku i ostale fanove En Leki:



The second book starts with Breq taking the only assignment from Anaander that she would accept–to visit Athoek Station, an important station where Lieutenant Awn's sister Bosnaaid lives. Although she is only given one ship, Mercy of Kalr, Breq is promoted to the position of Fleet Captain to ensure she has authority over other captains she crosses. Her friend Seivarden is one of her lieutenants on the ship. Breq wishes to go to have the opportunity to make amends to Bosnaaid for the role she played in Awn's death. Anaander wants Breq to go to make sure that Athoek Station is ready to defend against attack from the other Anaander. But nothing with 3000-year-old Anaander Miaanai is ever simple–Anaander has already shown herself very capable of great trickery, able as she is to bypass security systems and AIs with powerful access codes. Breq knows that Anaander wouldn't let a powerful person like Breq go without some kind of insurance, but what form will that insurance take?



When they arrive at Athoek Station, there are repeated indications that things are very odd here. Their arrival is met with an attempted attack by the Radch ship Sword of Atagaris. On Athoek Station Breq immediately seeks out the Undergarden, the space under the populated section of the station that doesn't officially exist. Breq, always sympathetic to the downtrodden, sets out to improve the living conditions on the station as she tries to sort out the mysteries of the system and tries to stabilize everything to prepare for attack from the other Anaander Miaanai.

This book continues one of the cool social details of the last book–universal female genderization. The Radch language doesn't acknowledge different genders and doesn't have gendered pronouns, so female pronouns are always used in the narration and any dialog spoken in Radchaai–it's only when other languages are used when any differentiation is made at all. It's a really cool effect–even though I know a few particular characters are male, the ever-present female pronouns and the unimportance of distinguishing one sex from the other makes me kind of forget that for those characters. In my head, it really is an all-female cast, even though it technically isn't. It's a neat effect.

One thing that I miss from Ancillary Justice is the cool flashback scenes in that book from the point of view of Justice of Toren. The reason I really got interested in that book in the first place was that interesting point of view. I have seen other stories with multiple-bodied people as secondary characters or ones where a person may have more than one body but not simultaneously, but Justice of Toren's point of view perceived from all of her bodies simultaneously so those scenes involved her speaking and acting in numerous different places all at once all mixed together in the same scene. It was disorienting at first, but amazingly done. This book doesn't involve any flashbacks from Breq's Justice of Toren days, so it's all in the single-bodied present. It makes the point of view more interesting that Breq has implants that let her perceive the emotions and sensory input of her officers and crew–kind of an in-text justification for an omniscient narrator. It was still pretty cool, but the first book set the bar pretty high on point-of-view coolness and it wasn't as cool as that.

There was one major plot-point action by Breq that was such poor judgment I found it hard to believe from her character. Breq is often daring, but never unthinking, so I found that major action to be out of the character I'd known so far. I can't comment further without spoilers, but I'll be interested to see if other people had the same qualm when I talk to them.

The second novel is stereotypically the low point in a trilogy. It lacks the novelty, the fresh worldbuilding and launch into action of the first book. But neither does it have the series-ending climax and resolution of the third book. Did Ancillary Sword fall into the middle-book slump? Somewhat. Breq is as awesome as ever, and there is some good expansion of worldbuilding started in the previous book. There are some really cool plot points and new information revealed here, but the entirety of this book still feels like just the "rising action" portion of a single book that the third Ancillary Mercy will conclude, and while this book did have its own climax and resolution these were both related to a plot thread that is more of an offshoot of the series' main plot than an integral part of the main plot. Much of the book is spent, not idle, but waiting for the other shoe to drop. Breq is more than capable of handling the interpersonal and administrative conflict that make up most of the plot. Very late in the book there is even a short section that concisely lists all the unresolved threads that this book built up to–which could serve very nicely as a back cover blurb for the third book. The first book centered around a one-person assassination attempt on the multitudinous emperor of the galactic empire with astronomical odds against success. After that action-packed excitement a capable person given ample authority and asked to organize a defense is not so enthralling, at least until that preparation is put to the test.

If you liked Ancillary Justice, consider this book, and the resolution to the trilogy will be along in the near future to tie everything off. I will be very excited to get my hands on Ancillary Mercy to follow the rest of Breq's adventures and to find out the how the Anaander Miaanai civil war turns out. Ann Leckie has shown herself more than capable, and I trust that she will enthrall and amaze to round out the trilogy.

[PTY]

Još jedna najava koja mnogo toga obećava:


Paolo Bacigalupi, New York Times-Bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist, dives once again onto our uncertain future with his first thriller for adults since his multi-award winning debut phenomenon The Windup Girl.

In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents. With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other's hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

[PTY]

In this hefty and insistently entertaining novel, Somers (Chum, 2013, etc.) creates a world of seedy urban crime that develops into a violent epic with the help of an intriguingly bloody magic system.

Lem Vonnegan is a Trickster, a small-time con man who uses magic to scrape out a living for himself and his large, endearingly childish sidekick, Pitr Mags. Magic, in this world, is not a pleasant thing. It relies on the spilling of blood, and while Lem chooses to limit himself to the power he can get from cutting into his own skin, other magicians are less scrupulous and use the blood of others on a scale that ranges from murder to the secret engineering of the biggest disasters in human history. When Lem and Mags stumble across a dead girl in a bathtub, her skin marked with the symbols of a mysterious and frighteningly powerful spell, they find themselves caught in a plot that would destroy the world for one impossible spell. Though the book has an exaggerated air of toughness and a tendency toward graphic violence that might be more effective on film, the characters are engaging and just odd enough to be easily imagined. The plot moves from one tense and dangerous moment to another, piling on high-stakes incidents so thickly that it's forced to break into distinct sections that almost feel like smaller, separate novels under the umbrella of a single title. The writing is clear and goes down easily, though a reliance on stock tough-guy vernacular and predictably imagined female characters sometimes trips up its believability. At its best, the story races along with an appealing balance of grimness and likability.

An action-filled urban fantasy that offers absorbing storytelling in a gritty atmosphere of crime and a merciless, often ugly, magic built on violence.

[PTY]

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson will be published on May 19, 2015 by HarperCollins / William Morrow.


Synopsis:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Noah's Ark . . . 30,000 years after the flood.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting new science fiction epic that tells of global disaster, the near-extinction of all life on Earth, and the seven valiant survivors who battle against all odds to save the human race.   

When the moon blows up, the earth's atmosphere is predicted to go through changes that will eventually lead to a Hard Rain, a meteorite storm that could

last for thousands of years,rendering the earth's surface uninhabitable. In preparation, the nations of the earth send an ark of humans to an International Space Station. But the Station isn't immune to the galactic catastrophe and many of its people are lost, mostly men. When stability is reached, only seven humans remain, all of them women. Jump forward thirty thousand years. Two peoples exist: those who survived on Earth, living rustic, primitive lives; and those who derived from the Seven Eves of the space station, affluent, sophisticated, organized sects looking to colonize the surface of earth. Stephenson's next novel is an epic potboiler, with political and military intrigue, and plenty to say about evolution, genetic engineering, and civilization as we know it.

[PTY]

You'll be surprised to learn that Inoue Yasushi, author of over fifty novels and countless short stories, didn't publish his first work until he was well in his forties. However, despite starting his career relatively late, his two short novels "Bullfight" and "The Hunting Gun" were instant successes landing him his first literary prizes. During his illustrious writing career many more will follow so by the end of his life in 1991, he'll have become one of the greatest and most beloved Japanese writers. It's easy to understand why. His grasp of emotions, carefully wrapped in everyday life and ordinary people is unprecedented. Sadly, Yasushi's work was badly neglected in Western world with published translations few and far between and even these few were translated quite badly. Luckily, once again it's Pushkin Press who've decided the sort it all out and "Life of a Counterfeiter" is a third collection of his to come out in a relatively short span of time.

If you've read anything by Yasushi by now, you've probably read his novella "Life of a Counterfeiter" in one guise or another. In fact, this was one of few stories that were published before in English but what sets apart this translation from the one that came before is the quality of the translation.  Michael Emmerich, who is well known for his translations of various Japanese authors, seems to understand Yasushi and does wonders to relate his subtle grasp of emotions through everyday things. "Life of a Counterfeiter" follows the story of an author who commissioned to write a biography of a well-known artist. As was intercepts his work, authors starts to explore the life of a counterfeiter who forged artist's works.




"Life of a Counterfeiter" is followed by two stories which are appearing in English translation for the first time. "Reeds" is an examination of narrator's past through recollections of family life while "Mr Goodall's Gloves" is its similar counterpart and follows the story of a journalist who ends up on an assignment in Nagasaki after the bomb dropped and remembers his grandmother, geisha, who was due to her profession never fully accepted by society of her own family.

All three collected stories date from 1950s, arguably the finest period in Yasushi's writing and in my opinion provide a perfect introduction to his work. Rich with symbolism, this collection offers an insight into subtle intricacies of Japanese culture and its traditions through a beautifully emotional and quietly subdued writing. A lovely addition to a collection that finally does justice to Yasushi's opus.

[PTY]

Mnogi poznavaoci njegovog opusa tvrde da je ovaj roman kruna njegove karijere, pa neka tako i ostane, pošto sam ja čitala jedino Cloud Atlas i do sad bila u uverenju da je taj roman jednostavno nemoguće prevazići, to bilo po stilu, bilo po imaginaciji. The Bone Clocks je masivan roman, narativno zahtevan koliko i Atlas, mada relativno skromniji u opsegu, pošto prati životni vek glavnog protagoniste. Ali sva ostala žongliranja u naraciji – to žanrovima, stilom ili tonom – su i dalje jednako prisutna, i od samog uvoda naprosto vam je kristalno jasno da se tu sve, ali ama baš sve može dogoditi. Mitchell je naprosto pisac kojem se ništa ne može predvideti dalje od jednog ili dva pasusa, a ponekad čak ni u tom razmeru: njegov narativ je do te mere bizaran, do te mere realan i fantastičan ujedno, da naprosto samog sebe izgrađuje, to iz rečenice u rečenicu. Opet je tu između dve korice smešteno najmanje 6 romana, i svaki od njih dovoljno impresivan da bude ne samo samostalno nego i krajnje fascinantno delo.

U neku ruku, taj pristup skoro da garantuje čitaocu da roman naprosto ne može a da mu se ne svidi, to bar u nekom stepenu ili u nekom segmentu: koga ne dosegne onaj sasvim fantastični element romana dohvatiće ga garant distopija, a kome ne leži odviše postmodernistički zuj hektične naracije dohvatiće ga garant klasični, da ne kažem skroz tradicionalni realizam lako ekstrapoliranog futurizma. Jednotavno, taj Mitchellov vrunski stil i osebujni dobrostivi humor (čak i u onim dirljivim, tragičnim delovima sudbine pojedinih aktera) naprosto garantuje da celina naprosto ne može da omane, nego se samo njeni sastavni delovi mogu da aktivno nadmeću za favorizaciju najjačeg utiska.

Fantastični element je ovog puta iz asortimana bestelesnih Atemporalaca koji kao podstanari žive u svojim ljudskim gostima, prelazeći iz jednog u drugi kako im se prohte. Sama ideja me malko podsetila na Wesly Chu i njegov Lives of Tao, ali to samo u glavnim crtama, i donekle lepršavosti stila, pošto je i Chu sklon tom nekako skroz blagostivom humoru koji ostavlja trajan dojam koliko i sama naracija.

Inače, i sam Mitchell je fascinantan čovek, oko njegovog prevoda Why I Jump saznala sam dosta toga o njegovom autističnom sinu i načinu na koji njih dvojica prevazilaze taj komunikativni i emotivni jaz, pa mi i to ilustruje dubinu Mitchellovog senzibiliteta i njegovu neverovatnu sposobnost da emotivno razdrma čitaoca naizgled bez ikakvog napora. Kad u jednom momentu odložite knjigu na časak zato što vam se vid malko zamaglio, jelte, a i neka knedla vam sedi u grlu baš onako, pa kad u istom momentu shvatite da ste se nepun minut ranije u prethodnom pasusu na glas i od srca smejali, onda vam nekako dođe da i ne pipate knjigu tokom radnog dela dana, nego samo u neko praktičnije vreme. Družili smo se pune 3 nedelje, ja i ovaj masivni roman, i bilo mi je neverovatno žao kad sam došla do kraj. Srećom pa imam dosta njegovih nepročitanih naslova, idući na redu je number9dream.

[PTY]

izlazi u decembru:


1."Mech" by C.J. Cherryh
2."Last Human" by Jorge Salgado-Reyes
3."Annabelle's Children" by Gregory Wolos
4."Living The Singularity" by Tom Borthwick
5."Cotner's Bot" by D.L. Young
6."Midnight Pearls Blue" by William F. Wu
7."Better Than Everything" by Malon Edwards
8."Ex Machina" by Cynthia Ward
9."Island" by Terry Faust
10."Meerga" by John Shirley
11."To Sleep, perchance" by Mark Terence Chapman
12."The Walk" by Druscilla Morgan
13."The Electrified Ants" by Jetse de Vries
14."Extremum" by R. Thomas Riley & Roy C Booth
15."Attention Whore" by Kerry Lipp
16."Unholy Grail" by Frank Roger
17."Extra Credit" by Paul Levinson

There's also an Introduction by Paul Levinson

[PTY]

It is the mid-1980s, the era of so-called reformist apartheid, and South Africa is in flames. Police and military are gunning down children at the forefront of the liberation struggle. Far from such action, it seems, a small party of four is traveling by minibus to the north of the country, close to the border with Zimbabwe. Their aim is to shoot a documentary on the discovery of a prehistoric skull that Professor Digby Bamford boasts is evidence that, "True man first arose in southern Africa." Boozy, self-absorbed Professor Bamford is unaware that his young lover, Vicky, brings with her some complications. Rian, the videographer, was once in love with her, and his passion has been reignited. Bucs, a young man from the townships, is doing his best not to be involved in the increasingly deadly tensions. Powerful and provocative, brilliantly written, The Unspeakable is as unforgettable as it is unsettling. Told in the first person by Rian, it centers on the conflicted being of the white male under apartheid. Unlike many of the great novels of the era, it renounces any claim to the relative safety zone of moralistic dissociation from the racist crime against humanity, and cuts instead to the quick of complicity. It is sometimes said of Albert Camus's The Stranger that everything would have turned out very differently, had the murder only taken place "a few hundred miles to the south." This is that South with a vengeance.

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u maju iduce godine:



A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Our voyage from Earth began generations ago. Now, we approach our destination. A new home. AURORA.

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You might say that Project Hieroglyph was born out of literature. Everything started with Neal Stephenson's article "Innovation Starvation" in which he made a rally call for scientists to use contemporary science fiction as means for innovation. In my opinion this is a fantastic idea which, if it eventually takes off, could potentially inspire some pretty bonkers projects and we all know that these are the best. Remember airplanes? One of this, started by Stephenson himself as thought experiment is The Tall Tower Project, an exploration of limits of structural engineering and cutting edge materials to create a 20km tall steel tower. Damn interesting stuff.

Since the grain of the whole project was an essay by Stephenson, the expected next step is the publication of a collection of similarly imaginative stories by some of the today's leading thinkers and authors and that's exactly what "Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future" is. In a field dominated by bleak dystopian visions of the future, this collection offers a completely different take on things. Just about every of included essays is in its own way optimistic and offers an inspiring view of the future based on the ingenuity of human technological innovation and is accompanied by extensive research notes as well as links to science relevant to the story.

Anthology's line-up is suitably impressive. There are original pieces by Neal Stephenson, Cory Doctorow, David Brin, Gregory Benford, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling, as well as by newcomers such as Lou Konstantinou and Madeline Ashby. For the most part, texts fulfill their expectation. They did whet my appetite for learning and I've literary spent hours exploring the science behind the concepts. And there's a plethora of concepts to dig into : opening and closing with Stephenson's 20km high steel tower, we are also treated to explorations of augmented reality, neurobiology, innovative uses of 3D printing and what-not else.

Interestingly enough, the stories themselves don't rely so much on the governments as a way to reach the future as to an unknown intrepid entrepreneur - an enthusiastic businessman who will spend millions to achieve hers or his childhood dreams. This is on par with some of the talks that Stephenson gave lately where he discussed his disappointment in the effective closure of the space program. And this is where we reach the potential catch 22. Scientist often lack funding to do truly innovative things, governments can't be bothered and the businessmen will only give so much without expecting profit. But, similarly to authors, we can only hope!

"Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future" is a shining beacon of technological innovation and I can only hope that all the relevant parties will dare to dream with these authors. If only a fractions od ideas presented here come true, the future will indeed turn out to be indistinguishable from magic.

[PTY]

Knjige koje su oraspolozile Jareda :







Deji Olukuton's Nigerians in Space is part noir, part political thriller, part heart-breaking literary fiction - all packed up with a vaguely science fictional gloss. A futurist raison d'etre. The plot itself is meandering: Dr. Wale Olufunmi is in Houston, working on moon rocks, when he gets the call from a mysterious political figure back in his country of birth, Nigeria. Wale, seduced by the dream of a Nigerian space programme, obeys: he steals a sample, uproots his family, and heads to Nigeria. Unfortunately, reality and politics intervene - also, assassins. Wale drags himself all over the world trying to restore some balance to his life, but only gets deeper and deeper in trouble.

The second thread of the narrative takes place with the next generation: Wale's son (an inventor), a hypnotic refugee model (the daughter of another member of the failed Nigerian 'Brain Gain' plot) and an opportunistic mollusc dealer. Their lives orbit and, eventually, intersect those of Wale's, and their smaller plots become part of the larger one.

What's beautiful about Nigerians in Space is that it is adamantly and aggressively earthbound - it is a novel of shattered dreams and failed launches. But it is also about the concept of space: a beautiful, unbounded future, filled with possibility and the (theoretical but not wholly defined) advancement of the human species. This is the shine of Golden Age SF - the magic and the mystery of the space programme - but with a wonderfully contemporary touch: a handful of people looking, aspiring, to live that dream in a world that refuses to accept it. Ultimately the idea of space is not unlike the stolen moon rock sample - infinitely valuable, but without practical purpose. It is about a dream, and what that represents.

A truly glorious book, that reminds the reader of what makes science fiction - as an idea - so very, very special.



Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is so good that I may even stop being snarky about Kickstarter. The Wayfarer is a wormhole builder - a ship that goes out to the middle of nowhere and sets up doorways for future travellers. (There's physics involved, but it is presented through a combination of hilarious analogies over the breakfast table, so that's ok.) The ship itself is populated by a mixed and ramshackle crew - including a pair of bonkers engineers, a sentient AI, and the ostensible protagonist - Rosemary (a wealthy runaway hiding as the ship's clerk).

The format is episodic: the ship has been tasked to build a gateway in a faraway system, formerly the domain of warring alien tribes. A fragile new alliance means that there's the opportunity to begin trade - especially in the lucrative go-juice that makes wormhole travel possible. The Wayfarer will make good money and, as a perk, they're allowed to get their at a pleasantly ambling rate - thus the titular long way.

Through Rosemary, the ship's newest member, we learn about all the crew's proclivities and personal histories: the wars, the families, the strange and wonderful alien customs and the liaisons (illicit and licit) and relationships. Generally speaking, there's no one 'big' adventure - the peripatetic structure is a series of small encounters that range from the harrowing to the adorable. On one end, there are space pirates and giant locusts; on the other, there are rather poignant encounters, and explorations of loneliness and belonging.  In-between, we get a beautiful overlap: what is love like between alien species? What does family mean to a clone? The Long Way is remarkable not only because it tackles tricky questions, but because it does so with such deftness and charm. Despite the sprawling, far-flung setting, a universe populated with sentient beings of all shapes and sizes, this is a deeply intimate book: we get to know the half-dozen crew members, what makes them tick, and why they're so genuinely wonderful together.

And I think that's the beautiful thing about The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Science fiction is a genre of big statements and big ideas. Certainly, The Long Way doesn't shy away from them, but where it excels is in the little things - how the characters interact and interweave, how situations are resolved not with a bang, and how it doesn't shout about philosophies as much as quietly live them. It is also, and this is worth noting, a happy book - a book that espouses positivity in the face of adversity, and reinforces a core belief that people of all shapes, sizes and species are (or can be) pretty nice. The Long Way is, very simply, an extremely good book, a seemingly effortless demonstration of how progressive and enjoyable science fiction can be.

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From the author of the acclaimed The Girl with a Clock for a Heart—hailed by the Washington Post as crime fiction's best first novel of 2014"—a devious tale of psychological suspense involving sex, deception, and an accidental encounter that leads to murder that is a modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith's classic Strangers on a Train.

On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his marriage that's going stale and his wife Miranda, who he's sure is cheating on him. Ted and his wife were a mismatch from the start—he the rich businessman, she the artistic free spirit—a contrast that once inflamed their passion, but has now become a cliché.

But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for what she's done. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, "I'd like to help." After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse. . . .

Back in Boston, Ted and Lily's twisted bond grows stronger as they begin to plot Miranda's demise. But there are a few things about Lily's past that she hasn't shared with Ted, namely her experience in the art and craft of murder, a journey that began in her very precocious youth.

Suddenly these co-conspirators are embroiled in a chilling game of cat-and-mouse, one they both cannot survive . . . with a shrewd and very determined detective on their tail.



After years of placing her tales in France and exploring its rich medieval history, in her new novel Mosse decided to do things differently and to return to her home village in the UK. "The Taxidermist's Daughter" takes places in small village of Fishbourne in Surrey in 1912 and follows the story of Constantia Gifford as she accidentally becomes involved in a frightening murder mystery. Connie is twenty-two and is living alone with her father in a house filled with remnants of what was once a world-famous museum of taxidermy "Gifford's World Famous House of Avian Curiosities". After the museum's closure, Connie's father became a very uncomfortable man to live with. He's bitter and disappointed in life. The events surrounding the closure are still a mystery to Connie as she lost her memory after a particularly nasty fall years ago. The subject matter is a taboo which can't even be mentioned, let alone discussed so she spends her days with stuffed birds as her company, slowly learning her father's trade.

It all changes one night during which it is believed that ghosts of those about to die in the coming year are walking the earth. A woman is found drowned outside Blackthorn House (Gifford's house). Death certificate proclaims the cause of death as suicide but Connie's having her doubt. Soon she becomes embroiled in a search spanning years which will bring back to light some long forgotten memories as well as the mystery at the heart of her father's life.

With her Languedoc trilogy su ccessfully out of the way, Mosse's writing in "The Taxidermist's Daughter" feels completely reinvigorated. She feels fiercely confident in her story and I, as a reader, found this sort of enthusiasm absolutely infecting. "The Taxidermist's Daughter" is simply Mosse's best work yet which will appear more to readers who enjoyed her gothic tale "The Winter Ghosts" (or "The Cave" if you've only read the original, shorter story") or her recent short story collection "The Mitletoe Brde and other stories" than to those who only read her Languedoc trilogy. "The Taxidermist's Daughter" is a thrilling lyrical tale with a touch of macabre which I can only wholeheartedly recommend.





THE SURFACING is set largely on board a ship in the 1850s, searching for Franklin's lost expedition. It's a challenging and dangerous endeavour in a very male world - that is until Morgan, the second-in-command of the Impetus, realises there is a pregnant stowaway on board and that he is the father. It is too late to turn back, the ice is closing in, and the child will have to be born into the vast and icy wilderness of the Arctic. The men, especially the ship's doctor, DeHaven, and the second in command, Lieutenant Morgan, have doubts about the judgement of their captain, and soon their own vessel becomes trapped in the remote Arctic. THE SURFACING is in places quite literally breathtaking. It is a powerful novel of isolation and impasse, resilience and resistance, exploring the battle between man and an unforgiving environment, and the struggle between the sexes. The power of ambition, what drives human beings to take outrageous physical risks, the nature of courage, and of love - in an unforgettable setting, often bleak, sometimes beautiful, always conveyed in brilliant, keenly pared prose. And in addition to Kitty and Morgan and the rest of the crew, the ice itself forms an extraordinary character in its own right - sometimes shifting, sometimes stubborn, mostly treacherous.

[PTY]

Poems by Iain Banks with Ken MacLeod will be published on February 5, 2015 by Little, Brown


Iain Banks the literary novelist and Iain M. Banks the science fiction writer are too well known to need introduction, but Iain Banks the poet has hitherto been almost undetected: a single poem was published in a magazine and three short pieces within the novels. But he took his poetry seriously and worked on it carefully, though he shared the results mainly with friends.

Readers of Iain's novels will find in these poems many aspects of his writing with which they're already familiar: a humane and materialist sensibility, an unflinching stare at the damage people can do to each other, a warm appreciation of the joy they can give to each other, a revel in language, a geologically informed gaze on land and sea, a continued meditation on what it means for us to be mortal embodied minds with a fleeting but consequent existence between abysses of deep time.

Ken MacLeod, Iain's long-time friend and collaborator, has collected his poems according to his wishes, and they are published here - most for the first time - alongside a selection of Ken's own poetry

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London 1939. A disgraced former dictator ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in Soho. He's known only by the name of Wolf. In A Man Named Wolf, Wolf takes on a case that will call into question his very identity.

Wolf's investigation continues in Lavie Tidhar's darkest novel yet, A Man Lies Dreaming. An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, told by a prisoner in history's most infamous concentration camp. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world...

A Man Named Wolf is a new comic by Lavie Tidhar, with artwork by Neil Struthers and lettering by Terry Martin. Click the image below to read it:

http://www.hodderscape.co.uk/man-named-wolf-lavie-tidhar/

[PTY]

A evo i još novijih naslova kojima sleduju ekranizacije:



The option for Ancillary Justice was purchased by the Fabrik production company and Fox Television Studios, who together produced Burn Notice and The Killing. Leckie says she worked closely with the production company to make sure that the show would remain true to its exploration of gender, to which she was assured it would not be "whitewashed".




Deadline is reporting that Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles has been optioned by Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, and Brian Grazer. The deal includes not only the existing 10 novels in The Vampire Chronicles, but also the upcoming 11th novel, the 2 books in the related series New Tales of the Vampires, and any future novels. It also includes the adapted screenplay for Tale of the Body Thief written by Christopher Rice, Anne's son.

Two of Rice's Vampire Chronicles books have been previously adapted: 1994's Interview with the Vampire, which starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt; and 2002's Queen of the Damned starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah. This new deal means those films will be remade.



SyFy is developing a drama series based on John Scalzi's novel The Ghost Brigades, one of the books set in the author's Old Man's War universe.

Two time Oscar nominee Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, In The Line of Fire, Air Force One, The NeverEnding Story) and Scott Stuber (Safe House, Ted) are developing it, with Jake Thornton and Ben Lustig signed on to write the screenplay




Amazon has ordered a pilot episode for a drama series based on Philip K. Dick's famous alternate history novel The Man In The High Castle. The book posits an alternate history in which Germany won World War II and now occupies the United States.

The order went to Ridley Scott's production company Scott Free, who owns the rights. The script is being written by former X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz.

This is not the first news of this novel being adapted. Back in 2013, it was being reported that the SyFy channel was interested in adapting the series, but that apparently went nowhere. Now, Amazon has expressed an interest in the adaptation. Time will tell if actually pans out this time.



Robert Charles Wilson's Hugo Award-winning science fiction thriller Spin is being adapted for television by Universal Cable Productions, who acquires the television rights. Producers attached to the project are Rob Morrow (best known for his acting roles in Northern Exposure and Quiz Show) and Olympus Pictures' Leslie Urdang (Beginners, Rabbit Hole). No actors or network has been named as being attached to the project.

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David Brin ima jasnu preporuku za ovu trilogiju: "Vivid, imaginative, and rooted in cutting-edge science."


Next month sees the release of The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (and translated by Ken Liu), a writer writer heralded as "China's bestselling and most beloved science fiction writer". And already 2nd book in the trilogy is lined up: The Dark Forest (translated by Joel Martinsen), coming July of next year.

Here's the cover and synopsis for The Dark Forest...



The continuation of a tour de force near-future adventure from China's bestselling and most beloved science fiction writer

With the scope of Dune and the rousing action of Independence Day, this near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multple-award-winning phenemonenon from China's most beloved science fiction author.

In Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion—in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret. This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

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Novembar 2014 naslovi:





A darkly comic, satirical reference book about writers who never made it into the literary canon

A signal event of literary scholarship, The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure compiles the biographies of history's most notable cases of a complete lack of literary success. As such, it is the world's leading authority on the subject.

Compiled in one volume by C. D. Rose, a well-educated person universally acknowledged in parts of England as the world's pre-eminent expert on inexpert writers, the book culls its information from lost or otherwise ignored archives scattered around the globe, as well as the occasional dustbin.

The dictionary amounts to a monumental accomplishment: the definitive appreciation of history's least accomplished writers. Thus immortalized beyond deserving and rescued from hard-earned obscurity, the authors presented in this historic volume comprise a who's who of the talentless and deluded, their stories timeless litanies of abject psychosis, misapplication, and delinquency.

It is, in short, a treasure.




A young man meets a woman and falls in love with her, despite her protestations that he will soon turn into "a maggot person"—a maggot-filled body topped by a still-functioning brain. Michael begins experiencing severe pains, and the young woman's prophecy begins to take hold.




mala slucajnost....

The King in Yellow - recently featured in HBO's hit series True Detective - is a classic collection of 10 short stories, the reading of which will curse one to a terrible fate. You have been warned! This edition features an introduction by H.P. Lovecraft. As an added bonus, it includes "An Inhabitant of Carcosa," by Ambrose Bierce, another related story. H.P. Lovecraft wrote: "The King in Yellow, a series of vaguely connected short stories...whose perusal brings fright, madness, and spectral tragedy, really achieves notable heights of cosmic fear..."

[PTY]

At a dive bar in San Francisco's edgy Tenderloin district, drug-hustling Emily Rosario is drinking whiskey and looking for an escape from her desperate lifestyle. When she is approached by a Russian businessman, she thinks she might have found her exit. A week later--drugged, disoriented and wanted for robbery--Emily finds herself on the run for her life. When cop Leo Elias--broke, alcoholic and desperate--hears about an unsolved bank robbery, the stolen money proves too strong a temptation. Elias takes the case into his own hands, hoping to find Emily and the money before anyone else does. A sharply drawn cast of characters--dirty cops, Russian drug dealers, Chinese black-market traders, street smart Cambodians, and shady entrepreneurs--all take part in this terrifying tour through San Francisco's underbelly. Confronted with the intimate details of characters that blur the line between good and evil, and twists that surprise until the end, readers of THE WHITE VAN will find their own moral code challenged by the desperate decisions the characters are forced to make.

[PTY]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/20697435-the-book-of-strange-new-things



Više od decenije nakon izlaska Under the Skin, Faber ima novi roman.


I mada se moglo lako očekivati da će to opet biti fascinantna i opčinjavajuća proza, iz pera čoveka čiji izraz i svetonazor jednako bude strahopoštovanje u čitaocu, opet, čovek ne može a da ne bude zaprepašten i maltene šokiran dubinom do koje ovaj sinopsis zapravo doseže. Faber zadržava opsesiju vanzemaljcima iz Under the Skin - bolje rečeno opsesiju vanzemaljcem kao žanrovskim arhetipom koji najlakše predočava Drugačijost koja inače možda i ne bi bila tako precizno raspoznatljiva - i dodaje joj još jedan fenomen koji nas tako specifično čini onim što jesmo, a to je religioznost. 



Naravno, žanr SFa je često kontemplirao taj konkretno aspekt ljudskosti i neki od najfascinantnijih proznih ostvarenja upravo (p)o tom fenomenu kontempliraju, kao recimo Milerov Kantikulum, Dišovi Genocidi, Vidalov Kalki ili neka posrednija bavljenja kod Zelaznija, Dika, Legvinove, Egana i uopšte većine pisaca koji bi sa lakoćom bili šortlistovani za velikane SFa. Ali za razliku od većine tih i takvih bavljenja rečenim fenomenom, Faber čak i ne pokušava da ga umaskira u samu produhovljenost, nego poseže za njenim najstarijim i najformalnijim oblikom - za katoličanstvom kao takvim. Pri tome, on čak i ne pokušava ono što je većina pobrojanih radila, a to je samo vrednovanje fenomena - Faber ga naprosto prihvata kao konstantu u ljudskom karakteru, pa se otud i ne bavi procenjivanjem njegove verodostojnosti i njegove održivosti uopšte. Otud je Faberovo bavljenje fenomenom smireno i produhovljeno, isto kao i njegov naratorski ton, koji je apsulutno lišen bilo kakvog cinizma i dobro nam poznate potrebe da se fenomen 'raskrinka', to neretko u primitivnu potrebu za kontrolom i dominacijom uopšte.


Faber u hrišćanskoj doktrini jednostavno ne vidi ono što je čak i dobronamerna žanrovska većina pre njega videla - rani oblik društvenog i kulturnog kodeksa, to uglavnom zakonodavnog - nego vidi bazičnu alatku iskrene komunikacije, alatku kojom čovek istovremeno sebi i drugima saopštava one najbazičnije i najvažnije komunikacije: sebi saopštava ko je on zapravo; a drugima saopštava i zašto.


Otud je sinopsis također bazičan, pa otud i rizikuje da ga se percipira kao trivijalnog: Peter Leigh je hrišćanski misionar nativnoj populaciji na C2, ili na Oazi, kako su je imenovali ljudski kolonisti. Populacija je mala, ekstremno dobrostiva ali i nepokolebljivo tajanstvena, voljna da sa kolonistima sarađuje na samo dva polja: da razmenjuje hranu za lekove, i da od misionara sluša Bibliju. Peter tu dolazi kao zamena za originalnog misionara koji je... pa eto, odlučio da se misionarstvom više ne bavi, i sa jednakom odlučnošću prekinuo svaki kontakt i sa kolonistima i sa nativnom populacijom. Peter, bivši narkoman i sve ostalo što uz to ide, i sam je doživeo spasonosno iskupljenje koje Biblija nudi, to kroz skoro pa misionarski uticaj svoje žene Beatrice, pa otud i bez razmišljanja odlučuje da on sam isto to učini i za nativce Oaze. I mada je njegov posao uvelike olakšan činjenicom da su nativici već stekli bazično biblijsko obrazovanje od strane prethodnog misionara, i da je zato njihova vera u Reč očigledno prijemčiva i nepokolebljivo iskrena, Peter dolazi u iskušenje da posumnja da li nativci zaista shvataju to što Biblija saopštava. I ta prva nedoumica odvodi ga na ličnu kalvariju na kojoj ga čekaju i razna druga preispitivanja.


Mislim da se, u proseku barem, dva ili tri puta u svakoj deceniji uverim da se žanr SFa najbolje afirmiše na vanžanrovskim autorima. The Book of Strange New Things sama pokriva taj saldo za celu ovu deceniju.

[PTY]

Pošto je prošle godine preminuo Frederik Pohl, jedan od najfascinantnijih Grand Mastera sa sedamdesetogodišnjom aktivnom i svestranom SF karijerom, omaž u vidu iščitavanja nekog njegovog  remek-dela se prezentovao kao krajnje prikladan i podrazumevajući. Zaista, ima vrlo malo žanrovskih majstora za koje se može reći da su u toku sedamdesetogodišnje karijere ostali jednako relevantni i jednako prisebni u držanju koraka sa svetom u kom žive, svetom koji se u  tih 7 decenija uistinu drastično menjao i promenio. Frederik Pohl je svakako jedan od njih.


Man Plus (1976) je već po objavljivanju ostavio dubok utisak na žanrovsko čitalaštvo, osvojio je Hugo i Campbell nagrade i bio je visko rangiran na Locusovoj listi, tako da se slobodno može reći da je od samog početka bio prepoznat za ono što jeste - za izuzetan žanrovski roman koji sa lakoćom ulazi na sve relevantnije naj-liste. Ali njegovo iščitavanje skoro četiri decenije kasnije dodaje mu dimenziju koja možda i nije bila toliko vidljiva u doba njegovog objavljivanja: dimenziju repera, parametra kojim se može definisati lako uočljiv i merljiv pomak u žanrovskoj evoluciji. Naime, Man Plus nudi upravo one teme ( i njihovo specifično žanrovsko obrađivanje, naravno ) za koje slobodno možemo reći da su ne samo savremene, nego i veoma aktuelne upravo danas, i to daleko više nego pre četiri decenije. U tom smislu, Man Plus je savršen primer bavljenja dvema najsuštinskijim temama koje je moderni SF iznedrio: ekstrapolacijom naše sutrašnjice i večitim kontempliranjem našeg identiteta. Za obe te teme, Man Plus bira pristup i obradu koja se najegzotičnije mogla razbaškariti upravo u domenu palpične obrade, one koja je najprijemčivija upravo na ležernom nivou zabave, a svi dobro znamo kako je upravo zabava oduvek bila najpouzdaniji žanrovski instrument kad je isporuka poučnog u pitanju. Taj i takav pristup daje autoru teren da maksimalno iskoristi sve svoje imaginativne kapacitete i ponudi sadržaj baziran da ingenioznom zapletu, drskoj karakterizaciji i neobuzdanoj ekstrapolaciji budućnosti, autoru prepoznatljive upravo kroz fenomene kojima je fasciniran. A ti fenomeni koje ondašnji Man Plus prepoznaje i na kojima ekstrapolira svoj futurizam su nama danas uvelike poznatiji: AI, transhumanizam, ekološka katastrofa (to baš u rudimantarnom formatu danas naširoko rasprostranjene 'climate change' kontroverze), kolonizacija Marsa, pretnje nuklearnim oružjem/ratom, eskalacija trvenja geo-političkih interesa (zli Azijati, uglavnom Kinezi), redefinisanje konzervativnog identiteta, itd. Te teme i pristupi su veoma aktivni danas, i veoma kontroverzni, to ponajviše na pop-kulturnom nivou opšteg znanja i obrazovanja, ali pre četiri decenije, njihova obrada je podrazumevala i stepen kalkulacije za koji je tek danas moguće reći da je postao uvelike opšte mesto.


Man Plus pristupa kolonizaciji Marsa ne iz ugla eksploracije ili eksploatacije, nego iz ugla suštinske potrebe za novim životnim prostorom: potrebe za opstankom vrste. Man Plus ne ide na Mars da se turistički divi njegovom pejzažu ili zbog kolonizatorske pohlepe za njegovim retkim rudama, on na Mars odlazi zbog vlastitog opstanka, zbog neminovnog nuklearnog rata i uništenog okoliša. Otud se i ne planira odlazak u skafanderu, nego se planira transformacija u kiborga adaptiranog marsovskom okolišu. Man Plus je otud "čovek" sa mehaničkim čulima i udovima, "čovek" od čijeg je originalnog pakovanja ostao samo organski mozak i ništa drugo. A čak i taj mozak je kompromitovan selekcijom senzorske informacije, naprosto zato što nije u stanju da procesuje ekstremnu količinu informacije kojom ga hrane tehnološki senzori koji zamenjuju čula i udove.


Da bi bolje ilustrovao taj kompromis, Pohl uzima za primer žabu, čiji senzorni kapaciteti diskriminišu sve one podatke koji ne odgovaraju određenim parametrima: žaba ne reaguje na list koji pada u vodu, zato jer oblik i ponašanje lista ne ulaze u parametre koji žabi predstavljaju hranu. Ali prolaz insekta kroz isti taj vazduh potpuno odgovara tim parametrima, pa otud žaba i reaguje gutanjem pre no što je i svesna njegovog postojanja. Žaba je zbog opstanka odlučila da zanemari sve pokrete koji ne predstavljaju eventualnu hranu, otud je njen kapacitet mozga oslobođen da se adekvatnije posveti munjevito brzom kontrolisanju udova. Roger Torroway, kiborg namenjen kolonizaciji Marsa, mora da se podvrgne istom tom procesu selektiranja senzorne informacije, da ne završi kao njegovi prethodnici - mozga sprženog informativnim preopterećenjem. Delikatni interfejs između senzora i mozga mora biti dovoljno inteligentan da proceni koja je to informacija dovoljno bitna da se mozak njome bavi a koja to nije: recimo da je u pitanju forma autocenzure kojom ljudsko telo štiti svoj najvažniji i najranjiviji organ. A ta autocenzura, ta interna odluka čoveka da proceni šta je to vredno čuvanja a šta nije, ta iskonska ljudska potreba da sa pozicije celine zaštiti ranjivu singularnu komponentu, taj nezajažljivi poriv da čovek samog sebe unapredi, da selektivno bira sopstveni balast, telesni i duhovni jednako - to je ujedno prva i osnovna kontroverza modernog transhumanizma.


Pohl toj kontroverzi prilazi u palpičnom maniru: reč je o tehnološkom interfejsu koji će, jednom ispravno programiran, donositi te krucijalne odluke u ime Man Plus kiborga, hraneći ga filtriranom informacijom koja je prepoznata kao "važna", ignorišući pri tom svo ono informativno obilje koje je programom klasificirano kao nevažno.


Naravno, sam taj koncept širom otvara vrata distopičnog futurizma: ako je priliv informacije selektivan, ako je cenzurisan, vrednovan, sortiran i "obrađen" pre no što dosegne naš um i našu svest/savest, koliko mogu naše odluke (bazirane na toj i takvoj informaciji) biti objektivne, a samim time i ispravne?


Pohl ne bi bio majstor kakav jeste kad u tu tehnofobiju ne bi uneo ljudski momenat, a taj momenat tvrdi da mi to ionako sami radimo, svo vreme, od našeg postanka naovamo, i to čisto organski i prirodno, bez ikakvog uticaja visoke ili bilo kakve tehnogije: mi konstantno vršimo selekciju sirovih podataka, tako što naprosto odbijamo da prepoznamo ono što nam ne prija. Da bi to ilustrovao, Pohl uvodi dirljiv podzaplet: Roger Torroway, kiborg, Man Plus, je dobar čovek, po svim parametrima kojima smo svikli da prepoznajemo dobrotu. Alexander Bradley "Brad", doktor, vojni istraživač i naučnik zadužen za konstrukciju interfejsa koji će selektivno cenzurisati informaciju dostupnu mozgu kiborga, je ljubavnik žene istog tog kiborga. To svi znaju, a znao bi i sam Roger Torroway, samo da ne odbija da prepozna dostupnu informaciju.


Tehnološka moralna dilema otud dobija i svoj ljudski ekvivalent: krajnje je nemoralno da programiraš selektivnost obaveštenosti čoveka kojem u potaji nabijaš rogove, zar ne?
ali opet, nije baš da mu radiš išta što on sam sebi već ne radi, i to dobrovoljno, zar ne?


Onog momenta kad žanrovski palp otvori moralnu kontroverzu takvih razmera, on prestaje da bude palp i postaje delikatna vivisekcija ljudske patologije.


Kao kad naručite klovna da uveseljava rođendansku zabavu vaše desetogodišnjakinje, i nekako usred svog tog njegovog žongliranja i uvijanja balona u žirafe i pudlice shvatite da je ispod svog tog odela i mejkapa glavom i bradom lično Ajnštajn.


Naravno, do vas je da li ćete samo uživati u njegovom žongliranju, ili ćete ga posle toga pozvati na kafu i razgovor. Uostalom, do vas je i da li ćete ga uopšte prepoznati, a kamoli išta više od toga.


Dakle, koliko vreme i mogućnosti dopuste, sledi omaž jednom fascinantnom Grand Masteru, skoro četiri decenije po izlasku jednog od njegovih remek-dela.