EUtopias and Other Futures: A European Journal of Science Fiction

By Péter MARTON ** Join the  European Science Fiction group  on Facebook for related discussions. ** To answer the question raised in the title: I have no idea, other than: "why not." (I did it, anyway.) (Also, keep in mind that in Russia, Christmas Day is January 7, 2020.) This actually sums up the nature of my experience with this movie well: hailed as well as ridiculed as Russia's response to the Marvel superhero universe, Zashchitniki (The Guardians)   clearly entertains more when watched with little to no expectations. Or, basically, as trash, sifting through which one may strike gold sometimes.  Which is not to say that you will strike 24-karat gold in this case — it's just the idea of why you could embark on watching the movie in the first place, or at all. The plot is of the kind that even five-year-old children could quickly come up with, given the right incentives. But that should be no reason to bash this movie too badly. The team behind it ...

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 ...

We are here today to count the number of women on this book cover and beyond... By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** One of the strenghts of the allegory in Glukhovsky's Metro 2033 is exactly what very probably would have been an obstacle to publishing this book in the US first. Because what all US editors encourage writers to include in their stories by default these days is... strong female characters (with some good reasons, at that). The number of strong female characters in Metro 2033 = 0 (zero). The reason is not chauvinism. To the contrary: through the absence of women, regardless of whether this is intentional or intuitive, the story demonstrates the importance of not standing in the way of women taking leading roles in the running of the world. In the subterranean universe, where man is often wolf to man, the sun doesn't shine, for it has no alternative. (See what I did there? H/t simul...

By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** Anita Moskát 's novel, "The Anchoring Place," shares its title – in my translation of the original Hungarian Horgonyhely – with Aleksei Bogolyubov's 19th century painting, used (with that excuse) as convenient illustration above. The two works do not have too much in common, though: for example, Moskát's novel doesn't have anything to do with Russia. But there certainly are steamers and anchoring places in it (unconnected to each other). The "anchoring places" play the key role: every person has one, right on the spot where one was born. Should one try to leave it (and its vicinity within a certain radius) behind, it won't work – it pulls one back, makes one physically ill. Fatally, even, if this is stretched to the limit. There is only one exception, one segment of the population that has freedom of movement: pregnant women. The ...

By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** Used as illustration above is a detail of Anton Semenov's cover art for the 2012 album " Army of Mushrooms " by Infected Mushroom, a psychedelic musical duo from Israel. Bo Balder's story strongly reminded me of it, hence its inclusion here... Speaking of infections: before we delve into Balder's work, the very first story reviewed here in our series, imagine the following scenario. It will be worth it, the detour... We are in a small village in the Democratic Republic of Nowhere. A small team of medical personnel and members of what passes for the "local" police force (ordered in from a town fifty kilometres away) approach a house where several sick patients are thought to be suffering from hemorrhagic fever. Those who feel healthy are ordered to come out. Those who are sick at bed should stay inside, they are told. The medical team moves...