Commentary

Once again, whatever else it was, it was a good year for books. Between new releases, revisiting older selections with a book club or two, and a very rewarding set of reads for several proj­ects I’ve been hammering at – the Ancillary Review’s podcast, particularly – I was practically drowning in fascinating titles. For my year-end list, I decided to narrow it down (pain­fully, regretfully) to my top three choices ...Read More

In my previous article on Japanese science fiction, published in Locus in 2016, I likened my experience of living in Japan to Urashima Taro’s rise from his present world (eighth century) to the world of the future, with its fast-forward jumble of pop-culture iconography. This sense of Japan and its current state in science fiction is even more relevant in the wake of COVID, as these changes have only accelerated. ...Read More

The 23rd Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies conference was held July 21, 2024. The highlights included a special guest lecture by renowned Romanian SF author George Dimitriu and scholarly presentations of papers on the theme ‘‘Spotlight on the Works of Professor Jayant V. Narlikar.’’

The conference began in the Indian traditional way, with the lighting of the lamp by the founding members of the association.

The event coincided with ...Read More

It takes true dreamers to make dreams happen. In the case of the Future Fiction Workshop held near Chongqing, China in June 2024, those were the intrepid Italian editor Francesco Verso and Fan Zhang, dean of the newly estab­lished Fishing Fortress Science Fiction College. Francesco, who has made World SF his life’s mis­sion, has long worked in promoting science fiction into and out of China. Fan, who now supervises no ...Read More

The genre is experiencing a blooming pe­riod. Big names like George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Andrzej Sapkowski, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Rob­ert Jordan sell hundreds of copies every week, thanks to television adaptations, but also, in recent years, fantastic fiction has been gaining ground over the other genres and is becoming, little by little, the main trend. For example, the most recent worldwide publishing phenomenon – although in Spain ...Read More

Outside of the vast English-speaking fandom lies a tapestry of diverse and weakly interlinked communities from the countries with small language bases. These languages, and the nations that speak them are often – because of inertia, rather than ill intent – perceived as “minor.” Indeed, they are minor in one critical aspect: as literary markets. This circumstance has a profound effect on their literature. Speculative fiction, with sales an order ...Read More

I fell in love with fantasy at age seven thanks to the Harry Potter series. I remember read­ing at school, in between the lessons, and at home. I even drew the lightning scars on my very willing classmates, so life could feel more the way I thought it should be: heroes – valiant; stakes – to save the whole world; evil – the most vicious you can imagine. What fantasy ...Read More

In the West, science fiction has been shaped by magazines like Astounding, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Locus, Galaxy, Amazing Stories, Ana­log, Lightning Speed, Destiny, Galileo, Asimov’s, F&SF, New Worlds, Vertex, and others. Editors like Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell took a keen interest in directing the respective authors to write stories as the days demanded. Unlike in the West, India has had no history of science fiction magazine in general ...Read More