Category Archives: review

REVIEW: Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii

translated by Jim Hubbert Haikasoru June 16, 2015 304 pages Once again, Haikasoru has given us English-language readers some great Japanese science fiction for our brains to chew on. Taiyo Fujii’s Gene Mapper (translated by Jim Hubbert) brings together genetically-modified food, trippy virtual-reality technology, and a world recovering from the combined blows of an Internet

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REVIEW: A Look at Short Speculative Fiction in Translation from Clarkesworld Magazine

In the November 2014 issue (98) of Clarkesworld Magazine, editor Neil Clarke argued for why “Translation is Important,” pointing out that science fiction is is perpetually concerned with questions of communication and translation. It would be wonderful if we could read any story in any language by just pressing a button, but even a machine-driven

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REVIEW: Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan

edited by Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington Haikasoru October 20, 2015 300 pages “I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.” That’s what I kept thinking as I read my way through Hanzai Japan, the latest anthology of tales from and about Japan from Haikasoru. And while “hanzai” means “crime,” that’s not nearly

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REVIEW: The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

 translated by Josh Billings Melville House March 17, 2015 256 pages Before I write anything else, I must first confess that I had never before read a Strugatsky novel. No Roadside Picnic, no Hard to be a God, nothing. My efforts to read as much contemporary and newly-released sci-fi in translation as I possibly can,

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REVIEW: Castles in Spain: 25 Years of Spanish Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Mariano Villarreal

head of translation team: Sue Burke Sportula April 19, 2016 350 pages If you’ve been living your life thinking that you’ve already read some of the best speculative fiction out there, but you haven’t read any of the stories in this collection, then you’re just plain wrong. The stories in Castles in Spain are not

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REVIEW: Memory by Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría

translated by Lawrence Schimel Upper Rubber Boot Books July 27, 2015 46 pages There are so many reasons why I love this novelette, but the main one is that Argentine author Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría subverts expectations so gracefully and expertly (and this comes through clearly in Lawrence Schimel’s translation from the Spanish). Originally

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