Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Asian speculative fiction insights

Two posts were mentioned in news alerts today regarding Asian speculative fiction:


The first is a collection of stories. They're all in English...so no need to rummage around to find your Tagalog dictionary.

I've read through only a couple of them; selected haphazardly using a spontaneous clicking technique. One of note: The God Equation packs a bunch of metaphysical concepts into a short read sprinkled with some action and an international flair. You get to learn one Tagalog expression (again, no dictionary needed...it's explained) and it ends with Italian to leave you with that Papal feeling.

The second post, from Yusuf Martin's blog, is an academic commentary. If you're a speculative fiction enthusiast, it's very insightful stuff and highly recommended. Martin has done a deep dive into Malaysian English language works and breaks them down quite nicely including a chronology of the genre's development.

The message of the day: if you're looking for fresh speculative fiction, look to Asia.