Freetaly: Italian Science Fiction

by Francesco Verso (Editor), Linda De Santi, Francesco Grasso

From the otherworldly voyage depicted in Dante’s Divina Commedia and the early modern utopias by Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella, up through the proto-SF of Primo Levi and the Imaginary Fiction of Tommaso Landolfi and Italo Calvino, Italy has always been a cradle of fantastic literature. This anthology highlights the works of award-winning and emerging writers of contemporary Italian science fiction and will introduce international readers to exciting stories they wouldn’t otherwise be able to read. Represented here are some of the winners of the Urania Award (Italy’s most prestigious SF award), authors published by major Italian publishing houses, with stories that explore a wide range of topics, including bio-ethical issues, AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, climate fiction, and environmental concerns.
Embrace the Science Fiction Renaissance of Italian literature!

Genres: Science Fiction, Ebooks

295 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2022

About the author

Francesco Verso (Bologna, 1973) is a multiple-award Science Fiction writer and editor. He has published: Antidoti umani, e-Doll, Nexhuman, Bloodbusters, Futurespotting and I camminatori (made of The Pulldogs and No/Mad/Land). Nexhuman and Bloodbusters have been published in Italy, US, UK and China. I camminatori will be published by Flame Tree Press as The Roamers in Spring 2023. He works as editor of Future Fiction, scouting and translating the best SF from 12 languages and more than 30 countries. He’s the Honorary Director of the Fishing Fortress SF Academy of Chongqing. He may be found online at www.futurefiction.org.

Reviews

[DivaDiane SM]

I read this with my friends on the Buddy Reads group. We read 2 stories per month.

It was a good selection of stories by various authors. I quite liked most of them. The translations were mostly good but the editing was a bit hit or miss though, lots of obvious mistakes (typos and such) and some less obvious (only noticeable if you, like me, do actually speak Italian).

I can recommend this collection as a whole.

[Johan Haneveld]

8- I am very glad I have discovered Francesco Verso and his publishing house Future Fiction. On the other hand, as someone starting to actively search out SF written outside of the anglosphere, it was a matter of time before I would discover his anthologies. His vision of 'decolonization' of the genre is one I applaud. All around the world there are authors thinking about the future, scientific progress, technological developments and the role of people and culture in a rapidly changing environment. It's just that their voices are drowned out by authors from the US and the UK, that dominate the markets everywhere - certainly in Europe. Thus we are left with ideas about the future from only these regions of the world, and we miss out on a necessary diversity. A diverse system is more able to cope with change than a mono-culture, which is why ecologists harp on bio-diversity. The literary diversity of the SF-genre is just as important. Let's wean ourselves from the dominant cultural voices and their concerns and start to emphasize with other cultures, with other backgrounds, other traditions, other ways of looking at the world. We will find, as I have found on reading anthologies from all around the world, that we have more in common than we differ and there is hope to be found in our shared humanity. Future Fiction has a mission to collect SF from all over the world and make it available in translation, in Italian and often in English. And in this collection 'Freetaly' the publisher has made SF-stories by Italian authors available to an international audience. As somone who as a child and a teenager often visited Italy on vacation, I did recognize a bit of the Italian atmosphere, something that I absorbed back then unconsciously. Also the stories deal with Italian concerns, with jabs at the beauty industry on the one hand and climate change threatening agriculture on the other hand. There are absurdist stories here, far future SF, but also stories that fit under the solar punk umbrella. Very diverse. My only criticism concerned the translation, which did not lead to very flowing prose, and could have done with another editorial check. I know how hard translation is, so I sympathize, but the reader has to accept some shortcomings in here.
This collection starts with a very interesting essay about the recent history of Italian SF. Here I saw, as is the situation here in the Netherlands, the almost complete domination of American and English books in the mainstream with Italian authors pushed to the side and publishing their books themselves or with small publishers, but with signs during the last few years that something is changing.
I thought the stories themselves were almost all of a very high quality. Some I had even read before, in another collection of Future Fiction and one in 'The Best of World SF, volume 1' (an encouraging sign that Italian SF starts to reach a world wide audience). 'Beautymark' by Linda De Santi is a chilling dystopian story about a society where people are judged for their looks. A friendship between two girls turns sour. The story was well plotted and the viewpoints of the main characters, having lived all their lives in this society, was believable. A great story to start the anthology with.
'The Race of Crows' by Francesco Grasso was also dystopian in nature, but this story was told by an AI, which gave it a very unique flavor. The twists and turns here were great and the details about the region and agriculture sold the story for me.
'Bad Parents' by Andrea Viscusi is well written, references Italian history and culture, and manages to draw out its central mistery well, up till a fitting conclusion, which is maybe just a tiny bit too preachy, or just spelling out the consequences a bit too much? It does little to affect the rest of the story though.
'The Catalog of Virgins' by Nicoletta Vallorani is more of an experimental story, having several perspectives. It was very intrigueing but at the end I did not fully grasp what the story was, or what t was about. That could be my fault though.
'In Bloom' by Clelia Farris on the other hand is a 'solarpunk' story with Italy warming up due to climate change and the power of the sun getting too much to deal with. There are mutated plants, new kinds of sunscrean and several generations influening each other. Maybe it went on a tiny bit too long (and I didn't fully buy the plant hybrid that plays a central part. I'm a bit too much of a biologist for that).
'The Green Ship' by Francesco Verso is another hopeful story about fugitives on the Mediteranean. Some parts (like the new island) did not feel that believable to me, but in a story this positive I can forgive that. It's about the vision of a better future and not about the details.
'The Love Algorithm' by Michele Piccolino is a small tragedy, the pathos of the main character well presented, with high drama, while the end delivers a gut punch.
'Flower queen' by Romina Braggion stands in sharp contrast with the last story, with genetically altered humans taking care of bees, but the human drama is central as well in here.
'The Moby Clitoris of His Beloved' by Roberto Quaglia and Ian Watson was another left turn for this anthology, a satrical farce about food and sexual obsession, and media culture? It was a bit too much for me, I must admit.
China on the Moon' by Stefano Carducc and Alessandro Fambrini dealt with the Vatican, Catholic faith and an interesting find on the moon ... It read like a conspiracy thriller a la Dan Brown, and the SF-elements in here were awe inducing. Maybe it bordered on being blasphemy? But not more than 'The Star' by Clarke. The questions it asked about faith, science and mystery were good to be asked and it ends with the situation a bit of a questionmark. Grand SF in the classic traditon with a truly Italian twist.
I found the implications about religion in the AI-dominated world in 'Being Oval' by Alessandro Vietti harder to deal with, to be honest. But besides that this is a fascinating high concept far future SF-story, with its roots in personal drama, as a mind sent out to the stars tells us about his story.
'Reward' by Franci Conforti also deals with AI and robotics and their effects on the economy (I see on retrospect how well this anthology was put together and the stories grouped in a logical and engaging manner). A situation at a firm is dealt with in a smart way. Great characters here, lively put to the page.
'Pony and Cow' by Alda Teodorani closed the collection with a bit of a satire, as humans have left the planet and left animals and robots to fend for themselves. This felt like a parabel a la 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell, with some heavy hitting social criticism included.
All in all very diverse stories that show that SF of all kinds and subgenres is produced in Italy ranging from satire to literary experiments, from dystopia to far future SF of ideas. Recommended for those interested in stories from outside the US and the UK!

[Ben Sledge]

This was really interesting, don't think I've ever read any Italian science fiction before but picked this up in Rome and had a ball. Some small translation issues and typos aside, this was a great collection filled with interesting ideas -as well as a brief history of the genre in the country.

Personal highlights were Beautymark, China on the Moon, and Being Oval. Special shout-out to The Moby Clitoris of his Beloved for being the weirdest thing I've read all year (complimentary).

[Karen]

Some of my favorite literary works are translated from the Italian: Italo Calvino, Giorgio Bassani, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and Elena Ferrante, to name a few.

When I found this collection of Italian science fiction, I couldn't wait to dive in. Some of my favorites were Reward by Franci Conforti, Being Oval by Alessandro Vietti, The Love Algorithm by Michele Piccolino, and Beautymark by Linda De Santi

[Artur Coelho]

O trabalho notável de Francesco Verso como editor tem-se caracterizado por um marcado esforço em trazer para o público global, habituado a ler em inglês, autores de ficçáo científica vindos de outras culturas e realidades. A tradução para a língua inglesa serve como lingua franca, permitindo aos leitores de entrar um pouco nas ficções de outros paises. As suas antologias de FC chinesa são imperdíveis (e bilingues, mas boa sorte para ler caracteres chineses), mas o trabalho editorial da Future Fiction não se fica por aí. As suas antologias trazem-nos autores sul americanos, porque há uma imensa literatura sul-americana do fantástico para lá de Jorge Amado, Borges ou Garcia Marquez, africanos e europeus. O trabalho é notável, e no caso europeu, é das poucas iniciativas sustentadas que se esforça por dar visibilidade ao trabalho das comunidades de criadores de ficção científica, que partilham um espaço europeu comum, mas estão separados pelas barreiras linguísticas.

Nesta antologia, o foco é a FC italiana, publicando contos de autores italianos. As histórias são de uma sensibildade mediterrânica, mesclando o substrato cultural do país com as visões do fantástico, não necessariamente futuristas. As temáticas tocam em várias vertentes da FC, entre futuros optimistas, Social Science Fiction, e até intrigas conspiratórias. Militarismos, space operas e futuros apocalípticos são temas distantes desta antologia, o que faz sentido, um dos objetivos da Future Fiction é mostrar as possibilidades da diversidade, além dos temas que fazem a FC anglo-americana mais comercial.

As histórias são ecléticas e de grande qualidade, dando-nos um interessante vislumbre da FC italiana, das suas vozes e sensibilidades.