EUtopias and Other Futures: A European Journal of Science Fiction

By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** A collection of stories by established writers as well as other authors (the latter were selected on a competitive basis), this book is an exciting new development on the Hungarian SF scene. It comes edited by Csilla Kleinheincz and Gábor Roboz, published by GABO (Budapest, 2018). A strong anthology, albeit with mostly not "pure SF" for contents. One may thus complain about the cover, given that astronauts do not exactly play a central role, or any role for that matter, in about 95% of the stories featured here. That slight astro-naughtiness aside, however, it's quality stuff that you find here, most of the way. Moreover, with my broad understanding of the "science" in science fiction, the dominance of fantasy and slipstream across the volume should not be such a big issue after all. The book's overall design could be, seemingly, more of a...

By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** The Terror is a TV series telling the unknown and creatively fictionalised story of Franklin's lost expedition (1845-1848). It is based on the novel of the same title by US author Dan Simmons. It is relevant for us here on the one hand due to where the expedition began... and for some more reasons I will reveal below. Two British ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror , set out from England to use Greenland as a springboard for the exploration of the Canadian Arctic. Their ultimate mission was to discover and chart the Northwest Passage. Ice doesn't help navigation - ice doesn't help life, either. They ended up stuck and starved. No one survived. See below the possible route they traveled. The wrecks of the two ships were found only as recently as 2014 (Erebus) and 2016 (Terror). The possible route of the Franklin expedition - by Hans van der Maarel As far a...

Brighton Pier, for reasons explained below - picture by Jean Housen (Wikimedia Commons) By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** Science fiction would not be what it is today if it wouldn't deal with the topic of climate change as a very prominent subject. Many stories address Europe's future as it may be impacted by related processes, and to do a comprehensive review of all those that are relevant in this respect would be... wonderful! For lack of time, and in appreciation of all the collective wisdom out there, however, this brief post only looks to sow some seeds, mention a few works, call attention to the issue, and, basically, invite others to point out further, other works that pertain to our interests here, in the comments... if there are other survivors out there ready to make such comments. (1) One of the first authors who come to mind, historically speaking, is J. G. Ballard (a.k.a. James ...