The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction

by Tarun K. Saint (Editor)

Singular visions of the future that will thrill, amuse, startle and intrigue

On an ordinary morning, the citizens of Karachi wake up to find the sea missing from their shores. The last Parsi left on Earth must find other worlds to escape to when debt collectors come knocking. A family visiting a Partition-themed park gets more entertainment than they bargained for. Gandhi appears in contemporary times under rather unusual circumstances. The arrival of aliens with an agenda on a railway station in Uttar Pradesh has unexpected consequences. A group of young scientists seek a way to communicate with forests even as the web of life reaches a point of collapse. A young girl's personal tragedy finds a surprising resolution as she readies herself for an expedition of a lifetime. These and other tales of masterful imagination illuminate this essential volume of new science fiction writing that brings together some of the most creative minds in contemporary literature.

A must-have collectible, The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction offers fresh perspectives on our hyper-global, often alienating and always paranoid world, in which humanity and love may yet triumph.

Featuring the works of: * Adrish Bardhan * Anil Menon * Arjun Rajendran * Arunava Sinha * Asif Farrukhi * C.M. Naim * Chandrashekhar Sastry * Clark Prasad * Giti Chandra * Harishankar Parsai * Kaiser Haq * Keki N. Daruwalla * Manjula Padmanabhan * Maya Joshi * Mimi Mondal * Mohammad Salman * Muhammed Zafar Iqbal * Nur Nasreen Ibrahim * Payal Dhar * Premendra Mitra * Priya Sarukkai Chabria * Rahul Sankrityayan * Rimi B. Chatterjee * Rukmini Bhaya Nair * S.B. Divya * Sami Ahmad Khan * Shovon Chowdhury * Somendra Singh Kharola * Sumita Sharma * Syed Saeed Naqvi * Tarun K. Saint * Vandana Singh

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Pakistan, India, Fantasy

424 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2019

Reviews

[Pooja Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction" by hachette_india is a collection of contemporary sci-fi stories, focusing on themes such as dystopia, climate change, space travel, the arrival of aliens and man's quest to find sustainable ways to live.
These are some tales from the masterful minds of some of the most inventive minds, and barring a few pieces here and there, all of the narratives were exhilarating and thrilling.
🐝
The book being first of its kind of a selection of historical sci-fi and new age dystopia from the South Asian subcontinent to appear in the twenty-first century, did hold a lot of potentials and it was able to live up to the hype albeit by simple yet effective narratives that one can enjoy and be left with something to ponder on at the same time.
🐝
Some of the anecdotes didn't work for me, because of their long, tedious and unnecessary description, but the others more than made up for the experience, especially in the latter half of the book.
I absolutely loved the last one, a hypothetical future where a group of young scientists is trying to find a way to combat climate change by coming up with ideas such as sustainable colonies and to seek a way to communicate with the forest even though the web of life has reached a point of destruction.
🐝
Read it with an open mind and overlook the minute nitty gritty and I am sure you are in for a culmination of laughter, wonder, amuse and intrigue.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: sci-fi, south-asian-lit, short-stories, future
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5

[Jyoti Dahiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this collection. To start with, I had high expectations. After all, stories set in the Subcontinent would be set in my daily milieu. Plus, they were science fiction. This is a genre that does not have much of a dedicated market in India, especially in English. So people like me have to cast a world-wide net, and rely on translations or English language publications. That is a separate essay, which I am not writing here.

The collection itself has different levels of writing. Some of them are such gems, I want to buy copies of the book and gift them around. Hence, overall, 4 stars (I really liked it). There are poems, also, and poetry is in the eye of the beholder, but again, some left me cold and some were my beamish boys.

But some of it is eye-rollingly disappointing. Especially the old historical stories in translation. Some of it is not science fiction. Sorry, Tarun K Saint and Manjula Padmanabhan, you included some stories because you liked them and because the writers perhaps write science fiction, but these were not the stories that are science fiction. I was forcibly reminded of a hoity-toity reviewer of a Terry Pratchett book (which the publisher’s found fit for weird reasons to add as a blurb) which described him as ‘one of the premier satirists’ of the day. I remember reading that, curling my lip and muttering, No, no, and again no, buddy, you’ve missed the whole point. Certainly, some science fiction makes satirical points. But if that’s the primary aim, it dates fast and horribly, and the gruesome remains are turned over by foresters while holding their noses and poking about in the ruins. And there are usually not too many arguments about which animal’s scat and/or remains are being turned over, though some may recall seeing the beast in the wild with fond nostalgia. And yet, I feel reluctant to dismiss some of the pieces just because they are not science fiction, because some of these pieces are such extremely good satire. I guess the editors felt the same tug, so I’ll provisionally forgive them.

The story-by-story reviews I promised are here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

All in all, a good collection, with some outright gems, and some pieces one just has to grit one’s teeth and plod through.

[Sookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection where there were some real hits and some I couldn't finish.

1. The Planet of Terror by Adrish Bardhan (translated from Bengali): An homage to classic sci-fi, a first contact story executed in the most predictable cliché with an ending that felt mid-sentence.

2. Inspector Matadeen on the Moon by Harishankar Parsai (translated from Hindi): An on the nose satire set in a dystopian world where a policeman from Earth goes to Moon and corrupts the system. Hilarious, its not.

3. Stealing the sea by Atif Aslam Farrukhi (translated from Urdu): A very interesting take on onslaught of climate change and the reactions people have to it. Its set in a fantastical tone which works against the setting and the narration.

4. Chernobyl by Somendra Singh Kharola: A raw powerful prose-poem describing aftermath of Chernobyl accident.
So much ibaadat that there was no room
to place even a needle
on ocean or land, he pinched harder,
So much. That even God was overwhelmed by his pleas and spared him.

5. The Sea sings at night by Mimi Mondal: Second person narration doesn't work for me. I quit after a paragraph. DNF this story.

6. The Twenty Second Century by Rahul Sakrityayan (translated from Hindi): Reading this young man's work is just saddening, to see that almost a century later we haven't even come remotely close to achieving the dreams of normalized society where crime doesn't exist, there is equality among people; he doesn't venture into advancement of technology into colonizing outer space as a lot of sci fi authors do - the story is that of hope that in distant future (this came out in 1920s) the country is free and so is the world free of greed, corruption, bigotry and prejudice.

7. Shit Flower by Anil Menon: I am not sure what to think of this. This short story works well as a dystopian satire. It also works as a commentary on long term effects of colonization. It's humour however is a massive miss for me and thus it troubled me to no end when what seemingly were funny lines, made me cringe. However as a story, it works.

8. The Man who turned into Gandhi by Shovon Chowdhury: My favorite from this collection. There is a certain commentary to be made about commoditizing identity and our general proclivity for nonsense. The satire is biting, every bit is carefully written and the entire short story is a mood.

9. Seventy years after seventy years of partition by Kaiser Kaq: A short sci-fi poem. A miss for me.

10. Moksha by Sumita Sharma: A fascinating styled poem about coding in our DNA and the practices in our culture. Its a hardwired system - culture and tradition and both require our stylized social rituals to mutate. Pretty fascinating.

11. A Visit to partition world by Tarun K. Saint: Indian partition makes a generation raw with what they went through during that time. This piece is set 100 years past it when that generation no longer exist and there is a way to "experience it". Saint, the editor of this anthology, explores augmented reality with a side of psychology to get readers to emotionally invest in a happenstance that's completely unreal but what once was real for many. Its a bit hopeless, but settles as a stark reminder of what has been.

12. Dreaming the cool green river by Priya Sarukkai Chabria: A throwback to Fahrenheit 451 but for Art.

13. Mirror-Rorrim by Clark Prasad:Alternate universe, sort of time travel and a nod to some sci-fi classic movies.

14. Flexi-Time by Manula Padmanabhan: I thought I misread and re-read few sections again. Nope. This is a bit bizarre and has the tone of superiority that's just no-no.

15. The Other Side by Payal Dhar: There are so many contemporary elements here and Payal Dhar executes its brilliantly in a dystopian corporate world where private corporations run governments, there is a refugee crisis that almost always has a violence element tied to it and a humanitarian crisis is tied to the people at large. Its a very modern piece, the author clearly deriving inspiration from various sources from across the world and not just the country's borders. Its a bitter sweet piece and has a vaguely tragic feel to it, but the dystopia is horrifyingly real.

16. 15004 by Sami Ahmad Khan:Okay this was pretty fun. If one is into nice creature horror like Howling or Train to Busan, this is it. Its written well, its executed well and the ending is pretty badass.

17. Why the war ended by Premendra Mitra (translated from Bengali): What If scenario for the WW2 ending.

18. Were it not for by Arjun Rajendran: This is pretty glorious. Very tongue in cheek, very clever.

19. The beneficent Brahma by Chandrashekar Sastry: A take on fairy-benefactor mythos.

20. The Goddess Project by Giti Chandra: This was a doozy. A well written piece that definitely needs a novel length feature to explore the intersection of mythos and elements of science fiction. In this format, it was glaringly amiss. However the short story is an exploration on femininity, what it means to be a woman in the country, exploitation, crime against women, sexuality - and historical oppression of women. The way the story goes is fascinating as well. Its tragic that there isn't a lot of space to expand on some of the ideas and the idiosyncrasies behind the gender identity of nationalistic sentiments. Giti Chandra's nuanced fast paced writing makes for an ending that's not something I was expecting.

21. The last tiger by Mohammad Salman: A miss for me.

22. A night with the joking clown by Rimi B Chatterjee: After 2030, every man on earth are born with Male Hypertoxic Syndrome. This is toxic masculinity made tangible. DNF.

23. The Dream by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (translated from Bengali): Now that was something else. In short two pages there is a good story with a good twist.

24. Anandna by Rukmini Bhaya Nair: Its...something. I had read some sections multiple times and after that I gave up trying to make sense of it. DNF.

25. We were never here by Nur Nasreen Ibrahim: Bitter sweet story where women escape their fates.

26. The Narrative of Naushirwan Shavaksha Sheikh Chilli by Keki N Daruwalla: Yet another bizarre entry into this collection about last surviving Parsi on earth. I DNF'd this mid-way. The satire put me off completely.

27. Looking up by S.B. Divya: Its a good story, sounds more of a story about a rock star than that of someone going to Mars.

28. Reunion by Vandana Singh: If you have already read material by this author then this story will not come as a surprise but greets you like an old friend. Singh comments on consumerism, consumption, materialism, greed and consequences of greed - wasting resources. Also she writes about a future where climate change is a controlled factor and its near utopia. Its a nice picture.

I am glad I picked up this collection.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Horizons is a compelling new science fiction short story collection featuring writers from the South Asian subcontinent presented together for the first time, edited by Kenyan Tarun K. Saint and featuring a wide range of styles, subjects, viewpoints, issues and cultures. These are singular visions of the future that will thrill, amuse, startle and intrigue but much like any anthology, there are some stories you love and some that just don't tickle you as much, so to speak.

On an ordinary morning, the citizens of Karachi wake up to find the sea missing from their shores. The last Parsi left on Earth must find other worlds to escape to when debt collectors come knocking. A family visiting a Partition-themed park gets more entertainment than they bargained for. Gandhi appears in contemporary times under rather unusual circumstances. The arrival of aliens with an agenda on a railway station in Uttar Pradesh has unexpected consequences. A group of young scientists seek a way to communicate with forests even as the web of life reaches a point of collapse. A young girl's personal tragedy finds a surprising resolution as she readies herself for an expedition of a lifetime.

These and other tales of masterful imagination illuminate this essential volume of new science fiction writing that brings together some of the most creative minds in contemporary literature. On the whole, this is an entertaining and highly readable collection with themes of colonialism, post-colonialism, British imperialism, class, poverty, religion, partition, bureaucracy and police corruption, to name a few. Most of them are based on earth and in the present so there is little near-future, speculative fiction or space-based stories. Recommended to those who are avid sci-fi fans who would like a different perspective in their reads.

Featuring the works of: * Adrish Bardhan * Anil Menon * Arjun Rajendran * Arunava Sinha * Asif Farrukhi * C.M. Naim * Chandrashekhar Sastry * Clark Prasad * Giti Chandra * Harishankar Parsai * Kaiser Haq * Keki N. Daruwalla * Manjula Padmanabhan * Maya Joshi * Mimi Mondal * Mohammad Salman * Muhammed Zafar Iqbal * Nur Nasreen Ibrahim * Payal Dhar * Premendra Mitra * Priya Sarukkai Chabria * Rahul Sankrityayan * Rimi B. Chatterjee * Rukmini Bhaya Nair * S.B. Divya * Sami Ahmad Khan * Shovon Chowdhury * Somendra Singh Kharola * Sumita Sharma * Syed Saeed Naqvi * Tarun K. Saint * Vandana Singh

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving five stars not because I loved all the stories (I didn't), but because this is a valuable anthology and a place to start for someone looking to learn more about science fiction in South Asia. The editor's introduction and some of the older stories are probably going to appeal more to those with an academic mindset trying to understand the history of South Asian science fiction. (On that note, I was pleased to see Rahul Sankrityayan's work as I am familiar with his academic work editing Sanskrit texts; see here: https://openthemagazine.com/special/r...).

But if your interests are not academic/historical, there's still a lot of good stuff. I enjoyed the stories by authors I was familiar with previously (like Manjula Padmanabhan, Mimi Mondal, Vandana Singh, etc.), but I also enjoyed learning some new names. Not every story grabbed me and most of the poetry wasn't my thing, but I particularly enjoyed the more humorous and satirical stories. But that's the great thing about an anthology: if you're not liking something, you can skip it and move on to the next thing. It's totally legal (at least in most jurisdictions).

One more thing: It will help to have at least some familiarity with South Asian history and cultures. I don't have that cultural background myself (I'm a white American), and I admit I didn't understand all the references. But I study ancient Indian philosophy and have been to India, so I had enough to muddle through. If you are totally unfamiliar with South Asia, this might be a good chance to learn something about some cultures here on Earth while reading some fun science fiction.

See my blog review: https://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/2...

[Divya Pal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gratifying to read SF with a South Asian flavour – where else will one come across Keo Karpin hair oil, Old Monk rum, FabIndia?
The Gandhi story could have been titled “The Metamorphosis” – a bitter satire on the present-day political scenario.
In another vignette from bureaucratic realms, before Senior Inspector Matadeen sets off to solve police related problems on the Moon

He had placed one foot inside the earth-ship’s door when Havildar Ram Sanjivan came running. “Pect-sab,” he said, “the house of the SP sa’ab asks you to bring her a heel-scrubbing stone from the moon.”

In the future too the renaming culture persists e.g., Ghera Road, Sardar Patel International Airport, Bombain, Maratharashtra etc. However, it is IAF’s Sukhoi-30 taking on alien craft with indigenous Astra Air to Air missiles and not US F-16s.
There is a brilliant juxtaposition of animal extinction with a biting satirical take on the present vainglorious PM with his ‘broad chest’. The author grudgingly prognosticates that Mr Modi remains PM till 2034.
While dwelling on extinctions, it is 2087 and Parsis are extinct, according to the dying declaration of the last Parsi

The small causes courts and the High Court in Mumbai breathed the proverbial sigh of relief…When the famous case of Cawas Navroz Parsi Whiskeywallah versus the Soli Henahgir Single Malt Whiskywallah came up before the court…The vultures had come back to Mumbai in 2080, but the Parsis had disappeared.

There is a sharp tongue-in-cheek commentary on the Hindu right, squirmingly accurate in all details. The author cocks a snook at the Gandhis.

The Congress, in these 70 years, had not remained idle. The party was now headed now by the Vadrites. Like the Parsis, the Gandhis had vanished, the bestowers of patronage, propounders of the doctrine of the divine right od the dynasty had disappeared.

The collection ends with the inevitable future dystopian story due to climate change with the inevitable unrequited love

He’s lying in the sand, in the relentless heat. The sand half buries his old home in Lajpat Nagar

and

they’d aim a rocket at the moon and name it Chandrayan, they’d tap strange machines called EVMs full of symbols like lotuses, palms and cycles to bring other humans in whose ideas they believed to power, even when they had good reason to suspect that these humans were far from trustworthy

Immensely readable collection.

[Manu]

Once upon a time, the only fiction I used to read were those written by Indian authors. The reason was a relatability to the contexts and references. The only exception was science fiction, in which the situation was exactly the opposite. After I read 'Strange Worlds! Strange Times!", I realised that a further exploration of Science Fiction from this part of the world was warranted. And that's how I picked up this book. Though the title has 'South Asian", the entries are from only India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It's a collection of 28 works - mostly prose, with some poetry, and many stories actually fall under the broader ambit of speculative fiction. As with other fiction, there was an immediate affinity for many of the contexts and references in this book too. While the premise in many were promising, I really liked only a handful.
Harishankar Parsai's "Inspector Matadeen on the Moon", translated by C.M. Naim, is satire on full throttle and takes some excellent digs on the police force, bureaucracy and attitudes of citizens. Anil Menon's "Shit Flower" has wordplay in the title itself, and continues that trend all through the story. But set in a Mumbai of the future that has suddenly lost control of its "bowels", it also has a wonderful take on life and memories, while taking jabs at organised faith.
Shovon Chowdhury's "The Man who turned into Gandhi" imagines Gandhi in contemporary times and is packed with humour and irony. Tarun Saint, also the editor of the book, authors "A Visit to Partition World", with the story set in a "Westworld" with a Partition theme. A very interesting idea that I think might actually happen at some point! Mirror-Rorrim by Clark Prasad is an exciting thriller with its protagonists trying to solve mysteries across both identity and time. And it has Star Trek references! Manjula Padmanabhan's Flexi-time is an intriguing mix of "Arrival" and Indian idiosyncrasies.
"The Other Side" by Payal Dhar features a young girl who discovers family secrets in an authoritarian future. Aliens and railways collide in the racy 15004 by Sami Ahmad Khan. The inspiration for "The Last Tiger" is evident - "modelled on the Great Leader from the early 2000s". A satirical tale on an unusual Republic Day event involving the last tiger. Rimi B Chatterjee's "A night with the Joking Clown" has a cyberpunk feel to it but also has a view on genders and relationships. Vandana Singh's "Reunion", the last story in the book, introduced me to cli-fi (climate fiction!) and made me wonder if the scenario she describes is the future.
Overall, if you want to to get a sense of Science/Speculative fiction from this part of the world, give it a shot.

[Samuel Rajkumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4 star rating I have given is book does not do justice to what I feel about it. Perhaps I should settled on a system to rate each story individually and then average the ratings out. However, even that would not do justice to the book as a whole. So let me settle on an more regional analogy, this book is like a thali, that great platter common to all of South Asia. In this platter, the roti and rice, are crisp and soft respectively - I like the concept and the thematic arrangement of the stories. The individual dishes arrayed around, however, leave me with varied feelings. Would recommend, but do not feel guilty if you feel the strong urge to skip some of the stories. That, after all, is the point of the thali.

[Tejas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peak End - I think there were some high moments in this anthology, and I liked the last few stories. This is going to impact my rating and make me forget that there were some bad stories in between.

[Sanyukta Thakare · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction is one of the first collections of contemporary and historic sci-fi stories from the subcontinent to appear in the twenty-first century. While the world is very fond of the sci-fi genre and the vast diversity it attempts to bring in, reading names of Indian heritage in the genre was unusual but very refreshing. This anthology by South Asian writers is precisely what the industry needs but may not be the exact thing the readers are looking for.

The 28 listed stories in the book have some of the most unique and amazing perspectives of how humanity is bound to lead us to destruction. Thanks to aliens or our scientists, we will suffer and will fail to the brink of extension. But that's not all there are few stories of love and harmony in there. Authors like Harishankar Parsai, Clark Prasad, Rimi B Chatterjee have brought the best of the lot. While they do put you in deep thought, some of the stories truly manage to create an impact with a great connection to the characters. Even if you don't want to end up rooting for them.

At our disposal, we have a mix of very short to reasonably long tales, notes from an author to poems hinting at a grim future. Rimi's 'A Night Joking Clown' and Clark's 'Mirror-Rorrim' will have you tearing through pages while Parsai's 'Inspector Madeen on the Moon' will have you in laughs at humanity's fate. The stories, however, feel very liberal and true to their cause.

Reading from time travel, space travel, and a lost dystopian future, all tropes are new to Indian authors and our native stories. This anthology does justice to them as much as possible, thanks to the editor, Tarun Saint. There are some great gems in this treasure while it is wiser to look for more somewhere else. The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction is a hope for better narratives for the genre in the Indian publishing industry but is also a reminder of what may or may not work.

[Shreyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting cross section of what south asian sci-fi has been doing. it’s a genuine cross section, because it includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. i liked Volume 2 better, but this was the foundational work so credit is due.
there seem to be some common themes in South Asian sci fi across the stories in this book. the biggest trope by far is the on-the-nose, unsubtle political satire that lacks nuance or style. these get very repetitive and you already know the aspects of modern Indian politics they’re going to satirize. on the other hand, there are some really interesting concept stories that are well executed - South Asian sci-fi, that is sci-fi by and for South Asians, but not necessary about BEING south asian.
Best stories: Shit Flower (Anil Menon), The Other Side (Payal Dhar), Why The War Ended (Premendra Mitra), The Goddess Project (Giti Chandra), Anandna (Rukmini Bhaya Nair), Looking Up (SB Divya), Reunion (Vandana Singh)

Chernobyl, Somendra Singh Kharola -
“Why must only carnivores be beautiful? Even the antelope yearns for the taste of canines in its jugular”

“Even the Mantis has begun to pray sincerely”

Anandna, Rukmini Bhaya Nair -
“Sci-fi is
Fiction’s longbow stretched taut
By science’s collinear arrow”

[Sadiq Kazi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely mixed pleasure in reading the stories featured in this book. While some are quite interesting and humorous too, most of the stories are banal.
The most unusual part about the copy I received from amazon is that the cover of the book is bound in reverse! This would have led to embarrassing situation if I had to read it in public - holding the book upside down and had to therefore complete it through reading it in bed. :-)

[Ian Woody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking to read Sci Fi through a different lens then this is the book. A collection of stories that require careful reading but one that rewards persistence. Across the continent and across the years.

[Akshay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very pleased when I came across this anthology - being from South Asia myself, it was very heartening to see a collection of stories that gave us science fiction tales with a South Asian flavour. Carefully curated by Tarun K. Saint (who also contributes to the collection), as you read the foreward and make your way through the stories, it is at a level, a labour of love - one that I can appreciate very much.
It's not that South Asian Sci-Fi don't exist, but rarely do they seem make it very far out of the immediate milieu if you are not connected to what's new + I think even when I've read many a tale by authors of such, the genre is so heavily influenced by Western cultural tropes and Euro-based concepts that we tend to not expect much more.
This feeling applies in my mind to more than prose, it applies to movies, serials and even comics. We are saturated with it. That said, there's nothing wrong with it but there are so many rich cultural elements around the world and we could enrich our stories if we let them have room to breath - the powerful impact of movies like Black Panther was a great example of this impact.

Now, my editorial aside, I will focus myself to the anthology at hand. It is unfair in my mind to try and simply review it as a whole so I will review each entry briefly and give an overall view at the end - so if you want the TL:DR version, scroll straight on down!

1. The Planet of Terror by Adrish Bardhan (translated from Bengali)
A simple and effective entry for a sci-fi anthology. A group of astronauts have left Earth to seek new lands for humanity since we've clearly screwed up our planet - only they do not find at all what they expected. Nice attempt at sci-fi+horror.

2. Inspector Matadeen on the Moon by Harishankar Parsai (translated from Hindi)
A story set in a fictional future wherein India is a powerhouse on Earth and the titular Inspector is going to the Moon to show them how to be truly effective police. Written with a straight face, almost dead-pan, it is absolutely a tongue-in-cheek story about the "morality" of things in the India of the present and past and while a passable story overall, it uses its Sci-Fi setting effectively to lampoon its chosen subject but overall it was only minimally science-fiction-y. Entertaining but nothing exceptional as a sci-fi story.

3. Stealing the sea by Atif Aslam Farrukhi (translated from Urdu)
A city awakens to find the sea gone! Another story with an environmentally conscious sub-text, it's a pretty well written and descriptive story but I must admit that aside from the base concept and some bits, this again felt like an odd choice for a sci-fi anthology.

4. Chernobyl by Somendra Singh Kharola
The first of several poems in this collection which I did not truly understand. Seems like a nicely crafted poem with a lot of emotion behind it.
That said, thematically it doesn't fit the genre for me and as I'm not a too big on poetry as such, it is perhaps even less impactful.

5. The Sea Sings At Night by Mimi Mondal
A wistful little entry that tells the tale of a sci-fi romance. I liked it.

6. The Twenty Second Century by Rahul Sakrityayan (translated from Hindi)
A wonderful entry that I wanted more of, this is a translation of a novel by an amazing man - a freedom fighter who was also a polyglot+polymath and also wrote novels. This is essentially a translation+extract+summary of one of his novels that is very much like Rip Van Winkle/The Sleeper Awakens, i.e, the tale of a person who falls asleep and awakens years and years later when the world has changed.
It was thought-provoking and enlightening and unlike Wells' horror-filled future, our protagonist here awakens to a genuine utopia - that alone is a change from most sci-fi stories. It's fascinating to see the India that Sankrityayan envisioned, free of so many things that plague us even today. It's an interesting and thought-provoking contrast to consider how far we've come and how far we have still to go.
I now want to read more of the source material as it does what all good sci-fi is meant to do in my humble opinion.

7. Shit Flower by Anil Menon
One of the longest entries in the anthology, don't be fooled by the name, this story is a solid sci-fi entry. A creative study on A.I and societal evolution with a more than the odd twist that kept it interesting.

8. The Man Who Turned Into Gandhi by Shovon Chowdhury
Hands down one of the most fun entries, this is a quirky little story of a man who finds himself physically changing day by day and then his thinking starts to evolve too until he becomes a kind of rebirth of the Mahatma itself. Not inherently a sci-fi story, more surreal and magic-realism maybe? But definitely a highlight purely for its entertainment value.

9. Seventy Years After Seventy Years Of Partition by Kaiser Kaq
Another poem that was fine I guess, but was out of place and did nothing for me.

10. Moksha by Sumita Sharma
An interestingly written but yet again, seemingly superfluous poetic entry.

11. A Visit To Partition World by Tarun K. Saint
One of the most interesting concepts to be had in this book. In a "Westworld"-esque setting that replicates events from one of the most traumatising events in the history of Modern India, we are brought face to face with the past and get new perspectives via the differing reactions of the family through whom the narrative is told.

12. Dreaming The Cool Green River by Priya Sarukkai Chabria
An odd entry. It's definitely dystopic sci-fi and touches on the trope of creative and artistic items being outlawed and smuggled and such - but the decently written story aside, it felt like someone took a small chunk out of a larger novel, i.e, it didn't seem to have a clear start or end or purpose really.

13. Mirror-Rorrim by Clark Prasad
A multi-dimensional and globe spanning adventure story. The writing felt like it could have done with a little more polish, but the passion of the story-teller is clear in the energetic journey his protagonist takes to unravel the mystery of what is happening to his world.

14. Flexi-Time by Manula Padmanabhan
Absolutely one of my favourite stories in this collection, Padmanabhan is in good form here.
It's a creative and interesting tale of humanity trying and struggling to communicate with an alien species that has come down and been slowly and steadily solving all our problems - and meanwhile the powers-that-be pursue their own interests and bicker.

15. The Other Side by Payal Dhar
A well written tale that very powerfully puts a focus on the challenges of social class systems and the power of perspectives in any social setting. Told in a somewhat reverse-linear fashion, it's a bit awkward at moments and seems to meander at others, but it comes together as we get toward the end and ties together well.

16. 15004 by Sami Ahmad Khan
This one was a bit of a slog to get through. It's more of a horror story with a hint of sci-fi coming into play at the end. Skippable.

17. Why The War Ended by Premendra Mitra (translated from Bengali)
A alternative history story set roughly at the start of World War 2 that see's the course of human history veering away from global conflict thanks to a mystery radio signal. Quite enjoyable and makes you think about the choice we make as a society.

18. Were It Not For by Arjun Rajendran
Yet another poem that I didn't see the point of - also skippable.

19. The Beneficent Brahma by Chandrashekar Sastry
An interesting take on the magical benefactor concept with a techno-twist.

20. The Goddess Project by Giti Chandra
A wonderful entry that makes the reader wish this was a fuller story, perhaps a novel or novella - something that I think speaks to the quality of this tale. Powerful and filled with a healthy dose of social commentary and feminism, this is one of my favourite entries.

21. The Last Tiger by Mohammad Salman
A bit ham-fisted and perhaps a bit too obvious in what it's trying to do, i.e, the focus on present day politics, environmental issues, etc.
It is a story with a good amount of humour and cheekiness, but overall it's yet another entry that's only peripherally sci-fi. It's fun enough after the heavier stories that precede it but nothing too memorable.

22. A Night With The Joking Clown by Rimi B Chatterjee
A hard story to read, but I have to admit that it's for the right reasons. This is one of the most intense and in-your-face examples of toxic masculinity I've ever seen and at times it's downright uncomfortable. If you can bring yourself to make it through, I found I liked how it eventually played out and the ending was a nice choice by the author in my humble opinion.

23. The Dream by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (translated from Bengali)
Surprisingly fun little two page story which ended up being far more fun than expected.

24. Anandna by Rukmini Bhaya Nair
One of the most high-concept and hard sci-fi entries in this book. Tells the story of 3 scientist friends who come up with an idea to change the world and actually do - told through the eyes of one of the three as he looks back on the journey in his old/middle age.
Not an easy story and required the reread of more than a couple of passages, overall I quite liked it.

25. We Were Never Here by Nur Nasreen Ibrahim
Another entry with a starkly feminist twist, this one's again not quite sci-fi.
That said, it's an interesting perspective that's writtne well and ponders the question of what a society of all-women if it came into being overnight, told through the microcosm of a small group of women in a contemporary world, who have established a tiny enclave as a secret haven for their gender.

26. The Narrative of Naushirwan Shavaksha Sheikh Chilli by Keki N Daruwalla
One of the longest and most pointless entries in this entire collection, about the last Parsi on Earth and the shenanigans he gets up to. I suppose there's a sense of humour to it all and it's well written enough given the respected author, but personally I was bored through most of it and had to really make an effort to get to the end because the writing was not bad but the narrative itself was frankly... boring.

27. Looking Up by S.B. Divya
A low-key sci-fi story about a woman with a troubled youth and life as she prepares for an upcoming departure to Mars and her personal challenges as she tries to say goodbye to and close connections with the life she has on Earth. Heartfelt and thoughtfully written, a good read.

28. Reunion by Vandana Singh
This story closes this collection out strong as it is yet another low-key sci-fi. It's told through the perspective of an old lady who looks back on her life as she went from a simple life of environmental science to getting caught in the midst of the a climate-change based upheaval that changed the face of Mumbai completely and her entire life thereafter becoming an unintended face for socio-cultural change to give humanity a chance to not just survive but find a new paradigm; all the while she is also facing her own mortality through her ageing body.

A bit of a mixed bag with some very good entries and some that had me scratching my head as to their being part of this; that said, apart from a few being sci-fi only partially or not at all, this is very much like many a short-story collection I've read.
All in all I'm glad it exists, I'm very glad I read it and I hope it leads to more stories that bring a South Asian perspective to the world of Science Fiction and Fantasy and inspires more writers to try their hand at it.

[Greeshma · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a unique collection considering it's sci-fi from South Asia. Loved the stories from Payal Dhar, Shovon Chowdhury, Anil Menon, Mimi Mondal and Mohammad Salman quite a bit. It's a fantastic collection because for a change these stories look to the future instead of regurgitating mythology to build a whole new perverse universe. A worthy read really.

One thing I wasn't too keen about were the verse sections. It was a bit jarring. But I think the political nature of these stories more than made up for that misgiving.

Speculative fiction is only just getting its due diligence in this country and I'm glad to have read this gem of a book.

[The Hissing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read that also acted as a serious eye opener.

I always thought that there was a very limited output of Indian Sci Fi but this collection proved me wrong.

The collection meanders between some real gems to some that are generic and some that don't strictly fall in the bucket of Sci Fi. But what I loved is how most of the stories capture ongoing issues whether India specific or global and weave them into a future Outlook.

[Savvy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book would get 0 stars had it not been for a few redeeming stories. You'd think that a book published in 2019 wouldn't be so tone-deaf and sexist, but you'd be wrong. I am so very disappointed. Male authors, it's time to pull your proverbial socks up.

[Raj · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of wish I'd enjoyed this collection of short speculative fiction from the Indian subcontinent more than I did. The omens weren't good when then footnotes for the introduction were almost longer than the introduction itself. And it was long and dry, feeling very much like someone wanted to be able to repurpose it at some point into an academic paper.

There was a mix of old and new stories, with some historical ones, although most were modern. It would have been nice to have some clue as to to the age of each story, actually, since the copyright page listing the stories was incomplete, and some of the ones that were present lacked dates.

The stories themselves were a mixed bag. The editor notes in the introduction that SF isn't a genre that's been historically popular in south Asia, but he includes some in here anyway. The opening story, Planet of Terror feels very "Golden Age", and that's followed by a satire in which a police inspector goes to the moon, to teach the people of the moon the ways of a modern, efficient police force (i.e. corruption and bribery). A lot of the stories are quite dystopian, which isn't really my cup of tea, and many of the others feel quite experimental, and what can I say, I prefer more traditional styling in my fiction.

It's a mixed bag, of course, and I did enjoy some of the stories. These included The Man Who Turned Into Gandhi, a diary of a man who, er, turns into Gandhi, and how he tries to continue living his life; Flexi-time is a gently humorous story about the perils of living your life too regimented and a paean to "Indian time"; and the last story Reunion is a cli-fi piece about the importance of change and adaptability. My favourite story is probably S. B. Divya's Look Up, about a broken family, one of whom is trying to put her past life behind her with a new start on Mars.

So, an uneven collection, not to my taste, but I still think it's important and that there should be more like it. I'll certainly keep looking out for them, hoping that a different editor has tastes closer to mine.

[Pam Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Horizons edited by Tarun K Saint is a collection of short science fiction stories from South Asia.  There are alien encounters, people going into outer space, and scientific discoveries.

I found the stories to be quite different to western stories.  The end often comes much sooner in these than in many of the stories I read.  You are left to wonder what is going to happen next.  There are a lot of stories about the interplay of people, and how this affects the thing that is going on.

I enjoyed seeing the different views on science fiction, the different journeys I was taken on, and that people will be people, even on the moon.

New Horizons will be published on 20th August 2020, and is available to buy on  Amazon  and on   Waterstones . I've found a  link  to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

If you're interested in science fiction books, then here's some others I've  reviewed , and in particular, if you're interested in Asian science fiction, try  Before the Coffee Gets Cold  by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Gollancz and the Orion Publishing Group.

Check out my  GoodReads profile  to see more reviews.

[Tea73 · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few stories in this collection that I really liked. A few of the stories dealt with simplistic ideas I remember talking about with friends in high school. (What if we're just someone else's dream?) A few stories sailed right over my head - they appeared to be satire, but they weren't accessible to me. (And I freely admit my knowledge of India is limited to loving the food, a few novels and some art and religious history courses.) Other stories were obviously satire, but were also very funny. I really liked the one about the guy turning into Gandhi. Some stories were so boring I ended up skimming them. Some I just couldn't follow. One was decidedly icky. The poems were a mixed bag. The introductions (especially the second one) were amazingly tedious. I don't know if wading through all the bad stuff, made the good stuff worthwhile.

Maybe it was because I'm still thinking about "Stealing the Sea", so strange, so haunting, so spare.

[Aniruddh Naik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, apart from 2-3 authors (Clark Prasad & SB Divya ) the others either don't know how to tell a good story or they don't know how to tell a sci-fi story.
They are incomprehensible and headless. No wonder very few South Asian Sci Fi writers are regarded as good storytellers.
Not sure how many qualify as sci fi with literally no concept.

[Groucho42 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short story collection from South Asia authors. Typically, the first two to three stories and the last ones are the ones the editors think are the best. The first was good, the second terrible, the third bad poetry, the fourth more fantasy. The fifth started with a translator's note that was longer than the story, never a good sign. I gave up.

[Sarban Bandyopadhyay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mostly indocentric yet dazzling collection of stories. Entries include light and dark satires as well as reflective pieces on current sociopolitical trends taken to various logical extremes. Most writers manage to maintain a compassionate prose while describing their experimental settings.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly engaging scifi stories with a South Asian focus, but decidedly inferior to other works. Most of the stories are unable to shake the air of forced South Asian supremacy and some clumsily attempt to incorporate mythology into the story. It doesn't work too well.

[Prem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really, really wish I liked this book more than I did. Short story collections can often be of mixed quality but save for a few - Vandana Singh, SB Divya, Anil Menon, Manjula Padmanabhan, Sami Ahmad Khan, among that group - this set of stories did not compel as science fiction. There is a modernist tendency here to view the science-fictional event as separate from the characters who inhabit these stories, as if the event was at an angle to human life that only opens an aspect of being already immanent to it. This is understandable in the earlier stories - at least, they do it somewhat well - but in the more recent stories this borders on unforgivable; there is little sense of the inseparability of the technosocial from our collective life. As such, the critiques often feel blithe and unconvincing. This is not even to speak of the badly written stories. Clark Prasad's Mirror-Rorrim, for example, positioning itself as some sort of 'politically incorrect' edgelordery, is - and I rarely speak of fiction in such absolutes - misogynistic trash and one of the worst pieces of writing I have ever read; a stark betrayal of the genre's ethos, I'd say. On the other hand, Rimi B. Chatterjee's A Night with the Joking Clown, in attempting to provide a critique of toxic masculinity, offers a terrible parody of what toxic men apparently think and talk like, or might be like, if given the opportunity; as it stands, it is borderline unreadable. If this is supposed to be representative of science fiction's situation in the Indian subcontinent (to call it South Asian is stretching it), I'm not optimistic for its future.

[Shreyas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried to give it a chance, but I think there might be better South Asian science fiction stories out there.

Disappointing. DNF'ed.

[Tavish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read some, skipped some, half-read some. Not for me.

[Ajay · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there are occasional flashes of wonder and brilliance scattered throughout this anthology, the collection as a whole largely underwhelms.

[Madhuri Chowdhury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, and especially loved the Man Who Turned Into Gandhi by Shovon Chowdhury. Had Kafkaesque vibes, and also really painted a picture of village life in India.

[Abhinav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, absolutly well set... Never had I thought I had such a great book choice... Noice