Speculative Japan: Outstanding Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy,Used

The first book in an ongoing series, Speculative Japan presents a selection of outstanding works of Japanese science fiction and fantasy in English translation and a glimpse into new worlds of the imagination. It was first released at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan, and then made available worldwide.Japanese fiction has assumed a position of significance in many genres of world literature as it continues to chart its own creative course. Whereas science fiction in the Englishspeaking world developed gradually over a period of evolutionary change in style and content, SF in Japan took off from a very different starting line. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese SF writers worked to combine their own thousandyearold literary tradition with a flood of Western SF and other fiction. Contemporary Japanese SF thus began in a jumble of ideas and periods, and ultimately propelled Japanese authors into a quantum leap of development, rather than a steady process of evolution.The result has been phenomenal. As new authors developed in this exotic environment, they invented new ways to view SF, and used the genre to form new images of themselves and their culture. The time is long overdue to present the work of Japanese science fiction and fantasy writers to the world in English. We hope this shared world of speculative fiction produces a creative feedback relationship, which can only encourage new and more stimulating visions of tomorrow.Contents Grania DAVIS Judysan Judith Merril, 19231997 David BRIN Preface Gene VAN TROYER Introduction: Phase Shifting KOMATSU Sakyo The Savage Mouth HIRAI Kazumasa A Time for Revolution KONO Tensei Hikari MAYUMURA Taku Ill Get Rid of Your Discontent ISHIKAWA Takashi The Road to the Sea YAMANO Koichi Where Do the Birds Fly Now TOYOTA Aritsune Another Prince of Wales FUKUSHIMA Masami The Flowers Life Is Short OHARA Mariko Girl TSUTSUI Yasutaka Standing Woman HANMURA Ryo Cardboard Box YANO Tetsu The Legend of the Paper Spaceship KAJIO Shinji Reikos Universe Box KAWAKAMI Hiromi Mogera Wogura YOSHIMASU Gozo Adrenalin SHIBANO Takumi Collective Reason: A Proposal ASAKURA Hisashi From Vertical to Horizontal Grania DAVIS Translator as HeroReviews ...the stories contained in Speculative Japan have less to do with either cyborgs or space than they do with hypothetical concepts. [...] A reader familiar with the type of tightly plotted scifi stories published in Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine is in for a surprise with Speculative Japan, which as its title suggests is more about 'speculative fiction' than 'science fiction.' [...] The actual stories in the collection are interesting and well worth reading, and a few of them are truly excellent.Kathryn Hemmann, Contemporary Japanese Literature Such volumes as this are always fascinating to anyone with a serious interest in the genre.Brian Stableford, New York Review of Science Fiction