Millemondinverno 1993: 16 racconti

by Ben Bova, Kate Wilhelm, Mark Budz

Cari lettori, benvenuti all'appuntamento semestrale con le avventure nel tempo e nello spazio. Ed ecco la prima domanda: come si comporterebbe Emily Dickinson nel mondo editoriale di oggi? Ce lo rivela Barry Malzberg, il poeta di New York, con un racconto deliziosamente sfumato che si intitola "Una poetessa a Manhattan". Per quelli che hanno "Paura del successo" c'è Ron Goulart a tranquillizzarli (?), mentre non mancheranno gli appassionati di avventure interplanetarie che vorranno sapere cosa si provi a "Vivere con gli Haldol" (la risposta è di Harry Turtledove). L'antologia di quest'inverno è particolarmente ricca, e così segnaliamo ancora i racconti di Brian W. Aldiss, Kate Wilhelm e David Brin, mentre per la sezione italiana abbiamo nientemeno che un racconto di Gianni Brera scritto con il figlio Paolo. Una nutrita serie di idee, proposte e avventure alle quali vi affidiamo senza ulteriori commenti. Buona lettura!

Indice:
Mark BUDZ - Soldatini (Toy Soldiers, 1993)
Rick WIBLER - Crimini di ghiaccio (Ice Covers the Hole, 1992)
Nancy SPRINGER - Non guardarti indietro (Don't Look Back, 1993)
Brian Wilson ALDISS - Argilla (Common Clay, 1992)
Kate WILHELM - I nomi dei fiori (Naming the Flowers, 1993)
Michael Greatrex CONEY - Sophie (Sophie's Spyglass, 1993)
Alan Dean FOSTER - Gagrito (Gagrito, 1993)
Kit REED - L'atelier delle facce nuove (The Hall of New Faces, 1992)
Jack CADY - Sulla strada (The Night We Buried Road Dog, 1993)
Harry TURTLEDOVE - Vivere con gli Haldol (Vermin, 1993)
Ron GOULART - Paura del successo (Fear of Success, 1993)
G. David NORDLEY - Barriere (Barriers, 1992)
David BRIN - Rifiuti (Detritus Affected, 1993)
Barry Nathaniel MALZBERG - Una poetessa a Manhattan (Standards and Practices, 1993)
Gianni BRERA - Maria Teresa torna da Erodamaflart
Ben BOVA - Lo shock del ritorno (Re-Entry Shock, 1993)

Copertina di Michael Di Fate

350 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.

In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".

Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).

Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".

http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova

Reviews

[Maddalenah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ma non doveva essere una raccolta di fantascienza??? Un paio di racconti sembravano mainstream, parecchi avevano giusto un tocco di fantastico, di fantascienza vera proprio poca, e comunque nessun racconto che mi abbia fatto innamorare.
E non dico che sia proprio necessario, ma insomma...