Francesco Verso

If you like thought-provoking science fiction hand-picked from all around the world, then this collection of short stories is for you.

Future Fiction is an Italian house that picks out authors and translates their stories in English. We’ve posted about them before and we will do so again, because it seems they’re here to stay and we really like what they’re bringing to the international scene.

Tor called these:

(…)thirteen incredible tales from all around the globe that will not only introduce you to worlds you may not be familiar with but also expand your horizons and the horizons of the science fiction field itself.

Strange Horizons has a thorough review if you want to read an analysis of the stories. Here are some snippets:

Future Fiction: New Dimensions in International Fiction. Edited by Rosarium’s Bill Campbell and Future Fiction‘s Francesco Verso, this collection brings together speculative fiction that was originally published by Verso’s Italian press. Represented here are India, Greece, Zimbabwe, China, Italy, the US, Canada, the UK, Russia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Cuba. Of these twelve stories, four are translations: “Creative Surgery” by Clelia Farris (translated from the Italian by Jennifer Delare), “The Quantum Mommy” by Michalis Manolios (translated from the Greek by Manolis Vamvounis), “Tongtong’s Summer” by Xia Jia (translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu), and “Grey Noise” by Pepe Rojo (translated from the Spanish by Andrea Bell).

There’s speculative fiction, and then there’s speculative fiction that’s been kicked up several levels. You’ll find the latter when you read stories like James Patrick Kelly’s “Bernardo’s House,” Farris’s “Creative Surgery,” Tendai Huchu’s “Hostbods,” and Efe Tokunbo’s absolutely brilliant “Proposition 23.”

Some of the stories, including Kelly’s “Bernardo’s House,” Carlos Hernandez’s “The International Studbook of the Giant Panda,” Manolios’s “The Quantum Mommy,” Huchu’s “Hostbods,” Rojo’s “Grey Noise,” and Tokunbo’s “Proposition 23,” focus on the complex and often troubling intersection of humans and machines.