Category Archives: review

Review: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Volume 2: Ambition by Yoshiki Tanaka

translated by Daniel Huddleston Haikasoru July 19, 2016 288 pages   It had been a while since I’d read the first novel of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series, but thanks to Tanaka’s no-frills, warp-speed style and Huddleston’s smooth translation, I had no trouble jumping right back in. And like Volume 1, Volume 2:

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BTBA Post: Polar Bears and Cyborg Turtles: Some Non-Human Narrative Perspectives

(this piece was first published on the Three Percent website on 12/12/16 and was written for the Best Translated Book Award series of posts) I’ve only come across two books this year that take as their main narrator(s) a non-human creature: Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky; and Mr.

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Review: Impossible Stories I by Zoran Živković

translated by Alice Copple-Tošić Cadmus Press November 10, 2016 422 pages   Impossible Stories I is one of Cadmus Press’s first offerings in its Zoran Živković collection, and this volume is beautiful both inside and out. Through the cover art by Youchan Ito, and the translation from the Serbian by Alice Copple-Tošić, we are able

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Charles Tan on Yoshiki Tanaka’s Legend of the Galactic Heroes Series

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: 30 Years Ahead of Its Time By Charles Tan While Western Science Fiction and Fantasy is currently experiencing mainstream appeal thanks to successful novel-to-TV adaptations like Game of Thrones, The Expanse, and The Magicians, the Japanese media industry has this formula pegged down as far back as the 1980s. Media

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Review: Terra Nova: An Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Science Fiction, ed. Mariano Villareal

Co-selected by Mariano Villareal and Luis Pestarini translated from the Spanish by Sue Burke and Lawrence Schimel Sportula June 15, 2013 258 pages   Outstanding novella-length stories make up this important collection of contemporary Spanish-language science fiction. Thanks to translators Sue Burke and Lawrence Schimel, us English-language readers are able to see for ourselves just

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Review: Spanish Women of Wonder, ed. Cristina Jurado and Leticia Lara

translated by: see below Palabaristas Press Released at Eurocon (Barcelona) 2016   Spanish Women of Wonder (Alucinadas) is the answer to the question “do many women write speculative fiction in the Spanish-speaking world?” Indeed, the answer is a resounding hells yes. From Cuba to Spain, and Argentina to Mexico, women are writing excellent speculative fiction

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Review: Monteverde: Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist by Lola Robles

translated by Lawrence Schimel Aqueduct Press (Conversation Pieces, Volume 52) November, 2016 106 pages   Part linguistics report, part memoir, Monteverde is a story about the clash of cultures and the bonds of language, and you’ll want to read it in one sitting (like I did). Robles expertly mixes notes that Terran linguist Rachel Monteverde

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