EUtopias and Other Futures: A European Journal of Science Fiction

A Brief History of Life, the Universe and Everything... By Péter MARTON ** Join the  European Science Fiction group  on Facebook for related discussions. ** Sapiens is a very popular and (somewhat less flatteringly) a fashionable book these days. It's really not bad, even if it is at least in part a summary of earlier works and research by others and certainly  not unprecedented in its theme and scope. As I was reading it, back in January, I was already thinking about how easy it would be to tag further readings to it from the field of speculative fiction, works that have already explored some of the core ideas discussed in Harari's book, and how that could be turned into a blogpost. This is that post now. So, a brief reading list. I could think of more items to list here, of course, but five is the kind of number that looks good in a click-baiting headline... My aim is to bring up some new and also some lesser known works, so this is not even an "ulti...

By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** Definitely a book I can recommend to be translated into English. The story is set in the far future of 2140. Biotechnology and genome-editing have seen huge advances, just in time to compensate for the effects of a pandemic which made most humans sterile. Designed humans co-inhabit Earth with some of the leftover as well as the ageing populations of the more "traditional" political entities... which are so traditional that successor clones are designed and imported for the wealthy among them -- and these traditional entities need working hands, too, of course, to avoid going extinct. Hybrid servants are designed for the fun of it (lion-human hybrids, for example), as well as hybrid and intelligent pets. The incel movement wasn't so much on the radar at the time of the writing of the book as it is now, but they have their equivalents in the plot in the ...