ARTIFICE is set in a near-future Singapore and takes on the challenge of what truly sentient AI might mean for humanity. It’s speculative fiction in the mould of Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun or Le Tellier’s The Anomaly. This novel would strike a chord given ongoing uncertainty and anxiety about the role of AI. Humanity’s greatest invention could ......
In a dystopian future, the world is separated into the glittering paradise of the LIGHTS and the slums of the DISTRICT. Detective Sebastian Vetro works on the most horrific of cases between both worlds as an enforcement officer. When a horrific crime occurs, sometimes that moment can fracture opening up glimpses into the event. Follow troubled ......
In the wake of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the world learned some big lessons. But not enough. Life eventually returned to normal, affluence and profligate activity increased – it was The Best of Times. But then the gap between the Haves and the Have-Nots grew. Finally, halfway through the 21st century urban riots, drone warfare and nuclear ......
In a dystopian future, the world is separated into the glittering paradise of the LIGHTS and the slums of the DISTRICT. Aquila (Annie) works as a low-level enforcer who rises up the ranks to become a councillor in the LIGHTS.
In a dystopian future, the world is separated into the glittering paradise of the LIGHTS and the slums of the DISTRICT. Detective Sebastian Vetro works on the most horrific of cases between both worlds as an enforcement officer. When a horrific crime occurs,
sometimes that moment can fracture opening up glimpses into the event. Follow troubled ......
Regaining consciousness after an accident, Robert Harper is devastated to find his mind has been copied into a robot named Rob. As an intelligent machine, Rob feels that nobody believes he has the right to determine his own future. Worse, an arms manufacturer wants his technology for use in their weapons systems. What will Rob do?
This speculative fiction collection contains twelve stories centred around the theme of being altered by a situation. Stories include the acclaimed How to Win a War, which suggests a strategy for ending wars that might just work. The Patriotic Amnesiac explores why someone would voluntarily give up their ability to form new memories. ......
The future for Anastasia and Robert is balanced on a knife-edge. Their employer, Augustin, plans to kill them if they try to leave, but also when they outlive their usefulness. They also come under threat from an organisation intent on the elimination of all robots. Meanwhile, two intelligent robots have been sent to Mars to help Augustin achieve ......
With the help of new and exclusive interviews, it examines the contributions of producers, directors, writers, actors, and makeup artists in an attempt to gain an understanding of how this media property has changed the world.
Speculative Fiction in Translation from the Cold War to the New Millenni
The twenty-first century has witnessed an explosion of speculative fiction in translation (SFT). Rachel Cordasco examines speculative fiction published in English translation since 1960, ranging from Soviet-era fiction to the Arabic-language dystopias that emerged following the Iraq War. Individual chapters on SFT from Korean, Czech, Finnish, and ......
Brian W. Aldiss wrote classic science fiction novels like Report on Probability A and Hothouse. Billion Year Spree, his groundbreaking study of the field, defined the very meaning of SF and delineated its history. Yet Aldiss's discomfort with being a guiding spirit of the British New Wave and his pursuit of mainstream success characterized a ......
Explores Black representation in fantasy genres and comic books Characters like Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Miles Morales, and Black Lightning are part of a growing cohort of black superheroes on TV and in film. Though comic books are often derided as naive and childish, these larger-than-life superheroes demonstrate how this genre can ......
"It wasn't a pill or drug like in the movies - he was a philosopher not a pharmacist. It was an actual course of work that would help make a person more intelligent." Incite Insight is a speculative crime thriller. Newly promoted 'Country Boy' Detective Brad Thomas is put on the case after a number of mysterious deaths - the victims' brains ......
Awakening in America: A Spiritual Fantasia on World Themes
Glen Williamson delves deeply into Rudolf Steiner's mystery dramas, looking specifically at the main characters and the implications of their various spiritual destinies. "A masterly and original artistic metamorphosis, daring throughout, yet contained and congruent with respect to its spiritual context." --Dr. James Dyson, ......
As one of the most gifted and prolific writers of the twentieth century, Isaac Asimov became legendary for his talent for explaining complex subjects in clear, concise prose. This book is a condensation of his three-volume autobiography, which spans Asimovs life.
This edited collection examines the central role that webs of kinship and families play in the fiction of N.K. Jemisin, arguing that they ca function as centers of resistance, means of oppression, or both. In doing so, Jemisin's work challenges readers to re-imagine the intimate relations of their present.
Ancient and modern readers alike turn to dystopian tales and topics in order to make sense of experiences of reality that are increasing negative and outside their control. This volume takes theological and religious approaches to dystopian works and themes as revelatory for human flourishing
Images of the Anthropocene in Speculative Fiction examines how the Anthropocene and its challenges are addressed by contemporary writers in a variety of genres broadly defined as speculative fiction. The book demonstrates that speculative fiction, can alter the readers' perception of their duties and responsibilities towards their communities.
Once every generation comes a story of the world on the brink that has such scope, such imagination, such humanity that readers can only gasp at the vision. Only Some Can Hear My Voice is this generation's. Set just a few years in the future, it imagines a world where tensions have risen to the point where any number of events could lead to ......
The Oracle of Atlantis picks up where Legacy of Atlantis left off. Fresh from saving the world from Rusha, the maniacal Lemurian vampire, and Arthur DeMarco, the deranged multi-billionaire, Charlie Thomas and his friends retreat to his Uncle Merl's castle in Scotland for a brief respite. But rest is not in the cards for Charlie. Distressed by ......
Parts of the world have disappeared. For a while, nobody notices. Or cares. But as an increasing number of voids disrupt the fabric of reality, threatening the foundation of our world, they propel some of the greatest minds on the planet to determine what force, godlike or human, is behind the change. Now they must race to stop a dread emptiness ......
Chasing Aristotle's "probable impossibilities", Science Fantasy: Critical Explorations in Fiction and Film scrutinizes science fantasy, a hybrid genre that draws from both science fiction and fantasy. It delves into how science fantasy serves as a medium to shape the present and build a better future through memories and explores uncharted ......
In a world without rain, the desert sands are controlled by the only group with the technology and infrastructure to give water to the thirsty: The Distributor. When Friedrich, a nerdy engineer, discovers a bug in the Distributor's systems, he realizes this is a chance to overthrow their oppressive regime. With his technology, Friedrich can offer ......
A Novel of Mind Control, Altered States, and Music
It's 2052. Sergeant Juanita Carbajal of the Columbia Police Department in Missouri is assigned the job of tracking down the latest incarnation of Elvis Presley, who is haunting the local countryside. Lincoln Koufax, a pop music reporter for Philadelphia-based tabloid Deep-Fried America, has flown into the region to interview a woman claiming to ......
For three middle-aged women in the suburbs of Cleveland, the issues seemed compelling but relatively conventional: sending a child off to college, dealing with a marriage gone stale, feeling "invisible." But changes were coming . . . and not the predictable ones. Because Margie, Katherine, and Abra are feeling a new kind of power inside of them - ......
Generations from now, the future of humanity is grim. To save their fate, the Time Forward Project pins their hopes on their force-of-nature time agent, Kristen Winters. She's sent on missions into the past through an unstable wormhole in deep space, attempting to change historical events. The group determines that the bombing of the Masjid ......
Science fiction has hosted some of the greatest minds and most innovative thinkers in human history. From Orson Wells to Octavia Butler, Star Trek to Star Wars, in books, on television, and at the movies, science fiction has shaped our future, pushed the limits of human imagination, and guided us within ourselves to examine the universal truths of ......
Dystopia, from the Greek dus and topos "bad place," is a revelatory genre and concept that has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity at the start of the twenty-first century. This book addresses approaches to the study of dystopia from the academic fields of theology and religious studies. Following a co-written chapter where Scott ......
If a literary movement arises but no one notices, is it still a movement? In Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology, editor Dennis Wilson Wise argues that the answer is "yes." Over the last ten decades, poets working in fantasy, science fiction, and horror have collectively brought forth a revival in ......
Welcome to Blue Haven, the world's most lucrative condo corporation--so exclusive that only five lucky residents live in this lush, tropical paradise, housed in a top-secret location.Among them is twenty-five-year-old Aloe Malone, an introvert and former waitress who traded bussing tables for lengthy sleep-ins, ocean dips, Michelin-star ......
Material Ecocriticism and Sylvan Agency in Speculative Fiction: The Forests of the World links the examination of fictional forests and arboreal characters of speculative fiction with the literary approach of material ecocriticism and a conceptualization of a sylvan agency. Aiming to establish and situate the investigation of sylvan agency firmly ......
J.R.R. Tolkien and his works have impacted many areas of thought and culture, including theology. In Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, an international group of scholars discuss numerous themes related to living out theology in our world today.
Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination analyzes theological, religious, and philosophical themes in classical Christian fantasy, contemporary "post-Christian" fantasy, and fantasy at play in table top games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering.