Sunday, May 8, 2016

#21: A Legend of the Future by Augustín de Rojas

A spaceship is damaged, and the survivors try to navigate the failing craft back to Earth while hanging on to their own minds and bodies in Augustin de Rojas' A Legend of the Future.

A Legend of the Future is a classic slice of Cuban science fiction but lives right in the same neighborhood as Stanislaw Lem, the Strugatsky Brothers, and director Andrei Tarkovsky; and if this makes you rub your hands together in glee seek this novel out immediately.

It is a world- and time-spanning mindbender with political overtones and some unique storytelling even as it follows the conventions of the Soviet Bloc Sci-Fi of the era. Relentlessly downbeat throughout as we follow the struggle of our radiation-sick cosmonauts (and one disembodied brain), though with a surprisingly upbeat finish.

I bought this from Restless Books and consumed it quickly.

No comments:

Post a Comment