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This Census-Taker
''This Census-Taker'' is a 2016 novella by British author China Miéville. It tells the story of a boy who witnesses a violent event, which he recalls initially as his mother killing his father, but later as his father killing his mother. Centred on the mysterious events surrounding the alleged murder, it is told alternately in the first and third-person by an unreliable narrator. The writing style is sparse, Kafkaesque and a departure from the detailed world-building of Miéville's prior work. The book explores the uncertainty and trauma experienced by the boy and features secret messages and keys as motifs. Reviewers found the story creative and praised its eerie atmosphere, but were divided about the plot due to its open-endedness. NPR described the novella as "a beautiful chocolate that you bite into and find filled with blood", and ''The Scotsman'' found its unresolved nature tantalising, while ''The New York Times'' termed it "an exercise in haunting, lovely frustration". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is an affinity group for contributors with shared goals within the Wikimedia movement. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within Wikimedia project, sibling projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by ''Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Rat (Miéville Novel)
''King Rat'' is an urban fantasy novel by British writer China Miéville, published in 1998. Unlike his Bas-Lag novels, it is set in London during the late 1990s. It follows the life of Saul Garamond after the death of his father and his meeting with King Rat. As King Rat takes Saul under his wing, the young man is quickly embroiled in a centuries-old rivalry. ''King Rat'' was Miéville's debut novel. Plot summary Saul Garamond returns to the flat he shares with his father in London late one evening, skipping on greetings and heading straight to bed. In the morning he is awakened by police pounding on the door, come to arrest him. It appears he is the lone suspect in his father's murder case. After spending most of a day being interrogated and in a holding cell, Saul finds he has a mysterious visitor, who introduces himself as King Rat. The two begin a one sided rooftop escape as King Rat carries Saul along. At the end of this journey, King Rat reveals to Saul that he is his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicoletta Vallorani
Nicoletta Vallorani (born 7 February 1959) is an Italian science fiction writer. Biography Born in Offida, in the Marche region, she holds a degree in Foreign Languages with a dissertation on Contemporary American Literature, honed her writing skills as a translator and currently teaches English Language and Literature in the University of Milan, Milan. Her work as an essayist focuses on Italian science fiction criticism, and science fiction from women in particular. She contributed to various genre magazines, including ''Cosmo'', ''La città e le stelle'', ''Studi e ricerche sulla fantascienza'' and ''Ucronia''. For Mondadori she did volume prefaces, articles, interviews, columns. Starting in the mid-1980s she published novels and short-story collections. She won the Urania Award, Premio Urania 1992 with the novel ''Il cuore finto di DR'', a science fiction/noir cross-pollination published by Mondadori under the ''Urania (magazine), Urania'' inprint the following year, and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomics'' collection of short stories (1965), and the novels '' Invisible Cities'' (1972) and ''If on a winter's night a traveler'' (1979). Admired in Britain, Australia and the United States, Calvino was the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death. He is buried in the garden cemetery of Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany. Biography Parents Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de las Vegas, a suburb of Havana, Cuba, in 1923. His father, , was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture. Born 47 years earlier in Sanremo, Italy, Mario Calvino had emigrated to Mexico in 1909 where he took up an important position with the Ministry of Agriculture. In an autobiographical e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Freedman (writer)
Carl Howard Freedman (born 1951) is an American writer, literary theorist and professor of English literature at Louisiana State University. He is best known for the non-fiction book ''Critical Theory and Science Fiction'', and his scholarly work on the writer Philip K. Dick. Freedman's other works include a series of books on Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin and Samuel R. Delany, and several essays and a book on China Miéville. In 2018, he won the Pilgrim Award for lifetime contribution to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. Life and career Carl Freedman was born in North Carolina in 1951. He received his BA in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Oxford University, and his PhD from Yale University. He is currently the William A. Read Professor of English literature at Louisiana State University, where he was named a distinguished research master in 2013. Freedman's most highly cited work is his 2000 book, ''Critical Theory and Science Fiction'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strange Horizons
''Strange Horizons'' is an online magazine, online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and non-fiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and publishes new material (fiction, articles, reviews, poetry, and/or art) 51 weeks of the year, with an emphasis on "new, underrepresented, and global voices." The magazine was founded by writer and editor Mary Anne Mohanraj. It is registered with the Internal Revenue Service, IRS as 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization. It has a staff of approximately sixty volunteers, and is unusual among professional speculative fiction magazines in being funded entirely by donations, holding annual fund drives. Editors-in-chief * Mary Anne Mohanraj, 2000–2003 * Susan Marie Groppi, 2004–2010 * Niall Harrison, 2010–2017 * Jane Crowley and Kate Dollarhyde, 2017–2019 * Vanessa Rose Phi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
