I really like the concept of Iraq + 100. Stories from a Century After the Invasion. In 2013 Hassan Blasim and his collaborator Ra Page, the founder of Comma Press, asked well-known Iraqi writers to write speculative short stories envisioning Iraq in 2113 or thereabouts. The Introduction and Afterword are persuasive about the artistic ambitions of this … Continue reading Science fiction and speculative fiction from Iraq
Category: dystopia
Stone stories: N K Jemisin’s The Obelisk Gate
When Terry Pratchett wanted to explore how trolls might name themselves, he used mineralogy. Jade was one of the first Pratchett trolls to have a name. It was curiously dignifying as well as amusingly paradoxical (how could a lump of rock have a name, ho ho ho). Pratchett continued to dignify his troll characters rather … Continue reading Stone stories: N K Jemisin’s The Obelisk Gate
Not another post-apocalyptic western: Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow
I buy Gollancz’s SF Masterworks editions because I trust their editors to provide me with the best sf from the past century. I don’t expect their reprints to be classics all the time, but I do expect a decent read. Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow was a disappointment, but had a whumph in its tail. … Continue reading Not another post-apocalyptic western: Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow
A history of British utopian living: Utopia Britannica
This remarkable compendium of the history of British radical communities is colourful inside and out: the typefaces change depending on the category of the text (commentary, quotation, reportage), and the stories are astonishingly addictive. ‘Just one more’, as, oblivious to the cold room or the early start next morning, you keep reading past midnight yet … Continue reading A history of British utopian living: Utopia Britannica
The hero uses crutches: J J Amaworo Wilson’s Damnificados
The carefully managed outbreaks of magical realism are what I like best about J J Amaworo Wilson’s Damnificados. Wilson’s skills as a novelist are impressive, and his scope in Damnificados is global: his vision of a Latin American city that casually and fleetingly connects to Africa and Japan makes this novel a world myth with … Continue reading The hero uses crutches: J J Amaworo Wilson’s Damnificados
Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83
Just look at that cover art. I mean, just LOOK at it. There is no information in the English edition of Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s first novel, Tram 83, on who did the graphic design for the cover (I don’t count the bland branding agency who apparently sourced it), but by golly I hope they get … Continue reading Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83
No tentacles in Squid’s Grief, by D K Mok
Squid’s Grief is D K Mok’s third novel (The Other Tree is reviewed here, The Hunt for Valamon is reviewed here). Her defining characteristic so far is that she uses the same plot in different genres, and she has an affinity for fantasy fiction that speaks with a knowing wink. She’s a very good writer, … Continue reading No tentacles in Squid’s Grief, by D K Mok
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Reading for this last podcast script catch-up from Really Like this Book, I could not concentrate on anything else until I had reached the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I thought I had read it before, but I must have skim-read it so fast to reach the end before the next family member in the … Continue reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Patriarchal post-apocalyptic retro: David Brin’s The Postman
David Brin’s The Postman (1985) starts really well. I was very impressed with the central conceit, of a man struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic survivalist society who starts a myth of a Restored United States to get the people to cohere around the myth and make it real. But it all fell apart through … Continue reading Patriarchal post-apocalyptic retro: David Brin’s The Postman
Mike French and Karl Brown: An Android Wakes
An Android Wakes is a graphic novel that’s been put through a centrifuge, restoring it to the traditional form of an illustrated novel, pages of illustration interspersed with short chunks of prose. It’s in an unreconstructed style that is all about traditional sf-dystopic concerns that I first saw in the 1970s in 2000 AD, the first modern … Continue reading Mike French and Karl Brown: An Android Wakes
