The Magical Roots of Malaysian Horror Fiction In English

The diverse history of Malaysia has given rise to a unique folklore that stems from multiple sources such as animism, tribal beliefs, shamanism and various religions such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Serious studies of the occult exist,  if heavily biased by colonial views at the time of writing, such as Malay Magic: An Introduction to...

A Whiff of Cold Air: The Longing for the Lost Dream of Space in Soviet and American Science Fiction.

(The Moon Dream), by Alexandr Lazarevich, 1989 Requiem, by Robert A. Heinlein, in Adventures in Time and Space, eds. Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, Random House, 1946 The Moon Dream and Requiem are two stories written by a Soviet and an American speculative fiction writers, separated by ideological and temporal borders, yet, related...

A brief history of Hungarian fantasy

Hungarian fantasy is based on the  pre-existing anglophone literary traditions and did not develop independently. Hungarian fantastic literature is varied but authors did not form a movement based on the common usage of the surreal and the fantastic, and did not have a mentor-student tradition. Fantastic  elements may be significant in a writer’s work and even...

Current Danish Science Fiction

Every year the Danish fanzine SCIENCE FICTION (www.sciencefiction.webbyen.dk) hosts a themed short story competition. Reviewer Andreas J. Søe recently wrote down his impressions of 4 issues, for the Danish clubzine HIMMELSKIBET. We reprint this article here, as it gives plotexamples of current Danish fiction writing among fans.

Quechuan Proto-Science Fiction

We know that modern science fiction is considered to have begun with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, yet despite this there are a lot of older stories that might be considered science fiction too. Those books are halfway between fantasy and explorations of human curiosity about natural phenomena. These authors used fiction to find explanations and to...

What has Science Fiction meant to the UAE over the last few decades?

It’s difficult to put a finger on what constitutes science fiction in the United Arab Emirates. Difficult because the UAE has always been such an eclectic mix of nationalities that the culture has always consisted of a mix of Arab, Asian and European influences. As a Pakistani growing up in the country, I never felt...

A Brief Introduction to Short-Form Interactive Fiction

Although part of computer culture since the mid-seventies, the genre of Interactive Fiction, commonly abbreviated IF, is often relatively new for avid readers of fiction. This may be because IF originated from a computer game and, quite frankly, many would classify IF as a kind of computer game rather than a kind of literature (I...

The Rough Guide to Modern Malaysian Science Fiction and Fantasy

The question of what exactly constitutes modern Malaysian science fiction and fantasy cannot be answered without first addressing the integral question; “Does science fiction and fantasy writing exist in Malaysia?” This post is not aimed at being a definitive guide to particular literary forms but it will endeavour to sketch out a map to show that...

Brazil and its Literary Tradition (science fiction notwithstanding)

The problem, I think, is the niche. I’m talking, of course, of the problem of the ghettofication of SF, wherever you may find yourself. My case being, now, Brazil. Earlier this morning (I’m writing this at 12:36 on November 19th), I was at Livraria Cultura, one of São Paulo’s biggest bookstores, buying a couple of...

Short genre fiction in Swedish—an overview of the ’00s

The Swedish-language market for short SF and fantasy fiction is by no means nonexistent. It is just very small, often without an opportunity to pay authors, and dependent on magazines that would have either folded long ago or never been launched, had they been published as moneymaking ventures instead of because their publishers thought that...