LITERARY AND ARTS MAGAZINE Chief Editor Yu. Petukhov Alexander Chernobrovkin. KINSLER DIVES (fantastic adventure story) V. Panfilov. MOTHER (story) Alexey Kudryashov. A TALE ABOUT TEMPTATION (story) N. Yu. Chudakova, S.N. Chudakov. PANOPTICUM. NOOSPHERIC THEATER (article) Andrey Ivanov. WITCH HUNT (story) Cover design by S. Atroshenko
Magazine "Adventures, Science Fiction" 3 " 92 Yuri Petukhov
LITERARY AND ART MAGAZINE Editor-in-Chief Yu. Petukhov Yuri Petukhov. STAR'S REVENGE (continuation of the novel) Anatoly Fesenko. STEP FROM DARKNESS (horror story) Cover design by S. Atroshenko.
Front title design by S. Atroshenko, illustrations by R. Afonin.
Magazine "Adventures, Science Fiction" 1 " 92 V Andreev
LITERARY AND ART MAGAZINE Editor-in-chief Y. Petukhov I. Voloznev. THE TREASURES OF SCHEHERAZADE I. Voloznev. HELL ROULETTE A. Chernobrovkin. RAT DEVIL B. Andreev. RESERVATION A. Logunov. A. Logunov STAYED THERE. UNDER THE CONSTELLATION OF OCTAPOD B. Potapov. GADENYSH N. Yu. and S. N. Chudakov. ATLANTIS, ATLANTS, PRAATLANTS
Search - 92. Adventures. Fiction Mikhail Nemchenko
“...The crowd fell silent, as if bewitched by the gloomy sounds of savage words. Sparks from the torches that were burning with all their might burst into the darkness, the heavy side of the altar turned fantastically purple, reflecting the flames blowing in the wind. - Let's praise Satan! Let's praise! - the man in white shouted shrilly and imperiously. - Let's quench his thirst! - Blood! - there was a loud gasp throughout the clearing. - Blood!..” What is this, a scene from time immemorial? Alas, no... The action of the opening story “Search-92” by A. Krasheninnikov “Rite”, from which this excerpt is taken, unfolds essentially in our days, or rather...
Fans of Russian science fiction!
New stories, novellas and articles by Sergei Lukyanenko and Evgeniy Lukin, Leonid Kaganov and Yulia Ostapenko, Sergei Chekmaev - and the creative duo G. L. Oldie!
All this - and much, much more - in the new collection "Fantasy".
Undefined Undefined
Fans of Russian science fiction! Here is another collection of the popular almanac “Fantastika”, which has been published with constant success for nine years now! This collection includes not only new works by Sergei Lukyanenko and Vasily Golovachev, Pavel Amnuel, Viktor Nochkin, Alexey Korepanov, Yulia Ostapenko and other masters of the genre, but also stunning, ironic journalism by Evgeny Lukin and stories of young talented science fiction writers who are just gaining popularity and glory.
Science Fiction 2009: Issue 2. Snakes of Chronos Ivan Kuznetsov
Fans of Russian science fiction!
Here is another collection of the popular almanac “Fantastika”, which has been published with constant success for nine years now!
This collection includes not only new works by Sergei Lukyanenko and Vasily Golovachev, Pavel Amnuel, Viktor Nochkin, Alexey Korepanov, Yulia Ostapenko and other masters of the genre, but also stunning, ironic journalism by Evgeny Lukin and stories of young talented science fiction writers who are just gaining popularity and glory.
The magazine “Adventures, Fantasy” is a kind of sign of the times and a shameful page in the history of Russian science fiction, a literary trash heap of the early 90s. When the old Soviet science fiction died, and the new Russian one (no matter what is meant by it) had not yet appeared, Yuri Petukhov tried to occupy the resulting literary vacuum in the niche of Russian science fiction literature with his magazine. On its pages there was a place for all kinds of literary garbage, thickly seasoned with black stuff, porn and dismemberment. And as the crown of all the magazine’s activities - Petukhov’s five-book cycle “Star Revenge”, which has long become a terrible legend of Russian literature, with which old readers scare newcomers.
Now, when I hear about the crisis in Russian science fiction, about the decline in the level of writing, about the dominance of mediocre MTAs, I remember this magazine and understand that now everything is not so bad. History has once again proven that no matter what diseases literature suffers from, healthy forces will prevail in it, and very clinical cases, like Rooster’s brainchild, will die out and be forgotten like a bad dream.
Bottom line: sometimes I regret that as a child I was too indiscriminate in my book preferences, since partly because of this magazine I developed a negative opinion about science fiction, which I had to overcome for several years. For those who have not encountered this periodical, frankly lucky. Those who have read it will most likely agree with me that “Adventures, Fantasy” is one of the worst (and possibly the worst) literary magazine, that has ever been published in our country.
Rating: 2
It was from this magazine that my acquaintance with the wonderful world of science fiction began! It was later Efremov, Strugatsky and others, and then... Shock, surprise, shock, delight... and many other completely different emotions that I will probably never experience again... :pray: Desire, literally, to the point of shaking in your hands, to profuse salivation and headache - to find out what happened next, how this work ended. The second time I experienced something similar was only when I picked up Lukyanenko’s book, but this, again, was much later.
But the most important feeling is love, no, I have had a love for books since childhood, from the moment I learned this truly amazing activity on earth - reading, but a love for fantasy, specifically fantasy in general, for everything that can fall under this definition, and not just fantasy literature. And if at first I read everything in a row, enjoying simply the reading process itself, and rejoicing at any new information gleaned from the book, then after reading this magazine, I was forever sick with one genre. After all, it is in fantasy that the author is limited only by his imagination, and on the basis of this, it is fantasy that can be considered the highest expression of the writer’s creativity, although, of course, this is only my personal opinion. And if the author’s flight of fancy is compared to a stream, then the imagination of the authors collected in this magazine can be compared to a raging mountain river, taking you into its current, sometimes even against your will, plunging you headlong, and you emerge only for a moment to breathe, take in more air into your chest and dive again into this amazing, beautiful, enchanting and exciting world of fantasy!
IN Lately There aren't many sci-fi comics coming out. Not just exploiting the appropriate surroundings, but seriously thinking about scientific and technological progress and the place of man in it with all his weaknesses, shortcomings and strengths. Fortunately, not everything is so sad and several science fiction comics have appeared, on the one hand, so different in design, plot and approach, but, on the other hand, common in one thing - travel to alternative universes. Read about them in our review.
Black Science
Running through the poisonous jungle. Chase. Precipice, despair, and now one of the heroes dies! And we didn’t even know the name.
“Black Science” throws you into the thick of things and immediately punches you in the gut. Events are developing rapidly. What was it? We'll have to figure it out throughout the entire comic, but many mysteries will remain in limbo - for now the publishing house " Fiction Book Club» has released only the first volume, and Image has already published 5 volumes of books in the original, and at least three more are expected.
This is another story about traveling to alternate worlds where everything goes wrong. Disgraced scientist Grant McKay, commissioned by a corporation, creates a machine to open a portal to the Multiverse. One day, she accidentally transports not only the scientist and his team, but also his children, as well as the embittered supervisor Kadir, who is also the scientist’s former classmate, to another world. Immediately upon arrival in another world, the machine breaks down: it can no longer be controlled by itself, but every few hours it restarts and sends everyone nearby further into the next world, but no one knows what it will turn out to be and when they will return home.
What "Black Science" really does well is Rick Remender's ability to build a plot and play with time and space. The past is revealed in small doses in flashbacks (where would we be without them) on behalf of different characters, and the mosaic, fueling interest, gradually begins to take shape, although with each new story it becomes clear to the reader: there are no indispensable villains or heroes. Everyone has their own skeleton in their closet, genius does not mean good character (or at least loyalty to a spouse), malice can be justified, and anyone could commit sabotage.
In the present, the heroes are faced with trials, it is almost always action, and the tension grows spasmodically from one tragedy through a small exhalation to another. Starting from a world inhabited by intelligent frog magicians, through an alternative history of the First World War, in which Europe was attacked by techno-advanced Indians, the heroes find themselves in a kind of interdimensional hub for a short respite and then on to the planet of monkeys, which are inhabited by greenish glowing souls. Each world is unique and unusual, something you rarely see in comics or on screen, but, on the other hand, throughout there are clear references to the historical eras of mankind: Aztec ziggurats of frogs, ancient Roman surroundings of monkeys, typical Cherokees (albeit with a blaster).
And here Matteo Scalera tried his best - a brilliant stylization of retrofuturism in modern understanding! He not only showed creativity in creating new worlds and filling them with recognizable elements, but also drew truly alive and truly different characters. His style - angular, sharp, dynamic - is perfect for action or combat scenes, but also creates the right tension in calm shots. Dean White gave the comic an appropriate atmosphere with his color palette - purple, blue and red shades predominate here. Overall, at first glance the drawing feels European (Scalera is Italian) and inspired by a classic sci-fi film.
But what’s annoying about “Black Science” is the abundance of internal monologues of the characters, who regularly sigh about something and suffer mentally. These inserts hover like annoying flies on almost every panel. It seems that we could try to find a different way of conveying the states and motives of the characters.
Ei8ht (8axis)
At the end of last year, the publishing house White Unicorn” released the comic book “Eight” with a very unusual story about time travel. The fact is that the authors of the series, Rafael Albuquerque and Mike Johnson, in addition to the standard dimensions of time (past - present - future), added a fourth one - Meld. Everything that happens in this very Meld (even though it looks like Tatooine - everything is in the snow) exists outside of time, and therefore a kind of cocktail is formed there from everything that we love so much in science fiction: dinosaurs, Nazi cultist villains, technologies of the future and the past , and all this is filled with riddles and secrets, including those due to memory loss.
To make it easier for the reader to navigate the events, each timeline has its own color scheme, pre-designated at the beginning of the comic. Colors not only make it easier to navigate the comic, but also serve to create the appropriate atmosphere. Thus, Meldovsky yellow conveys the madness of this strange place and creates a feeling of constant tension, which contrasts with the blue of the future - a cold and indifferent place. On the other hand, the past is painted in green colors - there is a riot of prehistoric vegetation, and the frenzy of relatively young life, and the present is purple, a sign of an unstable, ever-changing state.
Yes, some people won’t necessarily like such simple colors (there really aren’t many of them here) and rough designs, and that’s understandable. The fact is that Rafael Albuquerque (by the way, the artist of the famous “ American vampire”) initially created “Eight” as a webcomic and only then decided to remake it and publish it on paper. This explains the artistic limitations. But one cannot deny the wonderful and quite successful stylization - we are again looking at an attempt to play retrofuturism. With this and all the “wobbly-wobbly time-time stuff”, the comic “Eight” is similar to “Black Science”. They are worth reading together.
The story is actually short, the comic is read quickly, and the ending comes somehow simply and suddenly. It seems that somehow everything used to happen in these strange science fiction films of the last century, after a while you even get the feeling that you have watched one of them.
It is surprising that despite 4 parallel lines, the story in the comic is complete and does not require continuation. All riddles and secrets have logical explanation and receive it by the last release. It’s a little strange that the publication “ White Unicorn” is worth one on the spine, although there is no news about a sequel. Not that this series needed it, but a new standalone story in this universe would be a fun read.
Paper Girls
Paper Girls is a comic by Brian Vaughn and Cliff Chan about newspaper delivery girls in small town, in which very strange things begin to happen in the midst of Halloween. It's surprising that this comic came out in the same year as the Stranger Things series, because they are similar in many ways. The action takes place in the eighties, with children, in a small town and no one understands what is happening around.
If the first two comics are a friendly wink to the “hard” science fiction of the 60s and 70s, then Paper Girls is undeniably “Spielberg”. They have heroes-chrononauts invading other worlds, and here our ordinary world is experiencing an invasion from the outside, and all the action takes place against the backdrop of traditional American life with all these Hershey's chocolate bars, the socio-political situation and stupid fashion in clothes.
The art by Cliff Chan is excellent, the colors by Matt Wilson create a fantastic and even phantasmagoric atmosphere, and, most likely, it is thanks to them that the series is still very well received. Things are completely different with Brian Vaughn's script. Vaughn is famous for the comic book Saga, which he collected great amount various awards since 2013, largely thanks to the script. Unfortunately, Paper Girls can't boast of this. The overall plot is interesting, but for some reason Vaughn spends very little time developing the characters and instead throws us one twist after another without having time to explain them. Only in the first volume will we be shown dinosaurs, time travelers, nanorobots and, judging by the pace of their appearance, this is just the beginning.
The series deservedly won awards for “Best New Series” and “Best Artist (Sketches)” in 2016 and could become a new “”, but for this Vaughn will need to change his approach to the plot a little.
The comic continues to come out. However, it was not published in Russian.
Comics often overlap with books. Even the simplest graphic novel can deliver incredible levels of fantasy. Create mind-blowing worlds, thanks to the talent of the artist, and populate it with a variety of exciting creatures, generated by the unbridled imagination of the screenwriter. A perfectly normal statement, and yet comics are often dismissed by science fiction fans as inferior, unable to even come close to the level of a great novel.
Barnes & Nobles has collected six comics for fans of various genres science fiction. You can safely take any book from this list, read it, and then ask for more.
Space wars!
"Saga" by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
For fans of: the series “Far Away in the Universe”, “Infinity War” by Joe Haldeman;
She is from the planet Landfall, a vast world known for its advanced technology. He is from the small moon Crown, where magic prevails over technology. He has horns. She has wings. In the epic space drama, Alana and Marco, two fighters from rival nations caught in a brutal interstellar war, are forced to go on the run after falling in love and having a child. Their task: to protect their newborn daughter Hazel at all costs, and fate throws them to amazing alien worlds. And in the midst of a breathtaking spectacle (and bad guys with televisions for heads who are on the trail) - the story of a family, with all the strong and weaknesses and victims. It's not a romance novel per se, but Alana and Marco have already become one of the most popular sci-fi couples of all time.
Apocalypse!
Low by Rick Remender and Greg Tochini
For fans: “The Bunker: Illusion” by Hugh Howie, “Songs of a Distant Land” by Arthur C. Clarke, “The Scar” by China Miéville;
Billions of years in the future, Earth's Sun has entered its next stage: expanding into a red dwarf star that will eventually engulf the Earth and most the entire system. In Low, the Earth's surface has been uninhabitable for thousands of years, and two underwater cities fight for the remaining resources as probes search the stars for habitable planets. But there is less and less hope. This impressive setting acts as the backdrop for the story of the Kane family. In the water apocalypse, they experience a terrible tragedy, but continue to hope for a bright future. In fact, they are practically the only ones who have not yet plunged into the abyss of despair and complete decadence. The book has underwater mutants and pirates, but at the end of the day, it's a personal story about never giving up.
Satire!
Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentina De Landro
For fans of: The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood;
These days, fantasy comics, which have never been particularly fond of female characters, are increasingly putting them at the forefront. In this case, in the near future, humanity has found the answer for unruly women: a space prison. A funny, cruel and absolutely feminist book tells about an unusual women's prison. At once an homage and a parody, with the spirit of old prison movies (with a dash of HBO's Prison of Oz thrown in), it's a biting social critique that loudly expresses outrage at the way we now treat women who don't want to follow the rules. At the center of one of the most enjoyable moments: Penny Roll, one of the best supporting characters in science fiction. She's big, black and loud, and incredibly, almost heroically, shameless.
Tabloid fiction!
Starlight by Mark Millar and Goran Parlov
For fans of: Edgar Rice Burroughs' books, especially John Carter;
Here we cheated a little. You can argue for a long time that this book is as superheroic as it is fantastic. But Mark Millar's story of an old man called back to glory borrowed more from Buck Roger than Superman. Duke McQueen is a space hero similar to John Carter, who once saved the planet Tantalus. Now, widowed and old, he lives quietly on Earth and even his children do not believe his stories about interplanetary adventures. They simply brush him off and better days far behind until Tantalus needs help again. A very subtle but energetic story about a man who has a new chance to kick some alien asses.
Monsters!
The Wake by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy
For fans: “The Thing,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne;
Another book with a pair of well-written female characters heading into the underwater depths, but The Wake does things a little differently than Low. Here we are talking about scientific failures (with a pinch of “Creatures from the Black Lagoon”) and social responsibility. In a time similar to the present, Dr. Lee Archer leads a team that has captured a strange mermaid-like creature for research. At some point, everything goes wrong and a bloody game of hide and seek begins. The second part of the story takes place two hundred years in the future, where a girl named Leeward lives in a world of consequences of human mistakes.
Robots!
Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn
For fans: “Her,” “Positronic Man” by Isaac Asimov;
What's a list of sci-fi stories without at least one robot? After the unsuccessful end of a relationship, Alex receives an unusual gift from his grandmother: a companion android of the latest model Tanaka X-5, capable of simulating human relationships, including sex. Alex quickly falls in love with her new girlfriend, and slightly breaks the strict law in order to open her mind. With it comes self-awareness, but the risk of imprisonment. A new take on the classic science fiction question: what makes a person human, and when does it become unacceptable to treat a creature as an object?
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