Dreams from Beyond: Anthology of Czech Speculative Fiction. edited by Julie Nováková. 2016

DREAMS FROM BEYOND

RATED 86% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.86 OF 5

7 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 0 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 0 DNF

The 21st Century has been a boon for English language readers of science fiction, especially those with a desire to expand their palate to include foreign language stories. A random recommendation on Twitter turned me on to this anthology of Czech speculative fiction. Originally assembled for Eurocon 2016 (November 4-6, Barcelona) Julie Nováková has generously made this available as a free download on her website.

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• “The SEA is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia” edited by Jaymee Got & Joyce Chng. 75%

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It is a strong anthology with lots of enjoyable stories. Mostly science fiction, despite the speculative fiction moniker in the title. Many of the stories are translated for the first time and most of them seem to do right by the stories. There’s a lot of adventure and action in this pages, which in many ways seems to embody the 1950s and 80s-90s style of English science fiction. For me that is a good thing.

Book seems longer than it actual is due to the inclusion of three excerpts that seem to have been included because of the status of their authors. Incomplete stories aren’t my preference in any book and I wish they’d been replaced with additional complete stories.

The book finishes with an article that I wish had been put much earlier. Julie Nováková’s “Small Markets, Big Wonders.” It can be read here on Clarkesworld.

One story stands above the rest and makes The Great List:

• Axes on Viola • novelette by Jaroslav Mostecký? (trans. of Sekyry na Viole 1996). A thrilling sci-fi adventure with a great classic sense of wonder as its core. Two planets are connected by enormous trees that are rooted in both soils and hold them together with extreme tension. The story opens with men fleeing a powerful pulse wave created because a minor rupture in the taut connection. It ends up as a cat and mouse adventure within the intricate and immerse inner world of these trees. TikTok Review.

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DREAMS FROM BEYOND

7 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 0 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 0 DNF

How do I arrive at a rating?

1. The Dragon Star • short story by Pavel Renčín? (trans. of Dračí hvězda? 2001)

   Poor. A series of short fantasy vignettes, as short as a few paragraphs, that never come together in any interesting way. There is a Dragon.

2. The Real One • (2016) • short story by Petra Slováková? (trans. of Ta pravá 2013)

   Good. What happens to the people left behind when their families produce robotic duplicates that are ‘better.’

3. Axes on Viola • novelette by Jaroslav Mostecký? (trans. of Sekyry na Viole 1996)

   Great. A thrilling sci-fi adventure with a great classic sense of wonder as its core. Two planets are connected by enormous trees that are rooted in both soils and hold them together with extreme tension. The story opens with men fleeing a powerful pulse wave created because a minor rupture in the taut connection. It ends up as a cat and mouse adventure within the intricate and immerse inner world of these trees.

4. War Games • novelette by Jan Kotouč? (trans. of Válečné hry? 2014)

   Good. Told from the perspectives of three men who each play roles in the wars of expansion by a large city. The poor find themselves slaves, controlled in everything by programs that dominate their bodies. This is most compelling and human part of a story that focuses on battle between the City and the Rebels.

5. Winning Is Not Everything • (2006) • short story by Jaroslav Veis (trans. of Není důležité zvítězit?)

   Good. The Olympics may have been overtaken in popularity by the deadly sports of the corporate “Adrenaline Games” but the corruption is still the same.

6. Creators • short story by Tomáš Petrásek? (trans. of Tvůrci? 2009)

   Good. Wormholes allow quick and easy travel across the universe for spaceships, but questions and controversies persist. It appears that a godlike creator is the most likely answer and most scientists don’t want to accept it. Also, a disturbingly high number of ships get destroyed when traveling through wormholes and no one know why.

7. The Symphony of Ice and Dust • (2013) • novelette by Julie Novakova

   Good. A poignant story of the price of discovery. Scientists think they are the first to land on an icy planet, but discover a small human spacecraft on the surface … and a giant alien craft below. The story uses that framing device to tell the story of the human and wife crew of the small craft.

• The book has three excerpts, but they are not considered in the review process as I believe it would be unfair to review incomplete stories.

• Also there is a wonderful nonfiction article by Julie Nováková about the state of Czech language science fiction. “Small Markets, Big Wonders.”