Jacek DukajBlack Oceans
Excerpt
Although the author of Black Oceans revives the classic themes of science fiction, his novel owes a great deal to the pivotal issues and style of cyberpunk prose, i.e. a literature born as much of a fascination with the latest technology as of a phobia about the age of information technology. We are already living in a world run by super-computers - what will happen when they go crazy? asks Jacek Dukaj in his novel. In Black Oceans, even the most exacting reader of fantasy will find what he is always looking for, and which there can never be enough of in books of this kind: wars and conspiracies, scientific experiments of which the scientists have lost control, as well as endless speculation on the condition and potential of the human intellect. Dukaj has skilfully woven some digressive material from the realm of topics such as politics, economics and psychology into his fast-paced, well-told story. Black Oceans undoubtedly belongs to the more erudite trend in Polish sci-fi, and is descended from the best traditions of the genre, with Stanislaw Lem at the forefront.
Dariusz Nowacki
Jacek Dukaj(b. 1974) published his first book at the age of sixteen, and is still known as the "Wunderkind of Polish fantasy". In spite of his youth, he already has three novels to his name, and over a dozen novellas published in sci-fi magazines and anthologies. His collection of stories, In the Land of the Infidels, was hailed as the best sci-fi book of 2000. Black Oceans, published in 2001, aroused lively critical interest and the admiration of ardent readers of fantasy literature.
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