**Summary: The Evolution of Science Fiction and New Voices**

**Classic Foundations:**
Science fiction (SF) has grown from its early roots—epitomized by H.G.

Wells and stories such as *The War of the Worlds*—which were heavily influenced by rapid scientific discoveries and anxieties about the future.

Early SF explored humanity’s place in the universe, social order, and often saw science as a force of progress or potential destruction.

Writers like Wells and, later, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke focused on grand themes like space exploration, artificial intelligence, and the consequences of technology.

**Changing Themes and Scope:**
Over the 20th century, SF’s themes expanded beyond scientific speculation to interrogate deeper philosophical and social questions.

The genre’s toolkit grew to include not only scientific “what ifs” but also complex world-building and conjectures about how societies adapt to technological and ecological changes.

Recent authors look at how every aspect of life—the political, ecological, psychological—is affected by innovation.

For example, much modern SF asks not just “what can be done,” but “what should be done,” or " who gets to decide?"

N.K.

Jemisin emphasizes that societies (real and fictional) are shaped by a series of choices, urging readers to critique and reshape the world.

**Blurring Genre Boundaries:**
Contemporary SF frequently blurs with fantasy and other genres, producing literature that is more reflective, personal, and experimental.

Books such as *Borne* by Jeff VanderMeer or N.K.

Jemisin’s *Broken Earth* trilogy push the boundaries of what SF can be, combining intense personal journeys with speculative world-building.

**Diversity and New Perspectives:**
The SF canon was traditionally dominated by white male voices, but this is changing.

Authors from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds—women, people of color, global voices—are reshaping the field.

Ursula K. Le Guin, with novels like *The Left Hand of Darkness,* introduced explorations of gender, social systems, and cultural relativity decades ago.

Contemporary writers like N.K.

Jemisin, whose work fuses social commentary with imaginative worlds, have become central figures.

International voices, such as China’s Wang Jinkang, offer new perspectives rooted in different cultural experiences and histories.

These voices challenge established paradigms, and their work is gaining recognition (Jemisin won consecutive Hugo Awards, Wang is heralded in China).

**Science and Escapism:**
Some dismiss SF and fantasy as simple escapism, but many authors and critics argue that these genres offer critical lenses for questioning the present and envisioning possible futures.

Escapism is not frivolous—it's a way to reflect, critique, and search for freedom (as noted in the Tolkien quote about "the prisoner's duty to try to escape").

**Conclusion:**
In transitioning from the world of H.G.

Wells to today’s global and diverse landscape, SF literature remains a mirror for society’s anxieties and aspirations.

Its ever-expanding boundaries, inclusivity, and willingness to challenge norms makes it richer and more relevant than ever for book clubs seeking canonical classics alongside fresh, boundary-pushing works from new voices.

**Summarization of Key Points on the Evolution of Science Fiction (SF) and Its Canon (Approx.

2500 characters):**

- **Science fiction’s roots** lie in imagining alternate realities, future societies, advanced technologies, or worlds beyond current human experience.

Early giants like H.G.

Wells and Jules Verne focused on technological marvels, exploration, and questioning humanity’s place in the universe.

This established science fiction as a genre concerned with “what if” scenarios and speculation.

- **Mass culture and SF:** Over time, science fiction became a major pillar of modern popular culture, spanning literature, comics, and film.

The rise of comic books and graphic novels (like Art Spiegelman’s *Maus*) pushed the genre’s boundaries, integrating personal, historical, and political narratives, and showing SF could powerfully address real human issues and traumas.

- **Evolution of themes:** Where classic SF often looked outward (space travel, alien life, utopian/dystopian societies), contemporary SF also looks inward—focusing on identity, consciousness, trauma, and social justice.

There is a shift toward exploring inner monologues, the adolescent experience, and complex emotions, showing that SF can be as much about personal and psychological journeys as about scientific advancement.

- **SF as reflection and critique:** Modern SF is often “plotless” or essayistic, using metaphor and vivid imagery to critique reality and offer aphoristic wisdom—moving away from pure adventure into literary territory.

The genre now reflects on itself, its conventions, and its function as both a mirror and a laboratory for society.

- **Canon and diversity:** While the Western canon has been dominated by white male authors, a growing number of women and people of color have left transformative marks on the genre.

Their works often foreground voices and perspectives previously marginalized—addressing race, gender, trauma, and the politics of identity.

The genre has thus become a space for underrepresented authors to imagine new worlds and critique present inequities.

- **Contemporary developments:** SF continues to evolve with technology and changing global realities.

Digital and serialized storytelling are more common, and there is recognition of the importance of recording collective and personal histories (such as the legacy of the Soviet space program).

Technology enhances not just the subject matter, but also the modes of reading and engagement with SF.

- **Intergenerational and cross-cultural elements:** Modern SF engages with memory, language, identity, and heritage, as authors reflect on their backgrounds and envision the future.

The genre serves as a bridge between personal history and speculative possibility.

**In sum:** Science fiction has grown from adventure and technological speculation (Wells, Verne) into a diverse, dynamic genre that interrogates culture, history, identity, and emotion—thanks in large part to the contributions of new voices and expanded perspectives.

Its canonical works are now joined by stories from women, people of color, and international authors, making contemporary SF a rich field for any book club.

**Summary of the Evolution and Diversity of Science Fiction Literature:**

Science fiction has a long and varied history, growing from early works by pioneers like H.G.

Wells ("The Time Machine") to encompass global and contemporary voices.

Early science fiction was driven by the wonders and anxieties of early technological advances and scientific discovery; authors like Wells and Jules Verne used imaginative storytelling to reflect on the social, philosophical, and ethical impacts of progress.

Over time, sci-fi has continuously reinvented itself, responding to the cultural landscape and scientific developments.

The genre delights in "the element of surprise," pushing readers beyond their expectations and indulging their sense of wonder.

Modern science fiction, as seen in works like Robert Gilmar’s "Alice in Quantum Country" or Dos Santos's "The Gods of the Universe," often integrates cutting-edge scientific concepts (such as quantum mechanics, the Big Bang, and string theory) within narrative frameworks, making complex subjects accessible and exciting.

The genre is also increasingly recognized and explored across different cultures.

Arabic science fiction, for instance, is gaining traction with writers like Ahmed Khaled Tawfik ("In the Rat Corridor") crafting original stories that blend local themes with universal sci-fi motifs, offering new perspectives and fostering learning and curiosity.

In the broader landscape, science fiction has moved from a Eurocentric, predominantly male tradition to incorporate more diverse voices.

Women and authors of color have significantly impacted the genre, bringing fresh perspectives, themes, and innovations.

These voices challenge conventions, explore underrepresented experiences, and expand the scope and empathy of science fiction.

The referenced text celebrates this diversity and the genre's potential in education and social imagination.

Furthermore, the text suggests that reading and engaging deeply with science fiction—or any literature—requires critical engagement, openness to surprise, and attention to context and language.

The genre's evolution is as much about narrative innovation as it is about expanding whose stories are told and what ideas are explored.

**Actionable Insights for a Book Club:**

- Balance canonical classics (e.g., H.G.

Wells) with contemporary and international works.

- Include authors from diverse demographics (women, people of color, and global perspectives) to enrich discussion and understanding.

- Explore both hard science themes and more philosophical or social sci-fi.

- Read critically: discuss not just plot, but also context, underlying ideas, and the author’s purpose.

- Encourage curiosity and wonder—celebrate the "uncalculated potential" of the books you choose.

This approach will help members appreciate the evolution and current vitality of the science fiction genre.

Certainly!

Here is a summary—using approximately 2500 characters—of the key ideas from your extracts, focusing on the evolution of science fiction and its literary connections, which will help guide your book club selections:

---

**Science Fiction: Evolution, Themes, and Diverse Voices**

Science fiction's roots often intertwine with deeper ethical questions—such as the distinction between humans and machines, the nature of reality, and the definition of love—illustrated by works featuring robots and "sex robots" as metaphors for desire and the search for meaning.

Early explorations (such as those by H.G.

The genre adapts, reflecting both personal and cultural complexities.

**Summary: The Evolution of Science Fiction and New Voices**

**Classic Foundations:**
Science fiction (SF) has grown from its early roots—epitomized by H.G.

Title:

Content: Swords & Spaceships

8 Excellent Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Tales To Take You to the Next Frontier

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Lyndsie Manusos

Senior Contributor

Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement. She lives with her family in a suburb of Indianapolis.

Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald, published by Grove Atlantic

The must-read queer sci-fi thriller of the summer! In a world just one perilous step from our own, an unlikely pair sets out on the most dangerous and otherwordly mission of their lives. When a diner suddenly appears in a remote field, Adam and Rao are confronted with the most devastating weapon they have ever seen: Prophet. No one knows who created it, or why, but this spooky substance is bringing happy memories to life, then stifling people with their own joy. Despite their troubled past, the two are drawn closer than ever to defend what they hold most dear.

As I said in my 2022 science fiction subgenre primer, the genre of science fiction is expanding. Like our universe, it is expanding quickly, redefined with every story, be it short or long-form. And beneath the large umbrella of science fiction, subgenres are added and redefined. All in all, there are endless ways to tell a science fiction story (don’t let any old guard tell you different).

And then — subgenres aside — there is genre-bending science fiction. There is science fiction that centers horror and science fiction that is fabulist and weird. There’s science fantasy, as well as science fiction romance. There’s science fiction that is nearly unclassifiable, a mixture of so many things, or even all the things. I’ve mentioned in my Book Riot oeuvre that genre-bending of any shape or size is my kind of work. When writers are bold and brave in their genre weaving, that’s when the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. That’s when I rub my hands together and think, “oh, this is going to be good.”

Genre-bending science fiction doesn’t have to be confined to the novel form, either. Short fiction science fiction is in a golden age right now. Check out the latest finalists and winners for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards, and I promise you will find mindblowing, genre-bending, exceptional work.

Below I will showcase eight tremendous genre-bending science fiction tales, ranging from short stories to novels, and everything in between. I believe I’ve mentioned at least one in a previous post from last year, but you’ll notice the genre coverage is different. Ergo, these stories are genre-bending.

In any case, I hope you’ll enjoy these stories as much as I do.

Genre-Bending Science Fiction: Novels & Novellas

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Fatima had a past before she became known as Sankofa. Before those around her called her the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. With a mere glance, an entire town could fall. But before that, the world was different.

So much of what Okorafor writes is genre-bending science fiction (the Binti trilogy!). This novella begins in an almost fantasy-horror like fashion: Sankofa walking, leaving fear and horror in her wake. But as the story unfolds, it becomes this all-encompassing tale of African futurism, how the world shapes us, and then how we might reshape the world.

Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones

One of the things I love about including this book is seeing this title on Goodreads and reading all the genres it’s described as. Hint: it’s like all the genres. Fantasy, science fiction, time travel, magic, dragons, robots, portals, you name it, Hexwood probably has it. And clearly, none of this should surprise you coming from the legendary Diana Wynne Jones.

The tale follows Ann Stavely as she watches people disappear through the farm’s gate. She meets a sorcerer, and time begins to move differently in the woods nearby. Little does she know that far beyond Earth, Controller Borasus receives word that an ancient machine has been awakened.

I mean, clearly, genre-bending at its finest.

Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo

I love how Victor Manibo is always able to craft the perfect mystery within his brilliant science fiction worlds. Manibo is a master at showing Earth just around corner, especially if we keep on our current trajectory. Picture a world of hyper-capitalism, a luxury liner — Space Habitat Altaire —and a ruthless world of amassing “points” in order for the chance to start a new life on Mars.

Now, add a decadent mystery of whodunit with a sprinkle of who’s willing to do anything to get what they want: Ava wants to find out who murdered her brother; Laz wants to win Ava’s heart; Sloane wants to collect secrets as his family’s wealth declines; Henry will do whatever it takes to get to Mars.

And all this is set during a class reunion on a luxury space liner, with twists and turns you won’t see coming. Get your science fiction Knives Out fix with this one.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

I still think about this book. I still think about Borne and that giant bear, Mord. This book is solidly science fiction, but it’s also just fucking weird. That’s honestly the best way to describe it, too, which is why I love it so much. It’s post-apocalyptic, and it manages to be both epic and extremely intimate.

Rachel is trying to survive in a world that wants to kill her at every turn. Then she finds Borne, an amorphous creature, in the fur of a Godzilla-sized bear named Mord. Rachel cannot bring herself, nor allow her lover Wick, to destroy Borne. Borne reminds her of better times and better places, and an attachment grows between them. This book is personal as well as out of this world. It’s weird fiction at its finest. It’s science fiction at its most profound.

Genre-Bending Science Fiction: Short Form

This list includes short fiction, though that ranges in word count. Below you’ll find tales that are short stories or novelettes.

Foxfire, Foxfire” by Yoon Ha Lee from Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Let me begin by saying that the publication of this story is in a highly respected (and one of my personal favorites) genre magazine called Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Its mission: to publish the very best in “literary adventure fantasy.” And yet, this story also has beautifully crafted science fiction elements.

This novelette follows Baekdo, a magical, shapeshifting fox who is able to speak to gods. Baekdo is set on becoming human, which requires him to kill — and devour the liver of — 100 humans. Baekdo has no qualms about coming to his 100th kill, but things don’t go as planned. Baekdo’s 100th victim is the pilot of a Cataphract, a giant battle mech. Baekdo swears on the tiger-sages that he will keep his oath with the pilot, Jong, and finish her mission. It’s an intimate, magical tale while also being epic in scope. Truly, a genre-bending masterpiece.

The Gondoliers” by Karen Russell from Orange World and Other Stories

Karen Russell is a masterful genre-bending writer. I fell in love with Russell’s work over ten years ago, with her first collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Like Kelly Link, Russell was vital in redefining, for me at least, what fiction, especially literary fiction, can do. “The Gondoliers” is a wonderful example of this.

It follows Janelle Picarro, a.k.a Blister, in a post-apocalyptic world where parts of Florida have fully submerged underwater and is now called New Florida. Blister is a gondolier, ferrying people across the waters. Blister and her sisters use echolocation to communicate and steer. There is a little bit of everything in this story, and you won’t be the same when you reach the end.

Memories of Memories Lost” by Mahmud El Sayed from khōréō

khōréō is one of my favorite speculative fiction magazines. “In Memories of Memories Lost,” El Sayed crafts a devastatingly personal short story of memory, loss, and sacrifice.

After aliens take over Earth, humans must pay a “memory tax” to their cosmic invaders. The story follows Ahmed, who chooses, for his tax, to give a large family memory in the form of a heirloom. In doing so, he can assure the comfort of his father, who suffers from dementia. It’s a story of complex relationships and love. It’s a story that begs hard questions of ourselves, our souls, and our loved ones: What if we could give traumatic memories away? Would we regret the loss?

The Dizzy Room” by Kristina Ten from Nightmare Magazine

Look, I know I’ve mentioned this story before, and it’s because the story is that good. Published in the renowned horror magazine Nightmare, this story is about a video game, but it’s also a horror story about memory and language. There are images and a multitude of sensory details that will haunt me forever.

This is science fiction horror at its best, with a mounting dread that will have you tempted to lean back while also leaning forward, closer to the page, admittedly desperate to hear the sounds of the game itself beckoning you. I am not at all surprised that this story is a finalist for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards.

Find Genre-Bending Stories Everywhere

Every genre has trailblazers, writers who take a genre and build upon it, question and criticize it, and remold it into something new. These are the writers I seek out again and again to dissect and study these genres, rediscovering them and also falling in love with them all over again. They are out there now, and their stories are waiting.

If you’re interested in more genre-bending work, check out these other Book Riot gems:

Wells and stories such as *The War of the Worlds*—which were heavily influenced by rapid scientific discoveries and anxieties about the future.

Title:

Content: 60 Sci-Fi Books That All Science Fiction Fans Must Read

Are you looking for a new science fiction book to read? Looking to fill up your reading list with journeys to strange new worlds and fast-paced science fiction adventures? You're in luck because we've compiled a list of the best sci-fi books.

Whether you're looking to dive into the great sci-fi classics you missed out on or you're looking to delve into brand new tales from up-and-coming indie authors, you're sure to find something that will spark creativity and excitement for you. Science fiction and fantasy novels provide us with allegories, cautionary tales, and deep dives into the human condition told through the lens of the fantastical and the cutting-edge.

The Best Sci-Fi Origins Books

Where did it all begin? Read these early tales with impossible futures, fascinating creatures, time travel, and alien invasion!

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein brought us the iconic monster made by Victor Frankenstein. Considered the first true science fiction novel of the modern era, it would foreshadow genetic tinkering stories of the future.

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish (also called The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World)

Considered to be the first science fiction work, in the 17th century, Duchess of Newcastle Margaret Cavendish wrote of a utopian world.

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The third Oz book by L. Frank Baum features Tik-Tok, the wind-up clockwork man Dorothy Gale encounters in the Land of Ev. Tik-Tok is basically one of the first robots in literature. Other wacky features in Ozma of Oz include a sand-sailing boat and lunch pail tree.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

A 19th century classic by Wells, depicting time travel and inspiring science fiction tales for over a century.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

The book would go on to inspire a radio program that terrified people into thinking Martians were actually invading Earth. Wells would kickstart first contact stories and alien invasion at the same time, offering up a cautionary tale that touches sci-fi to this day.

The Best Sci-Fi Space Epics Books

Transport yourself across the universe with these pillars of world-building in science fiction, all of which are either now adapted for TV or film or soon will be.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert’s Dune is considered a masterwork of world-building and family intrigue, inspiring other famous series and their respective houses. In the first book, Paul Atreides encounters the resident free people of the planet Arrakis (Dune), the Fremen, and achieves a destiny of messianic proportions. Dune recently graced the big screen in a new adaptation by Denis Villeneuve.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor's Binti novella series begins with Binti, a Hugo-award-winning Africanfuturistic science fiction horror story published by Tor.com. Binti is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the most exalted institution of higher learning in the galaxy. She faces the choice to accept the offer and give up her place in her family so that she can travel among the stars. Hulu has ordered a pilot for Binti.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The beginning of the Foundation series reveals the “psychohistory” developed by mathematician Harry Seldon. Seldon would establish a new empire called Foundation to preserve the culture from societal collapse. Foundation debuted as a TV show on Apple TV in 2021.

Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell

Gareth L. Powell's award-winning trilogy Embers of War follows the war-weary crew of the sentient spaceship Trouble Dog, who after becoming disgusted by her role in war joins the House of Reclamation. Trouble Dog and her captain Sal Konstanz are sent on a rescue mission, which intersects a mission to find missing poet Ona Sundak. The galaxy teeters on the brink of another war, just as an alien presence makes itself known, altering the course of things to come. Now under development for TV.

Rendezvous with Rama by Sir Arthur C. Clarke

A strange spacecraft enters the solar system, and humanity investigates. The secrets within the enormous craft, called Rama, reveal the heritage of an advanced alien civilization. Rendezvous with Rama is in development for a film adaptation with Denis Villeneuve at the helm.

The Best Hard Sci-Fi Books

If you like your science fiction taut with the edginess of battle and the implication of future wars, you must add these books to your collection!

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

This classic military sci-fi epic details the tragic effects of time dilation on a group of soldiers fighting a seemingly endless war.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Set in the 29th century, Louis Wu and his companions explore a vast, Earth-orbit-sized, constructed world. Their adventures uncover the alien civilization that built it.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

First set with the backdrop of China’s cultural revolution, this new epic involves secret scientific experiments, alien invasion, challenging moral dilemmas, and impressive world-building.

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

A man in his 70s is recruited as a soldier in the Colonial Defense Force, and altered physically in unexpected ways. Strong on character development, this kickstarts the Old Man’s War Series.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

This classic military sci-fi tale follows Johnny Rico and military recruits who become involved in a battle between humans and aliens nicknamed Arachnids or “Bugs.”

If you love Starship Troopers, check out our review of the wisdom of Grand Admiral Thrawn – Michael

The Best Sci-Fi Robot Stories

The future of robots is here and is complex and necessary reading in these sci-fi tales.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov’s intriguing work introduced the laws of robotics that all robots must adhere to work alongside humans.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The first novel in the Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, follows a cyborg that goes by the name Murderbot contends with self-awareness in the corporate-dominated future.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The beginning of the Lunar Chronicles series is a retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of a cyborg.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

Famed for its eventual big-screen adaptation, Blade Runner, this novel recounts a future in which highly realistic artificial fugitives are on the run from bounty hunter Rick Deckard.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia

Mattie is an automaton in this steampunk and urban fantasy novel involving gargoyles, Mechanics, and Alchemists.

The Best Sci-Fi Mars Stories

Our neighbor, the red planet Mars, beckons to us. What would it be like to walk on the shifting red sands of Mars? Find out in these Martian classics.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s mesmerizing prose introduces us to a Mars full of exotic possibility, soon plundered by humanity’s arrival.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

The first in the Mars Trilogy, Red Mars, involves the colonization and terraforming of Mars and the conflicting moral questions that result.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Astronaut Mark Watney is left behind on a Mars mission and must draw upon his skills and ingenuity in order to survive.

Mars by Ben Bova

Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman joins the first expedition of scientists exploring Mars. The grounded approach Bova takes to all the interaction, politics, and bureaucracy help achieve a plausible future story.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The first book in the Red Rising Trilogy envisions a future of planetary colonization in which caste systems abound. Darrow must fight against this system of overlords.

The Best Sci-Fi Fantasy Books

Fly high with dragons, roam lands on epic quests, and learn the hearts of true heroes in the fantasy masterpieces.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnum opus spans three books, opening up a fantastically detailed and wholly invented universe in Middle Earth that was hinted at in The Hobbit. Considered the ultimate work of fantasy, The Lord of the Rings brings myth, allegory, poetry, song, war, and melancholy to heights of realism and wonder.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The first novel in The Earthsea Cycle tells the tale of the wizard Ged, and his journey to redeem his reckless past.

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

Beginning with A Game of Thrones, Martin’s elaborate, dark fantasy series covers land in which seasons last decades, and a terrible force from the north threatens to bring an icy apocalypse to an area filled with rulers jockeying to take the Iron Throne.

The Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

This remarkable series takes place in the world of Pern, where people telepathically bond with dragons. Dragonflight is the first in the series.

The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth, Book 1 by N.K Jemisin

The Fifth Season marks the first book of the award-winning The Broken Earth trilogy. Set against civilization’s collapse and natural disaster, Essun endures great personal tragedy in her quest to rescue her daughter.

The Best Sci-Fi Dystopian & Apocalyptic Books

Set in a nightmare future, these dystopian and apocalyptic legends will keep you up at night.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

In a totalitarian future America, handmade Offred is forced to bear children to men of a ruling class. The tale follows her harrowing life in a bleak future, and the attempt to escape and bring down the subjugating class to restore rights.

The Stand by Stephen King

A deadly pathogen escapes a military installation, rapidly spreading and bringing civilization essentially to an end. A group of survivors makes its way to a form of a promised land while battling a malevolent group seeking domination.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

In the near future breakdown of the society of Los Angeles, empathic teenager Lauren believes in a better future entailing traveling to other planets. Lauren gathers followers to her belief as she makes her way north.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Set in the Great Lakes region of America, a group of nomadic creatives picks up the pieces after the fall of civilization due to pandemic flu. Station Eleven has been adapted for HBO Max.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy follows the immense challenges that Katniss Everdeen faces in the post-apocalyptic version of America called Panem. She takes her sister’s place in the government-sponsored Hunger Games to compete for survival in a no-holds-barred and deadly competition.

The Best Sci-Fi Near Futures Books

The future is here, or nearly so, in these ground-breaking novels set close to our present day.

Contact by Carl Sagan

Scientist Ellie Arroway detects a potential extraterrestrial signal from space, which appears to instruct humanity in how to build a machine. She faces self-doubt amid scrutiny to uncover the mysteries of the discovery.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

This cautionary tale about genetic engineering in which scientists make living, cloned dinosaurs for an amusement park. Mayhem ensues.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Mysterious monoliths appear across many worlds, seeding life with intelligence. Following the discovery of one such monolith on the moon, Dr. Bowman and a team of scientists investigate the signal it sends to Saturn’s moon Iapetus. The onboard AI begins exhibiting dangerous behavior during the journey.

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

A physics experiment creates an unintended consequence of everyone on earth losing consciousness for two minutes. Each person sees a “flash forward” decades in the future while they are unconscious. The resulting accidents and visions challenge everyone’s ideas of free will.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In dystopian 2044, impoverished Wade Watts navigates through the virtual reality world of the OASIS, seeking to reverse his fortune.

The Best Sci-Fi Books for Younger Readers

Take adventures through time and space, no matter your age!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The Murry children and Calvin O’Keefe crosses universes and space-time to try to find their missing father. Their tale is a mind-bending adventure of good vs. evil.

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass/The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass/Northern Lights begins this sweeping saga of two children, one born in a parallel universe, one born in our own. In Lyra’s world, people’s souls exist in animal form, called daemons. Her father and mother represent warring factions determined to control all universes. Filled with talking animals, witches, airships, and strange creatures, His Dark Materials packs an emotional punch.

The Apothecary Series by Maile Meloy

Set in the 1950s, The Apothecary starts this highly entertaining, thrilling adventure series in which American Janie Scott meets Benjamin Burrows, the son of an apothecary. After Benjamin’s father is kidnapped, the teenagers uncover a terrifying plot that could result in humanity’s end. They use potions with magical effects to try and stop the impending doom.

The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1) by Sayantani DasGupta

The first of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series, book one begins with Kiranmala discovering her parents are missing, and there is a demon in her kitchen! Two princes recruited her and sent to another dimension, where she must battle the Serpent King and the Rakkhoshi Queen to rescue her parents and save the Earth.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

This delightful middle-grade novel recounts a discarded robot named Roz and her search for love and acceptance.

The Best Sci-Fi Ponderous Books

These mind-bending sci-fi novels will have you thinking for a long time afterward.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Raised on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith returns to Earth and tries to fit in. His unusual upbringing makes him seem superhuman, but he attempts to help his Earth kin understand things from a different perspective.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Set in the 24th century when telepaths (“Espers”) are common, and police are telepathic as well. Ben Reich tries to evade the telepathic police for a murder he wants to commit. The story opens up the moral issues of using telepathy, regulated mostly by a guild, but raises concerns about the exclusion of telepaths who run astray as well as psychological intrigue.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Solaris follows humans’ failed attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence. The sentient planet tests the researchers with their memories and emotions.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A story spanning time and space and connections between various characters, Cloud Atlas explores the theme of fate with a mind-bending narrative.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

This classic tale follows the journey of Genly Ai on his mission to the planet Gethen. The ambisexual Gethenians present challenges and growth for Ai.

The Best Sci-Fi Cyberpunk Books

If you dream of the future lit by neon, shadowed by noir, and fueled with intrigue, these seminal cyberpunk novels are for you!

Neuromancer by William Gibson

In the first novel of the Sprawl Trilogy, hacker Henry Case is hired to help an AI take over the global network called The Matrix.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

A modern cyberpunk tale is weaving together magic and science, with wit and feeling.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Set in the 25th century, humans have spread through the galaxy and can be preserved after death via cortical stacks, then essentially regenerated or “re-sleeved” into another body. Takeshi Kovacs stumbles upon a vast conspiracy after his latest “sleeve.”

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

This early entry into cyberpunk sci-fi follows teleporter Gully Foyle, an outcast considered dangerous.

Synners by Pat Cadigan

The synthesizers, or Synners, are people who can turn mental images into products for consumption. The story is told via various characters’ viewpoints.

The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Indie Authors

Discover the latest sci-fi and fantasy stories, while supporting independent authors!

Mindful Things by Mya Duong

Nineteen-year-old Lauren begins to experience visions and uncovers the fact her deceased parents were witches. A madman hungry for power pursues her, and she must embrace her magical heritage to try to stop him.

The Infinite by John W. Akers

The inventor Pax works on a secret project that can revolutionize human cognition. His plans are derailed by a computer virus that could end civilization, so Pax is forced to choose how he can help humanity survive.

Threadwalkers by Joanna Volavka

Miranda Woodward undergoes a discordant series of events following her father’s death. This is a young adult time travel tale.

Resonance by Jennifer Greenhall

In Book One of the Resonance Series, Sophia Walsh uses her psionic abilities for good but finds herself the next target of a killer.

Heliopause: The Questrison Saga®: Book One by J. Dianne Dotson

Heliopause by J. Dianne Dotson kickstarts The Questrison Saga®, a four-book series science fiction and fantasy series. In Heliopause, a mystery at the edge of the solar system reveals a galactic menace. A galactic natural disaster unfolds, aiding the monster in the void. Human Forster and human-looking, ageless Galla-Deia team up with telepaths, galactic mages, aliens, and androids to face the greatest threat to all life in the galaxy. Full of diverse characters and exotic worlds, found and made families, heartbreak, and whimsy, this space opera recalls Star WarsDoctor Who, and Game of Thrones.

At Your Money Geek, we are huge fans of the science fiction genre, everything from military science fiction to novels about space travel, parallel worlds, and fantasy novels. We are always looking for new books to read and exciting sci-fi writers to profile, let us know in the comments what authors you are currently enjoying.

This post was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.

| Website | + posts

J. Dianne Dotson dreamed up other worlds and their characters as a child in the 1980s in East Tennessee. She formed her own neighborhood astronomy club before age 10, to educate her friends about the universe. In addition to writing stories, she drew and painted her characters, designed their outrageous space fashions, and created travel guides and glossaries for the worlds she invented.

As an adult, Dianne earned a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, and spent several years working in research. She published Heliopause: The Questrison Saga®: Book One (2018) and its sequels Ephemeris: The Questrison Saga®: Book Two (2019), Accretion: The Questrison Saga®: Book Three (2020) and her last novel in the saga, Luminiferous: The Questrison Saga®: Book Four (2021).

Dianne is also a science writer, content writer and manager, short story writer, watercolorist, and illustrator. She lives with her family.

Early SF explored humanity’s place in the universe, social order, and often saw science as a force of progress or potential destruction.

Title:

Content: Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts (Symposium, Toulouse)

Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts

The aim of this symposium run by the LLA-Créatis laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès is to develop open thinking about “political” questions, in the broad sense of the term, that science fiction narratives allow. Different types of stories can be considered, in different literary genres or in cinema, video series and comics. It can be studied and interrogated from a historical, political and social perspective by involving, where appropriate, the possible contributions of different analyzes (anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, etc.) Diversity of perspectives and questions raised by gender.

The entire twentieth-century period produced works in San Francisco that were marked by ideologies such as capitalism and its “communist” counterpart, but also by threats associated with civilian and/or military nuclear power, religious-related abuses, racism, minority liberation struggles, and pollution. , etc. These perceptions persisted, but in the period from the last 20 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century, other concerns were voiced: ecological pesticides, the climate crisis, demographic crises, resource depletion, or the danger. The scientific and technical potential (transhumanism, “artificial intelligence”, etc.) is being carried away.

The link to the realities of the times (as in the collection “Le Passager Clandestin / Dyschroniques”) can of course depend on one or more authors, take into account a work or compare several (especially in the case of short stories and short films). The broader perspective will consist in considering the basic ideologies, either in relation to the literary prizes awarded, or in relation to the works themselves, the semantics of these presenting themselves from the outset sometimes as criticism, sometimes as propaganda, the two being able to be combined according to modalities that tend to be ironic, Satirical, disruptive, etc.

See also  The number of dengue fever cases is on the rise

In any case, it would be a matter of highlighting the “exploratory potential” in these works, of identifying the “problematic tools” and of making the ideas put forward in fictional form productive from the point of view of political theory. (Y Rambhala).

Of course, it is advisable to include works belonging to different geographical and linguistic fields so that the panorama of this search is sufficiently realistic.

Provisional schedule of courses (date adjustments possible)

Oct 20, 2-4 PM / Nov 17, 2-4 PM / Dec 15, 2-4 PM / Jan 19, 2-4 PM / Feb 9, 2-4 PM / Mar 15, 2-4 PM / May 31 , 2-4 p.m

Contribution proposals must be sent Before October 1, 2023 To the following addresses: frederics[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Writers like Wells and, later, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke focused on grand themes like space exploration, artificial intelligence, and the consequences of technology.

Who are considered great masters of the golden age of science fiction?

**Changing Themes and Scope:**
Over the 20th century, SF’s themes expanded beyond scientific speculation to interrogate deeper philosophical and social questions.

Title:

Content: Julia Nagel/Sun Photography Editor

Fantasy author N. K. Jemisin speaks at a Bartels World Affairs Lecture in Klarman Hall on Oct. 4.

8 hours ago

N.K. Jemisin Gives Bartels World Affairs Lecture, Speaks on Building a Better World

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N. K. Jemisin, best-selling science fiction and fantasy author well known for her book trilogy “The Broken Earth,” spoke about building a better world at this year’s Bartels World Affairs Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in a packed Rhodes-Rawling Auditorium. Jemisin spoke about how building fictional worlds helps her discuss the reality of our society, and concluded by calling on the audience to make choices in order to build the world they wish to see.

Following her talk, Jemisin joined a panel of Cornell faculty to kickstart the latest Global Grand Challenge: The Future. Global Grand Challenges bring together people and resources to understand and develop solutions to humanity’s most urgent challenges. The first challenge launched in 2019, and this year’s challenge, “The Future,” focuses on how to employ creativity to build a more equitable and sustainable future world.

Supported by the Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellowship, the Bartels World Affairs Lecture is an annual, signature event hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies that brings renowned individuals to Cornell’s campus to speak on international matters with students and faculty.

Seats at the event sold out and an estimated 330 people attended. In-person watch party tickets were made available as well, where attendees live streamed the lecture from an adjacent classroom near the auditorium. More than 270 local, national and international viewers who registered through eCornell also streamed the event live.

Vice Provost for International Affairs Wendy Wolford said that in addition to launching this year’s Global Grand Challenge, this event also fits into Cornell’s academic year theme of Freedom of Expression. Wolford explained that the world building, kindness and empathy in Jemisin’s work encouraged the Einaudi Center to select this event as the launch for the University’s new Global Grand Challenge.

“The theme of this new challenge is fittingly ‘The Future.’ With this challenge, we invite all of you, students, staff and faculty to step back from the immediate questions of your studies, your work and your research, to think about the world you want to live in,” Wolford said. “The Global Grand Challenge calls on us to go beyond the cutting edge… to imagine what the world would look like if we asked not just what can I do, but what do I want? What do we want?”

Jemisin began her lecture by describing her background in higher education, in which she spent 20 years working as a career counselor, academic counselor and director of experiential education before becoming an author. Jemisin writes science fiction and fantasy novels that explore a variety of themes, including power, cultural conflict and systems of subjugation.

“Many of the questions I tend to get are: Why science fiction? Why fantasy? Why would you, an ostensibly intelligent and mature person, write this kid’s stuff? And I tell people the same thing that Octavia Butler has said in interviews, which is in science fiction, I can do anything,” Jemisin said during her lecture.

Jemisin explained how people’s fears in a specific time period are reflected in their writing, especially in science fiction. She cited underlying fears of the sexual revolution displayed in 1960s feminist science fiction as an example.

“There’s another misconception out there that typically happens, which is that people think of science fiction as being about the future. They think of fantasy as being about the past,” Jemisin said. “It’s neither. Science fiction and fantasy are actually about our present world.”

Jemisin also described the process of science fiction worldbuilding on two levels — macro and micro. Macro worldbuilding involves creating the physical world of a story, including planets, continents, climate and ecology. Micro worldbuilding is crafting the society the characters will exist in, which includes species, morphology, racialization and power, among other things.

“The point of this [worldbuilding] exercise is to get people to start questioning their assumptions,” Jemisin said. “Understanding how our society functions is a lot more constructive than they think, so it’s important that I get across that all of this is changeable.”

Jemisin also spoke about how real people build worlds, and how our current world is not arbitrary, but rather the result of a series of choices. She emphasized that different choices remain possible, and that our understanding of ourselves and self-identity is evolving. Jemisin encouraged the audience to consider reasons for both creating and resisting change.

“We are being blasted with a constant firehose of disinformation which is fueled by a whole lot of money,” Jemisin said. “The only thing that we can do in order to resist this is begin to question and push back on how we became the society that we are and begin to recreate that society in our own design.”

Following her lecture, Jemisin joined a panel with Cornell faculty members Prof. Anindita Banerjee, comparative literature and feminist, gender and sexuality studies; Prof. John Albertson, civil and environmental engineering; and Prof. Kaushik Basu, international studies and economics. Each professor took turns briefly speaking about how their field of expertise relates to building a better world, and Jemisin followed with her thoughts.

“We see society now envisioning futures and being bold, making pledges of decarbonizing our energy supplies, decarbonizing our economy and setting ambitious timelines on which to do that,” Albertson said. “It’s relatively straightforward to plan the direct linear path of what you need to do there. But the question is: where are all the other parts of society that are touched by each of these changes?”

Asher Bergmann ’26 said his goal going into his sophomore year was going to more school  events, and was excited to find this lecture as someone who reads a lot of fantasy.

“I think she did a good job of not diving too deep into fantasy to where some people wouldn’t be interested, because while she’s a fantasy author, the point of this lecture wasn’t actually writing fantasy,” Bergmann said. “I think she did a good job of balancing her goal with what other people may have come here to see her speak about.”

Annabel Baniak ’24 decided to attend the event at the encouragement of both her professor  and her mom, whose favorite book is “The Fifth Season” by Jemisin. Baniak said she enjoyed the event and left feeling motivated and inspired to create change in the world.

Jemisin left the audience with a message to continue questioning the current world and to work towards building an ideal society.

“I have been having conversations all day with the students here, and they’re thinking ahead of me. I have to catch up. It is an innate part of youth to question our reality, and if the way that we live makes any sense,” Jemisin said. “I have to retain my own youthful questioning. They are right to question reality, and the rest of us need to keep doing that.”

Grace Liu ’27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].

What time period produced science fiction works that included idealogies such as capitalism, and communism, and also threats of nuclear power, racism, pollution, and more?

The genre’s toolkit grew to include not only scientific “what ifs” but also complex world-building and conjectures about how societies adapt to technological and ecological changes.

What concepts does Ishiguro's literary science fiction novel bring up?

Recent authors look at how every aspect of life—the political, ecological, psychological—is affected by innovation.

Title:

Content: Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts (Symposium, Toulouse)

Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts

The aim of this symposium run by the LLA-Créatis laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès is to develop open thinking about “political” questions, in the broad sense of the term, that science fiction narratives allow. Different types of stories can be considered, in different literary genres or in cinema, video series and comics. It can be studied and interrogated from a historical, political and social perspective by involving, where appropriate, the possible contributions of different analyzes (anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, etc.) Diversity of perspectives and questions raised by gender.

The entire twentieth-century period produced works in San Francisco that were marked by ideologies such as capitalism and its “communist” counterpart, but also by threats associated with civilian and/or military nuclear power, religious-related abuses, racism, minority liberation struggles, and pollution. , etc. These perceptions persisted, but in the period from the last 20 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century, other concerns were voiced: ecological pesticides, the climate crisis, demographic crises, resource depletion, or the danger. The scientific and technical potential (transhumanism, “artificial intelligence”, etc.) is being carried away.

The link to the realities of the times (as in the collection “Le Passager Clandestin / Dyschroniques”) can of course depend on one or more authors, take into account a work or compare several (especially in the case of short stories and short films). The broader perspective will consist in considering the basic ideologies, either in relation to the literary prizes awarded, or in relation to the works themselves, the semantics of these presenting themselves from the outset sometimes as criticism, sometimes as propaganda, the two being able to be combined according to modalities that tend to be ironic, Satirical, disruptive, etc.

See also  The number of dengue fever cases is on the rise

In any case, it would be a matter of highlighting the “exploratory potential” in these works, of identifying the “problematic tools” and of making the ideas put forward in fictional form productive from the point of view of political theory. (Y Rambhala).

Of course, it is advisable to include works belonging to different geographical and linguistic fields so that the panorama of this search is sufficiently realistic.

Provisional schedule of courses (date adjustments possible)

Oct 20, 2-4 PM / Nov 17, 2-4 PM / Dec 15, 2-4 PM / Jan 19, 2-4 PM / Feb 9, 2-4 PM / Mar 15, 2-4 PM / May 31 , 2-4 p.m

Contribution proposals must be sent Before October 1, 2023 To the following addresses: frederics[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

For example, much modern SF asks not just “what can be done,” but “what should be done,” or " who gets to decide?"

N.K.

Title:

Content: HomeScienceIf Future Humans Terraformed a New Earth, Could They Get It Right?

If Future Humans Terraformed a New Earth, Could They Get It Right?

Published on

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Fiction

Future Imperfect

What kind of world would humanity build with another chance to do it right?

The Terraformers

by Annalee Newitz

Tor Books, 2023 ($28.99)

Great stories often start from a tantalizing “what if?”—the more irresistibly original the premise, the better. In The Terraformers, the new novel from i09 founder and former Gizmodo editor in chief Annalee Newitz, the central question points straight at our planet’s existential crisis: Given the painful lessons we’ve learned about how not to build a sustainable, equitable future, what if people had a chance to create a cleaner, fairer Earth 2.0? Could we succeed?

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It will surprise no one that the answer is a resounding “well, maybe.” Newitz’s formidable imagination can’t change the fact that people are people. Yet the novel smartly argues that people—particularly when the term expands to include sentient forms far beyond humans—might just be a planet’s best resource. Even if takes a millennium’s worth of creativity to offset rapacious corporations, unethical developers, ineffective governments and standard-issue corruption.

The novel’s first scene sends up a classic trope of science fiction, the “first contact,” in which representatives from two civilizations meet on an alien world. Except in this case, the alien world is an early-stage planet called Sask-E, which has been modeled after the original Earth by a terraforming corporation known as Verdance, and the first encounter is between two very different versions of Homo sapiens. One is a resource-plundering, trash-talking, trash-generating, remotely operated proxy, and the other is Destry, an Environmental Rescue Team ranger who proceeds to show what happens when someone tries to mess with her boreal forest.

Sask-E appears at first to be an Eden of wild beauty and limitless potential. But as the good-hearted Destry discovers, the developers who created Sask-E—and who hold both her job and her life in their clutches—aren’t out to make a better world. Their true goal, not shockingly, is profit. The discovery of an underground civilization on Sask-E forces Destry to choose sides in a conflict that alters her beloved planet’s future.

From here the novel takes running leaps through time. Terraforming is a slow process after all, and readers who get invested in Destry’s character might be saddened to learn that this isn’t really her story. Newitz’s plot skips across generations of people who come after Destry—an appealingly diverse cast of rangers, scientists, engineers and an utterly endearing autonomous collective of sentient flying trains. If the antagonists in Newitz’s novel are thinly outlined, it is perhaps because the novel’s big “what if?” demands some fairly broad strokes. Each character plays a part in answering whether well-intentioned people can save the best parts of Sask-E from the worst depredations of runaway consumer culture fostered by slimy corporate interests and lazy government.

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As the story of Sask-E’s rise, ruin and slow road to redemption unfolds over thousands of years, Newitz’s attention is on the complex symbiotic relation between technologies and cultures, another classic trope of science fiction that they also explored in their 2021 nonfiction book, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age. The same technological innovations that push a civilization to new heights of achievement can also be complicit in that civilization’s undoing.

On Sask-E, however, technology has made possible an entirely new definition of personhood. Animals, robots, hybrids, and even doors and worms are in communication with the humans of the future. And thanks to a galactic accord known as the Great Bargain, they all have a valid seat at the negotiating table. Once the assumption that only humans are people is swept away, thorny questions of natural resource allocation, representative government, inclusive language and sexual freedom are up for reevaluation. (If you’ve ever wanted to know how a sentient train can couple with a robot or a cat, your answer is here. As one character remarks, “Where there’s desire, there’s data.”)

As messy as all this sounds, it opens up thrilling new pathways of hope that Earth 2.0 might succeed. The Terraformers, refreshingly, is the opposite of the dystopian, we’re-all-doomed chiller that’s become so common in climate fiction. Newitz’s mordant sense of humor steers the story clear of starry-eyed optimism, but it’s easy to imagine future generations studying this novel as a primer for how to embrace solutions to the challenges we all face. If we’re ever going to save ourselves from ourselves, then maybe what we need is a new way of thinking about self. —Siobhan Adcock.

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Siobhan Adcock is a writer and editor whose most recent novel is The Completionist.

Nonfiction

Blood Money

A cinematic tour of ambition, greed and desperation in biotech

For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug

by Nathan Vardi

W. W. Norton, 2023 ($30)

“Finding new therapies that target only cancer cells and did not kill healthy cells had become the holy grail of cancer drug development,” writes Nathan Vardi, a managing editor at MarketWatch and former editor at Forbes. For Blood and Money follows the path of one class of such products (“targeted small-molecule drugs” designed to fight blood cancers) that ultimately pits two biotech companies against each other in a race to market—and to an unimaginable payday. Readers are introduced to scientologists, restless entrepreneurs, clinical experts and the machinations of magnate financiers searching for the next billion-dollar blockbuster. In the middle of that friction of ambition and greed are the patients, desperate for cures and more time.

The story begins with Pharmacyclics, a small biotech company in California that is working on a drug to treat leukemia. Along the way, we meet charismatic and sometimes capricious executives and investors, as well as revolving doors of employees being hired, fired and starting new companies (and competitors).

Vardi examines the fraught, infamously slow FDA market-approval process, but the pacing of the book remains quick. With the focus on characters shifting from chapter to chapter and a vast number of names—people, companies, drugs—included for detail, it can feel at times that one needs a color-coded organizational chart to keep up.

In the quest for magic-bullet biopharma drugs, a particularly disquieting element is how powerful investors become drivers of medical strategy. The scientific search for cures often seems overmatched by the outsized desire to be first and to reap the highest returns; one could be forgiven for wanting to rename the book For Money and Blood. The profits are astronomical, yet investors still consider how much they’ve left “on the table.”

Still, there are meaningful collaborations, and many characters in the book genuinely want to do right for patients with deadly diseases. Readers remain distinctly aware of those who have benefited (and continue to benefit) from these drugs. Yet the banks, investors and hedge funds leading the search underscore an overall health-care system that feels skewed in its priorities.

Vardi, who is clearly knowledgeable about Wall Street and biopharma, depicts the nuances of both in a vivid, cinematic fashion. One can already imagine the movie version. —Mandana Chaffa

In Brief

The Land Beneath the Ice: The Pioneering Years of Radar Exploration in Antarctica

by David J. Drewry

Princeton University Press, 2023 ($39.95)

Glaciologist David J. Drewry takes readers to the frigid research outposts where he and his colleagues pioneered the technique of radio-echo sounding to plumb the depths of the Antarctic ice sheet. Drewry explains how this new technology emerged to compensate for inadequacies of past methods, then shares his own experiences mapping invisible mountain ranges and, worryingly, lakes deep under the ice that are hastening melt. A peppering of photographs and delightful personal anecdotes show the excitement and frustration that are inevitable during scientific expeditions. —Fionna M. D. Samuels

The Deluge

by Stephen Markley

Simon & Schuster, 2023 ($27.99)

Stephen Markley’s epic novel creates a full-scale panorama of a world bludgeoned by climate change, even as it magnifies the struggles of those caught in its vast and unrelenting chaos. Activist groups A Fierce Blue Fire and 6Degrees both attempt to provoke government and industry into addressing the climate crisis, but their divergent philosophies take them down different paths as society unravels. Markley’s dark depiction of the near future is filled with vivid descriptions of climate catastrophes, but his intricate network of complex characters balances precision with pathos, offering a kaleidoscopic view of humanity’s fraught relationship with its changing planet. —Dana Dunham

The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics

by Heinrich Päs

Basic Books, 2023 ($32)

Which is more fundamental, the many or the one? Author Heinrich Päs believes physics gestures at an underlying unity simple enough to count on one finger. If only physics would embrace monism, its deepest mysteries would yield to that magic number. But monism was declared a heresy, first by the medieval Church and second, in Päs’s telling, by physicist Niels Bohr. Even if the connections between ancient monism and modern science are a stretch and Bohr is reduced to caricature, the history is thoroughly researched, the physics is cutting edge and Päs’s larger point resonates: much, or maybe all, of what we take for reality is an artifact of our limited perspectives. —Amanda Gefter

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Jemisin emphasizes that societies (real and fictional) are shaped by a series of choices, urging readers to critique and reshape the world.

**Blurring Genre Boundaries:**
Contemporary SF frequently blurs with fantasy and other genres, producing literature that is more reflective, personal, and experimental.

Title:

Content: Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts (Symposium, Toulouse)

Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts

The aim of this symposium run by the LLA-Créatis laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès is to develop open thinking about “political” questions, in the broad sense of the term, that science fiction narratives allow. Different types of stories can be considered, in different literary genres or in cinema, video series and comics. It can be studied and interrogated from a historical, political and social perspective by involving, where appropriate, the possible contributions of different analyzes (anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, etc.) Diversity of perspectives and questions raised by gender.

The entire twentieth-century period produced works in San Francisco that were marked by ideologies such as capitalism and its “communist” counterpart, but also by threats associated with civilian and/or military nuclear power, religious-related abuses, racism, minority liberation struggles, and pollution. , etc. These perceptions persisted, but in the period from the last 20 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century, other concerns were voiced: ecological pesticides, the climate crisis, demographic crises, resource depletion, or the danger. The scientific and technical potential (transhumanism, “artificial intelligence”, etc.) is being carried away.

The link to the realities of the times (as in the collection “Le Passager Clandestin / Dyschroniques”) can of course depend on one or more authors, take into account a work or compare several (especially in the case of short stories and short films). The broader perspective will consist in considering the basic ideologies, either in relation to the literary prizes awarded, or in relation to the works themselves, the semantics of these presenting themselves from the outset sometimes as criticism, sometimes as propaganda, the two being able to be combined according to modalities that tend to be ironic, Satirical, disruptive, etc.

See also  The number of dengue fever cases is on the rise

In any case, it would be a matter of highlighting the “exploratory potential” in these works, of identifying the “problematic tools” and of making the ideas put forward in fictional form productive from the point of view of political theory. (Y Rambhala).

Of course, it is advisable to include works belonging to different geographical and linguistic fields so that the panorama of this search is sufficiently realistic.

Provisional schedule of courses (date adjustments possible)

Oct 20, 2-4 PM / Nov 17, 2-4 PM / Dec 15, 2-4 PM / Jan 19, 2-4 PM / Feb 9, 2-4 PM / Mar 15, 2-4 PM / May 31 , 2-4 p.m

Contribution proposals must be sent Before October 1, 2023 To the following addresses: frederics[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Books such as *Borne* by Jeff VanderMeer or N.K.

Jemisin’s *Broken Earth* trilogy push the boundaries of what SF can be, combining intense personal journeys with speculative world-building.

N.K. Jemisin is best known for which of her books?

**Diversity and New Perspectives:**
The SF canon was traditionally dominated by white male voices, but this is changing.

Title:

Content: Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project considers next steps for the genre

The project brings together authors and Dartmouth professors to collaborate on new speculative fiction work rooted in scientific research on campus.

by Sophie Chadha | 53 minutes ago

From April 13 to 16, speculative fiction authors from around the country came to Hanover to participate in the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, a series of events which included interdisciplinary activities between visiting authors and Dartmouth faculty, as well as readings and panel discussions open to the public. The project aimed to foster collaboration between authors and Dartmouth faculty – with a focus on designing stories rooted in scientific research – and addressed the present and future of the speculative fiction genre.

The project was co-organized by engineering professor Solomon Diamond, English professor Rebecca Clark, the Design Initiative at Dartmouth program manager Paula Olson, Hugo award-winning speculative fiction editor Liz Gorinsky and author and former visiting film and media studies professor Sharang Biswas Th’13.

According to Hugo and Nebula awards finalist Nibedita Sen, speculative fiction is a general term that provokes valuable questions.

“The term ‘speculative fiction’ … works as an umbrella term: It is fiction which imagines things that do not currently exist, things that may come into being through science or through magic,” Sen said. “It could be advancement, or it could be, ‘What if we went backwards? What if we stepped to the side?’ It could be a different dimension, a different timestream.”

In a Q&A panel on April 15, some authors touched on the exchange of knowledge that occurs between scientific researchers and speculative fiction writers. Author K.M. Szpara said he believes the future of speculative fiction will become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative.

Nebula award-winning author Sam J. Miller  said we should reframe one stereotype about fiction — that it is dismissive of reality’s problems — and instead view its creation of a world without societal problems as proof of the possibility that our society could exist without them.

“It is as simple as, ‘ … And then the housing crisis is over … And then all the people standing in the way of progress are gone.’” Miller said.

Calvin George ’24, who attended the Q&A, said he was intrigued by Miller’s concept of speculative fiction as a tool for social change.

“It was really interesting to hear from these authors [about] how imagining worlds where a huge problem like climate change is gone can actually help us solve those problems by giving us a sense of hope that they are not absolute or inevitable,” George said.

Sen said she views fiction as an important lens through which we can better understand the reality of our problems.

“A lot of people view escapism as a form of writing that is less than, but I don't believe in that. Like Tolkien said: Is it not a prisoner's duty to try to escape? Fiction is the spoonful of sugar that helps the truth go down,” Sen said.

Sen said this belief manifested in her own writing following the results of the 2016 presidential election, when she pivoted into the realm of horror as a form of catharsis.

“[In 2016,] people like me were being viewed as monsters, so I decided, ‘Well, I will show you what a monster really is,’” Sen said.

Looking to the future of speculative fiction, teacher, linguist and author Rob Cameron points to the genre’s growth over the past few decades from a niche, isolated faction of enthusiasts to a universal mode of entertainment.

“With the popularization of science fiction through film, especially Marvel, ‘geek culture’ has become much more expansive — you do not have to be a geek to enjoy it,” Cameron said. “At the same time, authors’ expectations of their readers have changed with these new mediums: Are people really going to sit down and read this book? This kind of thinking sparks novel ideas like ‘choose your own adventure’ narratives, comic books, video games and more.”

According to Biswas, the Speculative Fiction Project came to life when pitched the idea of centering speculative fiction around scholarship at Dartmouth to Diamond. When selecting the authors for the panel, Biswas shared that the organizers primarily aimed to represent diversity in both background and writing experience.

“If you’re claiming to do a project that looks at the future of humanity, you need to represent diverse perspectives,” he said.

Biswas added that if the project were to happen again, he hopes it can bring together an even more diverse group of people with more funding.

“In the future, with better channels of funding, we hope to have more geographic diversity and be able to bring in international authors,” Biswas said.

The Speculative Fiction Project will continue as authors workshop their stories with their research partners. These works of fiction will be presented at a Dartmouth symposium in June and will subsequently be synthesized into an anthology in Lightspeed Magazine next year.

According to Clark, students will be invited to submit their own stories and up to four of them will be chosen and featured in the professional collection.

Authors from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds—women, people of color, global voices—are reshaping the field.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Ursula K. Le Guin, with novels like *The Left Hand of Darkness,* introduced explorations of gender, social systems, and cultural relativity decades ago.

What time period produced science fiction works that included idealogies such as capitalism, and communism, and also threats of nuclear power, racism, pollution, and more?

Contemporary writers like N.K.

Title:

Content: Interview with Wang Jinkang, 2024 Hugo Finalist

INTRODUCTION: Eight Light Minutes(8LM) Culture of Chengdu has given permission for File 770 to reprint the series of interviews with Chinese science fiction writers which they have been running this week on Facebook. The first one is a question and answer session with Wang Jinkang, whose novella Seeds of Mercury is a 2024 Hugo Award finalist.

SUPPORTING CHINESE WRITERS SERIES (1): 2024 HUGO AWARD NOMINATION INTERVIEW WITH WANG JINKANG

Translated by Joseph Brant.

Wang Jinkang(王晋康) was born in Nanyang, Henan Province in 1948. He is a senior engineer, and a member of the Chinese Writer’s Association (CWA), The China Popular Science Writing Association (CPSWA), The Committee of Scientific Literature and Art, and the Henan Writers’ Association. Since the publication of his first story, The Return of Adam, in 1993, he has published over 90 short works, and 20 full novels, including Cross, We Together, Escape from The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven and Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs, totaling over six million words. He has won China’s Galaxy Award 16 times, as well as The Chinese Science Fiction Nebula’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is considered one of Chinese science fiction’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, and his emblematic work Seeds of Mercury was shortlisted for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Hello Mr. Wang! Before we start, I would like to congratulate you on Seeds of Mercury’s shortlisting for 2024’s “Best Novella” Hugo Award. This is news that has excited countless Chinese science fiction fans. Ever since the publication of Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, readers have commented that your contributions have particularly appealed to them and would like to know more about your life and work. Hopefully, this long-awaited interview will provide some of the insights the sci-fi community has longed for.

Q1Mr. Wang, despite having produced many great works, this is the first time you’ve been shortlisted for the Hugo. How did you feel when you learned that you’d been shortlisted?

Wang Jinkang: Of course I was elated. Although I’ve won many awards in China, in fact the most Galaxy Awards in history, this is the first time I’ve been shortlisted for a Hugo. It felt like 31 years ago, when I first saw The Return of Adam in print, and when I won my First Galaxy Award. I think every author experiences these moments of excitement. It’s excellent that Chinese science fiction has reached a certain level, after years of growth, it’s now more and more visible internationally, which is fantastic. Of course, what we value even more, is these works transcending their era, and surviving the tides of time to reach future generations.

Religion and Science are enemies who love each other.

Q2Mr. Wang, as one of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ of Chinese science fiction, you’re already very well known in China, with a creative career spanning over thirty years, with works such as Leopard Man, Ant Life and Survival Experiment and so on. This shortlisted work is such a quintessential piece. However, this interview is not just intended for the Chinese sci-fi fans, but for readers around the world, who may not be familiar with Seeds of Mercury. Could I ask you to introduce it for the benefit of the overseas sci-fi fans?

Wang Jinkang: Seeds of Mercury is a two-threaded story. The first one follows a female scientist named Shawu, who discovers a new formula for life, and creates a fluid metal nano life form. When she dies, she entrusts that formula to Chen Yizhe, a businessman with a pure heart, along with the message “real life cannot be bred in pens. In the Solar System, there happens to be a suitable place for it to breed freely – Mercury”. Chen Yizhe accepts this monumental legacy enthusiastically, using his personal wealth to maintain the laboratory. In order take the next step, of “seeding Mercury”, he must turn to the society around him. Mr Hong, a multi-billionaire with a disagreeable personality but a benevolent soul, decides to liquidate his empire to facilitate the spaceship’s construction. Furthermore, Hong makes another astonishing decision: to relocate to Mercury, have his body frozen in the millennia-old ice caves of the planet’s north pole, to be awakened every 10 million years, to assist the evolution of these micro-lifeforms. In just 15 years, Chen Yizhe sends Hong to Mercury to seed the nano-life into the liquid metal lakes of Mercury, after which Hong settles down in its polar caves. Meanwhile, Hong’s lawyer, and soulmate named Yin, bids her painful farewells from the distant Earth.

The second storyline is set 100 million years later, when the Suola race have evolved on Mercury, their metal bodies adapted to the hundred-degree temperatures of the planet. They are sustained by light (drawing energy directly by photosynthesis). With no sense of hearing, they rely on the flashing of light through two orifices in their abdomen to communicate in binary. The entire Suola race are devout followers of Shawu, venerate the Star Father, the great god Shawu and her earthly incarnation. They have been initiated in science, and after studying their Holy Book, scientist Tu Lala discovers that much scientific knowledge has been disguised and hidden within. From this he deduces that life on Mercury originates from The Blue Planet. He implores the high priest to send an expedition to search for the Holy Site in the depths of the ice, with the excuse of reviving the incarnation of Shawu, as the Book prophesied. The high priest consents, sending a chaplain to supervise the mission. Tu Lala actually locates the Holy Site, and discovers the incarnation of Shawu (Mr Hong), frozen in the ice, along the sacred rites of “how to revive the incarnation of Shawu”.

However, unexpected occurrences, mainly due to the ignorance and blind devotion of the believers, result in Tulala’s unfortunate violent death (as metallic organisms, the Suola can easily resurrect after a sudden death, but those who do are considered an untouchable caste). In order to protect Mr Hong’s body, Tu lala risks the humiliation, but tragically, his student Qi Qiaqia denounces him, exposing his untouchable status, and inciting the crowd to him, During which time, Mr Hong’s body is destroyed in the scorching sunlight. To avoid blame, Qi Qiaqia suddenly declares that the incarnation of Shawu was a false god, which is why the Father Star could destroy it. This narrative is accepted by the devotees, who hail him as their new high priest. In the thousands of years that follow, Suola society descends into darkness, religious cruelly suppressing science, but from among the population comes a new “Sect of Repentance”, apparently founded by an untouchable. Silently they preserve everything related to science, awaiting the next rebirth of Shawu in future millennia.

Q3Seeds of Mercury was first published in 2002, and its appeal still endures, even after all this time. What inspired you to write this story?

Wang Jinkang: The initial inspiration probably came from a sad epiphany I had as a teenager. The human body is too fragile. Our proteins start to coagulate above 80°C, our brain suffers irreversible damage if we don’t breathe for five minutes, our body can’t withstand radiation, and we can die from disease, hunger, dehydration, drowning and freezing… It’s admirable that such a fragile life form has been propagated on for billions of years, but it also makes me apprehensive that humanity would not survive a disaster. Human civilisation is a great achievement, which is why we are proud of it; but it also makes me anxious, worrying that humanity may not survive the next cataclysm. I couldn’t help but imagine, what if a creator, or god of evolution, created a metallic life, invulnerable to fire and flood? Many years later, I combined these youthful imaginings with my subsequent concept of “Templates for Life” and turned it into this novella.

Q4Seeds of Mercury is a piece about the sublime act of Creation, and a reflection on the transitory nature of life. Did you write it with the intention of exploring the contradiction between Science and Religion? Or did that grow naturally out of the creative process? Also, do the sentient beings you write about reflect your own views and positions?

Wang Jinkang: I didn’t intend to construct that dichotomy between Science and Religion, but it’s exactly what happened on Earth, so when I created a history for Mercury’s civilisation, those episodes just appeared naturally. Religion and Science are enemies who love each other. European Papacy cruelly persecuted Galileo, Bruno, and other ‘heretics’, and strictly forbade the theory of evolution, but medieval Europe became the birthplace of modern science. When we look back at the history of Civilisation over millennia, you can’t help but sigh that history is full of paradoxes, and that The Creator is always full of mischief, making fun of the theories of Cause and Effect. As to whether this new life carries some of my own views or positions? Of course. Tu Lala is the heir to the human spirit, with his scientific rationality, adventurous spirit, sense of responsibility, fortitude, and self-sacrifice. In the story, when Tu Lala meets the holy body of Shawu Incarnate, and he figures out that the great god was a scientist. Thus, demonstrating that the intellectual spirits of all scientists are inter-relatable, even if they are alien. That is what I believe in my heart.

Today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standard of “Return of Adam”

Q5Mr. Wang, the world has moved on 22 years since the first publication of Seeds of Mercury. What changes do you think have occurred in science fiction writing in the present day, compared to the early years both in terms of the environment, and the core themes?

Wang Jinkang: These 22 years have brought great changes, and it could be said that civilisation has reached a critical point, that we’re on the cusp of drastic changes. However, for the science fiction writer, who is used to seeing the world from a god-like point of view (through the eyes of science) we think in millennia, so 22 years is too short a period to affect the themes of my work. For example, my debut story Return of Adam showed a society where AI had overcome natural humanity, though it had taken on a parasitic approach, augmenting the processing power (IQ) of the human mind to far outstrip the basic brain, and in fact, became the core of human consciousness. The rapid development of AI today, especially the LLM systems, is amazing, even frightening, but in general, today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standards of Return of Adam. Still, I’m saddened that some things I wrote about, which I assumed would be far in the future have come to pass in my lifetime. For example, in 1997, when many Chinese people asserted that AI could never triumph in the field of Weiqi (Go), I was convinced it eventually would, and wrote a scene of an ‘AI beating a human chess master’ in one of my stories, before it actually happened. I just never expected to see it in my lifetime.

Q6Before Liu Cixin appeared, you “held up half the sky” in Chinese Sci-fi. When you first appeared in China’s science fiction circles, you were relatively older, and more experienced. Do you think that maturity allowed your work to appear more rounded?

Wang Jinkang: My life and experiences have been quite unique. I’ve lived through a very special time in China’s history, worked as a rusticated youth, a miner and model maker. I went to university at 30, became a mechanical engineer, wrote literary novels, and only broke into the science fiction world by chance at 45, publishing my first sci-fi story. If anything, my near-fanatical reading of literature at university paved the way for my future writing. At that time, the reforms were already happening in China, and it was opening up to the world. A huge amount of foreign literature was pouring into the country, dazzling readers like me. There may be another special factor, which is, because I was studying engineering, I was standing atop this wall of science and watching this river of literature racing by, I had a sense of detachment. Add to that I only started writing SF decades after experiencing the rise, fall and distilling of the wave of literature. I suppose that’s why my writing style has a poised, bleak, and sombre character.

Q7What sort of stories do you think are expected from the current literary ecosystem? Which sci-fi genres do you expect to take off in the future?

Wang Jinkang: I have always felt that science fiction is unlike any other form of literature. The richness of mainstream literature does not necessarily coincide with the strength of a country. As the aphorisms go, “classics are born from chaos”, and “poets are fortunate when the country is not”. However, the success of science fiction is reliant on enough readers and authors being educated to a certain threshold, and so depends on the country’s economic, scientific, and technological development, which can be proven by the movement of science fiction’s centre from Britain and France to the United States over the last century. Over the past 40 years, China’s overall economic development has been good, and as one of the oldest sci-fi writers in the country, I’ve experienced this first-hand. I feel that as China continues to modernise and converge with the rest of the world, the creative environment of Chinese sci-fi will continue to improve. As for which themes, I feel will start to emerge? It’s expected that artificial intelligence and space themes, with more emphasis on exploring the human condition, are going to be the stories of importance, but other themes will also develop immensely.

Science fiction writers are used to seeing the world from a god-like viewpoint.

Q8 Mr. Wang, science fiction has taken root in China now for around a century, and you have played a pivotal role in the history of science fiction in the country. Irrespective of whether or not you win this Hugo Award, you have influenced a generation of sci-fi fans and creators. How do you view your own Creative Achievements?

Wang Jinkang: I’m flattered, but I only really played a leading and inductive role in the early stages of the so-called “New Generation” of Chinese sci-fi back in the 1990s. I’m content with the two aspects of my writing career, firstly, in forming the genre of Philosophical Science Fiction, which is based on the latest technological advances, and digs deep into the influence it has on alienation, civilisation, and so forth, to discover this genre’s philosophical uniqueness. This genre did not originate in my work, foreign writers including Mr. Arthur C. Clarke have long created excellent works of philosophical sci-fi, but these elements in my work are more concentrated. Furthermore, with regards science fiction as “the most cosmopolitan form of literature”, I consider my work, whilst still cosmopolitan, to be imbued heavily with Chinese styles and themes, which adds a certain flavour to the genre.

Q9Do you feel that science fiction writing is shifting from short-form to long form, and what difficulties do you feel are associated with that?

Wang Jinkang: In my experience there are three main issues faced when moving into the long-form. Firstly, there must be enough knowledge, from the accumulation of experience and information. Secondly, there must be a more mature view of Nature and human society, in their entirety. These are not necessarily the dominant trait of the novel but will play important roles in the story’s development. Thirdly, the ability to comprehend the entirety of the larger story. This ability to grasp the complete story is equally important to mainstream literary writers, but in science fiction, concepts always play a driving role in the whole work and should be logically consistent in themselves.

Q10In your eyes, what is the role of Morality and Ethics in Science Fiction?

Wang Jinkang: Science fiction authors often look at the world from a godlike point of view, and in the eyes of a creator, survival comes first, and morality and ethics are just auxiliary codes established by humans once they reached a certain level of civilisation. They are also conducive to the overall survival of the human race. As Humanity develops, and “co-operation” becomes more central to society, the role of morality and ethics becomes more and more important, but they certainly won’t stay the same, and the rules will certainly have additions and deletions. For example, once technology becomes suitably advance, the ethics of “strict prohibition regarding editing the genes of a human being” are very likely to change.

Q11Throughout your career, which of your stories are you most satisfied with?

Wang Jinkang: Of my short and medium length works, I like Seeds of Mercury’, Bee Keepers and The Song of Life, and of my longer works, I’m most satisfied with Ant’s Life and the Alive Trilogy (Escape From The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven And Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs).

Thank you, reader, for giving meaning to my life.

Q12Mr. Wang, some sci-fi fans have pointed out you are ‘the oldest non-American writer shortlisted for the Hugo Award’, which is an impressive feat. What are your hopes for the Hugo Awards?

Wang Jinkang: There’s a bit of a special circumstance here, where a story I wrote 22 years ago, was only translated into English last year, and shortlisted according to the translation’s publication date, even though, I’m very happy to hold this “World Record”. I hope it will go further than just being a finalist, but even if it doesn’t, I still consider it a great honour to be shortlisted.

Q13What would you like to say to the readers regarding the inclusion of Seeds of Mercury in the Hugo Awards shortlist, which was voted for by individual sci-fi fans one after another?

Wang Jinkang: I’ve always had a reverence for my readers. The two most common inscriptions I write to fans at signings are “The reader is the god of authors”, and “Thank you reader, for giving meaning to my life”. Out of the millions of publications each year, in a sea of stories, to have any number of people read your work, enjoy it, and keep it in their memory after that relentless tide of time, is a rare blessing. One might even call it a great gift from the readers to the author.

Discover more from File 770

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Jemisin, whose work fuses social commentary with imaginative worlds, have become central figures.

International voices, such as China’s Wang Jinkang, offer new perspectives rooted in different cultural experiences and histories.

These voices challenge established paradigms, and their work is gaining recognition (Jemisin won consecutive Hugo Awards, Wang is heralded in China).

**Science and Escapism:**
Some dismiss SF and fantasy as simple escapism, but many authors and critics argue that these genres offer critical lenses for questioning the present and envisioning possible futures.

Escapism is not frivolous—it's a way to reflect, critique, and search for freedom (as noted in the Tolkien quote about "the prisoner's duty to try to escape").

**Conclusion:**
In transitioning from the world of H.G.

Wells to today’s global and diverse landscape, SF literature remains a mirror for society’s anxieties and aspirations.

Its ever-expanding boundaries, inclusivity, and willingness to challenge norms makes it richer and more relevant than ever for book clubs seeking canonical classics alongside fresh, boundary-pushing works from new voices.

**Summarization of Key Points on the Evolution of Science Fiction (SF) and Its Canon (Approx.

Title:

Content: The story of the creation of life on Earth and the new novel Lukyanenko: books of September
In September, the mystical thriller Jason Rekulick “Hidden Pictures ” appeared on the bookshelves, the heroine of which is trying to deal with the frightening drawings of a red-haired boy named Teddy, as well as a new book by Victor Pelevin KGBT +.
It was a continuation of one of the lines of the novel Transhumanism inc.
In addition, bookstores will delight with such novelties in the genre of non-fiction, as “A Very Brief History of Life on Earth ” by English paleontologist Henry Gee and a collection of photographs and historical facts by Arseny Kotov“ Abandoned Cities of the USSR ”.
• © Azbuka-Atticus, AST
“Abandoned cities of the USSR ”, Arseny Kotov (AST)
Blogger and photographer Arseny Kotov has been traveling all over Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union for more than eight years and is looking for abandoned places with unusual architecture.
In his book, Kotov showed photos and told stories related to Baikonur, Pripyat, Magadan and other places.
The collection is divided into thematic chapters: in the section "Technology", for example, the author shares a picture of the snow-covered old bus fleet in Norilsk and the non-working tram depot in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and in the "Ghost Cities" the reader can learn the history of abandoned settlements in Russia and see some of them in photos of Arseny Kotov.
“When people say“ ghost town ”, Pripyat immediately comes to mind, which people left in 1986 after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
But, in addition to Pripyat, in recent decades, many other abandoned cities and settlements have appeared in the post-Soviet space.
They do not write about them in the media, they do not shoot films and TV series, because there have never been such terrible disasters as in Chernobyl, just people had to leave them.
The main reason for this phenomenon is the destruction of the previous economic system during the transition to capitalism.
This was followed by the decline of factories and mines privatized by the new owners, who suddenly found that the enterprises they had inherited did not generate enough income.
Often, the easiest and most inexpensive way to make a profit from the plant that got for a pittance was renting out the space.
But this option worked only for large cities. ”
• © AST
Henry G, A Very Brief History of Life on Earth (ABC Atticus)
Henry G was able to put the long history of the origin of life on our planet in one book.
The author describes how, thanks to the rain, which took millions of years, the oceans were formed, and the landscape appeared due to constant volcanic eruptions.
In all this constant chaos, life was born.
Gee tells the reader in accessible language about the second global glaciation, which lasted 80 million years and accelerated evolution on Earth, about the first marine creatures, about the animals that were the first to save their lives on land, and about much more.
Henry G. is a British paleontologist and expert in evolutionary biology.
He studied zoology and genetics at the University of Leeds, interned at the Natural History Museum in London, worked as an editor for the scientific journal Nature, and published in publications such as The Guardian and Discover.
He taught the course to students of the University of California and more than once gave lectures at scientific congresses.
“A Very Short History of Life on Earth ” is not the author ’ s first book.
His other works include The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution and In Search of Deep Time, as well as a sci-fi collection of stories about what the future might be like, Futures from Nature.
The serious invasion of land began in the middle of the Ordovician, about 470 million years ago - almost simultaneously with the evolutionary breakthrough in the seas, thanks to which the strange creatures of the Cambrian came to be creatures of a much more modern appearance.
Small creeping plants, livers and mosses have created millions of tiny bridgeheads on land.
Thanks to their durable and resistant to drying spores, they turned out to be more than just casual visitors to land.
Soon the first trees flew into the sky.
The first were the nematophites.
The nematophyte Prototaxites was more than a meter in diameter and reached several meters in height.
It was hardly a tree, even a tree-like fern, most likely a giant lichen, a union of moss and algae. ”
• © Alphabetical Atticus
"KGBT +", Victor Pelevin ("Eksmo")
Victor Pelevin this month pleased fans of his work with a new novel called KGBT +, which takes place in the same universe as the plot of the books Transhumanism inc., Empire V, Batman Apollo and iPhuck 10.
Victor Pelevin once again displays the social and political agenda in vivid images and non-trivial plot and humorously demonstrates his view of the picture of the modern world.
Read more about the novel in the material RT
• © Exmo
Jason Rekulick, "Hidden Pictures" ("Alphabet Atticus")
Mallory Queen lived in Philadelphia with her mother and younger sister, studied well and played sports.
She received a full athletic scholarship to enter the University of Pennsylvania when a tragedy struck her life.
Mallory didn't go to school and got addicted to drugs.
But life gave her a second chance.
A couple of years later, Mallory is already proud of 18 months of sobriety and gets the opportunity to work as a nanny for red-haired Teddy.
He is a nice kid who, after moving to a new house, completely immersed in drawing.
But his drawings are becoming more creepy and realistic.
And now instead of goats and birds in the album Teddy there is a man who drags the lifeless body of a woman in the forest.
Mallory is excited, she tries to solve the ominous mystery behind the drawings of the child.
The mystical thriller by Jason Rekulik was positively appreciated by critics and cult writers of our time.
As Stephen King noted, this book is a real surprise, in which there is a “powerful plot pace ” that does not allow you to break away from reading to the very end.
In addition, King praised the drawings placed on the pages of the work.
Rense Riggs, the author of the novel "The House of Miss Peregrine's Strange Children", in turn, called the work devilishly eerie, and its plot - the pinnacle of skill.
“The last picture seems to come as a surprise to Caroline.
“I was going to take her out, ” she says, but now she has no choice but to explain.“ It ’ s Teddy and his … uh … special girlfriend. ”
“Anya, ” Teddy adds.“ Her name is Anya. ”
- Yes, Anya. - Carolina winks at me to play along. - We all love Anya, because she plays with Teddy while mom and dad are at work.
I understand that Anya must be some sort of imaginary friend of Teddy's, and I'm frantically trying to figure out what to say.
It ’ s great to have a girlfriend like Annie.
Especially when you're a little boy in a new town and you haven't had a chance to make friends with other guys yet.
“Absolutely right! ” Caroline is clearly glad that I got into the situation so quickly.“ That ’ s exactly what it is. ”
Is Ana here now?
Is she in the room with us?
Teddy looks around the office.
- No. No.
- Where is she?
- I don't know.
Are you going to see her tonight?
“I see her every night, ” Teddy says.“ She sleeps under my bed so I can hear her singing. ”
• © Alphabetical Atticus
Sergey Lukyanenko, “Summer of the Volunteer ” (AST)
The author of such famous novels as "Night Watch" and "Draft", wrote the continuation of the cycle "Changed", which seemed to be over.
The trilogy includes Seven Days to Megiddo, Three Days of Indigo, and A Month Behind the Rubicon.
The book "Summer of the Volunteer" was the fourth in this list.
It is a space novel with vivid battles, love episodes and self-sacrifice.
The action of tetralogy takes place in fictional times, when aliens, the so-called Insecs, arrived on Earth.
Feeling like the masters of the planet, they immediately began to establish their own order: the Insecs stopped World War III, cut off Internet access, abolished nuclear power, and also crushed the Moon - instead of it, a lunar ring with two fragments now hangs over the Earth.
As a result, the world economy collapsed, and only the surchers — seekers of valuable crystals that are scattered around the planet — were able to benefit from this.
No one knows where these gems came from, but they have replaced the currency.
The main character Max is one of the surfers.
He succeeded in his business, but everything turned upside down when his friend turned to him for help.
In the fourth part of the story on Earth finally comes a lull and Max decides to go to university and become an interstellar diplomat.
However, it soon turns out that the planet is still in serious danger.
“The smile on Milana ’ s face was slowly disappearing.
“It ’ s a trap, ” I said.“ It ’ s a mousetrap! ”
The whole ship was bait, and people got into it.
They were turned into monsters.
And they took Likhachev away.
Like bait.
We went after him, Insec knew we were going...
“And they themselves became bait … ” Darina whispered.“ For you … ”
She went awkwardly to Milana, hugged her.
And wept.
“Wait, it doesn ’ t have to be that way! ” Milana said, hugging her.“ It doesn ’ t have to be that way! ”
No, no!
Over Darina's sobbing head, she looked at me.
“Darinka, don ’ t cry … ”
“Sorry, tears are pouring themselves … ” Darina muttered.
“Guys, this is impossible! ” Milana shook her head.“ Neither the Insecs nor the Ancients have such power! ”
At the edge of my eye, I caught some movement.
He turned his head.
And I saw Inseca.
He sat at the entrance to one of the tunnels — huge, oily shiny — and looked at us attentively.
Then he spoke with his soft female voice, which I even dreamed once in a nightmare.
- We don't have that kind of strength.
But you know there is no Supreme in the Galaxy. ”
• © AST
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2500 characters):**

- **Science fiction’s roots** lie in imagining alternate realities, future societies, advanced technologies, or worlds beyond current human experience.

Title:

Content: No. 4 / 1 (8 / 1)
Special issue
A smartphone app that will change your attitude to literature
Technology turns reading into an exciting journey through the facts and events of a work.
To put it simply, this is just a godsend for schoolchildren, as well as for those who want to look at classical (and not only) literary works in a new way.
The process of reading has been studied quite widely: it is scientifically confirmed that this is one of the most useful activities that humanity has just invented.
Perfect fitness for our brain.
Reading trains memory, concentration, fictional plots in fiction, experiences for heroes - develop empathy, the ability to recognize the feelings of another person (without which, as you know, it is difficult to build relationships with people).
Neurophysiologist David Lewis and colleagues conducted a study on how different types of activity contribute to stress relief.
Reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68 percent, which is even more than listening to music or walking.
It turns out that just 6 minutes of reading is enough to slow the heart rate and reduce muscle tension.
By the way, this is already a fact: nowadays most people prefer to read books from the screens of smartphones, computers and e-books.
For example, according to the results of last year ’ s VTsIOM survey, more than 71% of Russians read books from electronic media (in addition to smartphones, this includes computers and e-books).
It turns out a curious nuance - according to research, most people who read the book for the first time (for the experiment used the books of Russian classics), assimilate only a little more than half of what is told in the book - terms, historical facts, descriptions of heroes, references to events, the context in which a particular plot twist takes place.
Even a well-known literary work from school literature can become a huge iceberg, hiding in the depths of the abyss of information - even for a whole fascinating book.
Modern technologies open up new facets of literary works, which, otherwise, could be discovered only after listening to a dozen lectures from famous literary critics and historians.
One of the most striking examples is the application (free, by the way) for interactive reading “Live Pages ”, developed by the Tolstoy Digital group together with Samsung Electronics.
How does the reader interact with the book in the app?
Consider the example of "War and Peace": Leo Tolstoy created one of the largest, both in terms of role in literature and based on the volume, novels - 1300 pages.
“Live pages ” not only simplify the perception of the book, but also make it deeper.
Let ’ s start with the fact that the chapters of the novel are structured according to colors – the red color is marked “war ”, and the blue color is marked“ peace ”.
In addition, in the navigation of the work, a structured table of contents of each volume will help, thanks to which the right place in the book can be found in a couple of clicks.
In the epic of Tolstoy more than 550 characters, both fictional and historical, to understand this intricacies helps a special section of the application - "Heroes", where e, instead of the characteristics of the character (his "dexterity" and "strength", for example) - cards of the heroes of the novel with their avatars and quotes.
In the "Places" section there are interesting facts about the places where events take place, in the "Routes" the paths of the heroes of the novel are traced.
Especially interesting is the section “The Course of Time ”, where in parallel you can see and read about the events described in the novel, and about those events that took place in reality.
In the application "Live pages" there is a special section "Game of words", which, for example, allows you to quickly remember obsolete words, because in the work of Tolstoy many words of another era, which most of us may already be unknown.
Tolstoy ’ s work contains many words that most of us do not know.
“Live pages ” allow you to instantly find out their meanings.
A quote from the novel: "Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a reaper," thought Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to give her a sense of the distance that should have divided them at that moment.
Who do you think is this “bastard ”?
As it turns out, a hound dog.
What else can you read in the Living Pages Library?
From the main books of Russian classics (for example, “Woe from Wit ” by Alexander Griboyedov,“ Eugene Onegin ” by Alexander Pushkin, “Crime and Punishment ” and“ Idiot ” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, “At the Bottom ” by Maxim Gorky) to modern authors (“ Lavr ” by Evgeny Vodolazkin, “Zuleikha Opens Eyes ” by Guzel Yakhina).
14 december

Early giants like H.G.

Title:

Content: February 27, 2018 in Moscow in the press center of IA REGNUM was held the Forum "Space Commonwealth", which was attended by delegates from more than 50 public organizations.
Our organizations unite tens of thousands of scientists, philosophers, teachers of specialized universities, engineers and designers, space industry workers, writers, journalists, historians, political scientists, museum and library workers, and various people who are not indifferent to the fate of the Russian space industry.
NASA
Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Gagarin start
We, the participants of the forum, recognize that the Russian space project is in a deep crisis: scientific and technical, managerial and semantic.
We are living the legacy of our great ancestors.
The world is rapidly forgetting and has almost forgotten who was the first in space, not only on rockets and satellites, but also ideologically: the ideas of Russian cosmism are now promoted by Elon Musk, however, without reference to primary sources.
Russian thinkers and philosophers were the first to realize the task of entering the Cosmos as a universal task, the solution of which is a necessary condition for the further existence and development of mankind.
Even in the midst of the Cold War and the arms race, the word “satellite ” and the name Yuri Gagarin became symbols of a global breakthrough that had nothing to do with war and the growth of international tension, it was the birth of peaceful space, the rise of the human spirit, important for all inhabitants of the Earth.
This has never happened in human history.
Robert Couse-Baker
Yuri Gagarin
But with the death of Sergei Korolev, large Soviet space projects against the background of the achievements of the American lunar project are being curtailed.
This deprived the Soviet people of the most important component of a positive image of the future of our country and its role in the world.
The era of stoppage of development: scientific, technical, social, artistic, which led first to stagnation, the triumph of philistine consumer values, in the satisfaction of which socialism was uncompetitive, and eventually to the largest geopolitical catastrophe - the destruction of the USSR without war and official surrender.
With the violation of the strategic balance, the world entered a dangerous and troubled time.
But today the protracted pause in space development is over, the era of Spice 2.0 has begun.
All the leaders of the largest countries said that superiority in space technology is a key element in the struggle for world leadership.
The projects of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other American projects against the independent and self-sufficient space program of China.
The international space race has begun, and Russia, unfortunately, takes the position of hopelessly lagging behind.
Heisenberg Media
Elon Musk
What we have today.
We have retained a unique role within the international system of division of labor in the space industry — the role of the space driver, which we will inevitably lose in the near future, if existing trends continue.
The loss of our leadership in energy and life-sustaining space technologies will inevitably follow.
Continuous reform, periodic attempts to “optimize ” the industry did not lead to any noticeable positive changes.
Rather, on the contrary: corruption scandals, a continuous series of high-profile disasters, the complete lack of initiative of Roscosmos did not add to the authority of either the industry itself or the state as a whole.
The program of Roscosmos, according to which Russia was to return to the leadership in space by 2020, failed.
Russia ’ s lagging behind the US and EU countries, and now from China and India, has not only not decreased, but on the contrary has grown noticeably.
Since the early 2000s, billions of dollars have been allocated and spent by the state on the development of domestic cosmonautics.
However, under the management of “effective managers ”, the infusion of funds into the space industry yielded nothing but the collapse of key enterprises with catastrophic consequences, including for the country ’ s defense capability.
Today, when all the world ’ s leading experts call the 21st century the age of space exploration, and all the leading space powers are forcing their lunar programs, Roscosmos is trying to save money and integrate into the program of the United States, which has declared us part of the axis of evil together with North Korea and Syria.
This can not but cause surprise and indignation.
U.S. Department of Defense
Jeff Bezos
* * *
We believe that the Space Project in Russia is a public matter, not just a business.
In his message to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Russia needs a breakthrough, otherwise we will be crushed. ”
And where it can be, if not in space, where we were the first.
As history has shown, the Cosmos is the best stimulus for development you can think of.
Space is not an industry.
This is what the industry collects, integrates, sets new difficult tasks for them, which cannot be solved without advanced science and education.
We need to do everything to ensure that the Soviet Union does not remain a part of Russian and world history, but becomes the foundation of the future of our people.
If Russia does not make a breakthrough and does not step into its space XXI century, then we will really be crushed.
What is needed, in our opinion, to overcome the stagnation in the space field.
First, Russia must develop and adopt a truly ambitious and carefully thought-out program for the development of space exploration.
Secondly, we will not be able to do anything if we do not overcome the value crisis and offer our citizens and the world an optimistic concept of the future that would be attractive not only for Russia, but also for the whole world.
We have something to build the foundation of our future.
We still have people of the generation of winners, for whom there were and still are no barriers neither in science nor in technology.
We know that Russian scientists, despite everything, have made the largest scientific discoveries in recent years that have created the basis for the Russian breakthrough.
We have not exhausted and not realized the philosophical tradition of Russian cosmism, which led Man into Space.
We have a unique experience of collective creation and mobilization, which allowed our people to survive and revive the country.
We need to create in the country an atmosphere of creation, creativity and movement forward.
To do this, the country must abandon the primitive role of the raw material appendage, the ideology of consumer individualism of competing individuals.
We need a new life in which security, education and creativity are guaranteed for all.
* * *
After the forum, an interview with Vladimir Putin was published, in which he clearly stated that we need the Big Space: Russia is going to the Moon and Mars.
We very much want this to become a reality, and we intend to contribute to it in every possible way.
* * *
The Russian Space Project:
1.
It is necessary in the near future to adopt a new Federal Space Program (FSP), which will be agreed with society, scientists and experts.
Flights to the moon and Mars should be a priority in this program.
To make a flyby of the moon within the next year, to prepare the landing on the moon and the construction of the lunar base within one presidential term.
The lunar project should be the beginning of the Big space breakthrough of Russia and its ticket to the future.
2.
Due to the special importance of the Federal Space Program, the President of the Russian Federation should take the industry under his personal control.
3.
Create an expert-public council on the FCP and recreate the council of general designers.
Transfer to these bodies the right to jointly determine the strategic policy for the development of the industry.
4.
To raise the status of the "Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics" on April 12 to the level of the main holidays of
"April 12" should again become for us what it once was in the 60s - a national holiday, similar in spirit and scale to May 9 - Victory Day.
If May 9 is the day of memory and military valor of Russia, April 12 is the day of its peaceful victory, the holiday of Russia, which is able to surprise the world and achieve the impossible, the holiday of the country looking to the future.
This holiday should help the country to change and make a turn to the future.
He will have to actively work for the authority of our country in the international arena, contributing to the creation of an image of a resurgent Russia, as a country capable of influencing the direction of development of the whole world, capable of solving advanced scientific, technical and engineering problems, consistently pursuing a course for peaceful, equal, creative cooperation of states both on Earth and in space.
5.
To give the birthday of Yuri Gagarin on March 9 the status of a memorable date, declaring it “the International Day of Yuri Gagarin ”.
Yuri Gagarin is a national hero of our country and one of the brightest historical figures of the twentieth century.
His example should be a guide for the younger generation, inspire children and young people for excellent studies, physical education and sports, social activities.
6.
At a time when peace is becoming so fragile, the experience of peaceful cooperation is of particular importance.
An example of such cooperation between countries and peoples has always served and is now served by astronautics.
It continues to be an ideal communication platform.
Today, when Russia is the initiator of a number of integration processes – the Eurasian Union, the Customs Union, BRICS – it is necessary to establish and strengthen contacts within these unions.
Here, a large Russian space project could have a long-term geopolitical significance.
Friedrich Zander.
Postage stamp of the USSR.
1964
7.
It is necessary to pay more attention to the philosophical and ethical foundations of space activities, the axiology of space exploration.
A wide range of studies and publications of the works of representatives of the noosphere and cosmic thought of Russia (N.F. Fedorov, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, V.I. Vernadsky, A.L. Chizhevsky, etc.), actualizing their heritage for the present, the creation of scientific collections of works, the preparation of popular scientific works, the development and description of archival collections.
It is necessary to create the Institute and the Museum of Russian Cosmism, expanding within the framework of the museum a wide exposition and exhibition activities that demonstrate the philosophical, scientific, and artistic context of the topic of space exploration.
The tasks of such an institute are a wide range of studies of the philosophy of cosmism, space topics in literature and culture, problems of the history of cosmonautics, noospheric worldview, etc.
On the basis of the Institute, it is proposed to develop a series of educational space programs for training specialists in various specialties, whose worldview horizon and skills of theoretical and practical work will stand at the level of the tasks of the beginning of the III millennium, where space activities will inevitably play a dominant role.
8.
In the east of the country in the Amur region, on the basis of the Vostochny cosmodrome, it is necessary to create the Pavel Florensky National Space Center, which could also become an educational and scientific center specializing in humanitarian problems of cosmonautics.
9.
To raise the question of creating a Museum in Moscow dedicated to the activities of the legendary GIRD (Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion), which included Friedrich Zander, Sergei Korolev, Yakov Perelman and other classics of Russian cosmonautics.
To raise the question of the return of the mansion in Vadkovsky Lane to the Moscow education system and the organization of the Center for Aerospace Education on its basis.
10.
The Forum supported the decisions of the Ministry of Education to return the subject of “Astronomy ” to school.
However, our opinion and the opinion of teachers, this subject should be taught not in high school, when students are preparing for the exam, but when this subject is most in demand and interesting to schoolchildren themselves, that is, in grades 6 − 7.
Today, when there is a practical space exploration, it is not enough to teach only astronomy.
Astronomy should be returned to school as part of the Astronomy and Cosmonautics course.
Sergey Korolev.
1920s
11.
Russian literature in the XX century was enriched by a number of the brightest names of writers who worked in the field of children's literature and fiction: A. Belyaev, A.
Tolstoy, A. Green, A. Kazantsev, I. Efremov, the Strugatsky brothers, K. Bulychev, G. Sadovnikov, etc.
Today, when the essay is returned to school, the topics of space exploration, the future of earthlings, the prospects for the development of mankind in the third millennium can be raised in school essays based on the classics of science fiction of the 20th century.
12.
We believe that the topic of space and cosmonautics is not adequately reflected in the media today.
We need constant radio and television broadcasts about space.
13.
The country has a difficult situation with specialized publishing houses engaged in the production of scientific and technical literature.
If Russia is going to be an advanced scientific and technological power, then it needs to restore order in this area.
At the moment, there is no support from the state for the release of such literature.
The purchase of periodical and reference technical literature by the libraries of technical universities has practically ceased.
The system of translations of foreign scientific and technical literature has been destroyed.
14.
We are forced to state the lack of attention from the Ministry of Education to aerospace education.
A system of broad interaction of specialized institutions and enterprises of the space industry, divisions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, institutions of basic and additional education should be established in order to develop aerospace education, ensure its step-by-step and continuity, attract the attention of children and adolescents to scientific and technical creativity, popularize the achievements of domestic astronautics.
It is necessary to coordinate the efforts of schools, museums, libraries, centers of children's and youth creativity.
It is necessary to establish a system of training and retraining of teachers - leaders of circles, teachers of the subject "Astronomy and cosmonautics".
In order to improve the professional level of teachers of additional education, they should be provided with the opportunity to receive consultations and participate in seminars in specialized universities, research institutes, observatories and enterprises of the space industry.
Also, the forum participants consider it necessary to create an Aerospace Lyceum in Moscow with the level of preparation of a physics and mathematics school and deep training in modeling.
Mil.ru
Space Launch
15.
The forum participants also proposed to create a Federal Center for Aerospace Education named after Yuri Gagarin on the territory of Star City in the form of a permanent children ’ s camp.
Star City has a unique unique teaching staff in the world, on its territory there is the "Center for training cosmonauts named after Yuri Gagarin" with a full cycle of methods and space educational programs for training cosmonauts, a unique training base, around the Star City there are also a number of aerospace enterprises, where there are unique museums and educational centers.
16.
The school should ensure the education of a generation capable of taking over the baton in the field of cosmonautics and other high-tech sectors of the economy.
If earlier the school focused mainly on work in offices, now this is not enough.
The country needs to restore the economy, and this, in turn, will require the training of a large number of engineering personnel.
Schools need engineering classes.
It is necessary to teach the first class of the subject "Construction".
It is necessary in one form or another to teach students the basics of drawing, perhaps as part of a complex subject, including elements of drawing, design, design, etc.
17.
Creative projects related to space science, both technical and humanitarian, can be implemented in schools.
In many houses of children's and youth creativity, technical circles associated with rocket modeling, aircraft modeling, radio circles, and robotics circles have been preserved.
Close communication should be established between educational schools and institutions of additional education.
18.
It is necessary to ensure constant interaction of Russian schools with space and technical museums, libraries, where the memory of the history of Russian cosmonautics is stored, about people who worked in the space industry, about their deeds and achievements, which became at the same time the achievements of the country.
It is necessary to simplify the procedure for the organized withdrawal (removal) of students outside the school for the purpose of visiting educational events of libraries and museums.
Recommend to educational institutions of Moscow and other cities visiting museums of aviation and cosmonautics, planetariums.
It is important to pay attention to educational exhibitions about space, to develop and create a mobile exhibition "Children about space" for display around the country with the participation of the Association of Space Museums, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, public organizations involved in the promotion of the topic of space and astronautics.
19.
Schools and libraries can become the basis for extensive volunteer work in the field of collecting memory about the history of Russian cosmonautics, about the fate of representatives of the space industry.
Every day people leave, associated with the years of the space decade of storms and onslaught.
Many Russian families have relatives or acquaintances who were associated with astronautics.
It is necessary to orient children to collect family memories of ancestors who worked in the space industry.
Schoolchildren, under the guidance of teachers and librarians, could find space veterans in their city and district, study their biographies, interview, make a report, arrange exhibitions, collect archival materials, etc.
Advances in space exploration are part of our great history that must be preserved.
And the effective, personal participation of schoolchildren in memorial projects will contribute to patriotic education and continuity of generations.
It is necessary to begin work on the systematic fixation of the memory of the pioneers of astronautics, engineers and scientists, those who worked and work at the enterprises of the space industry, the participants of the first launches, etc., involving libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions in this work on a systematic basis.
The memory of those who created the space industry of our country, a kind of “Immortal, but already space regiment ”, should be collected and preserved in the country.
20.
To create a memorial complex on the territory of VDNH on the Industry Square in front of the Cosmos pavilion, dedicated to the domestic space, nuclear and electronic industries, making the Vostok rocket the semantic center of the memorial.
The Space Memorial of Glory, a monument to the creative work of our scientists, would allow us to preserve the memory of the greatest achievements of Russia in the 20th century.
21.
To propose to the management of the metro to arrange the station "Gagarin Square" with photo-panels of the meeting of Yuri Gagarin in Moscow in April 1961.
At the moment, the station is devoid of any design, which does not correspond to the importance of Yuri Gagarin and cosmonautics for Russian society and culture.
22.
To establish in Cuba in Havana a monument to Yuri Gagarin.
Despite the fact that the first cosmonaut, together with Che Guevara, was co-chairman of the Soviet-Cuban Friendship Society, there is still no monument to him in Cuba.
[Linux _ Rocks
Yuri Gagarin and Fidel Castro
23.
To support the idea of holding the annual volunteer festival “Time to Space ” on the territory of VDNH in April, as well as the project of the“ World Space Week ”, which takes place in Russia and the world from 4 to 10 October.

Wells and Jules Verne focused on technological marvels, exploration, and questioning humanity’s place in the universe.

This established science fiction as a genre concerned with “what if” scenarios and speculation.

Title:

Content: No. 4 / 1 (8 / 1)
Special issue
A smartphone app that will change your attitude to literature
Technology turns reading into an exciting journey through the facts and events of a work.
To put it simply, this is just a godsend for schoolchildren, as well as for those who want to look at classical (and not only) literary works in a new way.
The process of reading has been studied quite widely: it is scientifically confirmed that this is one of the most useful activities that humanity has just invented.
Perfect fitness for our brain.
Reading trains memory, concentration, fictional plots in fiction, experiences for heroes - develop empathy, the ability to recognize the feelings of another person (without which, as you know, it is difficult to build relationships with people).
Neurophysiologist David Lewis and colleagues conducted a study on how different types of activity contribute to stress relief.
Reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68 percent, which is even more than listening to music or walking.
It turns out that just 6 minutes of reading is enough to slow the heart rate and reduce muscle tension.
By the way, this is already a fact: nowadays most people prefer to read books from the screens of smartphones, computers and e-books.
For example, according to the results of last year ’ s VTsIOM survey, more than 71% of Russians read books from electronic media (in addition to smartphones, this includes computers and e-books).
It turns out a curious nuance - according to research, most people who read the book for the first time (for the experiment used the books of Russian classics), assimilate only a little more than half of what is told in the book - terms, historical facts, descriptions of heroes, references to events, the context in which a particular plot twist takes place.
Even a well-known literary work from school literature can become a huge iceberg, hiding in the depths of the abyss of information - even for a whole fascinating book.
Modern technologies open up new facets of literary works, which, otherwise, could be discovered only after listening to a dozen lectures from famous literary critics and historians.
One of the most striking examples is the application (free, by the way) for interactive reading “Live Pages ”, developed by the Tolstoy Digital group together with Samsung Electronics.
How does the reader interact with the book in the app?
Consider the example of "War and Peace": Leo Tolstoy created one of the largest, both in terms of role in literature and based on the volume, novels - 1300 pages.
“Live pages ” not only simplify the perception of the book, but also make it deeper.
Let ’ s start with the fact that the chapters of the novel are structured according to colors – the red color is marked “war ”, and the blue color is marked“ peace ”.
In addition, in the navigation of the work, a structured table of contents of each volume will help, thanks to which the right place in the book can be found in a couple of clicks.
In the epic of Tolstoy more than 550 characters, both fictional and historical, to understand this intricacies helps a special section of the application - "Heroes", where e, instead of the characteristics of the character (his "dexterity" and "strength", for example) - cards of the heroes of the novel with their avatars and quotes.
In the "Places" section there are interesting facts about the places where events take place, in the "Routes" the paths of the heroes of the novel are traced.
Especially interesting is the section “The Course of Time ”, where in parallel you can see and read about the events described in the novel, and about those events that took place in reality.
In the application "Live pages" there is a special section "Game of words", which, for example, allows you to quickly remember obsolete words, because in the work of Tolstoy many words of another era, which most of us may already be unknown.
Tolstoy ’ s work contains many words that most of us do not know.
“Live pages ” allow you to instantly find out their meanings.
A quote from the novel: "Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a reaper," thought Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to give her a sense of the distance that should have divided them at that moment.
Who do you think is this “bastard ”?
As it turns out, a hound dog.
What else can you read in the Living Pages Library?
From the main books of Russian classics (for example, “Woe from Wit ” by Alexander Griboyedov,“ Eugene Onegin ” by Alexander Pushkin, “Crime and Punishment ” and“ Idiot ” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, “At the Bottom ” by Maxim Gorky) to modern authors (“ Lavr ” by Evgeny Vodolazkin, “Zuleikha Opens Eyes ” by Guzel Yakhina).
14 december

- **Mass culture and SF:** Over time, science fiction became a major pillar of modern popular culture, spanning literature, comics, and film.

Title:

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Photo: BaigeNews.kz / Alena Fomina
All life in pictures - in Petropavlovsk opened the Center of comics
A resident of Petropavlovsk Darkhan Bayakhmetov knows everything about superheroes and comics!
In the personal collection of the young man there are rare copies of graphic literature with autographs of famous authors.
Among them is Peter Milligan, whose hand was applied to the stories of Spider-Man, Venom, Constantine.
Darkhan also initiated the creation of the Center for Comics at the regional library.
Sabit Mukanov, officially opened in September this year.
BaigeNews.kz correspondent met with an enthusiastic collector.
Such a strong love
The comic book center has a special atmosphere.
It smells like fresh printing ink and creativity.
Silence is broken only by the rustle of smooth pages.
Darkhan looks through new, recently received publications and smiles...
I have been a librarian for a long time and I like it.
And with the advent of the Comic Book Center, life began to play with new colors.
I consider myself a fan of everything that has to do with comics.
I read comics, collect them, watch movies and TV shows made from them, play video games based on comics.
And this love from childhood.
Then he became interested in stories about “Spider-Man ”,“ Fantastic Four ”, “X-Men ”, – says Darkhan.
During my college years, my attachment only grew stronger.
He even created a comic book community at his home university.
We were going to quizzes, thematic meetings, where we discussed with like-minded people films and series shot on comics.
And such events always came "with a bang".
Later he began to go to the comic - festivals in the southern capital, get acquainted with publishers, follow the novelties of the industry through specialized information portals and replenish his personal collection. "
Now there are two hundred copies of various literature in it.
That ’ s what gives me a great emotional response.
I like the comics about the blind lawyer Daredevil (aka Matt Murdoch).
They reveal the standard superhero theme, and vividly describe the legal battles, and there are philosophical reflections, raised the problems of people with disabilities in the modern world.
I have a complete collection of adventures about Matt Murdoch, ” Darkhan Bayakhmetov shared.
There are editions in the collection of Darkhan, signed by the authors themselves.
He is proud that once at the Almacon festival in the southern capital, he autographed and interviewed Peter Milligan himself for a thematic portal, a world-famous writer and screenwriter.
Expensive collector and collection "Dinocomics" with the signature of Ryan North - screenwriter of graphic books on the popular franchise "Adventure Time".
And we got to Marvel.
“A lot of autographs are collected from domestic comic artists.
We have talented authors in our country.
They boldly enter the international market.
For example, the artist from Karaganda Evgeny Yakovlev.
Now he is, you might say, the star of the comic industry.
He has been painting for American publishers for a long time.
Another prominent and bright person is the Almatian Madibek Musabekov - the creator of comics about Yermek Batyr (two volumes were released).
By the way, the first Kazakh comic, which began to be sold on a specialized digital platform ComiXology from Amazone.
The genre of comics about Yermek Batyr is a pseudo-historical fairy tale, in which there are elements of mythology and real history.
The comic covers the period of formation of the Kazakh Khanate (XV century) This is one of the important periods in the history of Kazakhstan.
And the author decided that through the comics it is possible to show it colorful and interesting.
Yermek Batyr himself absorbed the features of different batyrs and fairy-tale characters.
Now Madibek Musabekov actively cooperates with the publishing house "Bubble".
Released the series "Golden Warrior", "Peacemakers", and also he was noticed in the famous publishing house "Marvel".
And he started drawing the Star Wars series.
And in October of this year will be released another series of “X-Men ”.
In its creation, Madibek takes part.
In my opinion, this is a huge success! ” — said Darkhan.
In his opinion, such results motivate our young authors to declare themselves.
“In Petropavlovsk, too, there are talented and capable guys who would be able to fully realize themselves in this field.
For example, Yevgeny Suvorov is a young and creative artist who is now working on his own project. - The main thing is to believe and act, and the task of the Comics Center is to support and guide them in the right direction, to be a connecting link between publishers, "the source said.
Luck and maybe
Darkhan is talking about this for a reason.
He really managed to establish close cooperation with a number of companies that are engaged in the production of comics.
More than a year ago, when the comic book center in the library did not officially exist, wanting to replenish the book collections with graphic literature, Darkhan began to send letters to publishers.
In his messages, he enthusiastically told about the extensive work carried out in Petropavlovsk to popularize the comic industry.
And there they responded!
"And I've been doing all this for good luck."
And what a surprise it was when it worked!
In a few weeks, we managed to purchase 96 volumes of new literature from a number of well-known publishers "Molot Hardcorp", "Alpaca", "XL Media".
And I was so happy when I unpacked it all.
And we're not done yet.
Comics will come from Bubble Comics and KHAN Comics.
Now I try to participate in all online events of the international comics community.
This gives a great impetus to development, expands horizons and ties, ” Darkhan said and invited everyone to get acquainted with new products, assuring that everyone in this diversity will find something of their own.
Comic – Boom
In the conversation, Darkhan noted that interest in graphic literature has grown significantly in recent years.
And if earlier on the shelves of bookstores you could see only a few shelves with comics, now these are racks, where a diverse range is presented - to choose from.
Comics make movies and series.
This is a huge layer of modern mass culture, which is interested in a large number of people.
"Therefore, it would be just a sin not to create a comic book center in the library," Darkhan smiles. - Yes, of course, work with graphic literature was conducted in Mukanovka before, but it was not systematized and did not have such a scope as it is now.
We hope that thanks to this area of activity, our readership will significantly expand at the expense of young people.
In any case, we are doing everything possible for this, ” the interlocutor said.
The library, at its own expense, acquires the material we need.
Last fall, there was a selection of alternative and superhero comics from the series of publishers "DC" ("Batman", Justice League ") and" Marvel "(" Spider-Man "," Fantastic Four "," Wolverine ").
These comics are interesting to young Petropavlovites and will never lose their relevance.
And even the Pulitzer Prize...
"For what I love comics, so it's rich material, for the ability of authors through pictures to delicately reveal completely different problems of our society, sometimes affecting important, deep, - continues the interlocutor - Here you can give a number of vivid examples.
One of them is the work of Art Spiegelman "Mouse", made in black and white.
In 1992, this graphic novel won the Pulitzer Prize.
Spiegelman managed to make a real revolution in the world of comics.
Art showed fellow artists and the world that graphic novels can also have serious problems and not concede in the aspects of storytelling to books.
Of course, a comic book cannot contain the same number of letters as a literary work, because the author must maintain a clear balance between drawings and words, but he can share interesting thoughts and give food for thought.
The plot of "Mouse" is based on the relationship between Art Spiegelman and his father.
He tells his son about how he survived Auschwitz.
Another example is Persepolis, the first graphic novel by Iranian author Marjan Satrapi.
This is the autobiographical story of the growing up of a girl.
Persepolis has been filmed.
The full-length animated film received a special jury award in Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar.
Away with stereotypes
"So, the purpose of opening our Center is just to show the diversity of the bright, boundless world of comics and to rid people of stereotypes that books in pictures are only for children, - emphasizes Darkhan. - Although for a young audience in graphic literature, too, there are many interesting things, and this is not only the battle of superheroes.
For example, in our fund there is graphic literature about the famous scientists Charles Darwin and Maria Skłodowska-Curie.
Agree, assimilating school material on comics is much more entertaining.
I am sure that much more information about the theory of evolution and radioactive elements will remain in my head.
And in general, comics teach us morality, the fact that it is important to help others and take responsibility for their actions, ” Darkhan concluded.
In the near future, the Center plans to hold educational lectures, various thematic events, including online meetings with local talented artists who are fond of creating comics, shooting videos, club meetings of young people with a discussion of films and serials shot on comics.
Darkhan promised that this autumn will be fruitful for exciting events.
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The rise of comic books and graphic novels (like Art Spiegelman’s *Maus*) pushed the genre’s boundaries, integrating personal, historical, and political narratives, and showing SF could powerfully address real human issues and traumas.

- **Evolution of themes:** Where classic SF often looked outward (space travel, alien life, utopian/dystopian societies), contemporary SF also looks inward—focusing on identity, consciousness, trauma, and social justice.

What concepts does Ishiguro's literary science fiction novel bring up?

There is a shift toward exploring inner monologues, the adolescent experience, and complex emotions, showing that SF can be as much about personal and psychological journeys as about scientific advancement.

Title:

Content: Articles
A million facts from the pharaohs to break dance: new books for children and adolescents
Nina Dashevskaya "About music and other stories" (CompasGuide, 2022)
Dashevskaya perfectly depicts the inner world of a teenager - a seismically dangerous zone, where something boils, moves and erupts, and sometimes freezes and becomes very vulnerable and quiet.
Why are some guys popular and others invisible, how is it that in friendship opposites come closer and attract?
No matter how many adults warn, there are mistakes that you need to make yourself.
It turns out that sometimes a person considers himself an unsociable introvert, but exactly until he meets “his ” company.
And that ’ s when he really opens up.
Nina Dashevskaya is not trying to show the perfect, spherical world of teenagers in a vacuum.
Her heroes have a lot of problems - children and not at all.
Domestic nationalism, violence and bullying, betrayal and lies are a complex and almost completely adult world in which everyone has to understand on their own.
This - the usual, Hoffmann philistine world is opposed by another - special - musical.
There are other problems in it, you can run into it and become real yourself there.
To be happy.
Pascal Ruther "Heart on Braille" (CompasGuide, 2022)
Another story about attracting opposites: about the birth of a close and tender friendship between Victor, who is always failing at school, and Marie, an excellent student.
But even the most ideal students are not always everything is smooth: they are living people with their secrets and problems, sometimes with health, which is inherent in the very title of the novel.
And they need friends no less than ordinary, “imperfect ” ones.
Although the "imperfect" Victor knows by heart the guide to the history of the automotive industry and, as it turns out, in addition, knows how to be a good friend.
The author makes the characters think about what it means to be “normal ” – where does this limit of normality pass?
The world of a teenager is not limited to school - this simple idea has to be understood over and over again: school is a micromodel of society, but in life there are still hobbies, love, music, family and many other things that actually make up a person.
Christine Hamill "The Best Medicine" (CompasGuide, 2022)
Problems can be dealt with in different ways.
One of the best ways to do this is to laugh at difficulties.
Hero Christine Hamill (previously known as the author of non-fiction about breast cancer) 12-year-old Philip Wright mastered this way of perception of the world quite, and continues daily training – after all, his goal is to become a comedian cooler than Harry Hill.
Laughing and getting paid for it is a dream job.
But it turns out there are things in life that you can ’ t laugh at.
For example, if the closest person is sick.
The boy will have to figure out whether laughter can really be a cure, or it is just a stupid and useless figure of speech.
The inner world of a teenager, which can not be called serene, opens in the book Hamill to the big, outer world: and they have to learn to interact.
Heroes learn to let other people into their world not as guests, sometimes uninvited, but as close and important, keeping the doors open for them in any mood and condition.
This is the very personal freedom, to manage with which it is useful to learn not only for children, but also for some adults.
And in the process of building the boundaries of their own freedom, a person understands very simple, but very important truths: “My mother said that everything would be okay, and I believed her.
Mom is the main person in my life; the only one who is always there, doing something, getting on my nerves, knowing everything about everything... "
The best medicine is about how a person learns to live anew after depression and despair, covering when he learns about the diagnosis.
And how his whole family learns to live with him again.
Nikolai Shorokhov "Jump. Run.
Freeze » (CompasGuide, 2022)
The book is about overcoming and finding a foothold: difficult, but life-affirming, helping to understand how important it is not to despair and continue to search.
The inner monologue of a teenager who is deprived of the opportunity to speak.
He is literally torn from feelings and thoughts, but the speech after the tragedy experienced some time ago refused him.
Now 15-year-old Dima has to build his life anew, look for reasons for joy and new means of communication and ways of self-expression.
This is difficult until Dima discovers breakdancing.
"Jump. Run.
Zamirai is a novel about a lonely boy in St. Petersburg who is friends with one of the Sphinxes on the embankment, and is not friends with another.
And it is the Sphinx that will one day show him the way.
The “All That ” series:
Natalia Savushkina "How it will be in English" (Nygma, 2022)
In the world of childhood, imaginary things are no less real than physical things.
Grandma Masha lived in England for three years, she tells her granddaughter a lot of amazing stories - for a girl, they are no different from fairy tales, except that the "English things" that are full of grandmother's house, you can touch and carefully consider: porcelain cats and guards, a kettle with Buckingham Palace, a portrait of Elizabeth II. The main adventures of the story will be connected.
A story in which English becomes part of the game is an invariable attribute of childhood.
Games, however, are sometimes not very fun, like the English ballads, where "knights die, ships break, and a beautiful lady in green sleeves goes far, far away."
Or like events in real life.
But Masha firmly knows that the main thing is not to give up.
Marina Taranenko “Queen of flash mobs ” (Nygma, 2022)
The school principal is a zombie.
Or a vampire, but that ’ s the details.
Nastya knows exactly.
She sees through people and is used to trusting her feelings.
But participation in a volunteer theater production for children with autism spectrum disorders changes Nastino ’ s worldview: the girl understands how deceptive the first impression is and how important it is not to rush with judgments about people.
In the process of growing up, each child goes through the stage of realizing that adults are not always right, that they do not always understand and feel important - and also have the right to make mistakes and misconceptions.
For example, the mother of Nastina friends calls the guys who went to Nastya, abnormal and dangerous to society.
But her main problem is that she does not know how to listen and hear the arguments of the interlocutor.
The private conflict of Nastya and Raisa Sergeevna, remaining partly crushed due to Nastins timidity and inability to argue with the elders, turns into a conflict of a sensitive child and an indifferent adult, for whom problems that do not concern him personally either do not exist at all, or there is a ready-made modular solution for them.
The formula “unhealthy need to be treated ” is becoming universal, not tolerating exceptions.
It turns out that the mission of preserving humanity, sympathy and participation falls on the shoulders of children.
Alexander Kiselev “Once upon a time, pirates sailed.
Dictation with continuation "(Nygma, 2022)
Schoolchildren are so often asked what they want to become when they grow up that they are used to giving ready-made universal answers that have little to do with reality.
And what if three friends suddenly decide to answer the teacher honestly?
And they say they want to be pirates and go to Treasure Island, boarding a ship along the way.
However, not with gold, as usual, but with marshmallow: it is lighter and tastier, while the benefits of gold are not obvious.
However, the more boys think about their big pirate campaign, the more obvious is the completely unexpected paradox: to be a pirate, you need to study well.
Otherwise, to make the Great geographical closure is unlikely to succeed.
Alexander Kiselyov turned out to be a very funny, easy and witty book about real and future pirates and their friends - future doctors, teachers and other representatives of no less necessary professions.
Svetlana Volkova “Midnight in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ” (Nygma, 2022)
Another story about growing up.
About a tough, sometimes cruel collision of a teenager with the real world.
On the one hand, just the world of adults - fifteen years old Misha after the death of his great-uncle flies from the "European" St. Petersburg to the other end of the big country - to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, then to go even further - to a small hunting lodge.
During this trip, Misha, disassembling his grandfather ’ s belongings, gets closer to him, learns the history of his family.
In addition, the boy is waiting for a real test of wild, alien nature, which prepares a teenager a lot of surprises.
Among them is a meeting with a bear crank.
It is this terrible predator that helps the boy to fully feel like a person - capable of vivid emotions and sincere feelings.
15 years is the borderline age when a person is no longer quite a child, but also not an adult.
This is an important age when the nerves are bare and feel most acutely, and you need to understand a lot about yourself and the world around you.
Aya En "Nitrogen and Selyodochkina.
P. Ushkin and Pixels "(Nygma, 2022)
Two fantastic stories of a famous children's writer, twice winner of the "Book" award, under one cover.
In Ae Ne, a physicist (Faculty of Physics of Tbilisi State University) is ideally combined with a lyricist, that is, a writer: she creates for children very convincing and very exciting sci-fi worlds that are like real, only sometimes even better.
Here, for example, is a class where students are elements of the periodic system of elements of D.I. Mendeleev.
Each of them has its own character, and the interaction of some can lead to very undesirable consequences.
However, some of them are friends at all not very torn: "Everyone knows that Calcium binds with Oxygen, you need a heat of 300 ° C, and that Magnesium - as much as 600 ° C".
The hero of the second story of the collection “P. Ushkin and Pixels ” Petya Ushkin is a master of getting into different stories.
However, many of them are the fruit of his very rich imagination.
Geraldine McCorin "Where the World Ends" (AST, 2021)
Life on the Scottish islands of the XVIII century can not be called easy.
Child labor is a necessity, a basis for survival.
Every summer, teenagers in the company of a couple of adults go to a wild rock in the ocean to hunt birds, and then they are taken home with their prey.
But one day they didn ’ t come back.
This book is a real-life story of the new Robinsons, forgotten on a cold rock without the essentials for survival.
In order not to go crazy and not fall into despair, the boys tell each other stories, replacing them with a terrible reality and driving away thoughts of imminent death.
Nine months in the caves of bare rocks in the middle of the ocean.
Nine months of struggle for life, which turned out to be possible only because ordinary life on the islands is far from comfort and well-being.
A struggle from which they all emerged victorious.
Nine months of stories that testify to the triumph of reason over death.
Ross Welford "On the Side of the World" (AST, 2022)
The Universe Beyond War is an ideal world, a place where you can hide from the reality in which everything goes to a world of armed conflict.
That ’ s what Manny and Will do.
When they find themselves in the Side World, they meet the mythical creature kobaku (put a dog with a cat) and Willa's brother, who died before she was born.
Parallel reality is thus a strange space uniting the worlds of the living and the dead.
Once in the ideal world, children live in an alternative – absolutely happy – reality, but then return to the usual, far from ideal, where almost all the time is scary.
Fear has become a common part of life, as has mutual hatred.
The contrast between the two universes is so great that adults refuse to believe children ’ s stories about the Universe Outside of War.
In the Side World, Will (Wilhelmina) is called Mina – changing her name means crossing the border between realities into one where no one uses mobile phones, the Pope does not have a beard, but has a university education.
However, in the newest reality, it is not easy for the children to get used to – all the basic concepts and ideas here turn out to be false.
In the universe of freeride and c-mobiles, it is difficult for a person with an ordinary set of knowledge not to feel crazy.
In fact, this is one of the main topics of the book - our idea of normality and its boundaries.
Is the world we are accustomed to normal – the world of war, fear and aggression?
Ani Timberlake "Skunk and Badger".
Skunk and Badger.
The Incredible Treasure (Willie Winky, 2022)
A series about two friends – very similar, but completely different.
From the first story, the reader learned how the couple first met and how they got used to each other, and the second tells about their new adventures.
In many countries, as one of the first books for self-reading, traditionally children are offered a series about Kwaka and Toad Arnold Lobel.
The books of Amy Timberlake (winner of the Newbury Prize and a number of others) are perfect for being the next on this path.
Beautiful illustrations by John Klassen, charming characters, fascinating plot - kind and cheerful, devoid of gross moralizing books for senior preschool and primary school age.
Is it possible to make friends with someone who at first sight did not like you at all?
And what happens when your neighbor leads a completely different life than you used to?
Instead of loneliness and neatly laid out in boxes of stones and minerals - crowds of chickens and joint breakfasts.
Is it okay to accept it?
It is much better to learn how to enjoy it!
Christian McKay Hydiker, Scary Stories for Little Foxes.
"Scary stories for little foxes.
The Big City » (Wonder books, 2022)
Children love scary stories.
Children ’ s mystical folklore about the black hand is passed down from generation to generation.
Christian Hydikker uses the childish craving for the creepy and mysterious, and creates images of little curious foxes, going at night to the road for stories, from which their tails turn white.
Their mother warned them of this.
Since the white tip on the tail is a sign of adult foxes, the process of growing up is shown through these horror stories.
Listening to dangerous adventures, foxes gain life experience, which insures them from making their own mistakes.
“Scary stories for little foxes ” are books about family and folklore traditions, adventures, the ability to cope with their fear and emerge victorious from the most confusing situations.
Mark Hartzman, The Big Book of Mars.
A Million Facts from the Pharaohs to the Mask ” (Alpina.Deti, 2022)
"Once upon a time, the planet Mars was a beautiful place where wonderful intelligent beings lived.
The Martians, who ranged in height from 10 to 12 feet (3.05 to 3.66 m), feverishly dug canals to irrigate their arid planet, and desperately tried to make contact with us earthlings.
It is hard to imagine, but this idea of   Mars was widely used only a hundred years ago.
The theory that Mars is not just inhabited, but inhabited by intelligent beings, gave rise to a lot of attempts to establish contact with them.
For example, not someone, but Nikola Tesla himself was going to “call ” the Martians.
But interest in the planet arose much earlier.
The ancient Babylonians named the days of the week according to the number of visible celestial bodies.
Aristotle studied Mars and believed that it was closer to the moon, Chinese astronomers called it a fire star and believed that it brings misfortune.
Many science fiction writers wrote about the war of earthlings with Martians, and the colonization of Mars occupies the minds of mankind to this day.
Mark Hartzman has collected the most interesting stories about the red planet from the past and the present.
It is recommended for reading not only for children, but also for adults - many facts will surprise even them.
Finbar Hawkins "The Witch" (Alpina Publisher, 2022)
The book about England of the XVII century is no longer the Middle Ages, but the witch hunt is still in full swing.
Here love and sorrow walk hand in hand, and people are moved by anger and revenge.
The main character of this story - red-haired Evie - is jealous of the younger sister Dill to her mother and lives an almost ordinary life.
But when witch hunters brutally kill her mother and take her sister, Evie is ready to do anything to get revenge on them and save Dill.
A wave of contradictory feelings boils in the girl: love, grief, annoyance, anger that the mother was a witch, and the witches are bad, and because of this they are now left alone.
The author does not spare the reader's feelings - this is a terrible and cruel book, but precisely because it is true.
It is a book about fanaticism and bestiality, embracing people in the name of an idea they believe in, about guilt and remorse, which embraces too late – when nothing can be changed.
Or is it possible?
It turns out that sometimes in order to change something, you first need to change yourself.
Except... that's the hardest part.
To change and remember that even to fight with kindness in the soul – and in the name of good.
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- **SF as reflection and critique:** Modern SF is often “plotless” or essayistic, using metaphor and vivid imagery to critique reality and offer aphoristic wisdom—moving away from pure adventure into literary territory.

Title:

Content: Being plotless, representing, in fact, a detailed essay, the book by Oleg Kryshtal “To the singing of birds ” is replete with vivid images and metaphorical expressions that cut into memory as aphorisms.
The dizzying jumps and equilibristics of thought amaze, and this mental acrobatics is not for its own sake, it invariably and purposefully works for a super-task, which the author does not lose sight of even for a second.
The magic of words in places is such that individual phrases sound like sacred, like spells of unknown rituals.
The reader will surely notice all this himself, and therefore, leaving the complementary component behind the brackets, I want to talk about something else.
This is a unique literary work that is at the same time a study of the brain.
The book “To the Singing of Birds ” prompts us to state a fact that is not only curious, but also significant for modern culture: there was a category of literature full-fledged in the artistic sense, created by the authors in order to understand something, clarify, learn in the very process of writing.
Kryshtal is not the first in this series (think Isaac Asimov or Umberto Eco), but his book expresses the trend so clearly that it can serve as a pilot text, if you like, an artistic manifesto of such literature.
This is not a genre and not a direction, such a creative realization is possible in any genre, the main feature is that the thirst for knowledge makes the author "take up the pen".
A literary work can be a study at the same time.
Let ’ s look into this in more detail.
All mental activity is stimulated either by the instinct of knowledge or by the instinct of exchange of experience.
Both are necessary for the viability of the species.
Experience is not necessarily rational and positive, there is, for example, the experience of mental experiences (at least Goethe, “The Suffering of Young Werther ”).
Whatever the writer says about himself - "I write for myself, for my wife, for children, for God, for no one" ("Motivation is a slave to the firefly of emotions" - O. Kryshtal) - any desire to write anything is dictated by the instinct of transmitting experience.
And Kryshtal is no exception.
But unlike traditional literature, which represents an artistic sublimation (and sometimes a simple illustration) of the already accumulated, experienced, deliberate, Kryshtal makes the reader a direct participant in the research process itself.
Obeying academic correctness, which requires the complete reproducibility of the experiment, he does not conceal a single link in the chain of thought and discovery.
Here is a characteristic fragment: “Two chapters ago I thought I understood how I came into being. Now I see that understanding was just a separate bone of a fossil skeleton. ”
As it is supposed to manifest, already on the fourth page the book of Kryshtal contains the declaration of the artist-researcher: "The time has passed in prayer to ask - the time has come to ask."
And he asks, he asks, and he asks.
About everything in the world.
Starting with why it exists and why it grows exactly this way, and not otherwise, this particular blade of grass, and ending with the question of why and where life, consciousness, and in general everything is.
In other words, he, no less, tries to comprehend the providence of God, and his insolence is unparalleled.
In every case there is a plan and a mechanism of incarnation, and Kryshtal follows the path natural for the scientist, trying to comprehend the Plan by investigating the Mechanism.
And then a very interesting question arises: why does Kryshtal choose artistic prose as a research tool?
The scientist, accustomed to a virtuoso laboratory experiment and accurate theoretical calculations, abandons the usual methods and, contrary to popular wisdom, “changes horses at the crossing. ”
Perhaps he wanted to be a member of three academies and to add the laurel wreath of the writer to the innumerable attributes of scientific fame?
Simply, is it not “panski vytrebenki ”?
Definitely not.
In this case, for Kryshtal, artistic prose is not a whim, but an immutable necessity.
For two reasons.
The first one.
Imagine a clever homunculus that arose and exists inside a large clock, from which it is not given to get out.
Having thoroughly studied the mechanism, he still cannot comprehend the plan of the Watchmaker, because the dial is on the outside.
What next, a dead end?
Not necessarily, if you turn on the imagination.
And not just to include, but to make a full tool in the tools of the researcher.
Imagination plays an important role in science.
But it is considered to be something auxiliary, relating to the “preliminary ”, inner kitchen of the scientist, and if traces of the work of the imagination are seen in a scientific publication, the author is subjected to the merciless ridicule of his fellow minds.
Full-fledged, not behind the scenes, imagination can work in artistic prose, but not in academic research.
The second reason is even more serious, but in order to explain it, I must load the reader with the concept of a “black box ”.
Black box is a term from cybernetics, it is “older ” than an airplane black box, and it would not be appropriate for aircraft to borrow an already“ occupied ” term.
But since that's the case, don't confuse them.
A cybernetic black box is an element (or block) of a system whose internal structure we know nothing about and which reacts to excitatory impulses in unpredictable ways.
The simplest option is a random number generator.
A cup of dice is a black box for the player, a capricious freaky woman is a black box in the melodrama, and the weathering antics and mass migration of insects are the black boxes of agriculture.
And so on.
So, one of the theorems of cybernetics says that the tracking system should be at least as complex as the tracked one, moreover, it should contain the number of “black boxes ” no less than the tracked one.
But if the scope is Design, then the mechanism of embodiment is Life in its entirety.
It contains an innumerable number of black boxes, and the notorious “pure mind ”, in the sense of none, and therefore he is powerless in such a study.
You can explore Life in a complex only with the help of another, virtual life, that is, fiction.
That's what Kryshtal does.
So, the main character is the Asking Man.
He wants to reach the limits of all things and understand the purpose of God.
The result of such a claim is predetermined: it will not work.
This is a priori clear to everyone, including the author himself.
At the very beginning of the book, he states: "... he did not penetrate the Wall, only penetrated it.
The puppeteer watched, but did not have to say hello. "
But how many interesting things along the way, how many discoveries!
It would be appropriate to add the famous phrase from “A Thousand and One Nights ”:“ But at the end of this story we will know more than we do now. ”
There are many discoveries and insights, and here is one of the most interesting.
As a scientist, Kryshtal knows that we are already on a steep, almost vertical branch of the exponent of development and an avalanche of information in the foreseeable future will inevitably lead to a qualitative leap, to a transition to a new state.
“We are sitting on the Serpent, and it is in multidimensional space just now crawling into the New Kingdom. ”
This is not a premonition, but a well-thought-out conclusion.
We will be replaced by other We, entangled in the World Wide Web and ready to merge consciousness in virtual reality - the Kingdom of Meta-language.
The personality is over! ”
At one time, Dionysius the Areopagite explained that heavenly entities (Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, etc.), as the “ranks ” increase and approach God, increasingly lose their personal properties, and the highest, closest to the Lord (Power, Forces, Thrones) are deprived of their own aspirations, almost completely dissolving in God.
Kryshtal comes to the same idea, it seems, independently of Dionysius, since there are no direct or indirect references.
Kryshtal ’ s book foretells us a coming, universal transformation, after which much will be revealed to us about the meaning of all things, and when we approach the Creator, we will remain if not in an angelic state, then, so to speak, in a near-angelic state.
“Can a person coexist with God? ”
Answer: No.
Modern man, as a rule, is not ready to give up his personality.
Hence the seemingly unexpected, but quite logical and disheartening conclusion: “God suddenly appears, many will not want to live any more. ”
Kryshtal himself, the prospect of reducing personality does not seem to frighten.
Although, stop.
While we were thinking about questions and answers, about the game of mind and imagination, we could not distinguish between the author and the author ’ s character.
The Asking Man.
But as soon as it comes to the relationship with the Creator, such confusion is unacceptable.
Thus, the prospect of reducing the personality in exchange for approaching God and knowing the secrets of Being that are now forbidden to man does not frighten the person.
Mostly because of a passionate desire to comprehend the incomprehensible.
Therefore, the book is partly eschatological, it is permeated with a tense, sometimes even ecstatic expectation of forthcoming revelations in the near future, at least a partial initiation into the Plans of Creation.
Despite the extreme audacity, sometimes on the verge of (seeming) blasphemy, the book “To the Singing of Birds ” is not a rebellion against the Creator, on the contrary, it is a step towards God.
The book does not have a plot in the usual sense, but it is not boring to read, because it has its own dramaturgy, due to the game conflict between the unparalleled audacity of the author-researcher and the equivalent modesty of the author-human.
The interweaving of these two intentions is largely due to the charm of the book, and despite the complexity and rigidity of the problems raised, the reader has neither fatigue nor bitterness, but only a sense of the light of reason and cheerful curiosity.
Do not try to “swallow it in a volley ” – there will be no sense, read slowly, little by little – and you will be surprised how many unexpected thoughts and stunning discoveries will enrich your inner experience.
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The genre now reflects on itself, its conventions, and its function as both a mirror and a laboratory for society.

- **Canon and diversity:** While the Western canon has been dominated by white male authors, a growing number of women and people of color have left transformative marks on the genre.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Their works often foreground voices and perspectives previously marginalized—addressing race, gender, trauma, and the politics of identity.

Title:

Content: News section
Shamil Idiatullin: “This novel is a big self-sabotage ”
Journalist and writer on the creation of “The Return of the Pioneer ”, nostalgia for the USSR and an unexpected interpretation
“Nostalgic fiction ” was dubbed by readers a new novel“ The Return of the Pioneer ” by a Moscow journalist and writer with Tatarstan roots Shamil Idiatullin.
The book is about Soviet schoolchildren who flew into space, and got into 2021, were shocked by what they saw and now dream of returning to 1985.
The work is published on the Internet in the style of a feuilleton novel - a fragment per week.
In an interview with Realnoe Vremya, the winner of the Big Book Prize talked about how his readers influence the author, what kind of music he would like to hear for the novel, and whether he yearns for the USSR.
“In the last ten years, I ’ ve made up a lot of stories. ”
- Shamil, how did you write this work?
Is it a novel or a novel?
- A story was written, and in terms of volume, in terms of the number of storylines, it turned out to be a novel.
It ’ s either a big story or a small novel.
Let the critics understand.
How did you start writing it?
This isn't your first adventure.
- Not the first, yeah.
There were a few moments here.
I have long been called a science fiction writer, even when “Tatar strike ”, my first book, came out.
This is never fiction, but the publishers, out of caution, put the novel in the series “Modern Fantastic Adventure ” and wrote in the annotation that the action takes place in the near future.
At some point I realized that it is useless to explain and argue, still I will not get rid of the label - it means you need to write fiction.
So there was “It ’ s just a game ” – a children ’ s fantasy story.
I was also called a children ’ s author from “Ubira ”.
So I gave away teenage fiction.
Then I wrote "Tubagach", a frankly childish fantasy story.
And I thought that the gestalt is closed, you can no longer consider yourself an impostor.
Last spring, I got a major book service that provides subscription-based reading — in the form of texts and audio books.
They decided, in addition to books already published by someone, to offer subscribers their own content, unique, written specifically for them.
And immediately they rushed to me: write something, please, what you want, but it would be better to fiction.
I refused for six months: I do not like to write very much, but I do not want to order.
And then I thought that here it is, the opportunity to paint one of the dozens of long-dusty stories in the computer.
Other hands will never reach, and the thing seems interesting, such I myself would read.
The story was written, and in terms of volume, the number of storylines turned out to be a novel.
It ’ s either a big story or a small novel.
Let the critics understand.
How did the story come about?
Over the past ten years, I have come up with a bunch of stories that I do not even try to implement.
Most of them were not on my own initiative.
Producers come to me every now and then: let ’ s make a movie, you can come up with something from scratch, there is such a request: for fiction, for a thriller, for a text about the 80s, for teenage adventures.
So I wrote in response to this mound dozens of applications of varying degrees of elaboration - from one line to 5-10 pages with an episode.
It didn ’ t end there, the producers just disappeared.
And when this service came to me for the third time, I decided that I should try.
He offered them a few options, and they chose three.
One of them I began to write, but for various reasons I did not give them, it turned out to be an adult social fiction, the story “Bright memory ”.
It, God willing, will be released in the editorial office of Elena Shubina as part of a fantastic collection, which is called “Everything is like people ” (and this is not a coincidence).
And for the book service, I decided to deploy the shortest application, there was a couple of lines literally: a teenage crew in 1985 goes into space, returns to our time and finds that everything has changed: the country is different, the world is different, the time is different.
What are the faithful pioneers from the era of developed socialism to do here?
Are they ready to live, learn and fight here, as they solemnly promised?
I thought it was such a challenge to expand a story from one line.
I was asked to write five books.
I was going to write something entertaining, adventurous so that teenagers would be interested in reading, for which I would give a couple of teeth and all the treasures of the world at the age of 12.
It makes it interesting for adults as well.
And in the course of writing, it turned out to be 11 sheets.
And it was on time.
I was horrified, offered to cut it, but the publisher was delighted when he read The Return of the Pioneer, and said that the novel in any case should not be cut.
“Most of what we read was a sequel. ”
- He comes out in parts, once a week?
It has nine parts.
There are two types of reading.
Reading in a volley.
And when you stretch the pleasure.
I read children ’ s books right away.
- I had my doubts.
When I was a kid, I read three books at the same time.
It is a sin to go to bed without knowing how it all ended - this is on the one hand.
On the other hand, reading in parts is blessed with history and tradition.
The format of feuilletons arose simultaneously with what we consider popular literature: thus, with the sequels, Dumas ’ main novels were published: “The Three Musketeers ”,“ Queen Margot ” and so on.
All reading America was standing on the ocean and waiting for the steamer, which was carrying from Great Britain the next pieces of Dickens ’ novel about David Copperfield or baby Dorrit.
Even War and Peace, if I ’ m not mistaken, was printed in parts.
What about our childhood!
Most of what we read were stories with a continuation in Pioneer Truth, Pioneer, Bonfire, Young Technician, and so on.
After all, we lived waiting for the continuation of “Starship on Vyat ”,“ Doves on the yellow meadow ” or “Carousel over the city ”.
Since there is a fantastic children's story with the word "Pioneer" - God himself ordered to give it to pieces.
Plus, I proceeded from the fact that the publisher knows better how to sell and promote.
Over the past ten years, I have come up with a bunch of stories that I do not even try to implement.
The majority did not come from my own initiative.
There is also music to the book.
- That's right.
The publishers worked very interesting on the audio version, which is read by a great actor Grigory Perel, and immediately asked me about the wishes for the soundtrack.
Naturally, I wanted Aigel.
But it turned out that the group is already making music for the first project of the service - the novel by Evgenia Nekrasova "Skin" about how a serf Russian peasant woman and an American black slave change their skin and fate.
As a result, the music for “Return of the Pioneer ” was a sonified — turned into sound — set of data coming from the Soviet satellites“ Vega-1 ” and “Vega-2 ”, flying to Venus and Halley ’ s comet.
The comet is one of the heroes of the book.
I have to admit, I expected that most of the readers would fill me with a virtual muzzle – where, they say, is the next piece?
Expectations were partly justified, but a surprisingly large proportion of the audience entered the taste of step-by-step reading: to finish reading – to listen to a piece, savoring it and wondering what will happen next.
- What piece is it now?
- Six out of nine.
It came to the finish line.
The publication ends on September 8.
The novel is not divided into exactly two parts.
The first half, a little less, is preparation for the flight: ordinary guys, not geniuses and not even excellent students, become participants in a space experiment.
At first such a distracted from the basic agenda, but it quickly turns out that only these teenagers can save humanity.
This half is already fully available, as is the interlude about what happened after the flight.
And this week began the second, the capital half: “Pioneer ” returned.
In the most unexpected way.
- You talk a lot online about children's fiction.
At the same time, the book contains a lot of material that is more understandable to people brought up in the USSR.
It turns out that the story is childish, but it is not for children.
This is not a children ’ s story.
It can feel that way in the first half.
However, already in the prologue, as an honest person, I set the tone, touching serious adult topics that will be touched upon later in the text.
And this should be a cut-off plane for the reader who wants old-school children's entertainment like the story "Five in a Starship."
At the same time, the first part is optimistic, childish.
Although some infodump is present.
The second part - it can not be called a nursery.
To solve children have not childish problems, as it happens in normal adolescents.
It was the same in the “City of Brezhnev ” or“ Ubyr ”: a teenage hero is cooked in a cauldron of children ’ s problems.
Apparently, my hand was stuffed with picking up adult things with the help of young heroes who are probably close to me.
Teenagers are an interesting object of study.
It is always a bubbling volcano of passions, hormones, misunderstanding, lack of experience, an overabundance of ambition, self-confidence, a desire to know everything and an understanding that everyone around is fools.
He is also interesting as a subject, one who transforms life, although he is not sharpened to it.
Time after time, young people decide the fate of the world, although this is not what they were preparing for, and not what those who brought them up counted on.
Most of what we read were stories with a continuation in Pioneer Pravda, Pioneer, Bonfire, Young Technician, and so on.
“The last organization I volunteered for was the Komsomol. ”
You talk about children ’ s literature in great detail.
You spill names that I don't even know sometimes.
Would you like to do the series “Idiatullin recommends ”?
— I really do not like to act as a pastor, a participant in a great force, an alliance, a party.
I am regularly called to various organizations.
Every time I explain that the last organization in which I volunteered was the Komsomol.
With its collapse, I happily left and decided that next - myself.
As far as possible, I will not join, join the ranks, sign collective letters, as long as this is allowed.
Several letters had to be signed, when it was all up — it was about the fate of the media and specific journalists.
But I try to stay away from mass movements.
Another thing is that I am often asked to write blerbs, reviews of books by young authors - and I try not to refuse if I like them at all.
I have acted as an expert in several awards, but I dream of escaping from everywhere completely.
Tired of reading hundreds of other people ’ s manuscripts for a year, 20 to 30 of which are beautiful, and the rest are either optional or very bad.
Rubric, conditionally, "Idiatullin recommends" - from this, from the alleged performance in the role of guru fingers curl.
Besides, I'm not sure my ringing name will make the reader go after the purse.
But on a non-commercial basis, I've been doing this for a long time.
To pay attention to the books, every year I make lists of what I have read and viewed, I try to speak publicly about the books that I liked.
This year, for the same reasons, I agreed to run a blog on a single reader platform.
There are a lot of bloggers there, but most of them are trying to promote themselves: I wrote a superbook, so read everything quickly.
I decided to write about important, necessary and just cute books that can stay away from the reader ’ s attention.
And by virtue of newspaper training, I do it regularly, dump out textiles every 10 days.
This week, for example, he wrote about the wonderful children's book by Swedish writer Ulle Mattson "Brig" Three Lilies ", which was published twice in the USSR and almost forgotten.
I write a lot about Soviet books and modern Russian books.
It ’ s all on my own initiative, of course.
Asking me is both useless and pointless — I am not a selling author.
In this book, I did not find a person with whom I could identify you.
And that's understandable.
But at the same time, I clearly read the message “what country we lost ”.
I was confused when I started the book and when I finished it.
It ’ s not easy to call me a cowboy after Brezhnev City.
And it ’ s not that I ’ m a fiery propagandist of the current situation: one who beats in awe of what ’ s happening now.
But from the “Return of the Pioneer ”, if desired, you can pull out a completely unexpected interpretation.
Because most of the impressions are formed by the optics of the narrator and listeners.
Narrators in most cases are straightforward, naive, very uncompromising guys 13 years old.
They were raised to the peak of a fairly prosperous existence, a society, a country, a set of ideas for which they are ready to sacrifice themselves.
They were taught that way.
From this peak, the heroes get to another peak, to another situation where they are no one, and everything is not as they were taught.
I tried to imagine how I would feel if I moved from 1985 to 2021 — and vice versa, how I would perceive the years of my childhood from a momentary position.
The heroes are the same age, my year of birth - it helped me remember, perhaps incorrectly, but honestly, as far as memory and conscience allowed, myself at that time.
Plus, the error factor of the survivor, but the victim, is very important.
The experiment did not end as expected.
The guys returned to the wrong place, to the wrong meeting circle, to the wrong world in general, to the zone of inverted negativity.
But they are not fools living by the same reflection.
They are trying to figure out: if we were met by other people in other circumstances, would we evaluate everything differently?
I tried to imagine how I would feel if I moved from 1985 to 2021 — and vice versa, how I would perceive the years of my childhood from a momentary position.
Please note that I picked up non-capital guys.
They are regions that do not even need to be explained.
Leninogorsk, Grozny, a working settlement at the Nurek HPP of the Tajik SSR.
In the latter two cases, it is especially clear: the situation in which their home existed in 1985, and today ’ s situation are two big differences.
And this is hardly able to please a person detached from this house.
I am ready for reproach.
This novel is a big self-starter.
I expose myself to the patriots and non-amateurs of this and that era, to the “rivets ” who will see that I have distorted technical and scientific moments, to the true-lovers of fiction, which is not written this way, to the readers of large literature, who can be enraged by a sharp plot.
And so on.
It's not my fault.
It is the fault of heroes and circumstances.
“It ’ s a shame, it ’ s a sin that will always be on me. ”
Yes, the novel has a strong scientific base.
But at some point, I began to think that it was rather contrived.
Have you studied string theory?
— Yes, I was surrounded by books, scientific articles, compared the developments of those years and modern ones, ours and the American ones.
I understood that the basic concept is absolutely zealous anyway, this is fantastic, comrades.
But the material dictated the need for at least a minimal justification of what was happening.
By and large, this does not affect the story.
I could not check the astronomical tables, not climb into NASA research, the minutes of the meeting of the Council of Chief Designers, the files of "Pravda" and astronomical bulletins.
But the text must be true to me, no matter how I lie.
Even newspaper clippings inserted into the novel, I have at the heart of the genuine — well, a little redone or stylized.
I wanted to reflect the moment of the era.
This is as essential as maintaining the intonation, the manner of speech, the slang of a particular decade.
And digging into the scientific literature was a factor in persuading me as a reader.
This, apparently, remained from the study of mathematics school.
An important question for me personally.
Will one of the main characters, Linar, learn the Tatar language?
Of course he will learn.
He has to compensate, to throw the gap that has formed between him and two of his most loving people, whom he does not understand, and they understand him with difficulty.
It will be a shame after 36 years.
It's a reproduction of my feelings.
As a child, I went on vacation to Drozhzhanovsky district to visit my grandparents.
And he almost did not communicate with them: he almost did not know Tatar, Abi did not know Russian at all, Babai did with the lexicon learned in the war.
And with my mother ’ s mother, who nursed me in the city and loved me as soon as they could, she did not speak Tatar.
It didn't bother me until I was 20.
And then there was a terrible shame - and I rushed to learn Tatar.
Now I have mastered it to the extent that I would understand them.
But they're gone.
It's a shame, it's a sin that will always be on me.
And Linar will be able to atone for this sin.
Of course, he is not me, but I threw him into this situation and am convinced that he will learn Tatar.
Radif Kashapov
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The genre has thus become a space for underrepresented authors to imagine new worlds and critique present inequities.

- **Contemporary developments:** SF continues to evolve with technology and changing global realities.

Title:

Content: No. 4 / 1 (8 / 1)
Special issue
A smartphone app that will change your attitude to literature
Technology turns reading into an exciting journey through the facts and events of a work.
To put it simply, this is just a godsend for schoolchildren, as well as for those who want to look at classical (and not only) literary works in a new way.
The process of reading has been studied quite widely: it is scientifically confirmed that this is one of the most useful activities that humanity has just invented.
Perfect fitness for our brain.
Reading trains memory, concentration, fictional plots in fiction, experiences for heroes - develop empathy, the ability to recognize the feelings of another person (without which, as you know, it is difficult to build relationships with people).
Neurophysiologist David Lewis and colleagues conducted a study on how different types of activity contribute to stress relief.
Reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68 percent, which is even more than listening to music or walking.
It turns out that just 6 minutes of reading is enough to slow the heart rate and reduce muscle tension.
By the way, this is already a fact: nowadays most people prefer to read books from the screens of smartphones, computers and e-books.
For example, according to the results of last year ’ s VTsIOM survey, more than 71% of Russians read books from electronic media (in addition to smartphones, this includes computers and e-books).
It turns out a curious nuance - according to research, most people who read the book for the first time (for the experiment used the books of Russian classics), assimilate only a little more than half of what is told in the book - terms, historical facts, descriptions of heroes, references to events, the context in which a particular plot twist takes place.
Even a well-known literary work from school literature can become a huge iceberg, hiding in the depths of the abyss of information - even for a whole fascinating book.
Modern technologies open up new facets of literary works, which, otherwise, could be discovered only after listening to a dozen lectures from famous literary critics and historians.
One of the most striking examples is the application (free, by the way) for interactive reading “Live Pages ”, developed by the Tolstoy Digital group together with Samsung Electronics.
How does the reader interact with the book in the app?
Consider the example of "War and Peace": Leo Tolstoy created one of the largest, both in terms of role in literature and based on the volume, novels - 1300 pages.
“Live pages ” not only simplify the perception of the book, but also make it deeper.
Let ’ s start with the fact that the chapters of the novel are structured according to colors – the red color is marked “war ”, and the blue color is marked“ peace ”.
In addition, in the navigation of the work, a structured table of contents of each volume will help, thanks to which the right place in the book can be found in a couple of clicks.
In the epic of Tolstoy more than 550 characters, both fictional and historical, to understand this intricacies helps a special section of the application - "Heroes", where e, instead of the characteristics of the character (his "dexterity" and "strength", for example) - cards of the heroes of the novel with their avatars and quotes.
In the "Places" section there are interesting facts about the places where events take place, in the "Routes" the paths of the heroes of the novel are traced.
Especially interesting is the section “The Course of Time ”, where in parallel you can see and read about the events described in the novel, and about those events that took place in reality.
In the application "Live pages" there is a special section "Game of words", which, for example, allows you to quickly remember obsolete words, because in the work of Tolstoy many words of another era, which most of us may already be unknown.
Tolstoy ’ s work contains many words that most of us do not know.
“Live pages ” allow you to instantly find out their meanings.
A quote from the novel: "Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a reaper," thought Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to give her a sense of the distance that should have divided them at that moment.
Who do you think is this “bastard ”?
As it turns out, a hound dog.
What else can you read in the Living Pages Library?
From the main books of Russian classics (for example, “Woe from Wit ” by Alexander Griboyedov,“ Eugene Onegin ” by Alexander Pushkin, “Crime and Punishment ” and“ Idiot ” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, “At the Bottom ” by Maxim Gorky) to modern authors (“ Lavr ” by Evgeny Vodolazkin, “Zuleikha Opens Eyes ” by Guzel Yakhina).
14 december

Digital and serialized storytelling are more common, and there is recognition of the importance of recording collective and personal histories (such as the legacy of the Soviet space program).

Technology enhances not just the subject matter, but also the modes of reading and engagement with SF.

Title:

Content: No. 4 / 1 (8 / 1)
Special issue
A smartphone app that will change your attitude to literature
Technology turns reading into an exciting journey through the facts and events of a work.
To put it simply, this is just a godsend for schoolchildren, as well as for those who want to look at classical (and not only) literary works in a new way.
The process of reading has been studied quite widely: it is scientifically confirmed that this is one of the most useful activities that humanity has just invented.
Perfect fitness for our brain.
Reading trains memory, concentration, fictional plots in fiction, experiences for heroes - develop empathy, the ability to recognize the feelings of another person (without which, as you know, it is difficult to build relationships with people).
Neurophysiologist David Lewis and colleagues conducted a study on how different types of activity contribute to stress relief.
Reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68 percent, which is even more than listening to music or walking.
It turns out that just 6 minutes of reading is enough to slow the heart rate and reduce muscle tension.
By the way, this is already a fact: nowadays most people prefer to read books from the screens of smartphones, computers and e-books.
For example, according to the results of last year ’ s VTsIOM survey, more than 71% of Russians read books from electronic media (in addition to smartphones, this includes computers and e-books).
It turns out a curious nuance - according to research, most people who read the book for the first time (for the experiment used the books of Russian classics), assimilate only a little more than half of what is told in the book - terms, historical facts, descriptions of heroes, references to events, the context in which a particular plot twist takes place.
Even a well-known literary work from school literature can become a huge iceberg, hiding in the depths of the abyss of information - even for a whole fascinating book.
Modern technologies open up new facets of literary works, which, otherwise, could be discovered only after listening to a dozen lectures from famous literary critics and historians.
One of the most striking examples is the application (free, by the way) for interactive reading “Live Pages ”, developed by the Tolstoy Digital group together with Samsung Electronics.
How does the reader interact with the book in the app?
Consider the example of "War and Peace": Leo Tolstoy created one of the largest, both in terms of role in literature and based on the volume, novels - 1300 pages.
“Live pages ” not only simplify the perception of the book, but also make it deeper.
Let ’ s start with the fact that the chapters of the novel are structured according to colors – the red color is marked “war ”, and the blue color is marked“ peace ”.
In addition, in the navigation of the work, a structured table of contents of each volume will help, thanks to which the right place in the book can be found in a couple of clicks.
In the epic of Tolstoy more than 550 characters, both fictional and historical, to understand this intricacies helps a special section of the application - "Heroes", where e, instead of the characteristics of the character (his "dexterity" and "strength", for example) - cards of the heroes of the novel with their avatars and quotes.
In the "Places" section there are interesting facts about the places where events take place, in the "Routes" the paths of the heroes of the novel are traced.
Especially interesting is the section “The Course of Time ”, where in parallel you can see and read about the events described in the novel, and about those events that took place in reality.
In the application "Live pages" there is a special section "Game of words", which, for example, allows you to quickly remember obsolete words, because in the work of Tolstoy many words of another era, which most of us may already be unknown.
Tolstoy ’ s work contains many words that most of us do not know.
“Live pages ” allow you to instantly find out their meanings.
A quote from the novel: "Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a reaper," thought Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to give her a sense of the distance that should have divided them at that moment.
Who do you think is this “bastard ”?
As it turns out, a hound dog.
What else can you read in the Living Pages Library?
From the main books of Russian classics (for example, “Woe from Wit ” by Alexander Griboyedov,“ Eugene Onegin ” by Alexander Pushkin, “Crime and Punishment ” and“ Idiot ” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, “At the Bottom ” by Maxim Gorky) to modern authors (“ Lavr ” by Evgeny Vodolazkin, “Zuleikha Opens Eyes ” by Guzel Yakhina).
14 december

- **Intergenerational and cross-cultural elements:** Modern SF engages with memory, language, identity, and heritage, as authors reflect on their backgrounds and envision the future.

The genre serves as a bridge between personal history and speculative possibility.

**In sum:** Science fiction has grown from adventure and technological speculation (Wells, Verne) into a diverse, dynamic genre that interrogates culture, history, identity, and emotion—thanks in large part to the contributions of new voices and expanded perspectives.

Title:

Content: No. 4 / 1 (8 / 1)
Special issue
A smartphone app that will change your attitude to literature
Technology turns reading into an exciting journey through the facts and events of a work.
To put it simply, this is just a godsend for schoolchildren, as well as for those who want to look at classical (and not only) literary works in a new way.
The process of reading has been studied quite widely: it is scientifically confirmed that this is one of the most useful activities that humanity has just invented.
Perfect fitness for our brain.
Reading trains memory, concentration, fictional plots in fiction, experiences for heroes - develop empathy, the ability to recognize the feelings of another person (without which, as you know, it is difficult to build relationships with people).
Neurophysiologist David Lewis and colleagues conducted a study on how different types of activity contribute to stress relief.
Reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68 percent, which is even more than listening to music or walking.
It turns out that just 6 minutes of reading is enough to slow the heart rate and reduce muscle tension.
By the way, this is already a fact: nowadays most people prefer to read books from the screens of smartphones, computers and e-books.
For example, according to the results of last year ’ s VTsIOM survey, more than 71% of Russians read books from electronic media (in addition to smartphones, this includes computers and e-books).
It turns out a curious nuance - according to research, most people who read the book for the first time (for the experiment used the books of Russian classics), assimilate only a little more than half of what is told in the book - terms, historical facts, descriptions of heroes, references to events, the context in which a particular plot twist takes place.
Even a well-known literary work from school literature can become a huge iceberg, hiding in the depths of the abyss of information - even for a whole fascinating book.
Modern technologies open up new facets of literary works, which, otherwise, could be discovered only after listening to a dozen lectures from famous literary critics and historians.
One of the most striking examples is the application (free, by the way) for interactive reading “Live Pages ”, developed by the Tolstoy Digital group together with Samsung Electronics.
How does the reader interact with the book in the app?
Consider the example of "War and Peace": Leo Tolstoy created one of the largest, both in terms of role in literature and based on the volume, novels - 1300 pages.
“Live pages ” not only simplify the perception of the book, but also make it deeper.
Let ’ s start with the fact that the chapters of the novel are structured according to colors – the red color is marked “war ”, and the blue color is marked“ peace ”.
In addition, in the navigation of the work, a structured table of contents of each volume will help, thanks to which the right place in the book can be found in a couple of clicks.
In the epic of Tolstoy more than 550 characters, both fictional and historical, to understand this intricacies helps a special section of the application - "Heroes", where e, instead of the characteristics of the character (his "dexterity" and "strength", for example) - cards of the heroes of the novel with their avatars and quotes.
In the "Places" section there are interesting facts about the places where events take place, in the "Routes" the paths of the heroes of the novel are traced.
Especially interesting is the section “The Course of Time ”, where in parallel you can see and read about the events described in the novel, and about those events that took place in reality.
In the application "Live pages" there is a special section "Game of words", which, for example, allows you to quickly remember obsolete words, because in the work of Tolstoy many words of another era, which most of us may already be unknown.
Tolstoy ’ s work contains many words that most of us do not know.
“Live pages ” allow you to instantly find out their meanings.
A quote from the novel: "Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a reaper," thought Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to give her a sense of the distance that should have divided them at that moment.
Who do you think is this “bastard ”?
As it turns out, a hound dog.
What else can you read in the Living Pages Library?
From the main books of Russian classics (for example, “Woe from Wit ” by Alexander Griboyedov,“ Eugene Onegin ” by Alexander Pushkin, “Crime and Punishment ” and“ Idiot ” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, “At the Bottom ” by Maxim Gorky) to modern authors (“ Lavr ” by Evgeny Vodolazkin, “Zuleikha Opens Eyes ” by Guzel Yakhina).
14 december

Its canonical works are now joined by stories from women, people of color, and international authors, making contemporary SF a rich field for any book club.

**Summary of the Evolution and Diversity of Science Fiction Literature:**

Science fiction has a long and varied history, growing from early works by pioneers like H.G.

Title:

Content: Monday 27 December 2021
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Wael Lotfy
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Wael Lotfy
“Studies in Scientific Literature. ”
A book that explores the features of science fiction in Arabic works
Science fiction literature has witnessed a wide presence in Arab creative writings despite its emergence and prosperity in the Western world, and despite its creative popularity, it has not received sufficient critical attention. Based on this idea, the Syrian writer and critic Ahmed Ali Mohammed observes the features and features of science fiction in Arabic literature, both ancient and modern, in his book "Studies in Science Literature", recently published in the series of studies by the Arab Writers Union.
The Syrian researcher believes that the Arab criticism has overlooked the literature of science fiction, citing a number of arguments such as the immaturity of this type of writing in the Arab world, and the disregard of his writers for the features of literary writing, as well as the lack of scientific knowledge, which the writer considers weak, especially with the presence of remarkable writings in this field succeeded in setting a firm foot and overcome many shortcomings.
Leadership in scientific literature
Ali points out that the philosophical messages of Avicenna and Ibn Tufayl can be considered as the beginning of the link in ancient Arabic literature between literature and science, as the Arab heritage includes philosophical messages written in successive times that represented the basis of literary thinking based on science fiction, the most prominent of these messages: "The message of Hayy bin Yaqzan" by Avicenna.
Shahabuddeen al-Sahrawardi ’ s “Strange Alienation ” message is inspired by the story of the neighborhood of Ben Yaqzan, and Ibn al-Nafees ’ s“ Perfect Letter ” in which he followed the example of his predecessors.
The author says of the relevance of these letters to science fiction: "These letters draw a narrative basis based on the facts of science, elaborate on the imagination based on thought and knowledge, and depict part of the knowledge of their owners.
The most prominent aspect of these letters is the narrative imager related to the facts of science and the perceptions of philosophy, which confirms the existence of seeds of scientific literature in the Arabs. ”
Science Fiction Poetry
The writer points out that science fiction literature has been associated with narrative forms, was raised with the French writer Jules Verne, who published the first story in science fiction literature in 1863 entitled "Five Weeks in a Balloon" and then wrote another story entitled "Journey to the Hollow of the Earth" and then continued productions, including the novel "Time Machine" by George Wells and others.
Science fiction poetry is rare, including the poem "The Asteroid" by Russian poet Nikolai Glazkov, translated by Al-Azhar University professor Ahmed Shafiq al-Khatib, a poem based on the achievements of science fiction literature in terms of prediction, foresight and time travel.
Criticism of scientific literature
Some of the works of Tawfiq al-Hakim include The Year of One Million (1953), which is dominated by philosophical consideration of life, nature and the universe, and his play Journey to Tomorrow (1958), which involves a forward-looking view of the future related to man ’ s struggle with time, as well as his play “Food for Every Mouth ”." In which he talks about the problem of food that people will suffer from in the future, and his play "The Prayer of Angels", which deals with the impact of science on the happiness of humanity and the provision of its needs.
Political fiction literature
The writer monitors the branches of science fiction literature that not only addressed the problems of the environment, pollution, space and planets, but touched the problems of politics, society and economy through the literature of political fiction, which includes under its banner the literature of utopia and dystopia.
There are a number of writings concerned with depicting Utopia, which means a utopia without trace of corruption, evil or injustice, the most prominent of these writings is Thomas Moore ’ s “Utopia ”, which depicts an ideal world critical of the political, religious and social conditions of his time.
The literature of dystopia comes in contrast to utopia, but they belong under the name of political fiction, which is a branch of science fiction literature, as each deals with political life by storytelling accompanied by fiction, and dystopia means the literature of the corrupt city or the world of bitter reality that depicts a society full of corruption and highlights the phenomena of destruction, murder and destruction and transformation of human beings. A feuding.
The author mentions a number of Western and Arabic writings that have emerged in the field of dystopia, including George Orwell ’ s 1984, Aldous Huxley ’ s Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury ’ s Fahrenheit 451.
At the level of Arabic writings, a number of works can be observed such as the novel "The Front" by Izz al-Din Issa, the novel "The Tale of the Last Arab" by Wassini al-Araj, "Frankenstein in Baghdad" by Ahmed Saadawi, "The Second War of the Dog" by Ibrahim Nasrallah, "Mercury" by Mohammed Rabie, "The Line" by Basma Abdul Aziz, and "Novelist of the First City" by Omar Hazek. And "Orwell in the Southern Suburbs" by Fawzi Thebian.
Literary Studies
In his book, the Syrian critic offers critical readings in a number of works under the banner of science fiction literature, including the novel "Hala al-Nour" by Mohammed al-Ashri, seeking to stand on the aesthetic trend, especially with the departure of literary criticism from the study of the aesthetic aspects of science fiction literature, observing the methods of the novelist mixing the facts of science with the world mythical heritage.
The book provides another analysis of the collection “Behind the Dark Walls ” by the Syrian writer Taleb Omran, which falls within the literature of dystopia, because the stories depict worlds in which savagery, destruction, murder and destruction prevail, and on the other hand it monitors the Syrian storyteller ’ s interest in the method of scientific storytelling and its reliance on astronomical knowledge and geographical information.
The writer also analyzes the elements and features of fantasy in some of the works of Ahmed Khaled Tawfik as one of the most prominent writers in this field, explaining that science fiction is different from fantasy or wonder in the contemporary novel in that it starts from the modern scientific output, and depends on scientific knowledge specialized, while fantasy completely degenerates from logic and depends on the imagination and does not find a trace of laws we know in reality and depends on mythological and form It is in harmony not with the outside world but with its own world according to which it takes place.

Wells ("The Time Machine") to encompass global and contemporary voices.

Title:

Content: Discover New Worlds: Top 10 Science Fiction Books for Young People
If you ’ re looking for a novel, thrilling events, elaborate details and a mystery, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik ’ s novel In the Rat Corridor is your best choice, published in 2016 and one of the best Arabic science fiction novels.
(Explanatory)
Reading is the food of the mind and a window to learn about new worlds you may not know anything about, giving you a different pleasure through which you can overcome boredom and depression and spend your free time reading your favorite book, but the most important question remains: Why read science fiction books?
Especially since there are thousands of books specialized in history and different civilizations throughout the ages that require reading and learning about them?
The answer is simply that sometimes we need to let go of the past, the present and even think about the future and let our imagination take a fun journey with science fiction books, which makes us fly into a parallel world where we can make our own laws and build our own world as we want.
10 Best Science Fiction Books Worth Reading
1.
In the Rat Corridor by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik
If you ’ re looking for a novel, thrilling events, elaborate details and a mystery, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik ’ s novel In the Rat Corridor is your best choice, published in 2016 and one of the best Arabic science fiction novels.
The story is about a huge meteor collision with the planet, blocking the sun ’ s rays from the earth, and thus the lack of all sources of energy and the creation of a system of “Commander ”, which criminalizes the generation of any source of energy or even the ignition of fire.
After the emergence of a group of rebels calling themselves the "Illuminati", the story ends with a tragic and unexpected end.
2.
Call for Carl Sagan.
Contact is the masterpiece of writer Karal Sagan, the novel talks about the realization of the dream of humans to discover another life somewhere else in the universe, but contrary to expectations people do not care about this discovery due to their preoccupation with their human world full of various political conflicts.
The adventure begins with a message explaining how to get to this place with a specially made machine for this journey, called a trip to the edge of the universe, where man sees what he has never seen before, where the huge stars and amazing scenes from a new world beyond our comprehension, and during this journey one can experience an adventure like never before.
3.
Traveler Zero by Ahmed Abdel Fattah Saleh
Traveler Zero, one of the most beautiful Arabic science fiction books, revolves around the character of a man named Sharif who wakes up one day to find himself in a world other than his own, and a life he knows nothing about, and that the last thing he remembers is his sleep as a college student and waking up as a married man with children and a different and new life. The truth about himself and the reason why he suddenly fell into this situation.
This novel is characterized by its attractive style of narration, as the writer relied on images, symbols and fictional situations that added to the novel a lot of elements of suspense and pleasure, and in which you can not stop reading if you have already begun.
4.
Dr. Morrow Island by Herbert George Wells.
This novel is the simplest example of an intellectual revolution, where it revolves around an Englishman descended from a class of nobility named Edward Brendick, all things change Edward when he goes on a trip to an island in the Pacific Ocean and his ship crashes and is rescued by a man named Montgomery, who takes him on a boat to the island inhabited by this man, in addition to a mad animal anatomist named Moro, and a number of half-humans. Created by this scientist with surgical methods and other interventions in animal life, Edward's adventure begins.
5.
The Ferry Man by Justin Cronin
This novel is about a group of survivors who are on a hidden utopia, but the truth is not what it seems.
Set in the Prospera archipelago, founded by the mysterious genius known as the designer far from the horrors of the deteriorating outside world, this island paradise has a long and satisfying life until the screens installed in their arms, aimed at measuring their physical health and well-being, drop to less than 10% and retire, and set off on a ferry trip to the island known as the nursery, where their bodies are renewed. Their memories are erased and they are ready to be brought back to life.
The story centers on Proctor Bennett of the Department of Social Contracts who finds himself questioning everything he once believed in, involved in a much larger cause than he was connected to and in a desperate mission to uncover the truth, after mounting unrest and rumors of a resistance group known as the “Expatriates ”, which may incite a revolution.
6.
The Time Machine of Herbert George Wells.
This book is considered one of the best and most important science fiction books, written by Herbert George Wells, one of the founders of science fiction and thriller.
The story revolves around a physicist who has developed a device through which he can see the future, and the extent of the major conflicts between two species of humans in the future, one of them is the Elroy luxuriant who is stupid behind the graces and lives on the surface of the earth, and the other is the Morlock, the species that lives underground and never sees the sun. Louie. "
7.
The Storm of Swords by George Martin.
This novel is the third part of the epic "Ice and Fire", one of the most famous books by George Martin, and revolves around the story of the Storm of Swords about the Five Kings, especially the young King Jeffrey, who seeks to secure his rule, and at this stage many battles and wars between the family and other kings, in an atmosphere full of excitement, suspense and science fiction.
8.
A Land Without Shadow by Mohamed Abdel Aal Al Khatib
This novel delves into the sea of science fiction and takes place in the future, where the debris of a planet flies in the sky, and each period the debris of this planet comes closer and closer to the inhabitants of the Earth, who live in a state of unprecedented fear and horror, and the population begins to search for another planet to escape to it by researchers and thinkers.
9.
The truth about Dan Brown.
One of the works of the American novelist Dan Brown is one of the most famous science fiction novels, and it is difficult to start without finishing it immediately; it revolves around the conspiracy theory and the involvement of NASA with a large research agency to convince the world of the existence of a meteor coming, and thus the public is preoccupied with many social problems and economic situation experienced by the country. There are a lot of corruption cases in the United States.
10.
Earth to the Moon by Jules Verle.
At the end of the list is one of the best science fiction novels worth reading, one of the oldest works that predicted human travel to the moon, by French writer John Ferrell, published in 1865.
A group of scientists from a club called Cannon developed a cannon shot designed to take them to the moon, and this book predicts the fact that humans arrived on the moon almost 100 years before it actually happened.
In this article, we have presented to you 10 books and novels that are considered one of the most famous and best science fiction books for leading writers, which many have enjoyed reading and enjoying.

Early science fiction was driven by the wonders and anxieties of early technological advances and scientific discovery; authors like Wells and Jules Verne used imaginative storytelling to reflect on the social, philosophical, and ethical impacts of progress.

Title:

Content: The novel is a cure for scientific infiltration.
Novelist art of the last three decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the present century is perhaps one of the most important tools for the dissemination of scientific knowledge and making it part of the general culture, as it has significantly reduced the gap between the scientific fiction and scientific applications in the field, through interesting stories and interesting characters.
Scientists can reach a wider audience and simplify complex ideas, which contributes to the promotion of scientific awareness and inspiration among readers; the integration of science with literature is not just an intellectual luxury, but a necessity for effective communication between scientists and society, especially as physical discoveries have become more confusing and fascinating than the most imaginative scientific novels.
When we read according to preconceived expectations, we marginalize the element of surprise with all its uncalculated potential, which may lead us to wonder and pleasure.
The use of the novel in the dissemination of science is not a new innovation, as literary stories throughout the ages have been an effective means of transmitting knowledge and values. Every sober novel must be a medium of knowledge, and therefore it undoubtedly requires a writer passionate about knowledge to touch a chord in the heart and mind of the reader. To achieve this, the reader must be engaged in learning.
But in modern times, with the increasing complexity of scientific theories and technology as a means of dealing with epistemological lava, epistemological narratives are no longer just lavish, but an urgent need and a simplistic tool that allows audiences to understand this knowledge more deeply.
To think of scientific novels as mere science fiction involves a great deal of predilection and prejudice, and I think it is more correct to describe them as an epistemological novel that satisfies in a fictional framework, and this can be seen by examining the dramatic and attractive survey that marked most of them.
With the proliferation of international novels and their drinkers, selective reading was inevitable; after all, we wouldn ’ t be able to read every recent edition.
Here comes the subjective approach; some are satisfied with the translator into Arabic, because there is no way for him to read another language, some read novels based on previous compliments of prominent critics and known for the excellence of their literary industry, others follow novels for their popularity and popularity, and there are readers who follow certain names for their knowledge of the creativity in their novels, and I think myself of the latter category. Although I sometimes tend to take the opinion of the first category, I think that when we read according to preconceived expectations, we marginalize the element of surprise with all its uncalculated potential, which may cause us to wonder and enjoy.
In Alice in Quantum Country, Robert Gilmar takes the reader on a journey through the world of quantum mechanics, in ways that draw the reader into the depths of this mysterious and complex field.
Gilmar uses a simple narrative style, with illustrations and famous experiences
I follow the work of Dan Brown and José Rodríguez dos Santos with great passion, and I make sure that I do not miss any of their work, and I think it is a wonderful experience that their novels and the works of other novelists who have taken it upon themselves to convey scientific ideas and concepts to a wide audience in an interesting and easy to understand way, especially by making them freely available to readers on the Internet. A large number of readers are paying to read it, and to see the most distinctive and unusual scientific investigations of our time.
By this I mean “particle physics ”, which is one of the most prominent sciences of the modern era, led by the Center for Nuclear Research in Switzerland (CERN), and the unprecedented revolution of communication, informatics and electronic applications, nano-engineering, and the science of industrially created materials; as well as“ quantum mechanics ”, which led to a revolutionary turn in science, thought and philosophy.
These are some of the most exciting and complex fields of science.
Thanks to their storytelling style, writers have been able to present these topics in a way that non-specialist readers can understand and enjoy, and keep up with the explosive stream of information generated daily; in Alice in Quantum Land, Robert Gilmar takes the reader on a journey through the world of quantum mechanics, in ways that draw the reader to the depths of this mysterious and complex field.
Through illustrative examples and famous experiments, such as the double-slit experiment and the Schrödinger cat experiment, Gilmar explains how qubits and quantum entanglement can be the foundations of new quantum computing, simplifying complex scientific concepts and making them accessible to everyone.
Dan Brown introduces elements of particle physics and electronic engineering into his novels, as shown in The Lost Symbol and The Origin.
It mixes scientific facts with literary fiction, creating interesting worlds.
The book is not just a theoretical exposition, it is a fictional journey into the quantum world, involving chapters with dramatic titles that rob the passionate reader: Into Quantum Land, Heisenberg Bank, Institute of Mechanics, Copenhagen School, Fermi-Boz Academy, Virtual Reality, Atoms in the Empty, Rutherford Castle, Particle Concert Masquerade, and the City of Experimental Physics Games.
Quantum Alice is similar to the Alice created by the novelist Lewis Carroll (who had an in-depth experience in mathematics).
It is a novel whose protagonists are electrons, neutrons, protons, photons, and quarks.
Alice goes to the Quantum Country — an entirely new version of Wonderland, smaller than an atom — and each landmark she frequents there illustrates a different aspect of quantum theory; there Alice encounters a number of extraordinary characters, through which she learns the uncertainty principle, wave functions, Pauli principle, and other concepts. Baffling, with a new intake that makes them all easy to absorb.
Along the same lines, Dan Brown introduces elements of particle physics and electronic engineering into his novels, as shown in The Lost Symbol and The Origin.
Braun blends scientific facts and literary fiction to create interesting worlds that help readers explore these fields without feeling overwhelmed; in Angels and Demons, Braun offers particle physics in an exciting way, tackling the story of antimatter smuggling, which prompts the reader to dive into this complex field of science, in an interesting narrative that highlights the challenges and adventures associated with this science.
José Rodríguez dos Santos, a Portuguese journalist and novelist, combines his journalistic and novelist skills to provide stories that delve into science in an exciting storytelling style, though he elaborates on scientific knowledge more than Dan Brown does.
In his novel The Mystical Hand, Dos Santos addresses the subject of biological evolution and astrophysics, mixing scientific facts with fiction, dissecting scientific concepts in a way that the average reader can understand, without losing the element of suspense and excitement in his plots.
I feel very grateful for this type of novel and its authors as much as I am for scientists and their discoveries, and I hope that it will be more popular in our Arab societies, whether by specialists in the scientific field or others, as a space for fun and learning.
In his novel The Gods of the Universe, Dos Santos explores topics such as the Big Bang and string theory, presenting them in the context of an exciting story.
Thanks to his journalistic background, Dos Santos has the ability to simplify scientific concepts, presenting them in a curious way.
What science fiction novelists do in their series is try to shift one ’ s mind from the superficial, fragile, transitory levels of thought to the higher horizons, which may seem invisible or intangible to many; understanding the basics is the foundation of every sober science, the necessary first step to contribute to intellectual and societal advancement, and not to dwell in the corners of indifference away from the scientific revolutions around us.
I feel very grateful for this type of novel and its authors as much as I am for scientists and their discoveries, and I hope that it will be more popular in our Arab societies, whether by scientific professionals or others, as a space for fun and learning, to turn on the disrupted senses, and to take a look at the worlds around us.
The views expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.

Over time, sci-fi has continuously reinvented itself, responding to the cultural landscape and scientific developments.

The genre delights in "the element of surprise," pushing readers beyond their expectations and indulging their sense of wonder.

Modern science fiction, as seen in works like Robert Gilmar’s "Alice in Quantum Country" or Dos Santos's "The Gods of the Universe," often integrates cutting-edge scientific concepts (such as quantum mechanics, the Big Bang, and string theory) within narrative frameworks, making complex subjects accessible and exciting.

The genre is also increasingly recognized and explored across different cultures.

Arabic science fiction, for instance, is gaining traction with writers like Ahmed Khaled Tawfik ("In the Rat Corridor") crafting original stories that blend local themes with universal sci-fi motifs, offering new perspectives and fostering learning and curiosity.

In the broader landscape, science fiction has moved from a Eurocentric, predominantly male tradition to incorporate more diverse voices.

Women and authors of color have significantly impacted the genre, bringing fresh perspectives, themes, and innovations.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

These voices challenge conventions, explore underrepresented experiences, and expand the scope and empathy of science fiction.

The referenced text celebrates this diversity and the genre's potential in education and social imagination.

Furthermore, the text suggests that reading and engaging deeply with science fiction—or any literature—requires critical engagement, openness to surprise, and attention to context and language.

The genre's evolution is as much about narrative innovation as it is about expanding whose stories are told and what ideas are explored.

Title:

Content: I love the story of the future: Consciousness against a more troubled future.
A novel by dr.
Sana Al-Shaalan (daughter of Naima)
3 minutes ago.
Our homeland today: Read: Aqeel Hashim / Iraq – After it turned out that the era is the era of narrative unlike the rest of the literary genres, the contemporary novelist seeks through experimentation to disrupt the narrative system of significance, formulation and formation, and ultimately results in the emergence of new developments on that era. The narrative discourse has a narrative — and a critique, and this has been exemplified by the novel “I adore ”.
I say that since we are in globalization an age of doubt and uncertainty, and this doubt is a prominent feature in the movement of the new novel, made the writer and reader a system of cognitive awareness communicative to read the puzzle of what is happening to our present, the reader is no longer naive to accept everything that is said to him, and therefore he wonders about every new phenomenon and therefore worries him and shakes his entity if he can not find a solution.
The novels known as "science fiction" novels, for example, rise to a major event about the prediction of the consequences of scientific phenomena in human life, and the readers of the novel have shown the validity of the predictions of many of these novels, which prepared their perceptions to accept and predict, as the novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932. As technology evolves, and because the novel is by its nature an avant-garde art, it seeks to explore its horizons. Rather, it expresses its events about the past or the present only for the sake of a future vision that includes these events and a change in the insides of its characters. A special vision of time, and makes good use of the element (psychological time), the time in which its painted characters live and live.
The development of the narrative technique adopted in the new novel was a revolutionary introduction in order to get rid of the techniques of the traditional novel, as well as a new addition in the artistic structure of the novel, which is based on taking the reader out of his negativity, so it became necessary to consolidate the concept of self in the time of digital identity, which is more fluid, as it can not be proven. Create it without reference.
“Love Me ” by Dr.
Sana Al Shaalan, which was published in three editions, the first edition was published in 2012, and is the winner of the Dubai Cultural Award for Creativity 2010 / 2011 in its seventh session, the second edition was issued in 2014, and the third edition was issued in 2016.
The novel consists of (217) pages of medium size, this novel represents a narrative model that embodies the author ’ s attempt to benefit from some of the techniques of postmodernism, and that the investment of the so-called “future ”, and its employment in this novel, made it this distinctive.
The novel above all is the novel of the fundamental difference between a man and a woman, and it is the novel of fate, which connects the fate of each to the other, and connects the consciousness of each to the other.
Consciousness was not, as Gilles Deleuze once put it, “self-consciousness, but the self-consciousness of an unconscious self.
Consciousness is not the master ’ s consciousness, but the slave ’ s consciousness in relation to a master whose character is not to be conscious. ”
It is this bitter truth that pulls the two consciences to each other, and it shapes the conditions of their inevitable relationship.
This relationship seems to us to be in no way separated from the social and political context in which the novel takes place in our Arab world.
The time of the novel is set in the year (3010), and the place (the Milky Way Galaxy) chosen the place for her novel.
Characters:
Bassel Al-Mehri: A military intelligence man, excessively dedicated to serving a tyrannical government, a symbol of the state of oppression, violence and tyranny, lost his body in a terrorist incident because of his excessive dedication to his work, but his head remained healthy and vibrant, doctors advised him to undergo surgery, in which he transfers his healthy head to the body of a woman who has just died. Despite his regret, he justifies his action by saying: “But I am a coward weak in the face of my clinging desire for life, the sweet taste of life still gnaws at the will to refuse and overcome weakness in myself and insists on me with a bloody insistence to cling to life even in another body, even if it is a body stolen from a woman. ”
Shams: A female political activist and opposition to power rebel and rebel, she is a prominent national leader in the banned and opposition Al-Hayat party, and a famous writer and writer, Habiba Khaled Rami, a girl killed by the intelligence services.
Khaled Rami: Habib Shams and her lover, and there were dozens of love letters between him and Shams describing the burning love between them.
Ward: The fetus that Shams carries from her beloved Khalid, is still alive in the womb of the murdered Shams, moving with his mother ’ s body to the bowels of the military man Basil al-Mehri, and this name was chosen by Khalid, as Shams says: “Your name will be Ward, this name was chosen by Khalid, since now I can almost smell your pink smell in my newborn motherhood … The flower is also the name of an extinct animal that belongs to the time before the third millennium, its name is also the lion, and it is a predator, wild and strong, and noble as well, lives with pride, rejects the carrion, and cherishes its strength, and so we called you a rose to be a vow of beauty and strength and to love us.
In this particular narration, starting from the title, the miraculous, the multiplicity and the dispersion instead of unity and harmony, the abandonment of the plot, the lack of invalidity, the feeling of anger and the fictitious narrative, and the denial of causality.
We start by analyzing the title as it represents the first threshold for understanding the content of the novel. This title raises the reader to the semantic dimensions of the concept of love, love and passion, and gives a structure contrary to what is familiar, known, the foundations of the strange title, and a puzzling revelation of the concept of this relationship. Shaq and intimacy are mentioned in my novel.
The novel begins with the words of a woman in love named Shams, from the Milky Way, in which she says: “Only those with loving hearts are aware of the fact that there is a fifth dimension regulating this giant universe, which is love, and that love is the fifth most important dimension in shaping the features of our existence, only love is enough to revive this death. ”
What is important here is to emphasize that we are looking for what the writer wants and what she means from the miraculous manifestations found in the novel text is a counter-reaction to the death of love and the tyranny of the phenomenon of human death and the victory of technology that tries to overcome the facts of reality in an irrational way. It has become strange and strange, and the strange and strange event takes place.
The peculiarity of the novelistic event is reflected in several photos, the most prominent of which are: The opening of the novel with the presentation of a strange story:
This strange story put the reader from the beginning of the story in the tragic situation that befell the hero, and created a situation characterized by turmoil that shook the entity of man and woman to form one body, and felt the oddity of this unfamiliar world, and also his sense of sadness and fear throughout the novel due to the split of his personality;
This shows that it is possible for the aggressive nature of man to overcome the human nature or vice versa; the transformation comes suddenly – as a result of an accident – and there were no signs of its occurrence.
It lies in the transfer of the head of Basil al-Mahri protagonist to the body of a woman is (Shams) The transfer of the mind of an active and influential man in supporting power to the body of a woman political activist who stood against corruption in her country, which led the military intelligence to capture her, and then kill her after they failed to take any confession from her. At the same time (Shams) lost her head, and her body remained peaceful and vibrant, so the doctors gathered “and assured him that this female body, lying in the arms of death with a crimson smile full of peace and contentment, is the only body that is genetically appropriate, tissues and cells for his body...
Therefore, he must accept to plant his soul and brain in this small body on hatred or satisfaction in order to survive his life, otherwise he will die, and he must decide quickly and delay is not in his favor.
Dramatic action stimulates us, provokes us to look at our fates, to think about our lives, from the death and burial of feelings to the danger that awaits them and this is what we think the author wanted to explain – to worry the reader, to make him anxious, to question and to hesitate.
We find the confusion in this novel; the vision of the hero is dominated by mental delusions, confused imaginations of the mixing of the truth and its non-existence, and the novel continues, the writer here tries to appeal to the letters.
The message has the above importance, charm and a great communicative role, thus creating imaginary worlds, and as a document that penetrates the genre of fiction as a psychological response and an expressive suppression suffered by the characters concerned, it aims to unleash their souls pregnant with sensations, burning confessions and other things that are difficult for them to express in the presence of the recipient, whether he is a lover, relative or even an enemy....
The resort of Bassel Al-Mehri to read the memoirs of Shams in the journey of identification has left him in a emotional dilemma he did not expect, I turned all his decisions and promises to revenge against her and her body, it is the moment of disclosure, the moment of recognition of the existence of the other, after Bassel Al-Mehri knew the truth of this love between them he felt a bit of remorse and said: “How small in those moments!
And also a thief! … {He says to the fetus}: How lucky you were to have a mother of such beauty and all this love, ” the fetus carried by her body or his body is the fruit of a unique love committed by Khalid and Shams in violation of the laws of the galaxy.
After serious attempts, Basil Al-Mehri got a light package containing information about Shams in the framework of a diary she wrote to her lover Khalid and her baby (Ward), with a set of love letters sent by Khalid. The letters written by Shams and Khalid show true love. Basil Al-Mehri found in the first page only one paragraph written “Only the lovers of hearts are aware of the fact that there is a fifth dimension regulating this giant universe ”.“ Do you know why I repeat the word I love you a thousand times because it reduces all humanity to making love, I love you and I desire you? ”
I would say, the writer dr.
Sana Al-Shaalan always tries in her narratives to dive into the worlds of her characters with high professionalism and a great degree of neutrality through which she aspires to expel clichés and prejudices from the other so that the criminal killer has a demon completely, and the lover Alwahan is an angel.
This relativism in addressing issues is one of the pillars of its humanistic narrative project.
This relationship between the ego and the other is one of the manifestations of the novel and its integration and its quest to crystallize a special world, which offers us some important reading keys in it, because it is also achieved on a deeper level when the visions and expropriations involved in it correspond to reveal to us another key reading in the texts of the writer.
The symbolism of the “sun ” is a manifestation of the rebellious and liberated woman, an obsession with being, identity, time, death and the longing for the impossible realization.
In fact, what the novel says is the purely real world, the world formed by the combination of external reality and the psychological reality of the characters, and the intellectual or philosophical reality of the visions and ideas that seem to them and capture some of their interests, the moment is not permanent, because it is by nature instantaneous, but more importantly, narrative that it is uncertain in its own moment.
There is no hope of getting it back, let alone getting it back.
The negative and critical narrative text avoids the disclosure of the content so as not to spoil its seductive ambiguities.
He remains cynical in his ambiguities, but at the same time the writer will be responsible for the perpetuation of this sphere until the end, driven by an inevitable and inescapable amount of covering up the privacy of her characters until the end.
At the end of the novel, love is born between the killer and the murdered. After the hero finds himself in the body of his assassination, he falls in love with the body of the woman who was once the body of the woman he assassinated, after knowing her through her diary. The choice of love and life triumphs over death and annihilation, and Basil Al-Mahri becomes a fighter and supporter of the revolutionaries after he was a repressive hand in the hands of the government of the galaxy clutching rebels against its secularism and its misleading laws. Basil Al-Mahri believes that love is the way to save humanity from the misery it suffers. This is the easy and difficult equation, they are without a doubt the fifth dimension of things, then love is the fifth dimension of existence and the key to all its energies and the secrets of its existence, growth and mortality. ” Atheism leads to faith, and he is ready to risk his life in order to give birth to the baby (Ward), thus winning the choice of love and love at the end of the novel, heralding the birth of another new generation of humanity carrying the banner of love, brotherhood, justice and equality away from injustice and arbitrariness.
Finally, I say: “I adore me ” a beautiful and interesting novel despite its apparent difficulty, interceding its transparent poetic language and its semantic intensity giving, it tempts the reader to continue reading from the overlap of characters, and the dominance of the style of narrative suspense that makes the event the focus of the work of fiction, and urges the reader to gasp behind and pursue his chapters.
To get to know this mysterious planet called Woman, which in this regard is one of the most sincere novels in understanding women, and honest in dealing with them, she seeks to explore the depths of women from within.
A symbolic sun is a game of universes and galaxies, and its body is involved from the very beginning in a purely cosmic game.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

**Actionable Insights for a Book Club:**

- Balance canonical classics (e.g., H.G.

Title:

Content: The Reading Tactics.
Your comprehensive guide to smoothly passing through difficult books
Perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say that the benefits of reading have received the largest number of inspirational quotations in human history, almost everyone talked about the greatness of reading and its importance from the distant past, to the moment of writing these words, but in the process we fell into one major mistake, which can be summed up in what Oscar Wilde once said: By repeating the same book more than once, you don ’ t need to start reading it at all, ” he said, adding, “I enjoy books so much that I don ’ t care to write them. ”
Because of quotations like these, which are as dense as rain on cold winter nights, some imagine that when we read, we are supposed to feel the pleasure that we see in chocolate commercials, or that someone experiences in an imaginary moment in a tropical forest enjoying a mango while holding a book in their hands, but that is simply not true.
When you try to read a book about existential philosophy, for example, even if it is a very short introduction for beginners, or another about quantum mechanics or relativistic theory or the sociology of gender, you will of course not feel that pleasure, and you may even get tired after the first few pages, and the boredom begins to creep into your depths little by little. Someday.
Now, what are you gonna think?
Exactly, you would think that you have nothing to do with reading, those who enjoy reading are, perhaps, a special class of people, perhaps smarter than us, those who flirt with reading as if it were like drinking cold juice on a summer day after a long day ’ s work.
But the reality is that reading, and here we especially mean non-fiction books, is a difficult and exhausting process, but there are some effective tactics that can actually help you skip a difficult book, and get out of it with the greatest benefit.
The Myths of Fast Reading
Let ’ s start with the myth of fast reading, which gets a lot of attention thanks to human development courses and books, and generally claims that the faster you read, the more you understand, but this is not true, and in fact, the more complex the subject of the book you have to read carefully, and you may need to retreat a little in some of the curves of the book to achieve a better understanding.
Your reading speed does not improve with pictorial abilities as some claim, but it develops only in three cases: the first is to read the same book more than once, the second is to read the same subject for consecutive times, then you will get used to its terms and the fifth book for example in the same field is much easier and with a clear difference from the first book. He often repeats it.
In fact, re-reading is a skill that many people do not care about, as they think that if you do not understand the book the first time, it means that you will never understand it, but repeated readings of the same book improve your level of understanding, for example, René Descartes suggested that you read the same book four times, the first is a general reading, the second is looking for the author's arguments, and the third is trying to answer your questions like:
And the fourth for the rest of your unanswered questions last time.
To improve your understanding of what you read further, you can do a simple trick, which is to introduce one of your senses to the process, for example, reading aloud, it can also help you slow down your reading speed, because some may be used earlier to reading faster and not be able to easily slow down their speed.
Besides reading aloud, you can also use any of the other “active reading ” tactics, a skill that many college students use to understand their references and, of course, works in all types of books.
For example, you can write your notes on both sides of the book, or even in a small sticky paper that you put on the side of the page you are reading, you can also write your notes in an external paper, allocated to each chapter, for example, the notes contain everything, from how you feel when reading a paragraph, your questions about it, whether they are inquisitive or even critical (an important point we will talk about it shortly), as well as summaries of what you understood.
Use crayons to mark the top of sentences or lines that you think are important (but not all of them), but at that point you might ask: What ’ s important?
For example, how do I get what is important from the book?
Often, readers cannot sift through the main details within a chapter, here we need to define what we are looking for within the book.
Five lenses for book detailing
At that point, you can learn an important method presented by the accomplished trio Gerald Jones, Jeremy Hayward and Dan Cardinal in their simplified reference "AQA AS Philosophy" for high school students and university entrance exams in English schools, called the "five lenses".
First, the lens of context: who wrote this text?
Why did he write it?
When did he write it?
Searching for the context in which this text was written will help you understand many of its connotations. In general, reading the introduction of the book and browsing the index gives a general, and very important, idea of the book and its context and main structure representing the cement columns on which the whole body of the book is built, but you may need to go out to the Internet to search for a definition of the writer.
The second lens is the lens of conventions: what words are used in idiomatic style?
What do you mean? What do you mean?
These terms open the door to a wider search, and represent the road signs in any book, stop there and meditate a little, the terms are simply the most important thing in a scientific or philosophical book, it is like learning a new language, as you learn new words, you progress.
Think of the terms as a stop and then go into the cyberspace, and try to find out what these terms mean, Google and YouTube are always best friends, YouTube in particular may serve at the point of the terms with short videos (the same goes for the names of the characters, for example, if the biography of Kant or Niels Bohr or Max Weber, etc., here you will need to get to know this character).
Now we come to the third lens, the lens of concepts: what is the main idea repeated in this text?
What does the author mean?
What does that have to do with terminology?
Now, through the first and second lenses, you can get an idea of the subject.
The fourth lens is the lens of arguments: what argument does the subject make?
What is the author trying to prove?
And in what way?
Look for commas with words such as "for this reason", "conclude that", "based on the above", etc., and try to extract the argument that the subject builds with successive relationships (since, then, from here we can say).
And finally there ’ s the lens of structure: how do you divide that subject or chapter or that title within the chapter or the content of that set of pages into a set of passages written your way?
Each of these passages will have an idea, number them in the simple way 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and make a short title for each.
Here you have been able to make a complete summary of your topic, and you can expand this kind of division to use mind maps, a simple idea means to organize what you wrote of points in a tree image, starting from a single idea, or maybe a name, a term or a concept, to branch out to other points related to that idea. books or historical books).
In order to chronological events if the book has a historical aspect, you can use a simple scheme similar to metro stations, at which each station has a history and an event.
The Feynman Method
Well, let ’ s at that point clarify an important idea that concerns many, it is normal to forget the information you read in a book, in fact the goal of reading is not to memorize, but to understand the meaning that the writer wants to convey to you, the idea is not to memorize the names of stars and the distances between you and galaxies, but to realize something more about the extent of this wonderful cosmic garden compared to your small planet, and so on.
As for the memorization of information, names and dates, do not worry, it will happen, but it will be the result of successive readings in the same subject, so that a name or a term such as "Schwarzschild radius" or "Chandrasekhar limit" or "logical position" or "new experimental" is a natural thing that runs on your tongue after you see it more than once, subject and place or when you discuss with someone. He said something obvious.
In the end, you have to realize that there is a difference between remembering something and explaining it to someone, which is the same difference between information and learning, the goal is to learn, not to remember information, and at that point we nominate you what is called the "Feynman method", which is used by many readers around the world, and means to test your understanding and learning of a chapter by trying to summarize it in a picture that can be explained to yourself or your friend or friend. Then, actually explain it to him, here will appear gaps in your explanation and points that you did not manage to communicate well, go back to the book and try to digest those points and fill those gaps, and then explain them to him again, and so on.
In fact, the author of the report sometimes applies this technique directly through blogging on the Facebook platform, and indeed it is a successful technique, not only because it helps you remember or understand, but also improves your understanding of the material in which you read.
Serious about what you love.
Add to that another important point, which is that some may already start with a heavy book higher than his level, for example, some may try to start in the universes with the book "The Universe in a Walnut Shell" by Stephen Hawking, the book is already simplified and presented to the public, but even this book may be heavy at your level because of the many terms and complexity of some of them. or a simple Wikipedia file, etc.
Book means knowledge, and knowledge has many sources and not only books, in fact, books are only one point in a large network of ways of knowledge, including articles, documentaries, lectures and courses, and diversification of sources will benefit you greatly, some materials are easier and better in documentaries such as simplified history, you can consider the series "Apocalypse: World War II" for example!
Some subjects are better understood in courses and lectures, for example chemistry is more enjoyable in lectures, especially those that offer experiments.
It also helps to make reading easier to discuss with someone about the book you are currently working on, and this is achieved by joining groups on Facebook, or any other social media, that include fans of the same domain that you love. These discussions not only improve your understanding, but also increase your enthusiasm to complete the book, and make you feel more familiar with what you want to read about.
After all, one last important technique in reading is to criticize the book freely, surely you will object to one or two or more points in each book you pass through, the right thing in this case is to follow a simple plan, start by postponing the judgment of the whole book and wait until you finish it and understand the whole point of view of the writer, take note of the objections as we mentioned above.
At the end of the book, you should differentiate between opinion and information, you should also, if you disagree with the author, show yourself why, for example, what misinformation was he talking about?
What is missing in his analysis?
What is the irrationality of what he shows?
Otherwise, your objection will essentially be based on an emotion that has only to do with a prior bias.
Finally, let us make it clear that seriousness is the proof of the sincerity of love, we do not mean relations specifically, but being serious in learning physics is the proof that you love physics, and otherwise it is something that cannot be described as love, because love is not just a feeling of happiness in the company of things and people, and not something that works alone inertia on the basis that this is its nature, as the end of old movies taught us. And always develop it, every day.
Source: The Island

Wells) with contemporary and international works.

- Include authors from diverse demographics (women, people of color, and global perspectives) to enrich discussion and understanding.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

- Explore both hard science themes and more philosophical or social sci-fi.

What did Frank Herbert's "Dune" manage to achieve?

- Read critically: discuss not just plot, but also context, underlying ideas, and the author’s purpose.

- Encourage curiosity and wonder—celebrate the "uncalculated potential" of the books you choose.

This approach will help members appreciate the evolution and current vitality of the science fiction genre.

Certainly!

Title:

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"日本語版「フィーカス」について" (in Japanese).
Science fiction novelist X futurist Liu Yukun 's unique creative path 【 Interview Next 】
2022 / 4 / 15 19: 13 （ Updated on 4 / 15 20: 22 ）
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Liu Yukun shows a stronger creative confidence in his second collection of short stories, "Hidden Niang", expecting readers to add their own interpretation and find a place to live in the story. (Photo by Lisa Tang Liu)
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Text: Huang Shu-fang
Liu Yukun is the first writer to win the Nebula Award, Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award at the same time. He is also an important promoter of Chinese science fiction. He translated the Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin's "Three Bodies", Hao Jingfang's "Beijing Folding" and Chen Fan's "Wild Tide" into English.
After the popular collection "Folding Zoo", Liu Yukun published his second collection of short stories, "Hidden Niang", and completed the epic "Dandelion Dynasty". What is his next plan? How does he think about the relationship between the author and the reader?
Please follow the Central News Agency interview to find out.
Q: You mentioned in the preface that choosing an article for "Hidden Girl" is easier than the debut film "Folding Zoo", and there is no longer the pressure to "present".
Does this mean you ’ ve found an author position that makes you comfortable, or are you more confident about your relationship with your readers?
A: As you get older, you don ’ t care about people who don ’ t like you.
That ’ s pretty much what I wanted to say.
My collection of novels makes sense to readers who like my work, and vice versa.
It ’ s like inviting a friend to your house — they love the space that presents your normal life, and they know you ’ re not going to go to great lengths to change the house just because you have guests. After all, they ’ re here for your soul.
People who don ’ t like your family don ’ t come.
Most likely to be interpreted when it is least communicative.
Q: Do you think that you have the best results in writing that you do not write for the purpose of communication? Can you further explain the relationship between the two? You talk about your intention to bring Eastern American culture and Eastern history into your work, and consciously make Eastern American culture and Eastern history a part of American culture and American history?
A: For a long time, I have been unable to understand those who insist on dividing the culture into the East and the West, as if the barriers between the cultures are clear, and they never change, as if there are no things suitable for contract in different cultural contexts, or there is no culture at all.
Either way, it ’ s useless.
For me, since I ’ m an American, whatever cultural work I create is American culture, that ’ s it.
If Plato ’ s ideas can be considered part of American philosophy, so can Moko ’ s ideas.
If Caesar ’ s exploits can be compared to American history, then the deeds of Liu Pang and Xiang Yu will also work.
If anyone is against it, it ’ s their problem, not mine.
Liu Yukun has published his second collection of short stories, The Hidden Niang, and completed the epic Dandelion Dynasty. (Photo taken from instagram.com / kenliu.author)
Returning to "when I was the last to communicate, the result was the most likely interpretation," I mentioned in the Preface that the novel was completed by the author and the reader in collaboration.
The author creates a world with words. The reader must interpret these words according to his own experience and beliefs, and different interpretations reveal different ways of looking at the world.
Finally, the story in which the reader lives is already different from the story I created at the beginning, and this new story is created by the reader and me.
The literary novels with the artistic experience of co-creation as the core are different from the functional writing (papers, legal briefs, philosophical discourses, operating manuals, etc.).
Functional writing aims to reduce the possibility of interpretation by the reader, forcing the reader to take the most straightforward route and move in the direction the author wants.
If you deviate from this path, it will be regarded as a “mistake ” and a“ misunderstanding ”.
But the literary novel is very different: the more open the space of interpretation, the better; the reader has more stages to add their own flavor to the story and enjoy the aesthetic experience.
Here, the reader has no established route to follow, but there are enough signposts and negative space that can summon emotion to let them go out of their own way.
Predicting the future is a loser ’ s game / Thinking that you can predict the future is just cheating yourself
Q: Most science fiction is about looking forward and imagining the future. For example, when we are enjoying new technology services such as artificial intelligence, algorithms, personalized recommendations, etc., science fiction writers will imagine it being applied in places that are out of control and even beyond the imagination of the inventor.
While your work captures the future of these technologies, there is a lot of looking back. What is Liu Yukun ’ s Science Fiction?
A: In addition to being a novelist, I am also a futurist.
For the future, the most important message I want to convey is that predicting the future is a loser ’ s game.
Save your energy.
Liu Yukun said, “My story is always about the time and space in which we live, and I am more concerned about whether we can reveal our ancient humanity. ” (Photo taken from facebook.com / authorkenliu)
I have worked in the technology industry for many years and have an in-depth knowledge of the history of innovation and invention, and I can say that the common practice of predicting the future by constantly extrapolating current trends is ineffective.
We deceive ourselves over and over again that the future is predictable and that we can predict the future based on the present situation.
We are the victims of narrative fallacies, believing that the current state of the world is as simple as the story in the history books, that we can find a clear causal relationship, that we can ignore the black swans and the wheel of fate, and that we can escape the danger trap if we understand it in its entirety.
The best way to prepare for an unpredictable future is to stay flexible, open, grounded, and on the ground.
Don ’ t believe in centralization; don ’ t rely on authorities that are out of reach; rely on arguments that have been examined over a long period of time; prioritize basic common sense that can resist fragility and practicality, rather than choosing fragile, abstract, professional arguments.
I ’ ve never written science fiction that predicts the future, and I don ’ t think any science fiction that tries to predict the future is worth reading.
Science fiction, as a genre of fiction, is particularly adept at distorting current realities to reveal details that have long been lost in the hustle and bustle of the world.
At the end of the day, my story is always about the time and space of our lives, and I am more concerned about whether it can reveal the ancient and unchanged human nature.
Q: What was the first time you started writing?
What is the biggest difference between the author Liu Yukun, who has been writing for 20 years, and the author Liu Yukun, who published “Carthage Rose ”? After switching to full-time writing, does writing become more challenging or more comfortable for you?
Liu Yukun has changed his story over the past 20 years, and he was surprised to find that he has so many aspects. (Courtesy of Liu Yukun / Photography by Lisa Tang Liu)
A: Writers change over time.
Now I can ’ t write the stories I wrote 20 years ago, and I can ’ t write the stories I wrote 20 years ago.
This change over time is often seen as valuable — as if a writer ’ s work at a mature age is definitely “more weighty ” than a story written in his youth (conversely, stories written in his early years are definitely“ more dynamic ” than today ’ s creations).
I object to this kind of talk.
Just as people will not compare the love of youth to the love of twilight, I was a writer 20 years ago, and I am different 20 years later - of course, my writing will not be the same in 20 years.
It ’ s fun to look back at the changes I ’ ve made and the differences in the stories I ’ ve written, and I ’ m surprised to find that I have so many aspects.
Full-time writing is great.
I was lucky enough to do what I loved most – build stories – and earn money.
I also love the work of futurists, advising governments, think tanks, scientists, engineers, corporations, universities, and others on what it means to tell the future, and telling the story of future life is both a blessing and a curse.
I especially like to give advice on new writers ’ writing skills and career choices – this is the best time to be a storyteller; humans have never been more hungry for good stories in the process. Virtual reality, video games, television, film production, social media … The type of media that tells stories and reaches more audiences than ever before.
It is wonderful to witness the golden age of the story.
The Impact of COVID-19: Political Reorganization and Conspiracy in the World
Q: More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been forced to change.
What is the biggest impact on your life and creation? Novelists always reflect reality, and how will you respond to the changes brought about by this pandemic?
A: I miss literary festivals and workshops where I can meet people face to face.
The sooner you can get back to the old days, the better.
As for the long-term effects of COVID-19, I think it is too early to conclude.
This kind of major event that affects the world, usually the most direct changes will not be maintained forever, but in the long run, the more subtle details are more important.
I don ’ t think the many debates over masks and vaccinations will last long, but the world ’ s political reorganisation and conspiracy theories are rife … I think they will change what the future looks like.
It has taken us decades to get a glimpse of how 9 / 11 fundamentally changed the world order, and in some ways these changes are continuing.
I think it will be decades before we really understand how this pandemic is changing the world.
But at the same time, we must continue to tell the story of the world in which we live, until history wipes out the chaos and tames the unpredictability with its ingenious stories.
Liu Yukun ’ s novels have been adapted into movies and TV works, and the “Hunting Shunli ” in the Netflix animated“ Love X Dead X Robot ” is one of them, telling the story of the fox and the demon-hunting teenager. (Photo taken from Love X Dead X Robot Facebook.com)
Q: Your career as a writer has been very successful, you have won a great prize, you have sold a lot of sales, you have gained the support of many international readers, you have spent 10 years writing an epic, what is the next challenge you give yourself?
A: Thank you very much!
Next I ’ m looking forward to doing something interesting in the field of game creation or virtual reality, the most innovative and fun storytelling medium available today.
At present, I have several TV and film related projects in progress, I can not disclose too much, but it can be said that AMC's new series Pantheon (Pantheon) is based on the novel "Invisible Woman" as the blueprint.
I am happy to see my work take its own life on the screen.
In the end, I always thought that my next story would be my best work.
I hope that readers who like my work can continue to follow me, grow old together, face changes together, and form a new self for the unpredictable future.
(Editor: Wang Jingyi) 1110415
(New Classical Culture Provided)
Title: The Hidden Mother
Author: Ken Liu
And the light comes back.
Publisher: New Classical Culture
Publication Date: 2022 / 04 / 08
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Please continue reading.

Here is a summary—using approximately 2500 characters—of the key ideas from your extracts, focusing on the evolution of science fiction and its literary connections, which will help guide your book club selections:

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**Science Fiction: Evolution, Themes, and Diverse Voices**

Science fiction's roots often intertwine with deeper ethical questions—such as the distinction between humans and machines, the nature of reality, and the definition of love—illustrated by works featuring robots and "sex robots" as metaphors for desire and the search for meaning.

What concepts does Ishiguro's literary science fiction novel bring up?

Early explorations (such as those by H.G.

Title:

Content: Da Vinci created the Mona Lisa to show the world that the earth is very similar to humans.
Photo Credit: iStock
What we want you to know is
Japanese biologist and popular science writer Keiko will stand at the entrance of knowledge to guide you through the door, with an approachable humorous tone, seemingly casual talk and rich content of solid knowledge, and talk to you about the wonder and beauty of life, and fantasies and living metaphors and explanations, with more than 90 special illustrations and illustrations, not only simple to understand, but also full of life. A vivid sense of reality and interest.
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Chapter 1: The Earth That Da Vinci Knows
The Mona Lisa was created for...
The earth is a planet inhabited by living beings, but the earth itself is not a living thing.
However, since ancient times, many people have believed that the earth is also a living thing, because the earth is so much like a living thing.
So, where exactly is the earth similar to living things?
Leonardo da Vinci, who lived in Italy five hundred years ago, is also one of the proponents of the idea that the earth is living (or very similar).
He can be called a pioneer of the times in the practice of scientific methods such as observation and experimentation, and several of his achievements are still applicable today, 500 years later (one of which will be introduced later).
Unfortunately, the achievements of Leonardo da Vinci in science have no impact on the development of human science.
Da Vinci ’ s work remains in the thousands of notes he has written (called the “Da Vinci Manuscripts ”), which were kept in secret until the 19th century, when they began to be published in small quantities.
At first, it was published in fragments, so the content did not spread quickly and became widely known.
At the same time, human science and Leonardo da Vinci ’ s manuscripts developed as parallel lines of zero intersection, and later even surpassed Leonardo da Vinci.
From this, DaVinci is a scientist with bad luck.
However, his achievements as a painter have been highly praised, especially the Mona Lisa, which can be described as a masterpiece in the history of Western painting.
One of Da Vinci ’ s reasons for creating the Mona Lisa was to show the world that the Earth and humans are very similar.
In the Mona Lisa, there are women and the earth (part of it) at the same time – for example, the long curly hair of a woman is depicted behind a winding river.
Da Vinci wrote in the manuscript that he deliberately made the two appear in a contrasting manner, and that the two creatures, humans and the earth, were included in a painting at the same time.
Earth also has blood vessels and bones?
Leonardo da Vinci considered the Earth to be living (or very similar) creatures.
The reason why he said this is not that he is eccentric, but that the concept of "Earth as a living creature" was very popular in society at that time, and Da Vinci may have been infected by this trend of thought.
However, Da Vinci is not a follower of the waves. Even if the earth is a living creature, he cannot be convinced by just listening to the scriptures, and he must find the evidence himself.
As a result, Leonardo began to search for evidence that the earth was a living thing.
Let ’ s take a look at the most accessible creatures around us – humans.
It ’ s incredible to think that a human ’ s head bleeds as soon as he gets hurt.
Because blood is a liquid, since it is a liquid, it should be flowing from top to bottom. As a rule, blood should all flow down to the feet; and the head bleeds, indicating that blood is rising from bottom to bottom and circulating in the human body.
Da Vinci believes that in order for humans to live, the circulation of blood in the body, especially the mechanism of upward movement, is very important, so if the earth is a living thing, the same situation will appear.
Water on Earth is like human blood.
Perhaps in the interior of the earth, that is, underground, there is also a vascular-like structure in which water flows.
For example, there are blood vessels in the interior of the mountain, from which the water sprays up to the top of the mountain, becomes a river, and then flows down the surface of the mountain - this is Leonardo's inference (besides, he thought that the water in the river may also be formed by snow falling in the clouds).
Da Vinci has two goals: one is to find evidence, the other is to think about the mechanism (structure) of operation.
Unfortunately, Davinci ultimately failed to live up to these two expectations.
He neither found blood vessels in the ground, nor figured out the mechanism by which the water would erupt when it rose to the top of the mountain.
But Davinci did not give up.
Since the water on the earth is like human blood, what resembles human bones is a rock? So da Vinci began to think about rocks again.
At the time, people believed that humans and the earth depended on four elements to survive, from heavy to light, in the order of rock (or ground from rock), water, air, and fire.
These four elements continue to circulate, so that humans can survive, since the earth is a living thing, it must also be so, especially if the rock heavier than water will rise, this is more accurate evidence.
If even rocks can rise, it is not surprising that water lighter than rocks will rise.
Perhaps because of this, Leonardo began to look for evidence and mechanisms by which rocks rise, unlike the results of his previous exploration of water currents, which went well.
Was it the Noah Flood?
At that time, people already knew that even if it lived in the sea, its fossils could be found on mountains thousands of meters away.
The most powerful explanation for this phenomenon is the Noah flood.
The Flood of Noah lasted for forty days, and all living things on the ground were wiped out.
Since it is a great flood, it is not surprising that the shells are pushed into the mountains by the fierce water.
However, Da Vinci presented several pieces of evidence to disprove the Noah Flood, the most notable of which was the double-shell shell shell.
Double shell shell has two shells with ligaments between them. The shell is composed of calcium carbonate, and the structure is very hard, but the ligaments are organic and the structure is relatively fragile.
After the death of the double shell, the two shells will loose sooner or later, and with the flushing of the water, the iron will definitely fall apart.
Therefore, if it is a fossil, it is unlikely to find two shells that are joined together.
However, if a fossil of a double shell shell is found and two shells are left and right in pairs, how can it be explained that the fossil was buried in the environment in which the double shell was alive at the time.
If the strata surrounding the fossils are determined to be ancient, this means that this is the environment in which the bivalves lived at the time.
Knowing the living environment at that time, you can understand the survival method of the double-shell shell shell, which is an important topic in biology.
The fossils of the two shells linked by shells became fossils in the living environment at the time.
Even in modern times, this is the theory adopted by the Fossil Institute.
As far back as 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci had deduced this logic and used it as one of the evidence to overthrow the Flood of Noah.
The Noah flood is a rare event in history. The double-shell shell shell is rolling and tossing in such fierce water. It is logical that the two shells can not be joined together, but some of the double-shell fossils found on the mountain are indeed connected.
Therefore, these fossils were not pushed into the mountains by the flood, and the site where the fossils were found was the living environment of the bivalves at that time.
In other words, the sea became a mountain.
The seabed uplift turned into a mountain — that ’ s Leonardo ’ s conclusion.
The rock has indeed risen.
Da Vinci has two goals: one is to find evidence, the other is to think about the mechanism of operation.
In the water part, neither of these goals has been achieved; in the rock part, one goal has been achieved - to find evidence of the rise of the rock.
The ground rises and becomes a mountain range.
So did Leonardo succeed in his second goal, finding out how the rock ascension works?
To be honest, researchers have different opinions on this, but here we are using the arguments of the American paleontologist and evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002).
Gould believes that da Vinci did come up with the mechanism of rock ascension, which reads as follows:
The interior of the earth is made of rock, and water flows through the gaps between the rocks.
This water will gradually wear away the rocks, creating voids in the earth's interior, and these voids will gradually expand.
Suppose a huge void appears in the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in the collapse of the top layer of the void and the rock slowly moving from north to south.
As a result, the weight of the Northern Hemisphere is slightly lighter, and in order to achieve balance, the ground on the north side of the Earth is raised to form a mountain range.
This is the same principle that when two people with different weights play a seesaw, in order to achieve balance, the heavier person should sit closer to the central pivot, and the lighter person should stay farther away (Leonardo also considered that the earth moves with the river in order to maintain the balance of weight, but Gould did not mention this).
This is the mechanism of operation that Davinci thought about.
But when you think about it, he only explains why the ground has to be raised, but he doesn ’ t specify how the ground has evolved.
After all, it was 500 years ago, and perhaps that was the limit of people ’ s thinking at that time.
But for the fact that the earth is a living thing, which could have been verified by observation, thought, and experimentation five hundred years ago, Leonardo was truly a great man beyond his time.
Related book extract ► "As long as you live well, it is great": only humans can "walk on two feet," what are the survival advantages and fatal shortcomings?
Book Introduction
This excerpt is from “Just Live Well, It ’ s Great: Accept Uncertainty, Embrace Diversity, Make Biology Fun, and Enrich Your Vision of Life! ”, Midtime Publishing
Author: More Kegong
Translated by: Chen Yi-jun
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This kind of biology is so fun!
Open the curious switch, erect the curious antenna,
In a time of change, learn the secret of “living well ” from living creatures!
10 years ago, you no longer exist … this is not a play, but a biological proof!
• One of Da Vinci ’ s reasons for creating the Mona Lisa was to show that the Earth and humans are very similar?
• What is the relationship between agricultural robots and natural selection? Did humans evolve to walk upright on two feet because of monogamy?
• How does the immune system eliminate viruses?
Can stem cells be an elixir?
Evolution does not equal progress, and the later it comes, it does not mean better.
Creatures simply evolve and change by adapting to their environment.
As long as you find your own way to live well,
Every creature is as unique and beautiful as any other.
What three criteria must be met in order to be called a "creature"?
Are humans really that different?
The more complicated the structure, the higher it is!
• To live well, what matters is not quantity, size or strength, but variety!
• The structure of water molecules is like Mickey Mouse ’ s head?
What is the front and back of the animal?
Are thousands of years old still alive?
Why do plants grow so high?
Stem cells have the potential to renew their organs for sustainable life, but are you or you changing your brain?
Of all the sciences, biology is the most “human ”.
Humans are creatures, and understanding how other creatures live is tantamount to exploring and discovering our own existence.
From what is the creature, the biological singularity of natural selection, the age and height of the plant,
The basic knowledge of evolutionary reasoning and genetic operation of human bipedal walking,
EVOLUTION OF CANCER, WAR OF THE IMMUNITY AND VIRTURES, DRINKING habits, anti-aging biotechnologies, and more.
This book is like a TV science show on paper.
A well-known Japanese biologist and popular science writer will guide you through the entrance of knowledge.
It is a humorous and humorous way to talk about it, and to have a rich knowledge of it.
Talk to you about the beauty and beauty of life.
With more than 90 unique illustrations and illustrations,
It is not only easy to understand, but also full of vivid and vivid sense of reality and interest.
Everything in the world has its own beautiful side, try to see the world with biological eyes,
Discovering different good things also helps us find the secret to making life more valuable.
Patiently accept the state of “unknown, uncertain ” and incorporate everything you see in its original form.
The space for thinking and thinking is not limited by the scope of action, but can be broader and more diverse.
As long as you remain curious, imaginative and inquisitive,
If you want to see these stories about the Earth, different life and human beings themselves, you will be surprised!
Both humans and bacteria have evolved over four billion years to the present day.
Each creature has its own length and its own length.
Regardless of the type of body, interaction with each other, and even further integration with the earth, finally created the ecological appearance of today.
Although we don ’ t have to think about bacteria or archaea all day, if we can think about the whole biosphere with a comprehensive perspective,
Perhaps it will not be forgotten that in addition to humans, bacteria and archaea also live together on this earth.
Editor-in-Chief: Weng Shihang
Editor-in-chief: Bohan Pan
Tags:

The genre adapts, reflecting both personal and cultural complexities.

Title:

Content: Supplement
Sunday literature.
Culture
Sunday Literature: Tu Chien's Years, Huang Hua and Long Memories: A Review of Books by Tu Chien
He died, and there was a great book about him, and a great book about him.
Born in Hong Kong on February 19, 1935 (also known as February 19, 1934), Du Chin studied at Lingnan Primary School and St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong. He graduated from the Chinese Department of Sun Yat-sen University.
Du has been engaged in the editorial and translation work of newspapers and periodicals for 30 years. He has edited the monthly book “Open Volume ” and“ Readers ’ Friends ”. He is the author of “New Trends in Asian, African and Latin Literature ” (1976),“ Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works ” (1980), “The Night Voyage of the Book Sea ” (2 volumes, 1980, 1984),“ World Science Fiction ” (1992). He also translated several science fiction novels, including The Story of a Detective (1994), The Story of a Detective (2019), The Story of Three Generations (2014), Long Memories: The Eyes of a Teacher and Friends (2015), and translated several science fiction novels.
Du moved to Canada in his later years and died on July 23, 2022.
From Afro-Asian to Contemporary Foreign Literature
I have "Asian, African and Latin Literature New Trend", published by Hong Kong Wanyuan Book Company, this book from the left side, introduced the Asian, African and Latin literature, and it is rare to write a relatively mild, not too much ideological discourse.
From the illustrations in the book, Du Chen should have seen a number of foreign books before writing this book, including book reviews such as "Achebe's Novel Creation" and "Du Bois's Will", which discuss the more famous black writers, and scroll down a "text prison of a novel - this novel exposes the corruption of the police", from 1974 Nelson Marra The award-winning novel “The Bodyguard, ” and its associated spate of arrests, describes the repression of freedom of speech and the press by the Uruguayan police, as well as the repression of the literary and artistic world.
The incident has faded from the memory of ordinary literary readers, but Du Jian recorded it with a book review and became a page of literary history.
Towards the end of the 1970s, the tendency of the dogmatic left gradually faded, and Du Jian ’ s reading range became wider. Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works was published by the Hong Kong Ocean Arts and Culture Society, and its chapters were published in the magazine Ocean Arts and Culture.
Du introduced Graham Greene, John Cheever, Colette, Bertolt Brecht, Isak Dinesen, Nadine Gordimer, Ryuichiro Tanizaki and Ryuosuke Okawa, eight 20th-century writers who not only came out of the confines of Afro-Asian literature. As soon as the book is in hand, readers can enjoy the work from the two texts of the commentary and the translation. In “Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works, ” Du Jian chose to translate Ryuichiro Tanizaki ’ s“ tattoo ” and Ryuosuke Okawa ’ s “bamboo forest ”, both of which are popular and popular.
The South African female writer Gaudimet, introduced by Du Jian in the late 1970s, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
Book Sea Night Flight
"Book Sea Night Voyage" two episodes published by Beijing Sanlian, when there were many prints in mainland China, naturally has a certain influence, these two books seem to have opened a window for long-closed mainland readers.
Some of the book ’ s reviews have been found in The New Trend of Asian, African and Latin Literature and Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works. The book is mainly a collection of book reviews written by Du Jian in his spare time between 1974 and 1978.
As for "Book Sea Night Voyage II", the content is equally extensive, there is no less than, the second set of the epilogue, Du gradually explained his own ten years as a day of three paragraphs on the reading method:
"I read there is no shortcut, and will not" speed reading ", using a stupid way, the old man actually read the book, there is no other way.
I divide the time into three sections every day, to work a section, do work concentrate on other, the other section is translation and writing, people engaged in writing in Hong Kong, every day have to be a "reptile", write thousands of words, earn some manuscript money to earn a living, is the so-called book is only for the straw.
Only in the evening, I have my own time, from eight o'clock to two o'clock at night, I use to read the books I like to read, write what I like to write, these five or six hours are my most precious, but also I can control a period of reading and writing time. 」
In the second part of the book, Du Jian pointed out that the title of the book was Yan Qingshu (pen name Tang, author of "Jinling Spring Dream") in the illness, Du Jian wrote this book to commemorate the death of his friend Yan Qingshu.
Tang Tao wrote the preface to The Book of the Sea and Night Voyage II. At a glance, when he saw that the book was written by Zhang Dai (Zi Zongzi) and Ah Ying's The Book of the Night Voyage, Tang Tao, a veteran scholar of books, wrote:
"The Book of the Sea of Night Voyage, the Night Voyage Collection, and the Night Voyage Ship have a common meaning, suggesting that the author began his life of reading and writing at a time of silence and complete silence."
The first three books deal with this.
However, Zhang Zongzi has his own experience and opinions, which deserve our attention.
He said that the world is the most difficult to deal with, except for the night boat.
Yu Yao custom, the children of later generations, all do not read, after 20 years of learning as a handicraft, so the hundred works of acrobatics, occasionally have questions, such as "Yingzhou 18 bachelor, Yuntai 28 generals", one by one registration, the answer is like a "two-legged bookcase".
This kind of question and answer is often carried out in the night sailing ship. "Tang Tao also mentioned the funny story of a monk and a man in Chang Dai's" The Night Voyage Ship ", so let's not record it, and if you are interested, it is not difficult to find it.
Science fiction and detective fiction
In the 1990s, two volumes of The World Science Fiction Literary Landscape, published by the Modern Education Research Society and published by the Hong Kong Triumvirate of Detective Reasoning Novels, were the first books Du Jian wrote for young students to read.
According to Li Weicai in the book preface, the article in the "World Science Fiction Literary World" came from 1987 to 1988, and Du Jian was the "Strange Book Talk" column of the "Commercial Daily".
Watching H.G. Wells ’ s “The War of the Worlds ” and“ The Invisible Man, ” as well as Jules Verne ’ s works, Du recalls, was captivated by science fiction.
"World Science Fiction Literary Grand View" divides science fiction into four eras of creation, development, gold and innovation. The originator is "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley (Mary Shelley), followed by Verne and Wales, and the development era has Huxley (Aldous Huxley) and George Orwell. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein and Frank Herbert, author of Dune, the era of innovation is even more grand, including Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and Ballard. J. G. Ballard is one of ten.
Ni Kuang's novels are highly readable because of their dramatic plot arrangements and vivid writing.
"World Science Fiction Literary Grand View" does not have esoteric nomenclature and academic discourse, but takes characters as a special chapter, and introduces the contents of representative works, which are all-encompassing, and is both a brief history of science fiction and a good primer for teenagers.
"Detective Reasoning Novel Talk" has an additional edition of "Detective Story", according to the reprint preface, Du Jian pursues "reading no forbidden area", since childhood likes adventure novels and detective novels, he also pointed out that Qian Zhongshu, Yang, Qian Yuan's family of three are fans of reasoning fiction.
"Detective Reasoning Novel Talk" from the beginning of the conversation between Allan Poe and Holmes, also mentioned Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu, James Bond three novel characters; Japanese reasoning fiction also accounted for a considerable amount of space, the additional edition of "Detective Story" added "Little Roosevelt's" First Lady Detective Case "," The Cat Detective Case "female writer Lilian Brown", style change New materials were added to the four articles of Keigo Higashino and the New Trend of Reasoning Novels and the Past and Present of Chinese Detective Reasoning Novels.
Aged yellow flowers
In his later years, Du left behind two books, one is a memoir, "Years of Yellow Flowers: The Search of Three Generations", and the other is a collection of essays, "Long Face Memories: The Eyes of Teachers and Friends."
From the childhood of the beacon fire (1935 – 1946), experienced the ideal pursuit of studying in mainland China, the anti-rightist struggle, and the storm of the Cultural Revolution. After 20 years in mainland China, he returned to Hong Kong and lived in Hong Kong for another 20 years.
Due to the serious illness of his mother, Tu Chin returned to Hong Kong with the President of the Xinhua News Agency, Mr Leung Wai-lin, and then came to Hong Kong with a one-way permit to accompany his father, Dr Li Song, to work in a pharmacy.
In the past 20 years in mainland China, many books can not be seen, so once in Hong Kong, they constantly buy books to read.
Du Jian bought a collection of poems by Kahlil Gibran and translated some of the novels, but he wanted to kill time and practice writing. Moreover, "In the past few years, the pollution caused by the language of the Cultural Revolution in China, when I opened the newspaper, I saw all the big stories and false stories and official words, and it was best to clean the scum of my own language and words. I was able to learn his writing skills and practice my own Chinese writing, so I started translating Gibberlain ’ s novels. ”
He does not want to hide in the willow.
Du Jian went to the "New Evening News" to see the work, Rover asked Du Jian to translate a draft to see, Du Jian reluctantly to his own translation of the novel and the introduction of Ji Boren's short article to Rover.
The next day, Du Jian opened the "New Evening News" and found that his article introducing Gilbert was published in the newspaper.
As a result, Du turned to work at the newspaper office, because the newspaper was short of people, so he worked in the supplement of the newspaper.
He changed his name to Dujuan, meaning Dujuan Dujuan, to "Dujuan Dujuan".
My handwritten collection of Kiberon's novels, a small book by Daguang Publishing House in 1975, is a collection of translations from Du Jian's that year.
Du Jian said in "The Golden Flower of Time" that Zhang Huai, editor of Daguang Publishing House, is his acquaintance and has published several books for him, including "Life and Death", "People at the bottom", "New District Governor", "Golden City of Blood", etc. These books are not easy to find nowadays.
Teacher 's Eyes
In the preface to the book "I Know Du Zhen", the subtitle of "The Yellow Flower of Time", Lan Zhen points out that "The Yellow Flower of Time" "tells the story of the three generations of his family (grandfather Pan Ta Wei, father Li Song and Li Wenjian) who followed the truth and participated in the democratic revolution." His father was a little older, and his father was a little older, and his father was a little older, and he was a little older, and he was a little older.
It is divided into two parts: the first part is "Teacher's Letters", which, as the name suggests, are reminiscent of teachers and friends, including Lun, Chen Ti, Wu Chi-min, Lu Fu, Yen Ching-shu, Fan Yong, An Tzu Chieh, Kang Chun-fang, Li Liang-min, Xiao Qian Qian, Xu Xu, Lin Nien-tong, Huang Kuo-chih, Ma Kuo-chuan, and Qian. In the second half of the book, "Looking Back on History," Du Chien writes about the old stories of Liao An-hsiang, Pan Chu, Huang Leng-kuan, Pan Ta-wei, and Chen Lu-kui.
There are a number of overlaps between the "Love of the Teacher" and the "Yellow Flower of the Year". "From scratch" is a macroscopic view, and "Love of the Teacher" is even a micro-close-up. Du Jian writes old prose with the pen of a novelist. It is better to be lively and friendly, and everyone is alive. — Remembering my grandfather, Pan Ta-wei ” is a particularly detailed and wonderful article. Pan Ta-wei was influenced by Sun Yat-sen ’ s ideas and joined the Xingzhong Society. Later, Pan Ta-wei became the organizer of the Southern Section of the League.
The most famous story of Pan Ta-wei is the collection of the remains of the 72 martyrs of Huang Hua-gang. This passage is told by Du Chien through the words of his mother-in-law, Chen Wei-chang. When Chen Wei-chang died, Du Chien was very young. It was impossible to record his mother-in-law ’ s words. In other words, Du Chien used a small pen. The story of his father is told in the book of Revelation, and the story of his father is told in the book of Revelation.
Author: Wu Chi-min, editor of Readers ’ Liangyou Monthly (1984-1988, 45 issues), Science and Science Fiction Series (1990, 4 volumes) and Readers ’ Liangyou Library (10 volumes), Zhao Jiabi, Liang Yusheng, Hsu Ting-ming, Dong Ding-shan, Hsiao Chien, Ku Tsang-wu, Huang Ji-shih, Chen Hui-yang and Du Chien-chun.
Combining "The Yellow Flower of the Year" and "The Memory of the Long Face", now imagining Du Jian's career of writing books, translating books, and compiling books is bound to feel wonderful.
by Vincent Cheng
Art • Liu Ruoji
Editors • Chu Chien-hsun
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