Cuban Science Fiction
Just as new possibilities of travel and communication open between Cuba and America, Restless Books brings you a mind-expanding suite of science fiction—the first of its kind in English translation—that explores life on the long-isolated island through the powerful lens of the imagination.
Reviews
“We get our first translations of Cuban science fiction with A Legend of the Future by Agustín de Rojas and A Planet for Rent, by Yoss (José Miguel Sánchez Gómez). Each represents a fantastic science fiction literary tradition, one that we hope that we’ll see more of in the coming years.… These books convey a worldview that we really don’t see all that often in genre stories. Each novel is deeply tied to the island nation’s politics with a satirical edge.… Both novels are interesting and entertaining reads, and I hope that with the continued easing of restrictions, we’ll see more science fiction from our neighbors to the south.”
—io9
“Raul Castro and Barack Obama’s ‘Cuban Thaw’ wasn’t the only historic milestone between Cuba and the United States in 2015. Thanks to new translations from Restless Books, American readers were also introduced to two of Cuba’s finest writers of science fiction.”
summer 2016
By Yoss
Translated from the Spanish by David Frye
Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction of 2016 • 2017 Philip K. Dick Award Finalist • Best Translated Book Award Longlist • Barnes and Noble Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2016
“Intergalactic space travel meets outrageous, biting satire in Super Extra Grande…. Its author [Yoss] is one of the most celebrated — and controversial — Cuban writers of science fiction…. Reminiscent of Douglas Adams — but even more so, the satire of Rabelais and Swift.”
—The Washington Post
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060563
Publication date: Jun 7, 2016
By Agustín de Rojas
Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Hebe Powell
“There could scarcely be a more opportune moment for the appearance in English of the late Cuban science fiction master Agustín de Rojas’s epic novel The Year 200…. De Rojas’s lucid fictional world intersects with many of our contemporary technological obsessions but charges them with remarkably distinct political valences..... A riveting narrative of espionage and geopolitical turmoil.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books
Paperback• ISBN: 9781632060518
Publication date: Jul 12, 2016
By Agustín de Rojas
Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Hebe Powell
The long-awaited capstone to the landmark trilogy that began with A Legend of the Future and The Year 200 by Agustín de Rojas, “one of Cuba’s greatest science fiction writers” —SF Signal
eBook • ISBN: 9781632060716
Publication date: Jul 7, 2020
eBook available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Audio book available from: Audible
By Agustín de Rojas
eBook • ISBN: 9781632060112
Publication date: July 7, 2020
eBook available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google | iTunes
summer 2015
by Yoss
Translated from the Spanish by David Frye
“A Planet for Rent is the English-language debut of Yoss, one of Cuba's most lauded writers of science fiction. Translated by David Frye, these linked stories craft a picture of a dystopian future: Aliens called xenoids have invaded planet Earth, and people are looking to flee the economically and socially bankrupt remains of human civilization. Yoss' smart and entertaining novel tackles themes like prostitution, immigration and political corruption. Ultimately, it serves as an empathetic yet impassioned metaphor for modern-day Cuba, where the struggle for power has complicated every facet of society”
—NPR, Best Books of 2015
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060365
Publication date: Jun 23, 2015
by Augustín de Rojas
Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor
“Finally, we have the chance to read a landmark work from one of Cuba’s greatest science fiction writers…. If you like intensely psychological sci-fi that deftly piles on the suspense, this novel’s for you…. The boundaries between dream and reality, and then between human and machine, almost melt away as the story progresses. And it is de Rojas’s skillful manipulation of those boundaries that makes A Legend of the Future so addictive.”
—SF Signal
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060358
Publication date: Jun 23, 2015
ebook exclusives
by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Translated from the Spanish by Mary Jo Porter
Introduced by Jon Lee Anderson
“It is difficult to capture in images the soul of a landscape or a city.... Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo’s photographs, and the commentaries they are accompanied with, capture whirlwinds of souls and offer them to us in such way that our own soul is transformed."
—Fernando Savater
eBook • ISBN: 9781632060099
Publication date: Oct 14, 2014
de Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Introducido por Jon Lee Anderson
«Es difícil capturar en imágenes el alma de un paisaje o una ciudad, quizá porque no tiene una sola sino muchas. Las fotografías de Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo y los comentarios que las prolongan atrapan torbellinos de almas y nos las ofrecen de tal modo que conmueven la nuestra. Nos enseñan a ver desde dentro y hacia dentro, sin resbalar sobre la superficie de las cosas».
—Fernando Savater
eBook • ISBN: 9781632060310
Publication date: Oct 14, 2014
eBook available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo
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In the 1960s, Miguel Collazo was one of a handful of dreamers who set out to write mind-expanding science fiction within the geographic and ideological confines of post-Revolution Cuba. Like most of his Golden Age cohort, he was forced to abandon the genre, but The Journey stands as an unsung masterpiece. A profoundly philosophical novel, it has captured the imagination of Cuban sci-fi icon Yoss for nearly forty years. Here, we present his introduction to The Journey by Miguel Collazo, translated by David Frye, out now in English and Spanish.
All the great Restless author events happening this Fall 2016 in Manhattan and Brooklyn
All the great Restless author events happening this fall 2016 in Boston Mass.
All the great Restless author events happening this Fall 2016 in Chicago: