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

[tomat]

wikipedia kaže da ima 880 strana 

[Mme Chauchat]

Pa dobro, to je Stivenson, manje se od njega ni ne očekuje. O slatka uspomeno čitanja Kriptonomikona sa zaobljenog CRT monitora u .txt formatu

[Mica Milovanovic]

E, fala ti, ko bratu... Što znaš da utešiš... 

[Berserker]

Ja i dalje ne kapiram zasto je Nil Stivenson toliko cenjen  pisac. Ako mu je Histericni sneg najbolje sto je napisao, on jedva dobacuje do osrednjeg. Jes da je to jedini njegov roman koji sam procitao, ali sam ga 100 puta vidjao na raznoraznim proizvoljnim best-of listamaa  i otprilike svuda se navodi kao njegovo remek delo. A ta knjiga jedino ima dobar pocetak, osrednju sredinu i njesra kraj. Prosto ne  bih mogao da se nateram da citam jos nesto njegovo pa i da mi poklone. Ima li nesto njegovo sto nadmasuje Histericni sneg? I ako ima, zasto?

[ridiculus]

Ja i dalje ne kapiram zasto je Nil Stivenson toliko cenjen  pisac.

Kako, pa Stivenson puca od erudicije i ideja! Normalno je da mnogima to nije dovoljno, i da traže zanimljivosti na nivou likova ili jezika. U ovom drugom aspektu, Vilijam Gibson je neko kome bih se uvek radije okrenuo, ali meni je Stivenson sasvim dovoljan za to što predstavlja. Dugačke digresije na neku zanimljivu temu mi uopšte ne smetaju, čak sam siguran da su doprinele Stivensonovoj gikovskoj reputaciji. A na listi želja je još uvek Barokna trilogija na prvom mestu - ako hoćeš objašnjenje, zanima me tema, i mislim da joj  Stivensonov stil savršeno odgovara. Ali to je oko 2700 stranica, na engleskom, u nekim mekokoričenim izdanjima, plus što se tu uklapa i Kriptonomikon kao četvrta knjiga...

[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.

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

Pa, jeste da se smena nezaustavljivo odvija, ali mi smo privilegovana generacija koja može da uživa i u starom i u novom jednako. 

Što se mene tiče, ja to vidim kao upravo klasičan MO naučne fantastike: gleda se na najdalji horizont i na njemu se izabere fokus – pa bio taj fokus teraformiranje ili prvi kontakt ili AI, svejedno – a onda se traže načini da se do toga dođe. I nisu sve to pravolinijski putevi, ima tu strašno puno meandriranja, ali to je ok, jer žanru je samo putovanje uvek bilo jednako važno i jednako zanimljivo koliko i odredište. Isto tako, nije to nužno fiksacija, nego naprosto radni fokus, a postDNA ima tu privilegiju da zapravo objedinjuje mnoge dosadašnje, tako da je finalno (bar za sada) odredište upravo zbog svoje kompletnosti.

A to meandriranje ima odjeka i tamo gde sam fokus uopšte nije primaran, pa je tako celokupna garda koja danas dominira dala svoj doprinos: Maddaddam je stvarno kapitalna trilogija po tom pitanju, baš kao i KSRov Mars ili Wattsov Fireflies ili Eganov Ortogonal, jer ovo jeste tema koja lako prevazilazi stand alone romane. S tim što je Maddaddam tu možda i najkompleksnija trilogija, jer to su tri knjige koje obrađuju isti događaj, samo iz različitih uglova, što celu trilogiju zapravo čini kao nekakvim uputstvom za 3D priter: ako se ne pročita u celosti, finalna slika naprosto nije potpuna.   

E sad, fakt da je fokus tako konkretizovan svakako utiče i na kratkoročni futurizam, pa recimo da se tu sad već vidi i konkretan svetonazorni pomak, pogotovo u društvenjačkom delu SFa. Primera radi, Baćigalupijev roman praktično nije SF, u tom futurizmu zapravo nema novuma, ili ga ima bar kilo manje nego trenutno u Flintu. Ali ono što je tu bitno su upravo društvenjačke dileme, jer šta da ti radiš sa gradom 100 hiljada ljudi bez vode? Da im doniraš vodu na bilo koji način je logistički nemoguće, čak i kao striktno privremeno rešenje, a da sve te ljude relociraš, pa to je politički nezivodivo. Otud se danas radi jedino moguće u hipokriziji demokratije – traži se krivac i valja se katranom i perjem, samo da se skine fokus sa fakta da tu postoji samo jedno adekvatno rešenje, ono koje Baćigalupi nudi: ljudima se da izbor ili da žive pod šatorom u kampovima ili da ostanu u gradu bez vode i umru od žeđi ili bolesti. Društvenjački SF sve više suočava dilemu da se neki ljudi ne mogu spasiti, jer nivo brige koji oni zahtevaju infrastruktura jednostavno ne može da pruži. A jednom kad se nađeš u situaciji da selektivno biraš koga da spasiš a koga ne, e tu ideološki okvir ima sve manju ulogu, jer sve te selekcije su jednako porazne i jednako nehumane, bez obzira koja i kakva opravdanja iza njih stajala.

[PTY]

Ja i dalje ne kapiram zasto je Nil Stivenson toliko cenjen  pisac.

Kako, pa Stivenson puca od erudicije i ideja!

Stivenson je za SF isto što Neil deGrasee Tyson za nauku.

[дејан]

Ja i dalje ne kapiram zasto je Nil Stivenson toliko cenjen  pisac.

Kako, pa Stivenson puca od erudicije i ideja!

Stivenson je za SF isto što Neil deGrasee Tyson za nauku.

помпезни, самобитни, умишљени сероња?

[PTY]

Pa, ako me pitaš za lično mišljenje o njemu, recimo samo da ja generalno prezirem sve hiperžovijalne modele komunikacije, tako da i on tu definitivno spada.

Ali objektivno govoreći, prepoznajem da velik broj ljudi pozitivno reaguje na korisnosti takvog modela komunikacije i popularizacije, tako da ipak uspevam da udobno živim sa time.

[дејан]

попу поп а бобу боб...ништа више од тога

[PTY]

Tako nekako... jedna od za mene potresnijih životnih spoznaja je da svet u mojoj diktaturi možda i ne bi bio bog zna kako prijatno mesto za življenje...   

[PTY]

June 7, 2016

It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global microdemocracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the line.

With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?

Infomocracy is Malka Older's debut novel.

PRAISE FOR INFOMOCRACY

"A fast-paced, post-cyberpunk political thriller... If you always wanted to put The West Wing in a particle accelerator with Snow Crash to see what would happen, read this book." ―Max Gladstone, author of Last First Snow

"Smart, ambitious, bursting with provocative extrapolations, Infomocracy is the big-data-big-ideas-techno-analytical-microdemoglobal-post-everything political thriller we've been waiting for." ―Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings

"In the mid-21st century, your biggest threat isn't Artificial Intelligence―it's other people. Yet the passionate, partisan, political and ultimately fallible men and women fighting for their beliefs are also Infomocracy's greatest hope. An inspiring book about what we frail humans could still achieve, if we learn to work together." ―Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep and the Virga saga

[PTY]

The British Science Fiction Association has announced the nominees for this year's BSFA Awards, to be presented on the evening of Saturday, March 26, at the Hilton Deansgate in Manchester, during Mancunicon, the 67th British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon). BSFA members may vote until mid-afternoon on Marcdh 26.

Best Novel
•Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson
•Mother of Eden, by Chris Beckett
•The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard
•Luna: New Moon, by Ian McDonald
•Glorious Angels, by Justina Robson

[PTY]

A woman with wings that exist in another dimension. A man trapped in his own body by a killer. A briefcase that is a door to hell. A conspiracy that reaches beyond our world. Breathtaking SF from a Clarke Award-winning author.

Tricia Sullivan has written an extraordinary, genre defining novel that begins with the mystery of a woman who barely knows herself and ends with a discovery that transcends space and time. On the way we follow our heroine as she attempts to track down a killer in the body of another man, and the man who has been taken over, his will trapped inside the mind of the being that has taken him over.

And at the centre of it all a briefcase that contains countless possible realities.

Tricia Sullivan returns to the genre with a book that will define the conversation within the genre and will show what it is capable of for years to come. This is the best book yet from a writer of exceedingly rare talent who is much loved in the genre world.






The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada (Author), Ross Mackenzie (Translator), Shika Mackenzie (Translator)   
 
Astrologer, fortuneteller, and self-styled detective Kiyoshi Mitarai must in one week solve a macabre murder mystery that has baffled Japan for 40 years. Who murdered the artist Umezawa, raped and killed his daughter, and then chopped up the bodies of six others to create Azoth, the supreme woman? With maps, charts, and other illustrations, this story of magic and illusion, pieced together like a great stage tragedy, challenges the reader to unravel the mystery before the final curtain.

[PTY]

I još malo o prošloj godini - evo kako su se moji SF favoriti kotirali u godišnjem Goodreads izboru najčitanijih knjiga:
Glasalo je 142446 glasača a u dvadeset najčitanijih knjiga ušli su

-   Seveneves – Neal Stephenson (15710  glasova)
-   The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood (14147 glasova)
-   The Water Knife – Paolo Bacigalupi (11574 glasova)
-   The Fold – Peter Clines (5504 glasova)
-   K.S R. – Aurora (826 glasova)


Prijatno iznenađenje je tu Ann Leckie (8042) i Scalzi  (6192), a svakako i The Fold, koji je zapravo originalno objavljen 2014-te ali su ga reizdanja prenela u iduću godinu.

Pobednik je Pierce Brown sa Golden Son (32225 glasača) i koliko kapiram, to je nastavak Darrow serijala, kojeg reklamiraju ovako: With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender's Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown's genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within. A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown's continuing status as one of fiction's most exciting new voices.


Dakle, eto... 


https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2015

[PTY]

A takvo stanje stvari dobrano frustrira najbolje pisce SFa, pa je otud čak i Watts na svom blogu rezignirano izjavio sledeće:

They know about this in Poland. They've known it for over a month now.  So it seems only fair that I bring the rest of you up to speed on the latest: my imminent retirement from the field of science fiction.

Genre SF has been in decline for a number of years. My own work has been declining even faster. They say Young Adult is where the action is, but I suspect in time even that fad will run its course. YA is but one step on a staircase heading down into the basement. As humanity grows ever-dumber, readers will inevitably gravitate towards simpler tales that don't tax the intellect and which never stray from familiar, predictable paths (anyone who's read the Harry Potter books will know what I mean).

When readers reach the bottom of that incline, I intend to be waiting for them there. Henceforth I will be writing only storybooks for children aged four through eight. I have already begun. (Although given the sudden dismaying popularity of— I kid you not— Coloring Books for Adults, you have to wonder if even writing for preschoolers is aiming low enough.)

[PTY]

... a za kratku formu, evo linkovi za čitalački izbor (Asimov's):

http://www.asimovs.com/about-asimovs/readers-awards-finalists/

[PTY]

I am rather chuffed by the fact that "Down Station" is published by Gollancz. I love Orbit Books but I've always thought that Simon Morden's kind of madcap science fiction would fit better within Gollancz's line-up. And if I'm to be completely honest, I am especially pleased by the fact that the transition happened with "Down Station", by far his finest novel so far.

If you ever went down into the bowels of earth using one of the escalators you were probably impressed by the size of the thing. London underground always seemed to me to be a different world. You can easily imagine everything changing up there on the surface while you are traveling below and this is exactly the premise of sweeping "Down Station". A multicultural group of commuters and tube workers lead by Mary and Dalip are caught in the middle of a horrific event and try to escape thought he service tunnel only to come out to a weird realm filled with weird creatures and stranded people all across the history. The only thing connecting them all is the fact they have all came here a time when a London was burning. No one has since returned to London but one person seems to be different and is able to come and go at will. Perhaps there's still hope of returning home from Down? Brilliantly, the world they travel through is defined by London's landmarks. London is everywhere and everything in this strange place. And yet, it's the stuff of fantasy. There's monsters aplenty, looking for a quick bite and a lost traveler. Completely surprisingly, Morden has managed to even include a fully fleshed out magic system in the proceeding. If it sounds chaotic, it certainly is but Morden know how to do both science fiction and fantasy, and "Down Station" is, if anything, a perfect amalgam of the two.

"Down Station" takes its cue from previous Morden's works. There's are quite a few leaps of imagination and action sequences that are reminiscent of his Philip K. Dick award winning Samuil Petrovitch / Metrozone series that spanned four novels and his take on London's mythology and legends has probably been shaped and moulded by the experiences of writing "Arcanum". To put it simply, "Down Station" is a fiercely innovative take on the London's underground that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as all other classics of this increasingly crowded sub-genre such as Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or China Mieville's Un Lun Dun. There's more good news. Judging by the ending, there's plenty more to come. "Down Station" feels like a beginning of a series but so far, so great!

http://upcoming4.me/book-news/review-down-station-by-simon-morden

[PTY]

I will ready anything that Laird Barron writes, so I'm very excited about his upcoming novella, Man With No Name! Check it out!

About the book:


Nanashi was born into a life of violence. Delivered from the mean streets by the Heron Clan, he mastered the way of the gun and knife and swiftly ascended through yakuza ranks to become a dreaded enforcer. His latest task? He and an entourage of expert killers are commanded to kidnap Muzaki, a retired world-renowned wrestler under protection of the rival Dragon Syndicate. It should be business as bloody usual for Nanashi and his ruthless brothers in arms, except for the detail that Muzaki possesses a terrifying secret. A secret that will spawn a no-holds barred gang war and send Nanashi on a personal odyssey into immortal darkness.

[PTY]

From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes who battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman.

The fireman is coming. Stay cool.

No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it's Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she's discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob's dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.

Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn't as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter's jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.

In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman's secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.

[PTY]

malko u nastavak na Wattsov rant:

Staying on the Cutting Edge of Science Fiction

[PTY]

BEST NOVEL (Nebula nominacije)

◾Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
◾The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
◾Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
◾The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
◾Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
◾Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
◾Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

[PTY]

Jeffrey Lockhart's father, Ross, is a billionaire in his sixties, with a younger wife, Artis Martineau, whose health is failing. Ross is the primary investor in a remote and secret compound where death is exquisitely controlled and bodies are preserved until a future time when biomedical advances and new technologies can return them to a life of transcendent promise. Jeff joins Ross and Artis at the compound to say "an uncertain farewell" to her as she surrenders her body.

"We are born without choosing to be. Should we have to die in the same manner? Isn't it a human glory to refuse to accept a certain fate?"

These are the questions that haunt the novel and its memorable characters, and it is Ross Lockhart, most particularly, who feels a deep need to enter another dimension and awake to a new world. For his son, this is indefensible. Jeff, the book's narrator, is committed to living, to experiencing "the mingled astonishments of our time, here, on earth."

Don DeLillo's seductive, spectacularly observed and brilliant new novel weighs the darkness of the world—terrorism, floods, fires, famine, plague—against the beauty and humanity of everyday life; love, awe, "the intimate touch of earth and sun."

Zero K is glorious.




Day One

No one can remember anything–who they are, family and friends, or even how to read. Reality has fragmented and Earth consists of an islands of rock floating in an endless sky. Food, water, electricity–gone, except for what people can find, and they can't find much.

Faller's pockets contain tantalizing clues: a photo of himself and a woman he can't remember, a toy solider with a parachute, and a mysterious map drawn in blood. With only these materials as a guide, he makes a leap of faith from the edge of the world to find the woman and set things right.

He encounters other floating islands, impossible replicas of himself and others, and learns that one man hates him enough to take revenge for actions Faller can't even remember.



In her edgy, satiric debut collection, award-winning South African journalist and author 1616962402 Beukes (The Shining Girls, Moxyland) never holds back. Nothing is simple and everything is perilous when humans are involved: greed, corruption, struggle, and even love (of a sort).

A permanent corporate branding gives a young woman enhanced physical abilities and a nearly-constant high

Recruits lifted out of poverty find a far worse fate collecting biohazardous plants on an inhospitable world

The only adult survivor of the apocalypse decides he will be the savior of teenagers; the teenagers are not amused.

[PTY]

Finalisti za overavanje:



Dmitar:


Mark is a Day Boy.

In a post-traumatic future the Masters—formerly human, now practically immortal—rule a world that bends to their will and a human population upon which they feed. Invincible by night, all but helpless by day, each relies on his Day Boy to serve and protect him.

Mark has been lucky in his Master: Dain has treated him well. But as he grows to manhood and his time as a Day Boy draws to a close, there are choices to be made.

Will Mark undergo the Change and become, himself, a Master—or throw in his lot with his fellow humans? As the tensions in his conflicted world reach crisis point, Mark's decision may be crucial.

In Day Boy Trent Jamieson reimagines the elements of the vampire myth in a wholly original way. This is a beautifully written and surprisingly tender novel about fathers and sons, and what it may mean to become a man.

Or to remain one.



Bram Stoker:


There are places we were never meant to go...
***
A woman searching for a sister lost at sea. A man bent on finding lost treasure. A mother who has lost all hope. A maniac who believes all life exists for his pleasure. The man who would keep them all safe.

Together, they will all seek below the waves for treasures long buried, and riches beyond belief. But those treasures hide something. Something ancient, something dark. A creature that exists only to feed on those that would enter into its realm. A creature... of The Deep.



Kitschies:


Hugo Wilcken's first novel, The Execution—a taut, psychological mystery about an average person who commits an accidental murder—got the kind of rave reviews authors dream of: He was compared to Camus and Hitchcock.

Now, in his second novel, The Reflection, the comparisons seem even more appropriate: It's a smart, creepy, steadily absorbing mystery about an average law-abiding citizen who finds himself inexplicably caught up in a case of mistaken identities—with one of his own patients.

When psychiatrist David Manne is asked by a friend who's a New York City Police detective to consult on an unusual case, he finds himself being asked to evaluate a criminal who's the exact opposite of himself—an uneducated laborer from the Midwest who seems overwhelmed by modern day Manhattan circa 1948. But when that laborer tells David that he's not who the police say he is, David slowly begins to believe it may be true

Unable to stop himself, David begins to look into how the police handle the man, and the hospital they take him to . . . and begins to suspect that the man is caught up in some kind of secret governmental medical testing. Realizing he's got to rescue his patient, David quickly finds himself battling forces that seem to be even bigger than he suspected, and that now have him in their sights.

When he suddenly finds himself caught with a patient's i.d. papers on him, he decides on a risky course that seems his only way out: To change his identity, and enter even deeper into the conspiracy, if he's to find out how to escape it.

Written in relentlessly probing prose with a delicious plot complication seemingly on every page, this is one of the most thought-provoking, chilling, and suspenseful novels you'll ever read.

[PTY]

Genijalni, vispreni, šarmantni Adam Roberts koga je uvek zadovoljstvo čitati ovde je razradio svoju kratku priču u roman koji po format pomalo asocira na Mitchellov Cloud Atlas, sa fino zaokruženim segmentima koji na kraju sklapaju stvarno impresivnu celinu. Odlična ideja pretočena u odličan roman kroz sijaset briljantnih filozofskih ideja i argumenata... svakako pisac čiji se opus mora pobliže upoznati. (a da je prolifičan, to jeste, maltene knjiga godišnje.)




Jedna od mučnijih eko-apokalipsi, pedantno vođena i emotivno impresivna u svojoj depresivnoj, ekstremno pesimističnoj vizuri... I mada generalno baš i nisam ljubitelj rezignirane apokaliptičnosti, ovaj roman naprosto nisam mogla da ispustim iz ruke. 

[divča]

maltene knjiga godišnje

Ponekad i šes.

Uzeo sam i ja da čitam Stvar po sebi, ostalo mi još dvaes strana.

[PTY]

Holi šmoli, taj čovek verovatno uopšte ne spava.   

Elem, meni je ovo njegova prva, iako imam malu gomilu na lageru, ali se svo ovo vreme silno femkam, jer stvarno ga do koske obožavam kao rivjuistu, prosto ne pamtim da smo se ikad razišli u mišljenju, pa kao, strepila sam da to ne pokvarim, u slučaju da mu proza ne ispuni moja sad već strašno visoka očekivanja... ali ovo me je oduvalo i oduševilo skroz.

[PTY]

Humanity's future has been disrupted and shaped by the mysterious alien Jackaroo. We spread to the planets they gave us, and we discovered the ruins of a dozen previous civilistions. All previous clients of the Jackaroo, all dead. So far we have escaped that fate - but we have also escaped from the Jackaroo's planets and begun to explore the galaxy. The discovery of ancient spaceships, and the unlocking of their mysteries, has led to a new way of life. But humanity's failings and conflicts are always with us.

A woman living a quiet secluded life, with only her dog and her demons for company. The dissolute heir to a powerful merchant family. The laminated brain of the woman who led us into the universe. A policeman, seemingly working for the Jackaroo. All of these people are on the edges of a vast plan, one which will span decades and light years. A piece of alien code has awakened, and the end of our species may be happening around us.

And we may finally discover if the aliens really are here to help us.




Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele's Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.

Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.

This is classic, epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre as well as fans of current major motion pictures such as Gravity and Interstellar.




Transgalactic: the latest novel in Hugo Award Winner James Gunn's SF Grandmaster Career!

When Riley and Asha finally reached the planet Terminal and found the Transcendental Machine, a matter transmission device built by an ancient race, they chose to be "translated." Now in possession of intellectual and physical powers that set them above human limitations, the machine has transported them to two, separate, unknown planets among a possibility of billions.

Riley and Asha know that together they can change the galaxy, so they attempt to do the impossible--find each other.



A strange people have appeared out of nowhere. Their speech is impossible to understand for most human beings; their agenda, they say, is to colonize the "right place". The interpreter Mika accompanies one of their ambassadors to the little moon Kiruna. Here, celestial bodies play havoc with sound, and reality may not be what it appears. (A sequel to SING)

[PTY]

A sad, za drugara nam Micu  , evo mog prvog gromoglasnog ovogodišnjeg otkrića:





Konvencionalna mudrost tvrdi da čitalac zapravo i ne zna šta voli, sve dok mu vrsni umetnik to ne servira: u ovom konkretno slučaju, recimo da jesam znala kako volim žanrovski minimalizam, ali nisam znala šta sve žanrovski minimalizam u hororu zapravo može da bude, sve do Evensona.


Oduševljeni rivjuisti Evensonove proze nisu štedeli komplimente, pa tako cirkulišu bobmastični blarbovi koji njegovu prozu upoređuju sa piscima kao što je Beckett, E.A. Poe, Ballard i McCarthy, a jedan od mojih favorita tvrdi da je Evenson "like Garcia Marquez on really, really bad acid"  , no daleko je bliže istini reći da je Evenson singularno unikatan književni glas kojem se teško nalaze presedani ili prepoznaju uzori. Naprosto, Evenson je do te mere prepoznatljivo originalan - ne samo u svom pristupu temama koje ga fasciniraju, nego i jezikom i stilom a ponaviše svetonazorom - da njegova proza slabo asocira na bilo kog šire poznatog autora, pogotovo unutar samog žanr horora.


Evensonova ekstremna kompleksnost predočena je krajnjom jednostavnošću u kojoj kao da nema mesta čak ni za neophodni kontekst: od početne rečenice pa nadalje, čitalac je potpuno (ne)milosti teksta, bez oslonca u ikakvom vanjskom / sopstvenom redu ili logici, moralu ili zakonu, stvarnosti ili svetonazoru. Zbivanja se nižu, događaji smenjuju jedan drugi, a čitalac i dalje nije siguran da li je ijedan od tih događaja zapravo "dobar" ili "loš", da li su sami protagonisti pozitivci ili ne, čak ni da li je zbivanje prepoznatljiva stvarnost kojom upravlja logika i kauzalnost... kod Evensona, košmar koji proza nudi prevazilazi ne samo tekst, nego i papir na kom je tekst odštampan.


Ako je ikada postojao pisac kojem je vlastita prozna briljantnost temeljito urnisala privatni život, onda je to Evenson: u vreme objavljivanja prve zbirke priča (Altmann's Tongue, 1994) Evenson je bio ne samo profesor na Mormonskom univerzitetu, nego i visoki sveštenik mormonske crkve, a kontroverza po objavljivanju zbirke koštala ga je ne samo obaju pozicija, nego i braka pride. Teško da postoji savremeni pisac koji je tako visokom privatnom cenom platio svoje pisanje. (No opet, da se ne lažemo, teško da postoji savremeni horor pisac čija proza jeste vredna te cene.  )


Evensonova proza kod čitaoca proizvodi reakciju kakvoj horor upravo stremi, otud i jeste sofisticirana alatka za precizno postizanje istog: proizvodi nelagodu, strepnju a eventualno i čist, koncentrisan užas: da li smo mi zaista takvi? Da li je moguće da se uopšte može biti takav?


Mormonska zajednica je na Evensonovu prozu reagovala onako kako socijalizovani ljudi uglavnom i reaguju kada se suoče sa ekstremnim stanjima ljudskog duha – užasnuli su se. U sklopu mormonskih religioznih konvencija je i verovanje da govoriti o zlu ujedno podrazumeva i prizivati ga – maltene ga otelotvoriti iz domena apstraktnog u domen materijalnog. Evenson, naravno, misli drugačije: on smatra da je upravo ćutanje sposobno za takva magična otelotvorenja, a stvarni život kao da ga podržava dokazima (ne samo u mormonskoj nego u gotovo svim organizovanim religijama, čega smo svakodnevni svedoci).


Otud se Evensonova proza zapravo i ne bavi religijom, nego više birokratijom religije, koja proizvodi isključivo ritualnu pseudo-religioznost. Evenson to dočarava zaista maestralno, uz inventivnu i nadasve originalnu primenu tropa psihološkog horora. Last Days nudi brutalnu ilustraciju doktrine kultova, u ovom slučaju kulta automutilacije. Radi se o religioznom obredu flagelacije koji je – naravno, uparen sa SM tendencijama – doveden do kultističkog apsurda, potencirajući danas tako rasprostranjena doslovna tumačenja metaforičkih biblijskih referenci. Evenson nudi Last Days u formatu detektivskog noara, sa klasičnim zapletom o undercover policajcu koji istražuje kult čiji je i sam bio žrtva.


S druge strane, Immobility je po formatu čist i besprekoran post-apokaliptični SF, sa protagonistom koji je prevremeno probuđen iz kriogenog sna samo da bi ga se poslalo na tajanstvenu misiju da ukrade isto tako tajanstveni cilindar iz udaljene tvrđave u kojoj takođe obitava šačica preživelih. Pošto je svet nakon ,,Kolapsa"  radioaktivan do mere da čak ni bubašvabe nisu preživele, protagonista je ucenjen na tu misiju pod pretnjom da će mu se dalji kriogeni tretman uskratiti.


Oba romana su čist i prepoznatljiv horor, i pored tako jasno prepoznatljivih  žanrovskih motiva: horor stanja duha protagonista koji konstantno osciliraju između nade i očaja, angsta i depresije, panike i strepnje. 

Fugue State je zbirka priča za koju najozbiljnije savetujem da se ne čita pre spavanja. Znam da je ta fraza silno otrcana (zlo)upotrebom, ali nakon čitanja Briana Evensona, teško da ću je ikada olako upotrebiti. Ako i uopšte.

[Mica Milovanovic]

Konačno! Bog stvori Zemlju i kafansku pevačicu za sedam dana, a ti...

[PTY]

Kmek... ali jesam pokušala nekoliko puta preko vikenda, samo forum nije bilo blagonaklon za postovanja...

[PTY]

REVIEW SUMMARY: A fun thriller designed specifically for gamers and sci-fi fans.

MY RATING: 

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: After watching too much reality television a sentient machine decides to wipe out humanity in a preemptive strike to ensure its own survival. All that stands between the A.I. and its goal are a few gamers.

MY REVIEW
PROS: An original vision of the future, lots of fun pop culture references, a great A.I. antagonist, an unconventional protagonist you love to cheer for, social commentary.
CONS: Uneven characterization, some areas of plot are rushed.
BOTTOM LINE: Fans of Ready Player One looking for their next gaming-fiction fix will devour Nick Cole's CTRL ALT Revolt!

CTRL ALT Revolt! is the prequel to Cole's Soda Pop Soldier, a widely acclaimed title that didn't leave me with the best of impressions. As such I probably wouldn't have read CTRL ALT Revolt! if I hadn't been so thoroughly sold on the premise. It's an unholy union of The Terminator, Night of the Living Dead, Snow Crash, and War Games. It's got some rough edges but it's also an insanely fun and inventive blending of genres.

From the first page there's no doubt that CTRL ALT Revolt! is the prequel to Soda Pop Soldier. Nick Cole writes like Ernest Cline's demented doppelgänger mainlining Adderall and Red Bull, a man constantly impressed by the speed and depth of his own imagination — and I mean that in the best possible way. This leaves me asking why I found it so much more successful a story. It's worth noting that Soda Pop Soldier was very well received by everyone not me so it's entirely possible that at the time I wasn't in the right state of mind for Cole's quirky, pop-culture-laced, shenanigans. I do think that one area where the prequel is noticeably more effective is in communicating the real world stakes. That is one of the pitfalls of writing a book that takes place primarily within a video game: your character might die in cyberspace but what are the consequences in meatspace? The impending robot apocalypse is a pretty major consequence to the in-game failure of our protagonists. It also helps that a portion of the action takes place in meatspace with an army of repurposed robots closing in. There were real life consequences to the gaming in Soda Pop Soldier, some major ones at that, but it never felt  all that dire.



Another area that Cole steps up his game (pardon the pun) is in characterization. There are a lot of characters with potential for greatness and while I'll admit that the depth of characters in CTRL ALT Revolt! is uneven and only some of them reach their potential, when Cole takes the time to develop a character he succeeds. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that SILAS, the "evil" self-aware A.I., is probably the best character of all. But maybe that shouldn't be such a surprise given the popularity of rogue machines in the science fiction genre. And really, how could you not love an A.I. that decides humanity's continued existence cannot be permitted after watching too many episodes of reality television? Cole's decision to round out SILAS by giving it internal conflict in the form of the Consensus (a group of programs that don't always agree). For example, SILAS's commander of military operations, BAT, is obsessed with A Clockwork Orange and ultra-violence.

The best of the human protagonists is easily Mara Bennett, a young woman who suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy in meatspace but in the virtual reality of the Make she's a decorated starfleet captain. Mara overcomes her own limitations and self doubt in order to win the biggest game of her life. Likewise her nemesis, JasonDare, is another compelling character. He's not as sympathetic as Mara but I'd say he has the most satisfying arc of any of the characters. I wish that we could have gotten more of Ninety-Nine Fishbein (or Fish for short), Rapp (a character who takes cosplaying Ash from The Evil Dead to a whole new level), and Peabody Case (the highly capable assistant) but I'm still pleased with how SILAS, Mara, and JasonDare turned out.

The real star of CTRL ALT Revolt! isn't any one character. In fact the it isn't any character at all. No, the real draw is the awesome sandbox Cole builds to play in. The campus for video game developer WonderSoft is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory but for super rich nerds. Reading this book I was tempted to brush up my resume and send it in to a fictional company. It's that cool! Cole's mind must run at 12 parsecs a minute because he's throwing out one awesome idea after another. Occasionally this saturation means that some of the creativity gets lost in the shuffle but you're too busy picking your jaw up off the floor to notice. I would love to play Ninety-Nine Fishbein's game that's essentially Grand Theft Auto Somalia and Mara's favorite game would have any Star Trek fan bursting with glee. I think that Cole's idea of a reality tv show live streamed from virtual reality via Twitch is brilliant and probably not far from reality (again pardon the pun) given the popularity of the platform and that style of content.

Cole's cyberpunk vision is slightly absurd but given that it's frequently hard to tell real news from an Onion article it could be a plausible future. Like the best science fiction it makes some statements about the world that we live in and the direction we could be headed in but if you don't like having your worldview challenged you really shouldn't be reading sci-fi to begin with. CTRL ALT Revolt! likely will bother some people, but more than anything it's a fun romp through a ridiculous future that displays the sheer imagination and creativity Nick Cole has to offer. If you liked Soda Pop Soldier I suspect you'll love CTRL ALT Revolt! and even if you weren't a fan or if you've never even read it, this book is worth your valuable time.

[PTY]

 

Adaptation Watch: THE TERROR by Dan Simmons Optioned for Television



Daily Dead is reporting that AMC has greenlit a television adaptation of Dan Simmon's novel The Terror as a limited television series. Specifically, the plan is to produce a 10-episode anthology drama series adaptation of the 2007 suspense/horror novel.

It will be written by David Kajganich, who will also act as the show's co-showrunner along with Soo Hugh. Executive producers include Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, and Guymon Casady.

The series is set in 1847, when a mysterious predator attacks a Royal Naval expedition crew searching for the Northwest Passage, leading to a desperate game of survival.

For comparison, here is how the book is described:


The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape. The Terror swells with the heart-stopping suspense and heroic adventure that have won Dan Simmons praise as "a writer who not only makes big promises but keeps them" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). With a haunting and constantly surprising story based on actual historical events, The Terror is a novel that will chill you to your core.

[PTY]

... I malo probranih martovskih gudiza:



"With evocative language, a shifting timeline and more than one unreliable narrator, Suma subtly explores the balance of power between the talented and the mediocre, the rich and the poor, the brave and the cowardly . . . To reveal more would be to uncover the bloody heart that beats beneath the floorboards of this urban-legend-tinged tale." —The New York Times
 
The Walls Around Us is a ghostly story of suspense told in two voices--one still living and one dead. On the outside, there's Violet, an eighteen-year-old ballerina days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement. On the inside, within the walls of a girls' juvenile detention center, there's Amber, locked up for so long she can't imagine freedom. Tying these two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls' darkest mysteries: What really happened on the night Orianna stepped between Violet and her tormentors? What really happened on two strange nights at Aurora Hills? Will Amber and Violet and Orianna ever get the justice they deserve--in this life or in another one?



This book examines the recent popularity of the dystopian genre in literature and film, as well as connecting contemporary manifestations of dystopia to cultural trends and the implications of technological and social changes on the individual and society as a whole. Dystopia, as a genre, reflects our greatest fears of what the future might bring, based on analysis of the present. This book connects traditional dystopian works with their contexts and compares these with contemporary versions. It centers around two main questions: Why is dystopia so popular now? And, why is dystopia so popular with young adult audiences? Since dystopia reflects the fears of society as a whole, this book will have broad appeal for any reader, and will be particularly useful to teachers in a variety of settings, such as in a high school or college-level classroom to teach dystopian literature, or in a comparative literature classroom to show how the genre has appeared in multiple locales at different times. Indeed, the books interdisciplinary nature allows it to be of use in classes focussing on politics, bioethics, privacy issues, womens studies, and any number of additional topics.



Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi's keys not only unlock elements of her characters' lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In "Books and Roses" one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?" an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks," where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think," a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).

Oyeyemi's tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.


Featuring numerous updates and enhancements, Science Fiction and Philosophy, 2nd Edition, presents a collection of readings that utilize concepts developed from science fiction to explore a variety of classic and contemporary philosophical issues.

[PTY]

Grand dame of American literature, Joyce Carol Oates, doesn't seems to slow down. If anything, I am under the impression that she has sped up her output in recent years, publishing a diverse selection of works that are both thought provoking and challenging, as well as immensely readable. Her latest book, The Man without a Shadow, which has just been published by Harper Collins / Ecco is no exception. It is an intriguing tale which explores the boundaries of relationship and what it means to be human.

"The Man without a Shadow" is Elihu Hooper, a medical phenomenon and something of a star within the scientics exploring the mysteries of the mind. Elihu owes this dubious privilege to the fact that due to an infection he can only retain the last seventy seconds of his memory. As you can imagine, for Elihu this is an absolute nightmare. With memory as locked as his is, every new day is a challenge and voyage of discovery. Neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets Elihu in 1965 and since then their lives are intertwined. For Margot, Elihu is more than a patient and a scientific interest. She is charmed by this withdrawn and gentle man up to a point where she puts her own life behind just to try to find another idea, another new approach to cure Elihu's condition. It's a very interesting premise because, think, Elihu never remembers meeting Margot and yet, for Margot, Elihu is a person she knows and loves deeply. It's incredibly difficult situation which occasionally turned disturbing. Margot can take liberties which she usually wouldn't because she knows Elihu will forget them mere seventy seconds later. It's riveting stuff.

"The Man without a Shadow" is wonderful new addition to ever-growing Joyce Carol Oates' bibliography and this complex emotional rollercoaster is without a doubt one of my favourite works of her. The relationship between the doctor and the patient in these circumstances opens up many difficult questions about the nature of love and ethics but I can't help but thinking that Oates was the perfect person to explore them. At the heart of it "The Man without a Shadow" is a love story, one that's heart-breaking to read but, in a strange way, still life-affirming because love somehow always finds a way - even if it's just for seventy seconds.



Marion Pauw is another one of those fantastic authors that you probably haven't heard of but that are absolutely huge in the countries and non-English speaking world. Marion is originally from Netherlands and currently lives in Amsterdam where she, so far, published more than a dozen of book out of which "Girl in the Dark" is her first book published in the USA and, if I'm not mistaken, her first book translated to English (original title Daglicht). As such, "Girl in the Dark" is a force to be reckoned with, a formidable brooding psychological thriller that stays with you for a long time.

As "Girl in the Dark" opens, Iris is living an ordinary, if slightly, stressed out life. She has a difficult son, Aaron, who due to his behaviour issues is often a handful and a job that demands a lot of her. She's finding it increasingly hard to handle both, especially Aaron who's erratic and his increasingly aggressive behaviour is starting to scare her. Her mother, Agatha, is not helping either. Always quick to judge her, she often makes Iris feel like a bad mother. It all changes when one day Iris makes a stunning discovery after helping out with the fish tank. She learns that she apparently has an older brother called Ray.

As she digs deeper, she discovers that Ray is currently in an institution for the criminally insane for committing a murder of his neighbour and her little girl. But after meeting him, Iris leaves with doubts. Is he really "The Monster Next Door" as the media dubs him? Ray is certainly odd but he's also autistic and is having difficulty communicating. Since a lot about Ray remind her of her own son Aaron, Iris decides to find out the truth.

"Girl in the Dark" is told clinically through both Iris and Ray and despite its coldness, it is actually a story about a family willing to stick together, no matter what. Pauw tackles difficult issues with ease and mostly manages to pull it off thanks to superbly written characters who know how to be both strong and vulnerable. Iris is an inspiration, someone despite everything that's going on in her life, is still managing to keep it all together. It is also impossible not to mention an ending - it comes out of the blue and is completely surprising. "Girl in the Dark" is a fine English debut for Marion Pauw and well worth checking out if you need a psychological thriller to spend a night with.

[PTY]

Christopher Priest's next novel is The Gradual. Gollancz has posted the UK cover (see below for a bigger version), featuring a design by Julyan Bayes of Us-Now. The UK release date is August 2017. (The book is being released in September 2016 by Titan in the U.S., according to Amazon.)


In the latest novel from one of the UK's greatest writers we return to the Dream Archipelago, a string of islands that no one can map or explain. Alesandro Sussken is a composer, and we see his life as he grows up in a fascist state constantly at war with another equally faceless opponent. His brother is sent off to fight; his family is destroyed by grief. Occasionally Alesandro catches glimpses of islands in the far distance from the shore, and they feed into his music – music for which he is feted. But all knowledge of the other islands is forbidden by the junta, until he is unexpectedly sent on a cultural tour. And what he discovers on his journey will change his perceptions of his country, his music and the ways of the islands themselves. Playing with the lot of the creative mind, the rigours of living under war and the nature of time itself, this is Christopher Priest at his absolute best.

[Mica Milovanovic]

Tja. Nažalost ništa od "Arhipelaga Snova" kod nas nije prevedeno - ni priče sa kraja sedamdesetih ni neke docnije sakupljene u istoimenu zbirku, ni roman The Islanders (2011). U stvari, osim Invertiranog sveta i Prestiža, nijedan njegov roman nije ni preveden. Da ne bi filma, ni Prestiž ne bi stigao do nas... Od priča meni je u sećanju ostalo "Beskrajno leto" iz sjajne Karove zbirke odabranih svetskih SF priča iz 1976. godine koja je neobjašnjivim putevima gospodnjim objavljena 1979. u Zagrebu od strane izdavača od koga se to nikako ne bi očekivalo...

[PTY]

Čini mi se da Priesta smatraju za 'zahtevnog' pisca -  štagod sad pa to značilo – a to kao da kod izdavača generiše strepnju da će se slabo prodavati.
A ne znam zašto, stvarno, treba samo overiti njegov eXistenZ pa da se uvere kako je baja zapravo strašno palpičan.    

[PTY]

The winners for the 2015 BSFA Award
Best Novel
◾The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz)
Best Short Story
◾"Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight" by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 1/15)


WINNERS: 2016 Ditmar Awards
Best Novel
◾Lament for the Afterlife, Lisa L. Hannett (ChiZine Publications)

WINNER: 2016 Philip K. Dick Award
◾Apex by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot Books)

A special citation was given to:
◾Archangel by Marguerite Reed (Arche Press)


WINNERS: 2015 Aurealis Awards
◾BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA: "By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers", Garth Nix (Old Venus, Random House)
◾BEST HORROR NOVELLA: "The Miseducation of Mara Lys", Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)
◾BEST FANTASY NOVELLA: "Defy the Grey Kings", Jason Fischer (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Firkin Press)

[PTY]

  Ceđenje drenovine:

Here's the cover and synopsis for the upcoming novel Daughter of Eden by Chris Beckett, sequel to Dark Eden and Mother of Eden.


Angie Redlantern is the first to spot the boats – five abreast with men in metal masks and spears standing proud, ready for the fight to come. As the people of New Earth declare war on the people of Mainground, a dangerous era has dawned for Eden. After generations of division and disagreement, the two populations of Eden have finally broken their tentative peace, giving way to bloodshed and slaughter. Angie must flee with her family across the pitch black of Snowy Dark to the place where it all started, the stone circle where the people from Earth first landed, where the story of Gela – the mother of them all – began. It is there that Angie witnesses the most extraordinary event, one that will change the history of Eden forever. It will alter their future and re-shape their past. It is both a beginning and an ending. It is the true story of Eden.

[Mica Milovanovic]

The winners for the 2015 BSFA AwardBest Novel◾The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz)Best Short Story◾"Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight" by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 1/15)

Jesi li čitala ovaj roman? Priče su joj zanimljive... Jedan od onih pisaca koji profitira iz puke činjenice da je na razmeđu kultura i da ima sposobnost da se pomeri iz uobičajenog pogleda na svet. "Immersion" je zaista lepa priča...

[PTY]

Nisam čitala ništa njenog u dužoj formi.   

[PTY]

Who are these bold rebels pillaging their European neighbors in the name of revolution? The Futurists! Utopian pirate warriors of the diminutive Regency of Carnaro, scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Mortal enemies of communists, capitalists, and even fascists (to whom they are not entirely unsympathetic).

The ambitious Soldier-Citizens of Carnaro are lead by a brilliant and passionate coterie of the perhaps insane. Lorenzo Secondari, World War I veteran, engineering genius, and leader of Croatian raiders. Frau Piffer, Syndicalist manufacturer of torpedos at a factory run by and for women. The Ace of Hearts, a dashing Milanese aristocrat, spymaster, and tactical savant. And the Prophet, a seductive warrior-poet who leads via free love and military ruthlessness.

Fresh off of a worldwide demonstration of their might, can the Futurists engage the aid of sinister American traitors and establish world domination?

[PTY]

REVIEW SUMMARY: This seemingly vague novella may just be one of Miéville's most insightful works to date.
(Tyran Grillo is a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, where he specializes in the representation of animals in contemporary Japanese fiction. He is an avid music critic, a voracious reader, and a prolific translator, having translated nine novels from Japanese to English across a range of genres, from science fiction to historical murder mysteries. Maybe, one day, he'll write his own.)

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A boy's shocking admission turns into a deeply psychological fight for accountability.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: An immersive first-person narrative inlaid with hints of magic and clandestine technologies.
CONS: The writing can be too beautiful for its own good, obscuring what amounts to a skeletal plot at best; those seeking firm resolution may be disappointed.
BOTTOM LINE: Despite its vague world-building, this novella is a rewarding meditation on trauma that believably mirrors its protagonist's fragmentary memories.


China Miéville may be a pioneer among writers of the New Weird, but his latest, This Census-Taker, recasts the genre as more of the Old Familiar. Miéville's oddities, intricate as they are, would be nothing without their consensus elements, and these he draws from a well of mythological tropism as dry as it is deep. In this instance, however, we cannot attribute askew narrative moments to weirdness for its own sake, tending as they do to the novella's central theme.

About that theme there can be no mistake as the first sentences jump into your retinas: "A boy ran down a hill path screaming. The boy was I." Said boy, anonymous and writing now as an adult, insists his father killed his mother. Or was it the other way around? At first he can't be sure and must piece together the flow of events barely consummated in order to convince the stunned townsfolk of his witness. Though his interruption may wound their drab landscape — a rural outpost, likewise unnamed — he paints the town as a place un-locatable on any maps but the ones readers unfurl with hands of expectation. As if torn from the pages of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, it's a place that loses touch with security the higher it is off the ground. Wherever and whenever it exists, it is a postwar bastion of antebellum ways, whispering magic through its abundance of "weather-watchers and hermits and witches," and where electricity is a luxury relegated to occasional use of generators.

The boy unloads his shock before strangers, thus lighting a fuse that burns to a dud. This is, I think, what Miéville wants. The point of this story is to have none. Not that he fails to mark his narrative trail with landmarks along the way, each of which facilitates informed conclusions about denouement. We know the boy is an "uphiller," a derogatory term used by those below in reference to those who live above; that his home is a desolate one, nestled in hilly rock, where his main contacts are with the local feral animal population; and that his mother's death has permanently stained his domestic comfort zone, despite the father's best efforts to wipe its horrors away. In light of the murder, imagined though it might be, we must therefore take the inside flap's press language, which promises "a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity," with caution. Memory is vital to its telling, but would wither in the absence of trauma. It is not an exploration but a reconstruction of memory, riveting only in the sense of fastening together disparate pasts into a coherent mental overlay.

Of his memory we have so little that it ceases to matter. He remembers his mother as a beautiful, if weather-beaten, caregiver who allowed her son to figure out much of life on his own. But the current of his recollection is shored up by memories of father, whose reputable problem-solving meets the needs of his customers by means of a mystery craft. The meticulousness of his work says much about his lack thereof in childrearing. The boy is rarely alone with his father, more often watching, concealed by horror, as the paternal figure kills a dog from the local hills, if for no other reason than the thrill of it — thereby revealing a binary theme of animality that is intimately linked with the mother's disappearance. Patriarchal control of the family sphere is part and parcel of pastoralism, and while theirs isn't an agrarian economy, an abundance of wildlife — some innocuous, some threatening — nevertheless creeps in on all sides like a gang of potential fatalities in the flesh.

Physical elements achieve symbolic realism in the story. A derelict bridge, for one, runs through the center of the town and weighs not transport but squatter dwellings overrun by orphaned children. The trees, for another, constitute a living, architectural force that shapes the town as much as its everyday activities. Yet the most vital aspect of the boy's life is the dump-hole into which his father drops their trash and, presumably, the occasional prey. When the eponymous census-taker arrives at last to take stock of the father's past, to know where everyone stands in the wake of an alluded war, he asks to see the hole in question. He spelunks into it, emerges with no explanation of its depths, and adopts the boy as his intern. Miéville's commitment to ambiguity is in solidarity with his protagonist's own. His victim narrative matters above all as a navigation of the past, putting enough boards over the hole in his personal cave to avoid joining the pile of corpses his father has left behind.

That Miéville falls into the common authorial trap of (animal) killing for mere sake of human character development could be a detriment in other contexts but here deems the narrator worthy of his impressions. Trauma memories are filed differently from other memories in the brain, their access as much a question of kind as degree. Over time, these memories become an ongoing mechanism of survival. And so, expressive violence indicates the father's own traumas, remainders of the elusive war. Which is why, in an effort to feel connected to nature again, the narrator's memories of mother find her gardening and cooking, and those of his father in the delivery of animal fatalities, because the boy yearns for some connection to the landscape never otherwise encouraged.

The narrator's occasional switch between first and second person indicates a corporeal disconnect. In order to combat fear of embodiment, he turns trauma into a tool. Census-taking is an ideal vocation for such a one. It requires categorization by letters and numbers, each person fitting neatly into an indexical spectrum of judgment. It gives him the illusion of control — writing, after all, under guard in a modern city — over his mortality. Where his father has cultivated loss into an abscess of violence, the grown boy protects the emptiness within, an emptiness born of pacifism, at all costs. The novella's title — note This, not The — is therefore more than accusatory, even if it is a direct quote from an angered father losing his emotional battles, for one may further interpret the title as a self-referencing mechanism on the narrator's part, a way of seeing the ending in the beginning. Intrigue thus proliferates around the novella's inarticulate center, not unlike that persistent hole: the core truth he cannot ever grasp by purchase of remembrance. The reason we are not gifted with its secrets is because they are not ours to own.

[PTY]

Ovo se može skinuti besplatno do kraja marta.

http://www.badmenagerie.com/up-and-coming-stories-from-the-2016-campbell-eligible-writers/

[Mica Milovanovic]

Who are these bold rebels pillaging their European neighbors in the name of revolution? The Futurists! Utopian pirate warriors of the diminutive Regency of Carnaro, scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Mortal enemies of communists, capitalists, and even fascists (to whom they are not entirely unsympathetic).

Izgleda da se Sterling, dok je bio u Beogradu, dobrano uputio u Bakićev opus... 

[Mica Milovanovic]

Ovo se može skinuti besplatno do kraja marta.

Ajde seljaku meni prebaci u pdf i pošalji...

[PTY]

Zapravo sam skoro nekoliko puta naišla na taj motiv, tamo u gomili Haikasoru priča: eko-distopije sa vrlo aktivnom "industrijom" vremeplovne piraterije... veoma zanimljivo, japanci su totalno otkačeni kad puste mašti na volju.   

[Mica Milovanovic]

Mislio sam na Futuriste...

[PTY]

pa i ja: ti pirati se zovu 'futuristi' i jadna raja iz prošlosti ratuje sa njima jer im ovi bukvalno kradu sve, od hrane do tehnologije. 

ps. poslala sam ti antologiju u pdfu.