Category Archives: Speculative Fiction

Earthsea — Dragons and Wizards

Posted on August 10, 2020 by carto

Sheltering at home gives me extra time for reading— I read in English some books I first read while studying Spanish: 100 Years of Solitude, Love in the time of Cholera, Death in the Andes, etc.  Now, I’m turning to … Continue reading →

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The 25th Century — A Doom Scenario

Posted on September 10, 2012 by carto

Note: California City was laid out in 1958 by real estate developer and sociology professor Nat Mendelsohn on 80,000 acres of Mojave Desert land. It was never completed, but has one landowners’ resort, one PGA golf course, one prison (the California … Continue reading →

Posted in eBook, Fantasy/Adventure, Fiction, Speculative Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pulitzer Prize: Indecision, Waffling Second to None

Posted on April 18, 2012 by carto

Joseph Pulitzer is shown here in a pensive mood. In the background is the Medallic Art Co. medal that is awarded to winners of the Pulitzer Prize. What would Joseph Pulitzer think of the indecision on the part of the … Continue reading →

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Haruki Murakami—1Q84, Two Moons Over Tokyo

Posted on January 3, 2012 by carto

1Q84 is a love story set in Tokyo in 1984. The “Q” in the title is a pun on the Japanese letter for “9”, which sounds like the English “Q”. “1984”, of course, is a reference to the George Orwell … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy/Adventure, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Translation | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Allende’s Tale of El Dorado, A Lost City In The Venezuelan Rain Forest

Posted on November 13, 2011 by carto

Deep in the Venezuelan rain forest: imagine yourself standing at the base of Angel Falls. You are wrapped in fog and can only imagine the top where the water cascades over the lip of the high mesa thousands of feet … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy/Adventure, Fiction, Nature, Spanish, Speculative Fiction, Translation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Chamber of Secrets

Posted on January 23, 2011 by carto

Turing’s Delirium is a fictional take on the inner workings of a South American government as a former dictator, now president, prepares the country for elections. The president must suppress the revelation of illegal activities of members of his cabinet … Continue reading →

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Historian, Inquisitor Cyber Chat

Posted on January 18, 2011 by carto

The historian Teresa fidgets at her computer terminal hoping that Inquisitor will connect to the chat room, but her cyber chat friend remains offline and unavailable. It has been several weeks and the historian is distraught by the waiting, but she … Continue reading →

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The Edges of Cyberspace

Posted on January 13, 2011 by carto

Novels about writer’s block always interest me and Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2 is no exception. The cover is interesting to look at and challenging to understand, and the book is a good read after a few tedious early pages. I … Continue reading →

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Galatea, Raphael and Cyberspace

Posted on January 12, 2011 by carto

The dust jacket of my copy of Richard Powers’ fictional journey into cyberspace, Galatea 2.2, has the painting of a young woman by renaissance master Rafael; called La fornarina, the painting is a likeness of Raphael’s mistress. Judging a book by … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Poetry, Speculative Fiction | Tagged | 1 Comment

Artificially Yours, Watson

Posted on January 11, 2011 by carto

When William Gibson wrote Neuromancer he introduced the word cyberspace into the American lexicon, and his images of giant Artificial Intelligences battling for cyberspace dominance captured the public imagination. I’m not sure that I understood then or now what AI … Continue reading →

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