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

[Irena Adler]

"Papagajeva teorema" još odavno postoji na srpskom.
http://www.geopoetika.com/book.php?id=120

[PTY]

e to je prijatna vest.  drago mi je, jer u pitanju je stvarno fenomenalna knjiga.

[PTY]

Sea-Fi: When SF Plumbs the Ocean Depths



When I was nine, my parents took us on a dream vacation to Hawaii. That was the first time my brother and sister and I, three small-town Indiana kids, had ever seen an actual ocean. We were competitive swimmers, cocky about our mastery of all things aquatic, and we attacked the churning breakers on one of Maui's prime bodysurfing beaches with reckless abandon. Swimming pools are not adequate preparation for throwing yourself in front of towering ocean waves. One of those monsters picked me up, slammed me down onto the sandy bottom hard enough to knock the breath out of my lungs, then tumbled me all the way to the beach where I crawled to safety, choking and sobbing and suitably humbled.

That was my introduction to the immense, indifferent power of the sea. Several days of snorkeling over nearshore coral reefs instilled an awe for its beauty that complemented that healthy dose of fear. The ocean is a force to be reckoned with, and I would not underestimate its might again. I cherished the memories of that trip and never forgot the lesson. So, when I recently began a trilogy exploring the potential effects of climate change, and an attempt to geoengineer a solution that goes horribly wrong, Mother Ocean became a central character.

The Aquarius Rising novels explore the world of Aquarians, human-dolphin hybrids who have built thriving reef communities amid the ruins of drowned coastal human cities. For a landlocked Midwesterner, this was a daunting setting to create... but it also captures the essence of what I absolutely love about speculative fiction. For writers and readers of SF, the only boundaries that exist are the ones we impose on ourselves. If our genre can transport us to distant stars or galaxies, why not to the depths of our own oceans, an exotic alien environment we've mapped less thoroughly than the surface of the Moon or Mars? Even someone stranded thousands of miles from the nearest seashore can still use imagination—and the precious resources of the modern internet—to dive far beneath the waves with a race of marine humanoids leading the way.

I had a blast building Aquarius and doing the research to make the experience as believable as possible for readers. A wonderful group of marine biologists and oceanographers patiently answered my questions on online forums; three of them even graciously volunteered to critique early drafts of the first novel. I was able to weave some amazing facts into my imaginary world with the benefit of their insights. For example, how do cetaceans (whales and dolphins) avoid drowning when they sleep? My expert sources explained that they only shut down half of their brain at a time, so that the active half can keep them surfacing and breathing. For an SF writer, curiosity and conjecture ensue: what would Aquarians' dream states be like? Would they have vivid hallucinatory visions that blur the line between dreaming and reality?

Research and experts are invaluable, but ultimately, science fiction vaults over the limits of current knowledge to take us somewhere new. Aquarius provided countless opportunities to do that. Electronics and hardware would be challenging for marine humanoids, so maybe they'd use DNA instead of circuit boards, "biosculpting" organic solutions to their unique problems. Life itself becomes their core technology. Instead of computer storage, Aquarians use Living Reefs: essentially gigantic floating brains inside tough outer membranes anchored to the seafloor that store their tribal history and knowledge. If these "brain-reefs" achieved a sort of sentience over time, how would they be perceived by the Aquarians? Would they become another member of the undersea community, perhaps the most indispensible member, fundamental to a reef-city's identity?

The ocean is a vast, magical, mysterious realm that offers endless story possibilities. A forest of giant kelp electrified to repel overgrazing predators can become the flashing, flickering, shadowy refuge of mutated monstrosities. With a few genetic tweaks, wolf-eels morph into dragon-eels; spider-crabs begin weaving sticky nets between the stalks of lightning-kelp; vampire squid become creepily similar to their supernatural namesakes; devilfish transform into hellish creatures. Nature's imagination is better than mine, but I can certainly follow her lead and revel in the journey.

Some would argue that modern science fiction was born beneath the waves with Jules Verne's immortal Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. We've come a long way as a genre, ventured well beyond our comfort zone to explore the farthest reaches of space and time. But, sometimes, it's worthwhile to return to our origins. Earth's oceans offer everything that alien worlds offer, fiction-wise: deadly and exotic environments, mesmerizing scenery, bizarre life forms that can inspire and terrify us. You don't have to board a spaceship to visit another world. Just take a deep breath, catch the wave of aquatic science fiction, and enjoy the ride!

[PTY]

Elem, dakle, Mitchell se vraća Atemporalcima iz The Bone Clocks, ali ovaj put iz perspektive njihovih žrtava. Sad tu već imamo ceo univerz protagonista i zbivanja i istorije, uz svu infrastrukturu koja uz to ide, od neologizama pa dalje: imamo lakunu i orison i psihovoltažu i dve struje besmrtnika: jedna je rođena sa darom besmrtnosti, dok je druga zapravo neka vrst vampira koja tu besmrtnost postiže usisavanjem duše odabranih ljudi, nejmli onih koji poseduju visoku psihovoltažu.

Mitchel je kreirao zaista duboko fascinantan svet, a u Slade House ga frenetično i ingeniozno istražuje.   

Roman se sastoji od pet poglavlja, koja predstavljaju pet naratora, ili bolje rečeno četiri žrtve i Marinus. Sad već čuvena Mitchellova intertekstualnost ovde dobija dodatni teren – autoreference su česte taman koliko i one generalno popkulturne, a likovi iz prethodnih romana se pominju taman dovoljno često da cementiraju istoriju worldbuildinga.

Žanrovski gledano, ovaj Mitchellov univerz isto tako postaje svet za sebe, sa blendom paranormalnog, natprirodnog i priče-o-duhovima delom horora, ali sa rezultatom koji definitivno ne spade u žanr horora.  Već to je, samo po sebi, straobalno postignuće koje je u Slade House daleko očiglednije nego u The Bone Clocks. Isto tako, Slade House nije pisan u Mitchellovom sad već prepoznatljivom 'priča-u-priči, roman-u-romanu' konvolutnom stilu, nego je poprilično linearan, bar onoliko koliko se može biti sa tajmlajnom u kom naratore / segmente deli tačno devet godina.  Također je kratak, što je isto tako dodatni kvalitet, to bar meni  : navodno je ovaj roman začet na tviteru, neposredno po objavljivanju The Bone Clocks... trenutak inspiracije, valjda. U svakom slučaju, Slade House je prilično rasterećen ne samo po pitanju pitkije i manje kompleksne fabule, nego i po ležernom (na momente čak i zdravo humorističnom) Mitchellovom pristupu koji mu dozvoljava revamp ne samo horor tropa nego onih uvek aktuelnih egzistencijalnih dilema, kao što je ideja o životu posle smrti, recimo.

Opušten i dobro raspoložen, Mitchellov Slade House je ne samo odlično nadopunio The Bone Clocks, nego i stoji prilično impresivno kao zaseban roman. 

[PTY]

Hugo-nominated editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt's latest anthology, Mission: Tomorrow, a hard science fiction anthology of near future stories about space travel in a post-NASA age, released Tuesday November 4th from Baen and has been getting great reviews in Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal and more. Here's the third in a series of SF Signal interviews with some of the contributors about their stories.


NEW STORIES OF THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION. Original anthology of stories about near-future space exploration from top authors. Includes stories by Jack McDevitt, Michael F. Flynn, Sarah A. Hoyt, Ben Bova, Mike Resnick, and many more.

In Mission: Tomorrow, science fiction writers imagine the future of space exploration with NASA no longer dominant. Will private companies rule the stars or will new governments take up the call? From Brazilians to Russians to Chinese, the characters in these stories deal with everything from strange encounters, to troubled satellites and space ships, to competition for funding and getting there first. Nineteen stories of what-if spanning the gamut from Mercury to Pluto and beyond, assembled by critically praised editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt.





Posted on November 11, 2015 by Paul Weimer


PROS: Intense, bold writing; inventive worldbuilding; excellent plotting.
CONS:  Took time to warm up to the main character.
BOTTOM LINE: A very strong and ambitious debut.

Posthuman space opera is a tough act for a writer, triply so for a debut novelist. Making transhuman characters relatable to the reader is no trivial task. Not only do they often think differently, but the very environment in which they exist can be indecipherably complex for 21st century readers. It's no wonder the number of successful posthuman novels are vanishingly few, and why few debut novelists would dare to attempt to add to that number.

And yet, here's The Promise of the Child by Tom Toner, which adeptly delivers top-notch worldbuilding. After it begins with a strange opening in medieval Prague, it shifts to a relatively low-tech setting and introduces the hominid main character Lycaste. By first showing us the "low end" of an ultimately vast tech spectrum known as the Amaranthine Firmament, the author eases readers into his 147th century, or one of them. By the time more complex and stranger realms are shown, the reader is prepared for them. This is especially true when Lycaste eventually sets out from his home and journeys across the landscape and all of its fulminating weirdness in a manner reminiscent of Severian's journey in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Like Severian, Lycaste has quite the long journey ahead in a world that he is very ill-prepared to deal with. It's a clever and interesting world, with something new always coming across the horizon, more wonders as yet unreached. I ate it up with a spoon.

On its technical merits, the novel is first rate. How does one write a posthuman story with lots going on, while making it easy to follow and palatable? The plotting is crackerjack, the various strands drawing together expertly as the story progresses. The language, too, is beautiful; well-sculpted and evocative. Although there are not a lot of technical details given about the posthuman technology, the feel of the posthuman world comes across and immerses the reader into it. The story's structure, which contains multiple point-of-view shifts, lacks chapters yet manages to carry the reader back and forth between the various plots and characters.

The major flaw in the book was the ostensible main character, Lycaste. His exile and wanderjahr across the landscape make up the backbone of The Promise of the Child, and it's the greater world beyond his small corner that really helps bring the novel into full focus. However, until he leaves and for some time thereafter, Lycaste just didn't resonate with me as someone I wanted to spend time with. At the story's beginning, he's shallow, callow and not terribly bright. It wasn't until he started on his journey that he started to grow as a character. I couldn't wait for those scenes to end to get back to the many other more interesting things that were happening. Once Lycaste is exiled and we get to see him react in the world beyond his garden, he warmed up to me as a character and I finally found myself more interested in him than in the other plot lines. I began to see him as more in the mold of a Severian. But, until his exile, Lycaste's thread was almost too much of a chore to read.

The Promise of the Child is an ambitious novel that aims high. It doesn't always reach the firmament of the stars, but it rises high enough that I eagerly look forward to returning to that world. It helps that it sets up great promise for the next volume.

[PTY]

Jaredu se dopala Claire North mini- trilogija:



Claire North's Gameshouse trilogy (2015), with apologies, as I did my frothing fanboy thing on Twitter, but, these are simply brilliant. The trilogy is comprised of three novelettes (novellas? long shorts? maxistories? minibooks?), each with a different narrator, setting and - wonderfully - tense. All three feature players in the enigmatic Gameshouse - a location/organisation for those that gamble, and gamble to win. The outer room is for the games we all know and love. The inner room is for the real players, the ones that manipulate lives and nations.


The first volume, The Serpent, takes place in 17th century Venice, where a young woman named Thene discovers, at the risk of sounding wanky, 'her true self'. Treated all her life as a pawn, the Gameshouse allows her the freedom to control not only her own life, but also the lives of those around her. Pretty seductive.

The second book, The Thief, skips forward to 1930, where another player - a more experienced one named Remy - has foolishly engaged in a round of Hide and Seek. Of course, with Gameshouse rules, this involves running around Thailand, frantically deploying 'pieces' (people!) in the desperate hope of staying alive long enough to become the Hunter...

The third, The Master, is set in the present day, and is the most abstract - but also the most powerful - of all. As two people compete for the control of the Gameshouse itself, we learn how Thene and Remy's games fit in to a single, greater game. Coupled with tantilising fragments of the Gameshouse's own history, and the stories of the behind behind it.

There's a real danger of spoiling the stories, and I don't want to do that, because the three games are immensely fun. Think Iain Banks' The Player of Games, but set in various periods of our own history, and told with the drily comic, deadpan humour of KJ Parker. But that's selling the book short - the theme, which slowly, steadily, sneakily and irrevocably comes to life - is that we're more than the games we play. The costs of victory are discussed, as well as the role for humanity: to play, and win, a game, do we give up something of ourselves, and our connections to others?

The ending to the three books is, I suspect, controversial, but it is also absolutely perfect. I'm not sure how this will work with awards consideration, but the Gameshouse, as a whole, is one of the best books of the year - a subtle masterpiece that deserves to sweep all the chips from the table.

[PTY]

This is an exceptional, contemporary, heart-breaking novel. Toby's life was perfectly normal ...until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test. Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They're looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it's time to take them to the sanatorium. No one returns from the sanatorium. Withdrawn from his house-mates and living in his memories of the past, Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes.
Because everybody dies. It's how you choose to live that counts.



The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft is coming and it has a hell of an author lineup (and all new stories!!) I wanted to share the table of contents with you and get it on your radar. Each author gets a god, and there is commentary on each deity by Donald Tyson. It will be out December 1st from JournalStone.

The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the twelve principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose within its pages. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many NY Times bestsellers, full of original fiction and artwork, and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson. About the book: Lovecraft's bestiary of gods has had a major influence on the horror scene from the time these sacred names were first evoked. Cthulhu, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth-this pantheon of the horrific calls to mind the very worst of cosmic nightmares and the very darkest signs of human nature.

Table of contents:
1."Call the Name" by Adam LG Nevill (Cthulhu)
2."The Dark Gates" by Martha Wells (Yog-Sothoth)
3."We Smoke the Northern Lights" by Laird Barron (Azathoth)
4."Petohtalrayn" by Bentley Little (Nyarlathotep)
5."The Doors that Never Close and the Doors that Are Always Open" by David Liss (Shub-Niggurath)
6."The Apotheosis of a Rodeo Clown" by Brett J. Talley (Tsathoggua)
7."Rattled" by Douglas Wynne (Yig)
8."In Their Presence" by Christopher Golden & James A. Moore (The Mi-Go)
9."Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Jonathan Maberry (Nightgaunts)
10."In the Mad Mountains" by Joe R. Lansdale (Elder Things)
11."A Dying of the Light" by Rachel Caine (Great Race of Yith)
12."Down, Deep Down, Below the Waves" by Seanan McGuire (The Deep Ones)



When a traveler from China crash-lands on Mars, he finds himself in a country inhabited entirely by Cat People. Befriended by a local cat-man, he becomes acquainted in all aspects of cat-life: he learns to speak Felinese, masters cat-poetry, and appreciates the narcotic effects of the reverie leaf—their food staple. But curiosity turns to despair when he ventures further into the heart of the country and the culture, and realizes that he is witnessing the bleak decline of a civilization.



With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Three-Body was released to great acclaim including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was also named a finalist for the Nebula Award, making it the first translated novel to be nominated for a major SF award since Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities in 1976.

Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death's End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

[PTY]

evo jedna super novost: LUMEN je objavio Ekaterinu Sediu, z prevodilačkog pera kolege Fančovića, tako da su tu u pitanju maksimalne preporuke sa svih strana....



Svaki grad ima svoja tajna mjesta...

Tako je i u Moskvi u burnim devedesetim godinama, a njeni građani traže sigurnost u svijetu ispod ulica – tamnom, spiljastom svijetu magije, drveća koje plače i albino vrana, gdje izgnani paganski bogovi i stvorenja iz bajke šapuću čudne priče onima koji ih žele slušati.

Galina je djevojka uhvaćena u bezakonju nove Rusije. Usred toga kaosa, njena sestra Marija pretvori se u vranu i odleti – potakavši Galinu da se udruži s Jakovom, policajcem koji istražuje cijelu seriju nedavnih nestanaka. Njihova će ih potraga odvesti u prostor skrivenih isitina i arhetipova, i odvesti ih između stvarnosti i mita, prošlosti i sadašnjosti, časti i izdaje... u tajnu povijest Moskve.

Ruski magijski realizam kakav još niste vidjeli.

http://www.lumenizdavastvo.hr/najava/tajna-povijest-moskve/113

[PTY]

Nebula Suggested Reading List

[PTY]

Niall Alexander je neskriveno oduševljen sinopsisom za novu knjigu Claire North:



Forget Me Not: Claire North's Next

na Barnes & Noble sajtu knjiga je najavljena ali bez naslovnice:

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

[PTY]

The brand new anthology from multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan, featuring stories set in futures wracked by the deluge, from some the best writers in SF, including Kim Stanley Robinson, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Charlie Jane Anders, Lavie Tidhar, Jeffrey Ford, and James Morrow.

We stand at the beginning of one of the greatest ecological disasters in the time on Man. The world is warming and seas are rising. We may deny it, but we can't hide when the water comes. Already the streets of Miami flood regularly and Mick Jones looks more and more prescient when he sang that "London is drowning and I, I live by the river!" all those years ago.

And yet water is life. It brings change. Where one thing is wiped away, another rises in its place. There has always been romance and adventure in the streets of a drowned London or on gorgeous sailing cities spanning a submerged world, sleek ships exploring as land gets ever rarer.

Drowned Worlds looks at the future we might have if the oceans rise, good or bad. Here you'll find stories of action, adventure, romance and, yes, warning and apocalypse. Stories inspired by Ballard's The Drowned World, Sterling's Islands in the Net, and Ryman's The Child Garden. Stories that allow that things may get worse, but remembers that such times also bring out the best in us all.

[PTY]

nego:

Here's a cool treat from Open Road Media, who is publishing an eBook version of Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions today. It's Poul Anderson's very first story!

But first, in case you haven't read the classic Three Hearts and Three Lions, here's what it's about (see Open Road Media's page for more info):

A World War II freedom fighter is transported to a medieval realm of magic and myth to undertake a great but perilous quest in this classic fantasy adventure

Holger Carlsen is a rational man of science. A Danish engineer working with the Resistance to defeat the Nazis, he's wounded during an engagement with the enemy and awakens in an unfamiliar parallel universe where the forces of Law are locked in eternal combat with the forces of Chaos. Against a medieval backdrop, brave knights must take up arms against magical creatures of myth and faerie, battling dragons, trolls, werewolves, and giants.

Though Holger has no recollection of this world, he discovers he's already well-known throughout the lands, a hero revered as a Champion of Law. He finds weaponry and armor awaiting him—precisely fitted to his form—and a shield with three hearts and three lions emblazoned upon it. As he journeys through a realm filled with wonders in search of the key to his past, Holger will call upon the scientific knowledge of his home dimension—the destinies of both worlds hanging in the balance.

Before Thomas Covenant, Roger Zelazny's Amber, and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the great Poul Anderson introduced readers to the Middle World and the legendary hero Ogier the Dane. Inventive and exciting, Three Hearts and Three Lions is a foray into fantasy that employs touches of science fiction from an award-winning master of the speculative.



And now, the treat! It's the first story ever written by Anderson. Looks like his first critic was his teacher, who called the story "Good". Judge for yourself...

[PTY]

A Borrowed Man: a new science fiction novel, from Gene Wolfe, the celebrated author of the Book of the New Sun series.

It is perhaps a hundred years in the future, our civilization is gone, and another is in place in North America, but it retains many familiar things and structures. Although the population is now small, there is advanced technology, there are robots, and there are clones.

E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person. He is a clone who lives on a third-tier shelf in a public library, and his personality is an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human.

A wealthy patron, Colette Coldbrook, takes him from the library because he is the surviving personality of the author of Murder on Mars. A physical copy of that book was in the possession of her murdered father, and it contains an important secret, the key to immense family wealth. It is lost, and Colette is afraid of the police. She borrows Smithe to help her find the book and to find out what the secret is. And then the plot gets complicated.

[PTY]

     Elem, otkako je drama sa kučadi razbucala fandomski red & poredak, u žanru nam je sve jači začinski dašak Orijenta. I mada ima trunke istine u tvrdnji da je Cixin Liu tu profitirao tek kao autsajder pored dvaju zaraćenih strana, istina je i da ima sve više interesovanja za egzotičnu verziju dalekoistočne fantastike. Naravno, tu je negde zasigurno prisutna i spoznaja o uzajamnoj koristi: kinesko tržište je ogromno i dokazano gladno fantastike, pa je tako J.K. Rowling skoro uzela 2.5 miliona dolara godišnje samo na kineskim rojaltima za Hari Potera. A van bestseler preporuka, idući najbolji način su svakako – poznanstva. (Ken Liu je tu svakako jak adut za Tor.)

S druge strane, na japance daleko ređe nailazim, kad je o kratkoj formi reč, ali srećom je sada tu Haikasoru, što se romana tiče. No, pošto mi na lageru dugo vremena čuče stariji japanski naslovi, rešila sam da startujem upravo sa Paprikom, ponajviše konteksta radi, pa zatim intrigantne teme, a onda i zato što nisam gledala anime verziju, a verovatno i neću, jer mi naprosto ne polazi za rukom da se zagrejem za taj medij.
























     Tsutsui je Papriku napisao 1993 a Satoshi Kon je filmovao verziju 2006. Znalci koji su overili oba uratka nedvosmisleno se slažu kako je filmovana verzija superiorna književnom predlošku, a ja samo mogu na to da dodam kako mi je skroz lako u to poverovati.

Paprika je alter ego mlade i perspektivne naučnice Atsuko Chiba, koja je zajedno sa kolegom Koshaku Tokita na tragu senzacionalnog i radikalnog lečenja neuroza kroz manipulaciju snovima pacijenata. I mada su zbog tog otkrića Chiba i Tokita viđeni kao sigurni kandidati za Nobelovu nagradu u polju istraživanja, neke kolege sa Instituta su sve samo ne ponosni, i aktivno rade na zloupotrebi i propasti rečenog projekta. Trudeći se da u tako delikatnoj političkoj situaciji pribavi što više pristalica i konkretne podrške, Chiba privatno leči značajne i uticajne ličnosti pod krinkom Paprike. Da, premisa je bogomdano polje za istinsku i duboku dramu i misteriju, otud je šteta što je autor odlučio da je oblikuje isključivo alatom apsurda koji je u velikom procentu nehotičan, pa otud i trivijalan, usprkos očiglednoj zabavnosti.



Tsutsui je u Paprici vrlo sličan Suzukiju sa romanom Edge: obojica konstruišu zapletne zavrzlame na naučnim premisama sa kojima se suštinski apsolutno ne razumeju. To nije posledica manjka relevantne informacije – ako išta, obojica didaktički  maltene preopterećuju tekst sa informacijom iz relevantnih domena – nego je naprosto posledica suštinskog neshvatanja naučnog mehanizma u relevantnom domenu.

I dobro sad, često se desi da žanrovski autori (bilo u svom neznanju ili sasvim namerno) prezentuju sofisticirani naučni domen kao pseudo-nauku – to se taman dovoljno često dešava da je samim time odavno deo legitimnog žanrovskog repertoara – ali Tsutsui i Suzuki taj pristup neguju i u svim ostalim narativnim domenima: karakterizacija im je groteskno karikaturalna, a sam narativ je decidirano operisan od logike, pa čak i one najprostije matematičke. U celokupnoj fabuli kao da ne postoji niti jedan momenat u kom bi bilo koji protagonista uradio logično predvidivu i očekivanu stvar: a ako se to kojim slučajem i dogodi, već naknadni potez protagoniste obaveštava da je to bila naprosto slučajnost. 

U tako sumanuto proizvoljnom sledu zbivanja ne vredi ni ozbiljno razmišljati o tome zašto je bilo koji akter romana rekao, postao ili uradio bilo šta, nego je preporučljivije prepustiti se samoj estetici. Koja u Tsutsuijevom sličaju, fer je priznati, ipak jeste daleko ekspresivnija i dopadljivija od turobno trivijalne Suzukijeve (što ga nije sprečilo da bude viđen za Shirley Jackson Award, ionako  ).

Taj nivo pseudo-naučnog pristupa intrigantnim savremenim naukama i fenomenima je prepoznatljiv kao ekvivalent ranog zlatnog doba u anglosaksonskoj verziji sf žanra, sa jednim od svojih reprezentativnijih uzoraka upravo u Planeti majmuna (*treptrep* u pravcu Miće ), ali su čak i takvi primerci onomad imali prepoznatljiviju književnu dubinu, makar i time što su relevantnost postizali kroz metaforičnost.


Naravno, ostaje otvoreno pitanje koliko Paprika (i Edge, uostalom) pruža relevantnosti prosečnom Japacu umesto meni, no ipak, ovde su u pitanju priznati i poznati pop-kulturni fenomeni i unutar zapadnjačkog referentnog sistema, a to možda prevazilazi gore pomenuta trvenja unutar zapadnjačkog fandoma. Možda.

Pomalo je paradoksalno da Paprika nudi zaplet koji je brutalno predvidiv usprkos svim proizvoljnostima. Isto tako je paradoksalno da bi Tutsui (baš kao i Suzuki, uostalom) bio daleko impresivniji upravo kroz suštinskije poznavanje domena u koji smešta svoj zaplet. Ovako ostaje dojam nenamerne parodije domena sa kojima su autori očigledno duboko fascinirani, a to pak dalje ukazuje na određenu odvojenost od realnosti koja je lako prepoznatljiva kod obojice. Naravno, način na koji ova dvojica autora tumače fenomene o kojima govore svakako ima svoju zabavnu vrednost (uz nekoliko kulturoloških pride, naravno) ali i pored svega toga, ostavljaju dojam da im autori imaju određene probleme sa shvatanjem kao procesom.

Što, naravno, ima svojih čari, ali to uglavnom kod mlađe populacije.

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A evo i šta nam obećavajućeg donosi kraj godine:



History is storytelling. But some stories remain untold.

In fifteenth-century Italy, Paolo Uccello recognizes the artistic talent of his young daughter, Antonia, and teaches her how to create a masterpiece. The girl composes a painting of her mother and inadvertently sparks an enduring mystery.

In the present day, a copyist painter receives a commission from a wealthy Chinese businessman to duplicate a Paolo Uccello painting. Together, the painter and his teenage daughter visit China, and in doing so they begin their escape from a tragic family past.

In the twenty-second century, a painting is discovered that's rumored to be the work of Paolo Uccello's daughter. This reawakens an art historian's dream of elevating Antonia Uccello, an artist ignored by history because of her gender.

Stories untold. Secrets uncovered. But maybe some mysteries should remain shrouded.



Garin, a district doctor, is desperately trying to reach the village of Dolgoye, where a mysterious epidemic is turning people into zombies. He carries with him a vaccine that will prevent the spread of this terrible disease, but is stymied in his travels by an impenetrable blizzard. A trip that should last no more than a few hours turns into a metaphysical journey, an expedition filled with extraordinary encounters, dangerous escapades, torturous imaginings, and amorous adventures.

Trapped in an existential storm, Vladimir Sorokin's characters fight their way across a landscape that owes as much to Chekhov's Russian countryside as it does to the postapocalyptic terrain of science fiction. Hypnotic, fascinating, and richly drawn, The Blizzard is a seminal work from one of the most inventive authors writing today. Sorokin has created yet another boldly original work, which combines an avant-garde sensibility with a taste for the absurd and the grotesque, all while delivering stinging truths about contemporary life and modern-day Russia.



Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering the Fermi Paradox with a taut and claustrophobic tale that echoes John Carpenters' The Thing.

Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love-letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book - by the philosopher Kant.

As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. The come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.




This imaginative and unconventional debut novel is set centuries in the future. An unnamed event has wiped out most of humanity, scattering its remnants across vast and now barren lands reminiscent of the 19th century western frontier of America. Small clusters of humans still cling to existence in a post-apocalyptic world that is increasingly overrun by those who have risen from the dead--or, as the living call them, the Walkin'.



Thomas, a thirty-two year old conscripted soldier, homeward bound to the small frontier town of Barkley after fighting in a devastating civil war, is filled with hope at the thought of being reunited with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Mary, both named after characters in the Good Book. As it turns out, he also happens to be among the Walkin'.

Devoid of a pulse or sense of pain, but with his memories and hopes intact, Thomas soon realizes that the living, who are increasingly drawn to the followers of the Good Book, are not kindly disposed to the likes of him. And when he learns what the good people of Barkley intend to do to him, and to his family, he realizes he may just have to kidnap his daughter to save her from a fate worse than becoming a member of the undead.

When the people of Barkley send out a posse in pursuit of father and daughter, the race for survival truly begins...

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Brothers Macbeth and Drederick Tooms should have it made as fair-haired scions of an impossibly rich and powerful family of industrialists. Alas, life is complicated in mid-1950s USA when you're child heirs to the throne of Sword Enterprises, a corporation that has enshrined Machiavelli's The Prince as its operating manual and whose patriarch believes, Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds, would be a swell company logo.

Consider also those long, cruel winters at the Mountain Leopard boarding school for assassins in the Himalayas, or that Dad may be a supervillain, while an uncle occasionally slaughters his nephews and nieces for sport; and the space flight research division of Sword Enterprises "accidentally" sent a probe through a wormhole into outer darkness and contacted an alien god. Now a bloodthirsty cult and an equally vicious rival firm suspect the Tooms boys know something and will spare no expense, nor innocent life, to get their claws on them.

Between the machinations of the disciples of black gods and good old corporate skullduggery, it's winding up to be of a hell of a summer vacation for the lads.



In an unspecified country that combines elements of Chile under its military regime, South Africa under apartheid, and Italy under fascism, fifteen-year-old Karel Roeder asks only to be left alone to learn from Albert, his mentor at the zoo's reptile house, and to devote himself to his girlfriend, Leda. But both Leda and Albert lead him into increasingly proscribed areas of thought and speech, and thus into conflict with a newly ascendant party that intends to prosecute a border war against an officially despised ethnic group and criminalize dissent. Citizens have been disappearing and surveillance in the name of safety has become all-pervasive. When Kehr, a special assistant of the civil guard, billets himself at Karel's house for unknown reasons, Karel finds his already tenuous hold on his own innocence crushed as Kehr—tribune, inquisitor, and metaphysician of terror—instructs his unwilling protégé in those moments when history is let off the leash.
 
Lights Out in the Reptile House is at once a dystopian political parable, a meditation on totalitarianism, and a moving coming-of-age story, as its protagonist struggles to understand his own values and meaning even in the most extreme of crucibles.



The Night Plague devastated humanity. In a trailer by a forest, retired school teacher Cory O'Neal composes a history of the plague. But the more he writes, the more his history resembles a confession. His one mistake as a teacher, forging a special bond with a troubled female student, ended his career. It may also end mankind.



The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

The editor of this year's volume, selected by SFWA's anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is American science fiction and fantasy writer Greg Bear, author of over thirty novels, including the Nebula Award-winning Darwin's Radio and Moving Mars.

This anthology includes the winners of the Andre Norton, Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master, Rhysling, and Dwarf Stars Awards, as well as the Nebula Award winners, and features Ann Leckie, Nalo Hopkinson, Rachel Swirsky, Aliette de Bodard, and Vylar Kaftan, with additional articles and poems by authors such as Robin Wayne Bailey, Samuel R. Delany, Terry A. Garey, Deborah P Kolodji, and Andrew Robert Sutton.



Strokes be damned! Ellison's still here! HE's still writing! And with more new books published in the last ten years than any preceding decade of his career, his third act is proving to be the kind other living legends envy.

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Dakle, pošto je Paprika stvarno fascinantan roman, i pošto tako maestralno oslikava finu razliku između dvaju glavnih struja iracionalnosti (iracionalno vs. racionalnog-sa-greškom), stvarno zaslužuje da se pominje kao maltene udžbenički predstavnik svog tipa.

I mada se u svrhu ilustracije može ponuditi doslovno na stotine kontradikcija iz samog romana, sami incidenti i nisu toliko značajni: daleko je značajnije ono što ih proizvodi, nejmli Tsutsuijeva specifična percepcija stvarnosti.

Na samom početku romana, u ranoj worldbuilding fazi, Tsutsui kreće od sasvim realističnih i prepoznatljivo stvarnih premisa: Chiba i Tokita su ne samo timski kolege na Institutu, nego i prijatelji slaš platonski ljubavnici, znači vrlo blizak i funkcionalan dvojac, a njihovo otkriće (gedžet spomoću kojeg spoljni promatrač može da aktivno učestvuje u snovima pacijenta) ih fiksira kao gotovo sigurne dobitnike Nobelove nagrade. Kao njihov direktni protivnik na Insititutu se izdvaja makijavelistični doktor Seijiro Inui, koji je svojevremeno i sam bio viđen kao siguran kandidat za Nobela, ali mu je nagrada izmakla na krajnje sumnjiv način, naime, neko mu je «ukrao izum».

Naravno, već tu je pomalo vidljivo da Tsutsui u najmanju ima veoma fleksibilno viđenje ne samo Nobelove nagrade, nego određenih naučnih mehanizama uopšte, ali dobro, takve kreativne varijacije ne moraju nužno da naruše sam realizam postavke.  A temelji Tsutsuijevog worlbuildinga su u toj ranoj fazi dvostruko efikasni, jer pored baze za zaplet ujedno nude i temelj same karakterizacije: maltene se podrazumeva da je Inui zavidni i pakosni negativac koji zbog ljubomore oko Nobela ne preza da mladi tandem sapliće na najcrnje moguće načine, sve pod maksimom «nek i mom komšiji crkne krava, kad već ja svoje nemam». U ciglih nekoliko početnih poglavlja, čitaocu ta karakterizacija biva kristalno jasna, sve do onih najsuptilnih nijansi ko je tu zapravo dobar, ko loš, a ko samo ružan.


Ali onda, alas, dolazi vreme da se sa tim finim premisama nešto konkretno i uradi. Za prvi potez je, naravno, zadužen negativac: Inui i njegova klika kidnapuju Tokitu i nekoliko minijaturnih prototipa gedžeta koji omogućuje ulazak u snove bespomoćnih ljudi. I već na tom prvom koraku saznajemo da niko, ali zaista apsolutno niko na Institutu ne zna ama baš ništa konkretno o tim gedžetima, u smislu da ih se bar onesposobi pre Inuijeve zloupotrebe. Sama Chiba isključivo ume da koristi rečene gedžete na način na koji ja koristim mikropećnicu, bez i trunke ideje šta da sa njom radim kad vidim da mi ista ne reaguje na pritisak izvesnog dugmića. Ubrzo nam postaje jasno da Tsutsui srlja u suštinski konflikt sa sopstvenim worlbuildingom: sve nam je jasnije da je on zapravo imao na umu model «ludog naučnika koji samsamcit uradi neke hororično straobalne stvari».

To samo po sebi uopšte nije loše, naprotiv: to je Faust/Frankenštajn/dr Moro/dr. Džekil prastari model naučne fantastike, recimo neka vrst prometejskog arhetipa koji je proizveo na stotine impresivnih avatara u svim slojevima i delovima literature i ostalih medija (setimo se samo fenomenalne MUVE), ali alas, niko od njih nije bio kandidat ni za kakvu gromoglasnu nagradu, to ne zato što njihova otkrića nisu bila dostojna bilo kog vrhunskog priznanja, nego prosto zato što su ta otkrića uvek bila... pa eto, tajna. Baš kao što je i Tokitin gedžet tajna, za koju je par ljudi možda čulo, ali niko živ osim Tokite ne zna kako zapravo funkcioniše, i šta to zapravo radi, i kako se zapravo isključuje.


Naravno, jednom kad se razbije osnovna premisa worldbuidinga, ostatak gradnje polako kolabira ka novim (logično nižim, da ne kažem inferiornijim) oblicima: taj strašni negativac Inui, taj zlobni i pakosni manipulant postepeno dobija mogućnost da i sam nešto izgovori, umesto što nam ga serviraju i tumače drugi protagonisti: a kad on sam krene da priča, eee, to onda već postaje bukvalno priča-za-sebe.


Jer eto, Inui tvrdi da je rečeni gedžet ekstremno opasan u rukama nesavesnog (ili neukog, recimo) operatera; da nesavesna (ili neuka, recimo) invazija u čovekove snove može da ih inficira «sastojcima» koje oni originalno uopšte nisu imali; da je u tom slučaju sama dijagnoza suštinski korumpirana; da nesavesni (dakle, neuki) operater može da mnoge benigne neuroze alteriše u psihopatske simptome; da je gedžetom moguće ubiti čoveka na psihičkom nivou, ostavivši ga da telesno vegetira u kvazi-komi; da je gedžetom moguće transferisati neuroze na (neukog) operatera, a wifi medijom i na sve nedužne ljude unutar određenog radijusa; ali najviše od svega, Inui se dernja kako je upotreba gedžeta zapravo nasilna, brutalna, nezakonita i nemoralna invazija čovekove privatnosti.


I eto, toliko o negativcu. 


Da stvar bude gora, nema šanse da Inuija sad više smatrate lažovom, jer u romanu se dešava upravo sve ono što je on nabrojao. Istina, on sam inicira ta zbivanja (ali ne iz osvete za tamo neku Nobelovu, nego iz očigledne potrebe da ilustruje istinitost sopstvenih tvrdnji) i što roman više odmiče, to vam Inui sve više postaje jedini racionalan čovek u gomili... pa, recimo iracionalnih, da ne koristimo sad neke grube reči. Jer, ljudi umiru na sve strane. Ljudi lude na sve strane. Neurotične halucinacije prelaze u realnost i ubijaju ljude na sve strane. A sve to omogućava upravo taj supertajni gedžet o kom niko ništa ne zna, sem da će svom tvorcu doneti Nobelovu nagradu.

Taj moment kad shvatite da su autoru krahirali temelji worlbuildinga a da on sam toga uopšte nije svestan, taj moment je stvarno... dirljiv. Jer zaista je fascinatno kad otkrijete da autor nije u stanju da racionalno opstane čak ni u svetu kojeg je sam kreirao, po sopstvenoj želji, meri, nahođenju i afinitietima. Otud i smatram da je Paprika fenomenalno štivo za čitanje, knjiga koja istinski proširuje horizonte. 

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Penguin Books seems to surprisingly good at find crime fiction that feel fresh as soon as you open it and Oscar De Muriel's The Strings of Murder is another example of that trend. Similarly to "The Sea Detective" which I've reviewed earlier in the week, De Muriel's story is built upon the elements that you wouldn't normally associate with the murder investigation and yet, that very fact turns out to be its most appealing characteristic, the very trait that sets it apart from the rest.

"The Strings of Murder" takes place in Edinburgh in 1888 and open with a brutal murder of a virtuoso violinist. The murder occurred in the safety of his home under mysterious circumstances. The maid swears that just before the murder she heard three musicians playing and yet the murder happened inside the locked practice room. Scotland Yard's Inspector Ian Frey is assigned to the case after failing to make any headway in Jack the Ripper case that is unfolding at the same time. Frey actively dislikes Scotland. There's no other way to put it but he simply has no choice. It's either that or being dismissed from the police force. He is taking the investigation under the guise of a pretend police department which specialises in the occult. Frey doesn't actually believe in the supernatural but his boss, Detective Adolpho 'Nine Nails' McGray actually does which really grates on Frey. And it's not their only difference between the two. Half of the time they're just bluntly insulting each other. And that's before you even mention the London - Edinburgh rivalry. It's an interesting and rewarding setup that works tremendously well once the duo finds their dynamic. As the body count increases, Frey once again comes under that tremendous pressure that followed him all the way through the Ripper case but if anything, this series of murders seems to be even harder to understand. There's no obvious connection between the victims except of the fact that they were all violinists.

Oscar De Muriel's fiendishly clever "The Strings of Murder" is a wonderful debut. It has all the hallmarks of a great Gothic detective novel and with a cast such as Frey & McGray it could just be the series that might last for a very long time. It will be interesting seeing where he takes his characters next as "The Strings of Murder" will definitely be a tough act to follow. We won't have long to wait as the sequel to it, "A Fever of the Blood", is just around the corner.

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Health of Hard Science Fiction in 2015 (Short Fiction)



A few points to take from this chart:

•Hard SF accounted for one-eighth of the good stories we read this year.
•If you include situational SF, then hard SF accounted for over a quarter.
•If you think of soft-SF as "fantasy science," then fantasy of one sort or another accounted for almost two-thirds of all the stories.

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If you've ever stared into the bottom of a glass and wondered if you're experiencing divine revelation or just drunk, you'll love Philip K Dick. The American sci-fi writer died in 1982 with little money or fame.

Four months later, his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) was released in cinemas as Blade Runner and his reputation was transformed. Numerous adaptations of his books followed, including Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), the Adjustment Bureau (2011), and now The Man in the High Castle – a TV series produced by Amazon about life in an alternative universe where the Germans and Japanese won the war and occupied opposite coasts of the United States.We join the story in 1962 as the resistance is promoting a documentary film that shows the Allies winning the war.

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Amazonov predlog o 100 za-citanje-obaveznih SF knjiga:

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=12661600011

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     Odmah da upozorim kako slede spojleri, i to poveliki: kad je Vulf u pitanju, spojleri se naprosto ne mogu izbeći. Vulfov glas je toliko unikatan, a njegov žanrovski ton toliko specifičan, da pričati o njegovoj prozi bez spojlera znači reći bukvalno - ništa. A ovde je u pitanju Vulfov potpuno nov imaginarni pejzaž, iako je po svojoj prirodi lako prepoznatljiv, znači - tipično Vulfovski: dremljivo dekadentni futurizam, ne odviše blizak ali ipak taman dovoljno ne-udaljen da se prihvati kao moguća ekstrapolacija. Ukratko, ovo je jedna od mogućih (ali ne nužno i verovatnih) nam budućnosti, 2 ili 3 veka udaljene od današnjice.







Ern A. Smithe je klonirani potomak pisca koji je živeo pre 150 godina: Ern je fizički apsolutno identičan svom pokojnom «ocu», em povrh toga ima implantirana sva njegova sećanja i svo njegovo znanje. Ali i pored toga, Ern je samostalna individua koja pravi jasnu i preciznu razliku između sopstvenih sećanja i doživljaja i onih koji su mu implantirani.


Ernovo kloniranje je platila biblioteka, otud je on vlasništvo iste te biblioteke: on živi na polici za prozu u toj biblioteci, u skučenom prostoru veličine garsonjere, čekajući da mu priđe neko od članova biblioteke,  to uglavnom da ga konsultuje o prozi koju je napisao originalni Ern A. Smithe (naime, Ernu-klonu nije dozvoljeno da piše, samo da tumači prozu čoveka čiji je klon). Ti članovi biblioteke mogu Erna i da iznajme, znači da ga odvedu kući, na određeno vreme, a ukoliko ga na bilo koji način «oštete», platiće zbog toga biblioteci odgovarajuću novčanu nadoknadu. Ukoliko ga oštete do stepena dalje neupotrebljivosti, Ern će biti spaljen u krematorijumu, a u njegovu garsonjeru na polici biblioteke biti će stavljen novi Ern A. Smithe-klon, identično uzgojen na bazi genetskih podataka originalnog pisca.


Otud se Ern trudi da živi svoj život izbegavajući situacije koje bi ga oštetile do tačke spaljivanja u krematorijumu. No, i opreznost mora da ima svoje granice: ako ga niko od članova biblioteke ne konsultuje, ako ga niko ne iznajmi i ne pokaže bilo kakvo interesovanje za njegovu prozu, Ern će opet završiti u krematorijumu, a njegova garsonjera biće data klonu nekog drugog, malko popularnijeg pisca.


Originalni Ern A. Smithe je bio pisac krimića, to preciznije detektivskog romana. Otud, kad se na Ernovoj polici pojavi mlada žena imenom Collete Coldbrook, sa iskrenim i dubokim interesovanjem za jedan od 'njegovih' detektivskih romana - interesovanjem dovoljno velikim da Erna iznajmi na celu nedelju dana, da plati ogroman depozit i odvede ga u svoju kuću da tamo detaljnije i intimnije naširoko razgovaraju o rečenom romanu – Ern je isprva presrećan. Tako impresivno interesovanje za njegovu prozu će mu obezbediti ne samo bolju hranu i kojekakav sitan luksuz, nego će ga i držati podalje od krematorijuma za znatan broj meseci, a možda čak i par godina. Ali onda se ispostavi da Colette ima i sopstvenu misteriju za rešavanje, misteriju direktno povezanu sa samim Ernovim detektivskim romanom: njen otac i brat su brutalno ubijeni, a motiv za ubistvo je očigledno imao neke direktne veze sa samom knjigom.


Okej, što se samih spojlera tiče, ovo do sada i nije bog zna kakav: sve nabrojano čini tek podlogu za zaplet, i minimalno utiče na sam doživljaj romana. A doživljaj je... pa eto, totalno Vulfovski.


Već pominjana dekadencija Vulfovog futurizma i ovde ima svetonazorske kvalitete: da, u pitanju je distopija, i da, apsolutno ima postapokaliptični okvir i ton, ali isvejedno, i tu je prisutna ona tako specifično Vulfovska dimenzija svrhovitosti, koja vam između redova saopštava da je svet u koji ste kročili nastao namerno, a ne slučajno. Kao i uvek kod Vulfa, njegovi svetovi ne daju naznake da su rezultat haosa koji obavezno sledi apokalipsu, haosa u kome se modeli ljudskog življenja zubima i noktima bore za prevlast, pa otud neminovno i pobedi upravo onaj koji je bio najzubatiji, da ne kažemo najopakiji... Baš kao i svet iz The Book of the New Sun, i ovaj se doima kao strogo dizajniran, nikako slučajan ili nedajbože nasumičan: u ovom svetu postoji samo milijarda ljudi, a iza svih zbivanja koje roman prikazuje oseća se nota apsolutnog konsenzusa cele te milijarde, bez obzira na stepen apsurda koji ta zbivanja u vama proizvode. A apsurd ovog sveta je ravan onome iz Novog sunca, to bar u onim delovima u kojima ga otvoreno ne nadmašuje: apsurd kontrasta jedne sulude realnosti i jednog pomalo izmeštenog drugorazrednog bića koji se ipak bori za svoj opstanak u njoj.


A Borrowed Man, baš kao i sva ostala Vulfova proza, ne poznaje zadrške. Vulf svaki svoj komad proze piše kao da mu je jedini koji će ikada napisati, otud i ništa ne ostavlja za kasnije, pa su tako u Vulfovim kreacijama čak i otirači za noge od čistog zlata, i ništa se ne doima kao privremeno, slučajno ili lako zaboravljivo. Ta lakoća pisanja (i čitanja) je varljiva, jer kod Vulfa ništa nije prosto niti jednostavno a ponajmanje nevažno. U centru sve ove krajnje dekadentne raskoši Vulf nam nudi i kapiju za drugi svet, drugu dimenziju ili bog zna šta je već u pitanju: materijal od kog drugi pisci prave dodatne romane Vulf servira tek kao dodatni sastojak koji tek nonšalantno i krajnje dekorativno upotpunjuje već ionako obilnu i raskošnu celinu.


A tu negde i virka jedna jedina manjkavost romana: naprosto mu nije dovoljan sopstveni broj strana. Jer eto, Vulfu nikad nisu ni bile dovoljne puke strane, Vulfu trebaju eoni i parseci, otud se i u romanu često uočavaju rapidni krajevi pedantno izgrađenog domena, kao kad stignete na kraj virtuelnog konstrukta koji je u svakom svom detaljnom kubnom milimetru bio apsolutno savršen, ali onda na kraju ulice dođete do... ništavila. praznine. Kao u filmu "the 13th floor", recimo, ili "Dark city". 

Naravno, u planu je nastavak, i šta drugo reći nego - jedva čekam.
     

[PTY]

U jednom svom uredničkom predgovoru Nick Mamatas je priznao kako je pre urednikovanja za Haikasoru delio široko rasprostranjenu zabludu da u Japanu pisci favorizuju kiberpank sa bušido filozofijom oličenom u jakuza herojima pod vazda svetlucavim neonom... 

Nema sumnje da su za tu pretpostavku "krive" ponajviše mange, ali kad je o prozi reč, to ubeđenje se lako razotkrije kao zabluda. Iz celog mog kopanja po Haikasoru mogu da prijavim samo jedan kiberpank roman, otud me i obuzeo silan poriv da ga na grudi privijem i šibnem mu petaka na gudridsu. Srećom pa je ovaj roman to pošteno i zaslužio - Gene Mapper (Taiyo Fujii, 2013).






I naravno sad da nas od ikonografije Neuromancera deli cele tri decenije življenja kiberpanka, a to življenje je bilo do te mere intenzivno da je malo ko osećao i potrebu da kiberpank povrh toga i čita... Digitalna kultura koja je u međuvremenu preoblikovala kiberpank zahteva tehnološku pismenost kojoj sama proza kao da teško parira, ma koliko se trudila da bude fantastična. Kiberpankovski identitet zahtevao je vrst virtuelne arhitekture koju daleko lakše nudi film, otud se i pronašao više u Matriksu negoli u minimum desetku dobrih kiberpank naslova koji se svake godine objave. A da zatečeno stanje bude još kompleksnije, prozna varijanta kiberpanka evoluirala je van sopstvene ikonografije, otkrivajući svoju suštinu u hibridnim mutacijama sa bio- i eko-pankom.

U tim sitnim mutacijama koje nam evoluciju znače, prozni kiberpank je najzad spoznao i vlastitu suštinu, koja u filmskim verzijama kao da je još uvek malko zamagljena ikonografijom: naime, kiberpank u svojoj suštini nudi prevrat, ponajbolje oličen u premisi da sofisticirana tehnologija uvek stremi da pronađe (pa otud redovito i pronalazi) svoju uličnu primenu.


Znači, glavninu onog što supertajni vojni R&D otkrije – od dronova pa do dizajner virusa – naći ćete u dvorištu svog komšije gika, koji te svoje visoko upotrebljive varijante sklapa na budžetu od prosečnog džeparca i ingeniozne free4all piraterije.


Hayashida je genetski inžinjer zadužen za mapiranja i dizajn genetskih karakteristika pirinča. Najnovija šesta generacija besprekorno dizajniranog pirinča na jednom od eksperimentalnih polja doživljava kolaps koji nedvosmisleno ukazuje na genetski podbačaj. Hayashida, naravno, sumnja da je u pitanju sabotaža, sa specifičnim scenarijom da se upravo njegov genetski dizajn izdvoji kao glavni krivac. Uz podršku firme kojoj dizajn pripada, Hayašida se laća detektivskog istraživanja zbog čega je to SR06 posrnula u mutacije.


Dakle, ima tu ama baš svega relevatnog, svih božjih kontroverzi kojih smo uopšte svesni, od GMO dilema do dizajner biološkog oružja, od augmentirane virtuelne stvarnosti do veoma specifičnog AI modela, kojeg kao da je upravo Elon Musk sledio kao bazu za svoj OpenAI koncept.


sve u svemu, genijalno osmišljeno i odlično izvedeno, pravi mali biser u Haikasoru ponudi.  [size=78%]   [/size]

[PTY]

Idući Haikasoru biser je ujedno i moja mejnstrim knjiga godine: Belka, why don't you bark? (Hideo Furukawa, "Beruka, hoenainoka?", engleski prevod 2012, naslov originalno objavljen 2005).








Belka je roman istinskog apsurda, ali ne od one nadrealističke provincijencije, nego prosto apsurda sa kojim svakodnevno živimo, apsurda u kom nam se specifično ludilo pojedinca nameće kao stvarnost koju moramo da proživimo. Naravno, Furukawa ovde koristi istorijsko-politički model sa uglavnom državnim ličnostima čije je specifično ludilo postalo naša stvarnost, oličena ne samo u WW2, nego u našem konstantnom življenju pre i posle toga. Ali model je lako prepoznatljiv, pa otud i lako primenjiv na sve situacije u kojima čovek nema izbora nego da dopusti tuđem ludilu da mu definiše stvarnost.


I naravno sad da je korpus svetske literature krcat proznim kontemplacijama o besmislu rata i svim popratnim filozofskim spoznajama koje iz toga slede, ali koliko god da je taj korpus postao distinkcija ljudskoj književnoj ostavštini, toliko je malo šta konkretnog pridoneo savremenoj političkoj svesti. No, zahvaljujući našoj sposobnosti i voljnosti da racionalizujemo apsurd oko sebe, mi danas kao da i nismo svesni koliko to zapravo specifično ludilo gvirka iza državnih politika.


Otud Furukawa sagledava našu savremenu istoriju kroz sočivo koje se ljudima bavi taman u srazmeri koju oni i zaslužuju, naime u srazmeri pukog instrumenta koji sprovodi politiku ludila. Onu pravu istoriju, onaj istinski sled zbivanja nametnut nam od strane ludila, Furukawa sagledava primarno kroz zenicu psa.


Još u prvom svetskom ratu, psi su postali neprocenjivo vredan deo vojnog ljudstva, a u periodu nakon rata, njihova korisnost je eksplodirala, da tako kažemo. Trenirani su kao stražari i kao kuriri, kao čistači minskih polja i kušači raznolikih otrova, kao izvidnice i bombaške kamikaze, kao čuvari magacina i napuštenih postaja, i, najzad, kao zlu-ne-trebala opsrkba mesom za kuvanje, kad konvoji za snabdevanje zataje. Osim konja u prvom svetskom ratu, malo ko je na svojim plećima tako stoički izneo najstrastveniju ljudsku zanimaciju kao što ju je izneo pas.


Furukawa prati sudbinu četvoro pasa koje su japanski vojnici ostavili nakon Ke-go operacije na ostrvu Narukami: Kita je bio hokaido pas, ili Ainu pas, kako su ga tad zvali, cenjen zbog svoje mišićavosti i otpornosti na hladnoću. Ostala tri psa su bili nemački ovčari: Masao i Katsu, također trenirani u japaskoj vojsci, i Explosion, kučka preoteta zarobljenoj američkoj izvidnici. Ta četiri psa je kasnije spasao američki destrojer koji je na ostrvo svratio misleći da je na njemu još uvek aktivna japanska baza. Shvatajući visoku cenu već dresiranog vojnog psa, amerikanci su spašenu četvorku vratili u "program vojnog treniranja", a činjenica da se o takvim psima vodila brižna evidencija po pitanju pedigrea i vojne sposobnosti dopustila je Furukawi da kroz dokumentaciju o ratnim psima ponudi dokumentaciju i ratne istorije.


A ta se dalje preko Hruščova dokopala pedigre linije Belke i Strelke, psećeg para koji je hrabro lansiran tamo gde je pre njih jedino Lajka otišla da umre. Hruščov je bio silno ponosan na ruski pedigree "svemirskog psa", pa je naredio da se Belka i Strelka po povratku besomučno koriste kao genetska baza za savršenog psa, baš kao što je naredio i prvoj ženi-kosmonautu, Valentini Tereškovoj, da ruskom narodu obezbedi nešto slično sa Andrianom Nikolajevim, koji je bio na Vostoku 3. 


I tako je jedan pedantno beleženi vojni pedigre četvoro napuštenih vojnih pasa i genetske ostavštine Belke i Strelke dao Furukawi obilan materijal da pobliže prouči istoriju ratova, ljudi i ludila generalno.


Da, ima mnogo humora u romanu, uglavnom crnog i gorkog. Kako bi inače čovek preživeo ogromnost apsurda kojeg je prisiljen da živi?


Fenomenalan prevod nudi silnu egzotiku Furukawine jezičke i stilske specifičnosti, a njegov neuobičajeni pristup tako ogromnoj bazi podataka čini štivo do te mere fascinantnim i zaraznim da prosto zahteva drugo čitanje, i to odmah nakon što završite sa prvim. A svaka knjiga koja kod čitaoca probudi taj poriv definitivno zaslužuje da bude knjiga godine, tako da po tom pitanju uopšte nije bilo dileme.


i zato, evo nam malo Furukawe glavom i bradom, u omaž mom mejnstrim romanu godine  :


http://youtu.be/cZIDTOy7VWg

[neomedjeni]

PTY, je li A Borrowed Man zaokružena celina koja nije morala da bude nastavljana ili je deo veće priče? Inače me mrzi da čitam knjige na kompu na engleskom, ali za Volfa bih napravio izuzetak, ako je ovo prvo u pitanju.

[PTY]

pa, što se samog zapleta tiče, onog sa Colette Coldbrook i njenim problemom, celina je zaokružena, problem je rešen i tu se stane baš kao i kod bilo kog detektivskog zapleta. Ali što se samog sveta tiče, tu se definitivno vidi da će biti nastavaka, jer ih prosto mora biti, jer mi znamo da Vulf nije tip pisca koji ostavlja svet nedorađen... 


to mi je nekako slično kao i sa Novim suncem: knjiga se možda i doima kao završena celina, ali tek kad pročitaš iduću knjigu shvatiš da ona to zapravo i nije bila. Tako i ovde: zaplet je kompletiran ali worldbuilding ostavlja prostora za detaljisanja, i to će ti itekako fali na kraju knjige, jer shvatiš da te zanimaju upravo ti detalji, isto koliko te zanimao sam zaplet.


Nastavak je najavljen, ali nisam htela da tražim detalje po pitanju sinopsisa, nekako bih rađe da to sama otkrijem pri čitanju. Jer svet jeste fenomenalan, nema tu zbora, a Vulf itekako ima imaginativne snage, jer ovo je nešto stvarno novo-iz-temelja izgrađeno.   

[neomedjeni]

Odlično, onda mogu da izbunarim knjigu i bacim se na čitanje. Hvala, jedvba čekam da otkrijem kakav je ludi svet ovaj put zamislio.


Inače, zamisao o glavnom junaku me je u startu asocirala na Severijan-Tekla simbiozu iz Novog Sunca, ali prepostavljam da je ta ideja ovde razrađena na sasvim drugačiji i još luđi način.

[PTY]

da, ima ovde aspekta "podeljene ličnosti": Ern jeste kopija originalnog pisca, u smislu da je njegova genetska replika plus njegove implantirane memorije, ali Ern ima i sopstveni život, sopstvena iskustva i prijateljstva i sve ostalo što ga je "nadogradilo", da tako kažem, od te početne matrice sa kojom je startovao. A ta podvojenost se vidi čak i u Ernovom vokabularu: kada se izražava kao Ernov klon, on koristi striktno vokabular i sintaksu originalnog Erna, ali kada govori o svojim ličnim doživljajima, taj izraz se suptilno menja, i Vulf to tako delikatno predočava da ja prosto sumnjam kako bi to opstalo u prevodu. Najozbiljnije, ovo je definitivno štivo koje se naprosto mora čitati u originalu, jer ne verujem da bi te finese opstale, pošto su čisto jezičke, i to na način na koji ne mogu da vidim ekvivalent u prevodu. to je naprosto isuviše delikatno, tek jezička nijansa koja se u engleskom jasno vidi ali bi se sigurno izgubila u prevodu. možda ne sasvim, ali u dovoljnoj meri da ne bude dovoljno primetna, pa otud ni značajna koliko zapravo jeste u romanu.

[neomedjeni]

Čitanje orginalnog teksta zvuči kao sve bolja i bolja ideja. 

[Mica Milovanovic]

Tražio sam Vulfa kad sam poslednji put bio u inostranstvu, ali ne nađoh. Nekako mi ne ide da ovo čitam sa kompjutera.
Svetogrđe.

[neomedjeni]

Avaj, u mom slučaju je ili to, ili da ne čitam uopšte.    Bar dok ne dobijem narednu povišicu ili istekne kredit, šta se prvo zbude.

[Mica Milovanovic]

Види. Узмеш кредит за рефинансирање кредита и остане који еврић на картици за Вулфа.
Клин се клином избија...


А можда и банка пропадне, избије Трећи светски рат, штагод. Ако ми не можемо да смислимо варијанту пропасти света, ко ће... 

[neomedjeni]

Nije loša zamisao. 

[PTY]

aha, dobro, od vas papir-fetišista bi verovatno trebalo kriti fakt da sam tu (i ne samo tu) knjigu dobrim delom slistila na telefonu.

   
a ako se ne dokopate knjige u papiru, pokušajte sa audiobook verzijom. Ja doduše ne mogu da se za taj fenomen zagrejem ama baš nikako, ali ovo je svakako jedna od knjiga koju bi vredelo upoznati baš u tom formatu, jer kod Vulfa je jezik naprosto prelep.

[Mica Milovanovic]

Trebalo bi... 

[PTY]

Praise for Brian Evenson:

"Brian Evenson is one of the treasures of American story writing, a true successor both to the generation of Coover, Barthelme, Hawkes and Co., but also to Edgar Allan Poe."—Jonathan Lethem

"One of the most provocative, inventive, and talented writers we have working today."—The Believer

"There is not a more intense, prolific, or apocalyptic writer of fiction in America than Brian Evenson."—George Saunders

"Packed with enough atrocities to give Thomas Harris pause. . . . Not many writers have the imagination or the audacity to transform what looks like salvation into an utterly original outpost of hell."—Bookforum

A stuffed bear's heart beats with the rhythm of a dead baby; Reno keeps receding to the east no matter how far you drive; and in a mine on another planet, the dust won't stop seeping in. In these stories, Brian Evenson unsettles us with the everyday and the extraordinary—the terror of living with the knowledge of all we cannot know.

Praised by Peter Straub for going "furthest out on the sheerest, least sheltered narrative precipice," Brian Evenson has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and is the World Fantasy Award and the winner of the International Horror Guild Award, the American Library Association's award for Best Horror Novel, and one of Time Out New York's top books.



In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries—and fails—to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape.
 
When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.
 
But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?
 
Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity.

Advance praise for This Census-Taker

"A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser."—Booklist

"Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul."—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for China Miéville

"Even when he is orbiting somewhere in a galaxy too far away for normal human comprehension . . . Miéville is dazzling."—The New York Times
 
"[Miéville's] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing."—Ursula K. Le Guin




Ruth and Nat are orphans, packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later, Ruth's niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been? And who — or what — has she hidden in the woods at the end of the road?
 
In an ingeniously structured dual narrative, two separate timelines move toward the same point of crisis. Their merging will upend and reinvent the whole. A subversive ghost story that is carefully plotted and elegantly constructed, Mr. Splitfoot will set your heart racing and your brain churning. Mysteries abound, criminals roam free, utopian communities show their age, the mundane world intrudes on the supernatural and vice versa.
 
Making good on the extraordinary acclaim for her previous books, Samantha Hunt continues to be "dazzling" (Vanity Fair) and to deliver fiction that is "daring and delicious" (Chicago Tribune).



In The Deep Sea Diver's Syndrome, lucid dreamers called mediums dive into their dreams to retrieve ectoplasms—sticky blobs with curiously soothing properties that are the only form of art in the world. The more elaborate the dream, the better the ectoplasm.
 
David Sarella is a medium whose dream identity is a professional thief. With his beautiful accomplice Nadia, he breaks into jewelry stores and museums, lifts precious diamonds, and when he wakes, the loot turns into ectoplasms to be sold and displayed.
 
Only the dives require an extraordinary amount of physical effort, and as David ages, they become more difficult. His dream world—or is it the real world?—grows unstable. Any dive could be his last, forever tearing him away from Nadia and their high-octane, Bond-like adventures.
 
David decides to go down one final time, in the deepest, most extravagant dive ever attempted. But midway through, he begins to lose control, and the figures in the massive painting he's trying to steal suddenly come to life . . . and start shooting.

[PTY]

Manchester, 2025. Local mechanic Sol steals old vehicles to meet the demand for spares. But when Sol's partner impulsively jacks a luxury model, Sol finds himself caught up in a nightmarish trans-dimensional human trafficking conspiracy.

Hidden in the stolen car is a voiceless, three-armed woman called Y. She's had her memory removed and undertaken a harrowing journey into a world she only vaguely recognises. And someone waiting in the UK expects her delivery at all costs.

Now Sol and Y are on the run from both Y's traffickers and the organisation's faithful products. With the help of a dangerous triggerman and Sol's ex, they must uncover the true, terrifying extent of the trafficking operation, or it's all over.

Not that there was much hope to start with.

A novel about the horror of exploitation and the weight of love, Graft imagines a country in which too many people are only worth what's on their price tag.





A modern bestiary of made-up fantastical creatures organized from A to Z, along with an ampersand and an invisible letter, featuring some of the best and most respected fantasists from around the world, including Karen Lord, Dexter Palmer, Brian Evenson, China Mieville, Felix Gilman, Catherynne M. Valente, Rikki Ducornet, and Karin Lowachee.



The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy contains the three groundbreaking, award-winning novels that established Mercedes Lackey as a fantasy tour-de-force and her Kingdom of Valdemar as a place millions of readers returned to again and again.

This Lambda Award-winning trilogy tells the story of Vanyel, persecuted and abused son of a Valdemaran noble, who finds acceptance at Haven when he is Chosen by the Companion Yfandes. Companions like Yfandes are magical horse-like beings with the power to communicate and bond with their Chosen, and trigger the potential for psychic abilities—and magic.

But Vanyel discovers other things about himself at Haven as well.... He discovers love in an unexpected place, and loses it, and nearly his own life. With Yfandes and his aunt, Herald Savil, he will travel to the home of the mysterious Hawkbrothers in search of healing and training, and will grow from a troubled and heartbroken Trainee to become the most powerful Herald-Mage in the history of Valdemar—and the one hope for Valdemar against an implacable foe bent on eradicating magic from the Kingdom entirely



Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It doesn't pay much—Alex Holliday's stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers—but it helps him and his mom make the rent.
No one knows where the brilliant-colored spheres came from. One day they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better: an inch taller, skilled at math, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the greater the improvement—and the more expensive the sphere.

When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. One day they find a Gold—a color no one has ever seen. And when Alex Holliday learns what they have, he will go to any lengths, will use all of his wealth and power, to take it from them.
There's no question the Gold is priceless, but what does it actually do? None of them is aware of it yet, but the fate of the world rests on this little golden orb. Because all the world fights over the spheres, but no one knows where they come from, what their powers are, or why they're here.



"A chillingly realistic work of science fiction." ― The New York Times.
After dropping anchor for the night near a small island to the south of Japan, a crew of fishermen awaken to find that the island has vanished without a trace. An investigating scientist theorizes that the tiny island has succumbed to the same force that divided the Japanese archipelago from the mainland ― and that the disastrous shifting of a fault in the Japan Trench has placed the entire country in danger of being swallowed by the sea.
Based on rigorous scientific speculation, Japan Sinks recounts a completely credible series of geological events. The story unfolds from multiple points of view, offering fascinating perspectives on the catastrophe's political, social, and psychological effects. Winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the Seiun Award, this prescient 1973 science-fiction novel foreshadowed the consequences of the 1995 Osaka-Kobe earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

[PTY]

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagent international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.




Gerald Alva Miller Jr.'s Understanding William Gibson is a thoughtful examination of the life and work of William Gibson, author of eleven novels and twenty short stories. Gibson is the recipient of many notable awards for science fiction writing including the Nebula, Hugo, and Philip K. Dick awards. Gibson's iconic novel, Neuromancer, popularized the concept of cyberspace. With his early stories and his first trilogy of novels,Gibson became the father figure for a new genre of science fiction called "cyberpunk" that brought a gritty realism to its cerebral plots involving hackers and artificial intelligences.
This study situates Gibson as a major figure in both science fiction history and contemporary American fiction, and it traces how his aesthetic affected both areas of literature. Miller follows a brief biographical sketch and a survey of the works that influenced him with an examination that divides Gibson's body of work into early stories, his three major novel trilogies, and his standalone works. Miller does not confine his study to major works but instead also delves into Gibson's obscure stories, published and unpublished screenplays, major essays, and collaborations with other authors.
Miller's exploration starts by connecting Gibson to the major countercultural movements that influenced him (the Beat Generation, the hippies, and the punk rock movement) while also placing him within the history of science fiction and examining how his early works reacted against contemporaneous trends in the genre. These early works also exhibit the development of his unique aesthetic that would influence science fiction and literature more generally. Next a lengthy chapter explicates his groundbreaking Sprawl Trilogy, which began with Neuromancer.
Miller then traces Gibson's aesthetic transformations across his two subsequent novel trilogies that increasingly eschew distant futures either to focus on our contemporary historical moment as a kind of science fiction itself or to imagine technological singularities that might lie just around the corner. These chapters detail how Gibson's aesthetic has morphed along with social, cultural, and technological changes in the real world. The study also looks at such standalone works as his collaborative steampunk novel, his attempts at screenwriting, his major essays, and even his experimental hypertext poetry. The study concludes with a discussion of Gibson's lasting influence and a brief examination of his most recent novel, The Peripheral, which signals yet another radical change in Gibson's aesthetic.



The acclaimed author of The Dream of Perpetual Motion returns with a compelling novel about the effects of science and technology on our friendships, our love lives, and our sense of self.

Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating site where she first met her husband. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a "time machine") has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.

Version Control is about a possible near future, but it's also about the way we live now. It's about smart phones and self-driving cars and what we believe about the people we meet on the Internet. It's about a couple, Rebecca and Philip, who have experienced a tragedy, and about how they help--and fail to help--each other through it. Emotionally powerful and stunningly visionary, Version Control will alter the way you see your future and your present.



Peter Higgins's superb and original creation, a perfect melding of fantasy, myth, SF and political thriller, reaches its extraordinary conclusion.

[PTY]

Nekako se podrazumeva da se u januaru malko osvrnemo preko ramena na minulu godinu, tek da bolje sagledamo kakva je ona to bila u celini. A u celini gledano, 2015-ta je bila zaista krcata obiljem u svakom pogledu: berbu je ponajviše iznela elita dokazanih i cenjenih, kao što su Gene Wolfe (The Borrowed Man), Margaret Atwood (The Hearth Goes Last), Neal Stephenson (Seveneves), David Mitchell (Slade House), Michael Moorcock (The Wispering Swarm), Linda Nagata (sa dva dela The Red trilogije), Kazuo Ishiguro (The Buried Giant), Paul McAuley (Something coming trough), Ian McDonald (Luna: New Moon)i KS Robinson (Aurora). 


Toj impresivnoj produkciji se pridružilo mnogo novijih autora čiji naslovi također sa lakoćom ispunjavaju sva naša tradicionalno visoka očekivanja, kao recimo Bacigalupi sa The Water Knife, Ann Leckie sa Ancillary Mercy, Okorafor sa The Book of Phoenix i Binti, Valente sa Radiance, Chris Beckett sa The Mother of Eden, Ned Beauman sa Glow, Claire North sa Touch, Wesley Chu sa The Rebirths of Tao, Ramez Naam sa Apex, Jo Walton sa The Just City i The Philosopher Kings, ili Wilson sa The Affinities, a da ne pominjem sad neke od veoma popularnih autora iz žanrovskih niša koje slabije pratim (James S.A. Corey ili Ernest Cline, na primer), ili moje personalne favorite kao što su Ted Kosmatka sa The Flicker Man i Blithe Woolston sa MARTians, ili nekoliko zaista odličnih prvenaca poput Tomorrow & Tomorrow (Thomas Sweterlitsch) i The Country of Ice Cream Star (Sandra Newman). U nekoj standardnijoj godini mnogi od ovih naslova mogli bi lako da ponesu titulu romana godine, ali 2015ta je u svakom pogledu bila nestandardna, i to ne samo po obilju od kojeg ja ovde pominjem tek mali deo kojem sam uspela da bliže priđem.


Nema sumnje da ćemo mnogo ovih naslova viđati po nominacijama za žanrovske nagrade, a moguće i za neke glavnotokovske: KS Robinson je već dobio Robert A. Heinlein Award za "outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space", i mada ta nagrada ide na račun svih naslova koje je objavio , njegova odlična Aurora je itekako imala uticaja po tom pitanju. 



Naravno, takvo obilje podrazumeva i silnu raznovrsnost, ali ipak, neke teme i pristupi kao da dominiraju, pogotovo u žanrovskom jezgru gde obitavaju priznata imena i njihovi još priznatiji tiraži. Otud KSR, Stephenson, McDonald, Beckett i McAuley ove godine kao da dele zajedničku fascinaciju, a ona bi se najlakše mogla prepoznati kao "perspektiva nezemaljskog horizonta".






definitivno sad za tu perspektivu možemo reći da je odvajkada bila centralna preokupacija SFa, ali ipak, ekipa gorepomenutih imena joj prilazi sa nekom vrstom hladne intelektualne znatiželje koju nepogrešivo prepoznajemo kao čedo upravo novog milenijuma. Jer, ovo nisu naivno zabavni i eskapistički nezemaljski horizonti Ratova zvezda (mada, kao što vidimo, ostalo je mesta i za njih, itekako), niti epske sanjarije o galaksijama i u njima kojekakvim našim Imperijama, a definitivno nisu maštarije o replikatorima i nadsvetlosnim brzinama i super-pogonima i super-štitovima i super-transporterima... ako išta, ove fascinacije se daleko više drže brutalnosti realizma negoli eskapizma mašte.


Ambiciozni u književnom i tematskom smislu jednako, KSR, Stephenson, McDonald i McAuley kao da složno razbijaju naše naivne i decenijama brižljivo građene iluzije o romantičnim i herojskim svemirskim putovanjima. Naprotiv, kod njih je sve krv i znoj užasa koji prati opstanak pod nemogućim okolnostima: tu su ubistava i samoubistava, tragedije i mizerije olako izgubljenih života, i ogromna psihička cena koja preživele čeka tek nakon i povrh one surove fizičke. KSR, Stephenson, McDonald kao da su rešili da nam obznane ono što i sami odvajkada slutili – jednom van zaštite ove "kolevke" zvane Zemlja, nejaki smo i nemoćni do te mere da sva naša tehnologija i sva naša inteligencija može da nam obezbedi tek goli minimum opstanka. 


Da li je fenomenalna berba 2015-te zapravo grandiozno otvaranje ere žanrovskog pesimizma? 

Pa, jedna od naistrajnijih žica koja se provlači kroz sve romane je pomalo setna spoznaja da kratkovido i zdušno uništavamo jedinu "kuću" koja će ikada biti naš mali ali idealni dvorac, svo vreme se zavaravajući da zapravo imamo gde da odemo. Ta naivna samoobmana kao da se bliži isteku roka trajanja, dok trezvene anti-utopije uporno i razložno skreću pažnju da čak i na rodnoj planeti mi udobno opstajemo samo u skromnoj niši idealne temperature i vlage. I mada čovekov pionirski duh lako poveruje u beskrajna svemirska prostranstva koja samo čekaju da budu otkrivena i prisvojena, šanse su da ih van Zemlje ima daleko manje nego što nam se to čini. Ili bolje rečeno, većinom su toliko nepodesna za život da nisu vredna truda oko otkrivanja, a ona iole podesnija su već zauzeta od strane života koji je upravo za njih idealan. 


Ta spoznaja je centralna upravo kod ovih starih žanrovskih lavova, koji kao da ne polažu odviše nade u sposobnost čovečanstva da zadrži ni dobro vaspitanje a kamoli inteligenciju u situacijama ekstremnih iskušenja koja neminovno idu u paketu sa napuštanjem te blage "kolevke" zvane Zemlja. 

[PTY]

Druga grupacija navedenog korpusa se odlučila da posmatra ovozemaljske horizonte, i tu, naravno, kao da nastaje problem: takva proza se neminovno doživljava kao isključivo distopična.

Da stvar bude gora, vlasnici takvih doživljaja se ne uzdržavaju od generalisanja, pa se otud često čuju i primedbe duž linije da je SF "već decenijama distopičan".

Generalne iskaze uvek lakše primerima potvrditi nego oboriti, no ipak, to ih ne čini nužno tačnima, samo opšteprihvaćenima, ali pošto smo sad već na terenu u kom je opšteprihvaćenost neke tvrdnje sasvim lako zameniti za njenu istinitost, to nam je onda to.

Kako bilo, opšteprihvaćenost te konkretno tvdnje bazira ponajviše na onom najpopulističkijem i najkomercijalnijem delu SFa, čiji su proizvodi namenjeni najširem i najmasovnijem tržištu – znači omladinskom, ili tu negde. Dakle, generičke distopije tipa Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Passage ili Wool, koje nakon brzog i ogromnog uspeha u knjiškom obliku lako dosegnu i druge medije, i tu postižući jednako impresivan uspeh i impakt, prosto zato što se i dalje obraćaju uglavnom istoj publici. Vrednovati žanr na bazi tih dela jednako je vrednovanju kulinarstva na bazi mekdonald ili burger king brze hrane, pa je o tom ovde uzaludno i raspravljati.

Suvin kaže da distopija nije žanr sam po sebi, nego tek društveno-politički podžanr naučne fantastike, otud i treba naglasiti razdvajanje ozbiljnih promišljanja od gore pominjanih generičkih kvazi-futurističkih modela. A ako krenemo od datosti da distopični futurizam (baš kao i utopija, uostalom) nudi svrhovito konstruisano društvo, onda se već postavlja pitanje da li (i koliko) futurizam uopšte može i da bude ponuđen van utopija/distopija modela.

A to nas dovodi do nemilosrdnog realizma u berbi 2015. 

[PTY]

Margaret Atwood (The Hearth Goes Last) i Blithe Woolston (MARTinas) nude ekstrapolaciju zatečenog stanja koje je odavno već vidljivo i osetno: u ganjanju profita, kapitalizam munjevitom brzinom premešta svoje proizvodne pogone tamo gde je radna snaga jeftinija, ostavljajući iza sebe pustoš nezaposlenosti.


U okvirima društvene zajednice, bilo na nivou samog grada ili šire, to zaista može da bude ravno apokaliptičnom zbivanju – jednom kad se ljudima uskrati mogućnost da legalno zarade za život, na scenu neminovno stupaju zakonitosti iz distopičnog asortimana. Otud u distopiji koju Atwood nudi mladi bračni par gubi sve što ima onog momenta kad muž izgubi dobro plaćen posao. Njihov život se ubrzo svodi na život beskućnika koji žive u automobilu a hrane se otpacima iz kontejnera, i kad im se ponudi prilika da učestvuju u nekoj vrsti istraživačkog društvenog eksperimenta oni tu priliku prihvataju skoro bez razmišljanja. Brzina kojom su oni pristali da učestvuju u dubioznom eksperimentu verovatno je jednaka brzini sa kojom mnogi ljudi u stvarnom životu pristaju da učestvuju u bilo kom alternativnom sticanju izvora neophodnog prihoda.


Woolston pak nudi petnaestogodišnjakinju čija se životna perspektiva svela da radi u AllMartu za minimalnu nadnicu koja jedva može da obezbedi najskromniju prehranu, otud ona čak i sa tim kobajagi "radnim mestom" i dalje ostaje polugladan beskućnik, upravo kao i Atwoodovi protagonisti.


Beznađe sa kojim se ti ljudi suočavaju jeste distopično, ali da li to znači da je i svet u tim romanima distopičan? U kojim to okolnostima se može imati svet (bilo stvaran ili fiktivan) u kom neće biti takvih krajnosti? Atwood i Woolston nude blisku budućnost u kojoj se nastavlja trend koji već danas prepoznajemo kao dominantan: gubitak takozvane srednje klase, koja živi isključivo od sopstvene zarade, i za koju gubitak jedne plate znači pad u beznađe iz kojeg je gotovo nemoguće izaći bez pomoći i podrške šire društvene zajednice.


Paolo Bacigalupi (The Water Knife) nudi svet koji je tek nominalno futuristički, ako se uzme u obzir Gibsonovo pravilo o "neravnomerno raspoređenoj budućnosti": Bacigalupi razmatra licencu na vodu upravo onako kako se danas razmatra licenca na GMO hranu. Gene Wulfe, na svoj karakteristični više fantazijski način, nudi distopiju poteklu iz nejasne apokalipse, ne sasvim neprepoznatljive ali taman dovoljno maglovite da joj se razazna istinsko poreklo, osim nekog generalnog društvenog jaza koji kao da ukazuje na postojanje ultrabogatih na jednoj i obespravljenih na drugoj strani.

tako da... u redu, neka bude da je tu u pitanju distopični futurizam. Ali samo u onoj meri u kojoj se za današnjicu može reći da je distopična.

[Berserker]

Ah, kako mi je nedostajao jedan ovakav reader's digest, hvala Lidija!  Nego, sad imam ambivalentna osecanja Sa jedne strane zavidim ti sto imas priliku da citas sve ovo, sa druge strane mrzim sebe sto vec jednom ne izvadim svoj engleski iz ormara, ispeglam ga i ponovo stavim u upotrebu da bih i ja mogao isto ovo da citam umesto sto kukam na sugav izbor domacih izdavaca.

Pitanjce: Atvudova me je gadno razocarala u Godini potopa, gde je ladno potopila prethodnu savrsenu apokalipticnu pricu dodajuci joj nepotreban nastavak koji usput razara osnovne postavke Antilope i Kosca. Vredi li sta njena nova knjiga ili i ona konacno pokazuje zamor materijala?

[PTY]

Ah, kako mi je nedostajao jedan ovakav reader's digest, hvala Lidija!  Nego, sad imam ambivalentna osecanja Sa jedne strane zavidim ti sto imas priliku da citas sve ovo, sa druge strane mrzim sebe sto vec jednom ne izvadim svoj engleski iz ormara, ispeglam ga i ponovo stavim u upotrebu da bih i ja mogao isto ovo da citam umesto sto kukam na sugav izbor domacih izdavaca.

Pitanjce: Atvudova me je gadno razocarala u Godini potopa, gde je ladno potopila prethodnu savrsenu apokalipticnu pricu dodajuci joj nepotreban nastavak koji usput razara osnovne postavke Antilope i Kosca. Vredi li sta njena nova knjiga ili i ona konacno pokazuje zamor materijala?

Nije zamor materijala ali... ima tu neka humorna žica koja mi nekako nije legla, kao da dodatno trivijalizuje već ionako apsurdnu postavku... ako te je Maddaddam na bilo koji način razočarao, teško da će te ovo oduševiti.

Ali opet, štajaznam, možda je samo do mene, ja ne mogu da dovršim ni novog Umberta Eka, iz skoro pa identičnog razloga, nekako mi je nepotrebno banalno i jedno i drugo. 

[PTY]

I naravno sad da žanrovska najdublja i najpoštenija promišljanja futurizma dolaze od radikalnih levičara, to od Legvinove pa do KSRa, ali izgleda da je i njima bilo lakše dok su worldbuilding odmicali sa lica Zemlje: ponuditi uverljiv blisko-futuristički model bez kapitalizma je praktično nemoguće.

Odnosno, možda jeste moguće, ali teško da bi bilo dovoljno uverljivo, nakon ubedljivog kraha ideje o zdravom komunističkom uređenju. A povrh toga, tu je i ono zlatno pravilo destilisano iz svih političkih uređenja u čovekovoj istoriji: zaista nije nužno da svi delovi društveno-političkog uređenja budu napredni da bi se sam napredak ostvario. Naprotiv, u vreme kad je prvi čovek kročio na Mesec, u istoj toj zemlji crnac nije imao prava ni da sedne na sedište rezervisano za belca, i kako onda ne gledati taj period kao distopičan? Što se žanrovske produkcije tiče, izgelda da se worldbuidnig dezignira kao distopičan i za daleko manje od toga – kao da sve manje razlučujemo između istinske distopije u proznom svetu i njene prezentacije singularnog (i na propast osuđenog) političkog i/ili društvenog fenomena.

Na sreću, intelektualna jasnoća i književna artikulisanost današnjih žanrovskih frontmena dobro parira šablonskoj komercijali, pa otud i McDonald eksperimentalno isprobava jedino društveno uređenje nepoznato nam iz prakse – anarhizam. Da, da, najzad društveno uređenje bez države i kojekakvih joj organa...  sama ta činjenica bi bila dovoljno da Lunu izdvojim kao knjigu godine, ali iz iskustva sam skeptična prema serijalima, tako da ću ipak da sačekam nastavke.

Ali to je, po meni, nepobitno najveći kvalitet Lune, jer zaista smatram da jeste eksperiment vredan svakog poštovanja. E sad, ako se nekog i Luna doima kao distopična, onda... šta da se radi. Distopija je očigledno u oku posmatrača. 

[Mica Milovanovic]

Čuj, danas ko piše delo smešteno u blisku budućnost, a ne piše neku vrstu distopije, ima neku ozbiljnu falinku. Ili je na platnom spisku.


Optimistični ja... 


PS: I, da... Mrzim te što toliko čitaš...

[PTY]

Ako uzmemo u obzir Stivensonovih 5 milenijuma post-human budućnosti u ovom romanu, i Eganovih isto toliko sa postDNA čovečanstvom iz njegovih romana Diaspora ili Schild's Ladder, doći ćemo do zaključka da tu u pitanju menjanje SF paradigme. A to naravno da zauzvrat menja i ciljeve bliske budućnosti, pa ista iz ugla gledanja stare paradigme sve više izgleda distopično.

Ali zapravo uopšte nije, naprotiv. 

I skinite bre više besplatnu kindle aplikaciju na telefon, ti i Berserker... 

[дејан]

шта ради та апликација?

[Berserker]

ja nemam smartphone

[Berserker]

sledeci post u nizu bi trebao da glasi:

sta je to telefon?

[Mica Milovanovic]

Ako uzmemo u obzir Stivensonovih 5 milenijuma post-human budućnosti u ovom romanu, i Eganovih isto toliko sa postDNA čovečanstvom iz njegovih romana Diaspora ili Schild's Ladder, doći ćemo do zaključka da tu u pitanju menjanje SF paradigme. A to naravno da zauzvrat menja i ciljeve bliske budućnosti, pa ista iz ugla gledanja stare paradigme sve više izgleda distopično.

Sad mi je jasno zašto se bezbednije osećam u Vinaverovim pseudo-SF pričama... 


Uzgred, kako da pročitam Seveneves? Uzeo sam pre dva meseca knjigu u Beču u ruke i uplašio se... Preko 600 strana. Pa ni godišnji odmor (koga nemam) mi ne bi bio dovoljan... Odustao sam... Pišite, bre, kraće...


U čemu je, uzgred, stvar? Svi kukaju da nemaju vremena, a romani sve deblji...