Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
) 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
Vladimír Neff (13 June 1909, Prague – 2 July 1983, Prague) was a popular Czech writer and translator. He wrote numerous historical novels, political satires and parodies on criminal stories and adventure tales.
He is best known for his hist ...
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
Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...
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 ''Večery u krbu'' (remembrances of his father)
* 1991 ''Černobílé hodinky''
* 1997 – 1999 ''Neviditelný pes'' (books)
Non-fiction
* 1978 ''Podivuhodný svět Julese Vernea'' (Monography about Jules Verne and his work)
* 1981 ''Něco je jinak'' (history of Czech SF)
* 1985 ''Tři eseje o české sci-fi''
* 1987 ''Všechno je jinak'' (history of world sci-fi – with Alexandr Kramer, unacknowledged due to censorship)
* 1999 ''Jak blufovat o sci-fi''
* 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 ''Klon'' (essay collections)
Own sci-fi writings
(Only four short stories were translated to English, collected later on as "Fourth Day to Eternity and Other Stories" (Manila: Anvil 2015); names in parentheses are just approximate translations of the titles.)
* 1984 ''Jádro pudla'' (juvenile novel)
* 1985 ''Vejce naruby'' (''An Egg Inside Out''), a collection of short stories, including:
** ''Bílá hůl ráže 7,62'' (''White Cane 7.62'') – a horror story describes an alien invasion through hijacking a visual signal coming from an interstellar probe captured by the aliens. The modified signal triggers a process similar to a
buffer overflow
In information security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly whereby a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns the buffer's boundary and overwrites adjacent memory locations.
Buffers are areas of memo ...
in a human brain, rewriting the victim's DNA and turning it into a copy of the alien attacker. A very similar theme was used independently by
David Langford
David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most ...
in the short story "BLIT". The invasion is thwarted with the help of a blind stunt driver trained to shoot on sound, who, to add to the conflict, happens to be a pacifist.
** ''Zelená je barva naděje'' (''Green is the Colour of Hope'') – describes an invention of an apparatus used for reading animal's minds and presenting them to humans in image form. The inventor tests the device on his friends' aquarium, causing much distress and anger because the apparatus shows the aquarium fish dreaming about killing and eating the humans, and dominating the world; as a consequence, all humans who saw the experiment feel they will never be able to trust any pet animal again.
** ''Strom'' (''The Tree'') – a vision of a society after a near-miss ecological catastrophe, which was avoided only thanks to draconian laws of environment protection that put the nature and its preservation well above human life. The characters, last dwellers of a small village, are fighting a losing battle for their homes against a growing forest, as the laws prevent them from harming any tree.
* 1987 ''Čtvrtý den až navěky'' (''The Fourth Day Forever'', coll)
* 1988 ''Měsíc mého života'' (''The Moon of My Life'', novel)
* 1989 ''Pole šťastných náhod'' (''The Field of Good Chances'', marginally fantastic novel)
* 1989 ''Čarodějův učeň'' (''The Wizard's Apprentice'', sequel to ''Jádro pudla'')
* 1990 ''Zepelín na Měsíci'' (''A Zeppelin on the Moon'', coll)
* 1991 ''Vesmír je dost nekonečný'' (''The Universe is Infinite Enough'', coll)
* 1991 ''Šídlo v pytli'' (sequel to ''Jádro pudla'')
* 1992 – 1995 ''Milénium'' (''The Millennium'') – three parts: ''Země ohrožená'' (''Earth Endangered''), ''Země bojující'' (''Earth Fighting''), ''Země vítězná'' (''Earth Victorious'')
* 1997 ''Reparátor'' (''The Reparator'', novel)
* 1997 ''Bůh s. r. o.'' (''God, Ltd.'', coll)
* 1998 ''Tma'' (''The Darkness'', award for best Czech SF; revised version ''Tma 2.0'' in 2003)
* 2003 ''Pravda o pekle'' (''The Truth about Hell'', coll)
* 2003 ''Tma 2.0'' (''The Darkness, 2.0'', a revised version of ''Tma'')
* 2004 ''Dvorana zvrhlosti'' (''The Hall of Aberrations'', coll, )
* 2006 ''Rock mého života'' (''The Rock of My Life'')
* 2007 ''Tušení podrazu'' (''A Glimpse of a Dirty Trick'', )
The Star Beast
''The Star Beast'' is a 1954 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a high school senior who discovers that his extraterrestrial pet is more than it appears to be. The novel was originally serialised, somewhat abridged (as ''Star Lum ...
'' by
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
)
* 1996 ''Válka světů'' (''
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
Michael Strogoff, the Courier of the Czar
''Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar'' (french: Michel Strogoff) is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876. Critic Leonard S. Davidow, considers it one of Verne's best books. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than thi ...
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...
'', 5 parts)
* 1996 ''Vynález zkázy'' (''
Facing the Flag
''Facing the Flag'' or ''For the Flag'' (french: Face au drapeau) is an 1896 patriotic novel by Jules Verne. The book is part of the ''Voyages extraordinaires'' series.
Like ''The Begum's Millions'', which Verne published in 1879, it has the th ...
'', 2 parts)
Other
* Comics ''Pérák'' (own scenario and drawings).
* Many fan convention talks, in the 1980s especially about English-language SF
* Translation of
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...
's ''
Neuromancer
''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and ...
''
* SF stories in anthologies: ''Lidé ze souhvězdí Lva'', ''Železo přichází z hvězd'', ''Lety zakázanou rychlostí'', ''Let na Měsíc'' etc.