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Czech Science Fiction And Fantasy
Science fiction and fantasy in the Czech Republic has a long and varied history. From 1918, when Czechoslovakia became independent, until 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded it, Czech literature enjoyed one of its high points. Czech writers developed their works as aesthetic pieces rather than as platforms demanding independence for the Czech people. The best-known and most important of SF writers was Karel Čapek, whose play ''R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)'' (printed 1920, premiered January 1921), introduced and made popular the frequently used international word ''robot''. Čapek is perhaps best known as a science fiction author, who wrote before science fiction became established as a separate genre. He can be considered one of the founders of classical, non-hardcore European science fiction, a type which focuses on possible future (or alternative) social and human evolution on Earth, rather than technically advanced stories of space travel. However, it is best to classify ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War With The Newts
''War with the Newts'' (''Válka s Mloky'' in the original Czech), also translated as ''Salamander Wars'', is a 1936 satirical science fiction novel by Czech author Karel Čapek. It concerns the discovery in the Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, an intelligent breed of newts, who are initially enslaved and exploited. They acquire human knowledge and rebel, leading to a global war for supremacy.''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', Peter Nicholls, Granada, 1981, There are obvious similarities to Čapek's earlier '' R.U.R.'', but also some original themes. ''War with the Newts'' was described as a "classic work" of science fiction by science fiction author and critic Damon Knight. For many years the English translation was hard to obtain, and earlier copies have been known to sell for a premium. Plot summary Only the last four of the book's 27 chapters deal with the eponymous war. The rest of the book is concerned with the discovery of the Newts, their exploitation and evolut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fabulous World Of Jules Verne
''Invention for Destruction'' ( cs, Vynález zkázy) is a 1958 Czechoslovak black-and-white science fiction adventure film, directed by Karel Zeman, produced by Zdeněk Novák, and starring Lubor Tokoš, Arnošt Navrátil, and Miloslav Holub. Based on several works by Jules Verne, primarily his 1896 novel '' Facing the Flag'' (with which the film shares its Czech title), the film evokes the original illustrations for Verne's works by combining live actors with various forms of animation. The film was distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1961 and was dubbed into English and retitled ''The Fabulous World of Jules Verne''. It was distributed in 72 countries around the world, where it received widespread attention. It is considered the most successful Czech film ever made. During the 2000s, a 35 mm print of the original film, with English subtitles, was shown internationally at film festivals with the on-screen English title ''A Deadly Invention''. In 2014 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journey To The Beginning Of Time
''Journey to the Beginning of Time'' ( cs, Cesta do pravěku, literally "Journey into prehistory") is a color 1955 Czechoslovak science fiction adventure film directed by Karel Zeman. Produced using a combination of 2-D and 3-D models, it was the first of Zeman's productions to include actors in conjunction with stop-motion and special effects. It won awards at the International Film Festivals of Venice and Mannheim. The documentary-type nature of the film showing extinct animal species behaving naturally in their own environments was most unusual for its era and foreshadowed many later TV productions that would depict prehistoric life for educational rather than purely entertainment purposes. ''Cesta do pravěku'' should not be confused with a dubbed and partly re-filmed U.S. version of the film that was released in 1966 under the title ''Journey to the Beginning of Time''. The film is, according to server Kinobox, the best Czech science fiction film of all time. The film was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Krakatit
''Krakatit'' is a 1948 Czechoslovak science fiction mystery film directed by Otakar Vávra, starring Karel Höger as a chemist who suffers from delirium and regret after inventing a powerful explosive. The film is based on Karel Čapek's novel with the same title, written in 1922. The name is derived from the volcano Krakatoa. Plot A barely conscious, unidentified man is given intensive care by a doctor and a nurse. The man's hands are badly burned and cut. The doctor tells the nurse to give the man oxygen. A sequence begins where the man walks along a street in delirium. An old classmate, Jiří Tomeš, greets him and we learn that the man's name is Prokop. He speaks incoherently about an explosion and something he calls krakatit. Jiří brings him home and puts him in bed. In a dream, a university professor asks Prokop about krakatit. He answers that it is a powerful explosive, named after the volcano Krakatoa, and explains its formula. As the dream ends we see that Jiří has w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skeleton On Horseback
''Skeleton on Horseback'' aka ''The White Disease'' ( cs, Bílá nemoc) is a 1937 Czechoslovak drama film directed by and starring Hugo Haas. It revolves around an infectious disease which breaks out during a war. It is based on the play '' The White Disease'' by Karel Čapek. Cast * Hugo Haas as Dr. Galén * Bedřich Karen as Professor Sigelius * Zdeněk Štěpánek as The Marshal * Václav Vydra as Baron Olaf Krog * František Smolík as Krog's Accountant * Helena Friedlová as Accountant's Wife * Ladislav Boháč as Krog's nephew * Karla Oličová as The Marshal's Daughter Aneta * Jaroslav Průcha as Dr. Martin * Vladimír Šmeral as First Assistant * Vítězslav Boček as Accountant's Son * Eva Svobodová Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ... as Accountant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petra Neomillnerová
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to the mountain of Jabal Al-Madbah, in a basin surrounded by mountains forming the eastern flank of the Arabah valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as 7000 BC, and the Nabataeans might have settled in what would become the capital city of their kingdom as early as the 4th century BC. Archaeological work has only discovered evidence of Nabataean presence dating back to the second century BC, by which time Petra had become their capital. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who invested in Petra's proximity to the incense trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub. The trading business gained the Nabataeans considerable revenue and Petra became the focus of their w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucie Lukačovičová
Lucie Lukačovičová (born 1980 in Prague, Czech Republic) is a Czech fantasy and science fiction writer. She studied cultural anthropology and librarianship at Charles University. She teaches creative writing and works as a free-time pedagogue, organizing activities for children and young adults. She was the editor of six anthologies of young authors (starting with ''Stíny věcí – Shadows of Things'' in 2005) and translator from English ( L.K. Hamilton: Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned ''Circus of the Damned'' is a horror/mystery novel by American writer Laurell K. Hamilton, the third book in her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Within the novel, the "Circus of the Damned" is the name of a supernatural circus that operate ...). She received the ''Award of Karel Čapek'' twice, in 2001 and 2007. She received the 2007 Encouragement Award 2007 from the European Science Fiction Society. She published nearly one hundred short stories an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaroslav Velinský
Jaroslav Velinský (December 18, 1932 – February 19, 2012) - accessed February 20, 2012 was a and detective writer, publisher, and musician. In the folk arena and among sci-fi friends and fans he was known as Kapitán Kid (other pseudonyms included: Václav Rabský, C.P. Stonebridge and Agáta Bílá). Life and career Velinský was born in |
Miroslav Žamboch
Miroslav Žamboch (born 13 January 1972) is a Czech physicist and author known for writing novels and short stories in the science fiction and fantasy genres. A native of the Moravian town of Hranice, Miroslav Žamboch graduated with a degree in physics from the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague. He works at the Institute for Nuclear Studies and, since the mid-1990s, has written over twenty novels and several collections of short stories. In 2011, upon the occasion of his work translation to Korean, he has been described as a representative of the most recent generation of Czech science fiction and fantasy writers. As of 2013 at least seventeen of his books have been translated into Polish. Žamboch is also known as an outdoorsman and physical fitness enthusiast, having participated in judo exhibitions, amateur boxing, mountain climbing Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jiří Kulhánek
Jiří Kulhánek (born 31 December 1967) is a Czech science fiction and fantasy writer. He is among the most successful contemporary authors of the genre in the Czech Republic. He tolerates to some extent the unauthorised distribution of his works on the internet. The heroes of Kulhánek's books possess extraordinary or even supernatural abilities ( vampires, cyborgs etc.); an often used plot element is that the protagonist is assaulted at the beginning of the story, then takes refuge from the more numerous, albeit 'normal', enemies. In the end he then faces hidden leaders, even more powerful than the hero himself. Jiří Kulhánek's novel Strontium The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, the cataclysm in question being the onset of a new ice age. The opening part of the book takes place in a virtual reality of sorts, a world even worse than what is left of the physical reality. Here we get introduced to the main character, who has no memories of his former life, yet som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ondřej Neff
Ondřej Neff (born June 26, 1945, Prague) is a Czech science fiction writer and journalist. He is the founder o''Neviditelný pes''(''The Invisible Dog''), one of the earliest and most popular Czech daily news/comments websites, an''Digineff'' a website about digital photography for amateurs. His father Vladimír Neff was a popular writer, author of many historical novels. Neff had two children with his first wife: a son, David, born in 1970, who works as a photographer for Mladá fronta DNES and a singer; and a daughter named Irena, born in 1979, murdered by her husband on 23 February 2008. Ondřej Neff has supported Czech President Václav Klaus in his fight against environmentalism. He described his opinions, for example, in the article Klaus versus the Warming Ideology . Works * 1978 ''Holky se perou jinak'' (with Vladimír Kovářík ml.) * 1980 ''Klukoviny a tátoviny'' * 1981 ''Tajná kniha o fotografii'' * 1983 ''A včely se vyrojily'' (humorous novel) * 1987 ''Ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
