EUtopias and Other Futures: A European Journal of Science Fiction

The cover of "The Mysterious Goat Buck" by Dezső Kemény By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** Socialist Realist it ain't, but there's plenty of socialist reality in it. A key charm of the book. Like other readers before me, I couldn't resist this, either. "The Mysterious Goat Buck" is a collection of SF detective stories (a sub-genre in its own right). Unless exceptionally well-written, such stories can always feel a little mechanical, with a Big Revelation coming up at some point, towards the end, showing you that you were wrong all along. When combined with SF, the Big Revelation has also, by rule, to be connected to a Fantastic New Concept (FNCs, or "fancies" from hereon). The culprit behind the crime being investigated is one step ahead of everyone, with the exception of the smart detective, and is the master of a concept never before seen implemented. An innovat...

More on this book later – the last page held real treasure... By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** I delved into Socialist-era Hungarian SF of late for some real adventure, and I'll have more to report to you about the experience in the coming days. For now... I will just share here what I found on the last page of the book above ( A titokzatos kecskebak or The Mysterious Goat Buck by Dezső Kemény, Budapest, Hungary: Móra Ferenc Könyvkiadó, 1970). It is an advertisement of the services of the State Insurance Company (Állami Biztosító). Whoever wrote the text was trying real hard to feel out the pulse of science fiction and combine it with the zeitgeist to achieve maximum promotion effect. You'll find the translation of the text below (and then I also add the original for proper documentation). Can you resist this? Don't even try. It may cause nervousness and feeling ill at ease. ...