SHORT STORIES “Who Can Have the Moon” by Congyun ‘Muming’ Gu, translated from the Chinese by Tian Huang (Clarkesworld, August 1). NOVELS The Kindness by John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated by ? (riverrun, August 3). A shipping container is mysteriously dumped in the Swedish port town of Norrtalje. Due to their ignorance of its ownership it
Daniel Haeusser reviews short works of SFT that appear both online and in print. He is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Canisius College, where he teaches microbiology and leads student research projects with bacteria and bacteriophage. He’s also an associate blogger with the American Society for Microbiology’s popular Small Things Considered. Daniel reads
“The Biological Truth” by Veikko Rekunen, translated by ? (Terra SF II, 1983). “The Pearl” by Jyrki Vainonen, translated by Hildi Hawkins (Books from Finland, 1999). “The Light Ones” by Mari Saario, translated by Liisa Rantalaiho (Creatures of Glass and Light, 2007). “Wagtail” by Marketta Niemelä, translated by Liisa Rantalaiho (Usva International, 2010). “My Creator,
The Explorer and Other Stories by Jyrki Vainonen, translated by Juha Tupasela, Anna Volmari, and Hildi Hawkins (Cheeky Frawg Books, 2013). stories included: “The Explorer” (also included in The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy) “Blueberries” (also included in The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy) “The Aquarium” “The Pearl” “The Garden” (also included in It Came
NOVELS The Rabbit Back Literature Society, translated by Lola M. Rogers (Thomas Dunne Books, 2015). “A highly contagious book virus, a literary society and a Snow Queen-like disappearing author. ‘She came to realise that under one reality there’s always another. And another one under that.’ Only very special people are chosen by children’s author
Antti Tuomainen The Healer (2010) by Antti Tuomainen, translated by Lola Rogers (Henry Holt, 2013). “In this chilling dystopian detective story, a man searches for his missing wife in a Helsinki devastated by ruthless climate change, and finds himself on the trail of a serial killer.” Emmi Itäranta The City of
The Sands of Sarasvati (2005) by Risto Isomäki, translated by Owen F. Witesman (Into Publishing, 2013). “Indian scientists discover a vast stretch of underwater ruins at the West Coast of India. Have they found Atlantis, the fabled sunken continent? Marine archaeologist Amrita Desai and Russian submarine expert Sergei Savelnikov investigate the underwater ruins,
Johanna Sinisalo is an internationally-known, award-winning Finnish author of science fiction and fantasy. She has also edited and co-edited anthologies of Finnish SFT. Possibly the most well-known Finnish speculative author in English, Sinisalo has been called the “Queen of Finnish Weird” because of how she translates her deep interest in plants, folk tales, and
Leena Krohn is an award-winning Finnish author (including the Finlandia Prize for literature in 1992) of science fiction and fantasy. Her numerous books and stories—written both for children and adults—explore questions of reality and illusion, artificial intelligence, and the power of the natural world. Profile in The New Yorker NOVELS/COLLECTIONS Datura, or
Speculative fiction in English translation from the Nordic countries has been available as far back as the turn of the twentieth century. Since the beginning of the twenty-first, though, we’ve gotten a lot more, especially horror from Sweden and fantasy from Finland. During the month of June, I’ll be spotlighting this little-known (in the Anglosphere)
