The SFWA European Hall of Fame: Sixteen Contemporary Masterpieces of Science Fiction from the Continent by James Morrow (Editor), Kathryn Morrow (Editor)

Synopsis

This is the best book of its kind in at least two decades. It is a literate, intelligent book of powerful SF stories from across Europe.

These tales are representativeof the best writers and stories of the last twenty years, written in most of the major contemporary European languages.  

The SFWA European Hall of Fame includes someof the biggest SF names  in Europe, including Joanna Sinisalo, Andreas Eschbach, Elena Arseneva, and Jean-Claude Dunyach. The appeal of this anthology rests first upon the venerable SFWA Hall of Fame imprimatur, and secondly on the sterling reputation of co-editor/writer James Morrow.

Morrow and his wife Kathryn spent years arranging for translations of the best in European SF, and working with translators to achieve sharp, polished, and entertaining English versions of the stories.

James Morrow has written a thought-provoking introductory essay, as well as informative story notes throughout the collection. This anthology joins the canonical SFWA Hall of Fame books that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies over four decades, and belongs in every library of SF, personal or public.

Publishers Weekly

Wondrous worlds await U.S. SF fans in this sensitively chosen, impeccably translated anthology of Continental European science fiction stories, ranging from 1987 to 2005. Offering "emotional satisfaction and cerebral excitement," as James Morrow puts it in his introduction, highlights include Johanna Sinisalo's "Baby Doll," a Finnish denunciation of materialistic exploitation of children; Romanian Lucian Merisca's "Some Earthlings' Adventures on Outrerria," an excruciating political satire; Valerio Angelisti's "Sepultura," which offers a neo-Dantean Infernoscape; and W.J. Maryson's "Verstummte Musik," a Dutch near-future Orwellian nightmare. A French twist on human-machine interface lifts Jean-Claude Dunyach's "Separations" into a meditation on the nature of artistic creativity, while Elena Arsenieva's "A Birch Tree, a White Fox" exquisitely illustrates the quintessential Russian soul. These "disciplined speculations" by European writers and their painstaking translators not only excite the mind, they move the heart. (June)

Biography

KATHRYN MORROW and JAMES MORROW live in State College, PA.

James Morrow collaborates with his wife, Kathryn Morrow.  The Morrows live in Pennsylvania but have been traveling as guests to the European SF conference in Nantes, France, every year for the last decade. They have many connections among the European writers and publishers, and have worked for years to assemble the translations in this book, selecting and polishing the stories.

Kathryn Morrow collaborates with her husband, James Morrow.  The Morrows live in Pennsylvania but have been traveling as guests to the European SF conference in Nantes, France, every year for the last decade. They have many connections among the European writers and publishers, and have worked for years to assemble the translations in this book, selecting and polishing the stories.