Romania

Short Story Review: Vladimir Colin’s “The Contact” (1966, trans. 1970)

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

Today I’m joined again by Rachel S. Cordasco, the creator of the indispensable website and resource Speculative Fiction in Translation, for the second installment of our series exploring non-English language SF worlds. Last time we covered Kōbō Abe’s allegory of Marxist transformation, “The Flood” (1950, trans. 1989).

This time we journey east of the Iron Curtain to 1960s Romania with Vladimir Colin’s “The Contact.” It first appeared in his collection of short stories Viitorul al doilea (1966). We read it in Other Worlds, Other Seas: Science-Fiction Stories from Socialist Countries, ed. Darko Suvin (1970). The story was translated into English by the author. I cannot find a copy online. Reach out if you want to read it!

Make sure to check out Rachel’s website Speculative Fiction in Translation. Not only does she review the global phenomena of speculative fiction but gathers lists of translated fiction by language. Also check out her reference monograph Out of This World: Speculative Fiction in Translation from the Cold War to the New Millennium (2021).

Now let’s get to our reviews!

  • Uncredited cover for the 1972 German 1st edition of Other Worlds, Other Seas: Science-Fiction Stories from Socialist Countries, ed. Darko Suvin (1970)
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Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Architectural Fragments of Damian Petrescu

/ Joachim Boaz / 7 Comments
  • Damian Petrescu’s cover art for the 1st Romanian edition of Voicu Bugariu’s Lumea lui Als Ob (1981)

Damien Petruscu, a Romanian graphic designer, created science fiction and fantasy covers for a range of Romanian presses between 1966-1985. He also designed countless LP covers from 1966-1983–George Enescu to Latin pop–which you can browse over at Discogs. In my view, his SF covers gave him more opportunity to showcase his talents! I have curated a group that hint at architectural desires and artificial shapes: Urban plans, façades bathed in red mist, totemic uplifts, temples in delicate lines, surreal landscapes of buildings askew… My favorite, his cover for Voicu Bugariu’s Lumea lui Als Ob (1981), might be a direct references to the magisterial ruins of the Sasanian capital at Ctesiphon [below]. He evokes the same crisp façade, desert landscape, and delicate arch.

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Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCLXIII (Elizabeth A. Lynn, Romanian SF Anthology, Eastern European SF Anthology, and Barry N. Malzberg)

/ Joachim Boaz / 15 Comments

As always which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Other Worlds, Other Seas, ed. Darko Suvin (1970)

Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1972 edition

From the back cover: “Darko Suvin was born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1930. An internationally known critic of literature and theater, he is the author of seven books of criticism including POSSIBLE WORLDS—An outline of Science-Fiction and Utopias.

Stanislaw Lem of Poland, author of SOLARIS, is only the most famous of a burgeoning group of Eastern European writers. His contribution to OTHER WORLDS, OTHER SEAS—four brilliant stories—is a treat to his hundreds of thousands of American admirers. But a whole body of first rate s-f is now being produced in the socialist countries by equally gifted writers such as Josef Nesvadba, Anatoliy Dneprov, and Anton Continue reading →