Reviews of Zion’s Fiction

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Zion's Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature by Sheldon Teitelbaum (Editor), Emanuel Lottem (Editor), Avi Katz (Illustrator), Robert Silverberg (Foreword), Aharon Hauptman (Afterword), Lavie Tidhar (Contributor), Gail Hareven (Contributor), Keren Landsman (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), more…

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The world’s first English-language historical anthology of Israeli fantasy and science fiction, Zion’s Fiction will open a portal into a little-known wellspring of speculative fiction from the ultimate Imagination. Showcasing a Foreword by Robert Silverberg and stories originally crafted in Hebrew, Russian and English by a gallery of genre-savvy Israeli writers (including Shimon Adaf, Pesakh (Pavel) Amnuel, Rottem Baruchin, Gail Hareven, Yael Furman, Guy Hasson, Keren Landsman, Mordechai Sasson, Nava Semel, Nitay Peretz, Eyal Teler, Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv), the book will lay bare the hidden dreams and fears of a people whose literary imagination has been squeezed in a vise of threat and uncertainty – and conversely, untold possibilities. (less) ***

The Jewish Journal

The Truth Is Out There in Israeli Science Fiction By Jonathan Kirsch January 23, 2019

Share “The State of Israel may be regarded as the quintessential science fiction (SF) nation,” write Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem, the co-editors of “Zion’s Fiction (Mandel Vilar Press), “the only country on the planet inspired by not one, but two seminal works of wonder: the Hebrew Bible and Zionist ideologue Theo-dor Herzl’s early-twentieth century utopian novel, “Altneuland (Old New Land).” Yet it is also true that the 17 stories collected in “Zion’s Fiction” reflect the here and now of modern Israel. “This book will pry open the lid on a tiny, neglected, and seldomviewed wellspring of Israeli literature, one we hope to be forgiven for referring to as ‘Zifi,’ ” write the co-editors in an introduction to the anthology. “We define this term as the speculative literature written by citizens and permanent residents of Israel — Jewish, Arab, or otherwise, whether living in Israel proper or abroad, writing in Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian, or any other language spoken in the Holy Land.” The introduction to “Zion’s Fiction” and an introduction by Robert Silverberg, one of the living masters of the SF genre, are admirable works of literary history and commentary in themselves, and they provide an illuminating context for the stories that follow. But the stories, of course, are the real attraction, and “treasury” is exactly the right word to describe what we find in the collection. Buried in these fascinating exercises in imaginative fiction are glimpses of the anxieties and aspirations of the real Israel. “The Smell of Orange Groves” by Lavie Tidhar, for example, imagines a future version of Israel as a poly-ethnic nation that includes not only Arabs and Jews but men and women whose ancestry reaches all the way to Mars. Their religious leaders now include such new-fangled authorities as Saint Cohen, the Oracle of the Others, and Brother R. Patch-It of the Church of Robot. “The question of who is a Jew had been asked not just about the Chong family, but of the robots, too, and was settled long ago,” muses Boris Chong, the hero of the story, a Russian-Chinese Jew who finds himself inexplicably haunted by dreams of the far-distant era when Tel Aviv did not yet exist and the place where he lives consisted of “orange groves, and sand, and sea.” After thrusting us into a strange new world, the author reminds us that sentimental memory provides no relief from the terrors of the world we already knew. “BURIED IN THESE FASCINATING EXERCISES IN IMAGINATIVE FICTION ARE GLIMPSES OF THE ANXIETIES AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE REAL ISRAEL.” In “The Believers,” Nir Yaniv describes the sudden appearance of God on Earth in the guise of a judge who inflicts sudden and gruesome death on anyone He judges and finds wanting. All too many modern Jews, it turns out, are deemed to be worthy of divine punishment. The narrator, for example, recalls the night when he and his girlfriend could no longer wait for marriage before sleeping with each other. “A weird smell woke me up in the morning,” he recalls. “Just beside me, in bed, a gray-red-purple sack, moist, dripping went. Still twitching. Fluttering about. My girlfriend, turned from the inside out.” So God is proven to be utterly real and highly dangerous, but the narrator turns out to be just as judgmental. Like Abraham and Moses, he is perfectly willing to stand up to God.

“I have always believed in God,” he tells us. “It’s about time that He started believing in me.” Not every story is quite so theological or so apocalyptic. “Death in Jerusalem” by Elana Gomel begins as a simple and poignant boy-meets-girl story, but the woman called Mor senses something strange about her b’sheret, David. “His kisses were sterile; his mouth tasted of nothing.” When they marry in a civil ceremony in Cyprus, and she meets his family, she sees them as avatars of death by plague, by suicide, by old age. The life that Mor and David live is normal enough (“They watched Netflix and ate dinner”), but something threatening is always just below the surface. Eventually, Mor is forced to confront a dire presence that “was there when Neanderthals scattered ochre around the skeletons of the eaten ones … when shamans withered babies in their mothers’ wombs and flayed men alive without even touching them.” The ending owes more to “Rosemary’s Baby” than to anything in the Tanakh, and some readers will be reminded of the ghost stories that Isaac Bashevis Singer loved to tell. Many of these science fiction stories, however, can be understood as a kind of modern midrash. The Bible’s talking donkey was Balaam’s ass, of course, but we are introduced to his modern counterpart in “My Crappy Autumn” by Nitay Peretz, a wildly comic parody that features a Yiddish-speaking and wisecracking donkey named Tony. “Believe me, everyone’s an ass,” Tony insists. “But at least this ass knows what he’s talking about.” The character who tells the tale is Ido, whose girlfriend has dumped him and sent him into suicidal despair. His weapon of choice is a chrome-plated Jericho Magnum: “When it comes to death, only Made in Israel will do.” But he is diverted when a UFO lands in Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, where it is surrounded by “three Merkava Mark II tanks and one Chabad Mitzvah tank.” Ultimately, the lesson that Ido learns from Tony is reminiscent of Balaam and his famous ass: “Some Jews have the heart of a donkey, and some donkeys have a Jewish heart.” Science fiction and fantasy may be understood as a refuge from the harsh reality of the world in which we find ourselves. But, as “Zion’s Fiction” shows us, it actually seeks to show us a way to solve our problems rather than just hiding from them. “SF dreams (and nightmares) are products of the imagination, but they are inspired by reality,” writes Aharon Hauptman in an afterword. “If humans fail to understand our potential futures, our alternative realities, it is mostly due to the failure of imagination.” When Hauptman argues that “an SF story is a thought experiment about alternative realities,” he is defining exactly what all of us need to find a path forward. Jonathan Kirsch, author and publishing attorney, is the book editor of the Jewish Journal. Amazing Stories Review: Zion’s Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature edited by Teitelbaum and Lottem By Ricky L. Brown September 4, 2018

The diversity of literature around the globe is truly amazing. Even more amazing is finding a wide-ranging collection from a talented cast of writers in a single volume. A must have for hardcore science fiction fans, Zion’s Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature is a new anthology being released in late September 2018, from Mandel Vilar Press, edited by Sheldon Teitelbaum (Jerusalem Post) and noted translator Emanuel Lottem (Dune).

Billed as “the first English-language anthology of the best Israeli science fiction and fantasy, a portal into speculative literature from the ultimate ImagiNation,” this is more than just a collection from a specified group of writers. This is a compilation of good writing, pure and simple. Sure, there will always be a few misses scattered amongst the gems, but that is kinda

expected when you pull together such a pool of varied ideas and talents and your target audience is just as diversified in interests and preferences. What you can expect is a list that includes: The Smell of Orange Groves by Lavie Tidhar The Slows by Gail Hareven Burn Alexandria by Karen Landsman The Perfect Girl by Guy Hasson Hunter of Stars by Nava Semel The Believers by Nir Yaniv Possibilities by Eyal Teler In the Mirror by Rotem Baruchin (Gay Ensemble, The Dreamers) The Stern-Gerlach Mice by Mordechai Sasson A Good Place for the Night by Savyon Liebrecht Death in Jerusalem by Elana Gomel (A Tale of Three Cities) White Curtain by Pesakh (Pavel) Amnuel (White Curtain) A Man’s Dream by Yael Furman (Children of the Glass House) Two Minutes Too Early by Gur Shomron My Crappy Autumn by Nitay Peretz They Had to Move by Shimon Adaf (The Icarus Monologue) Each entry is complimented by an illustration by award winning artist Avi Katz, whose work spans over 170 books in both Isreal and the United States and was previously featured in the Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy from Rockport Press. Not all SF&F stories need to be about the unbelievable becoming believable and this wide assortment of stories touches on both the imaginable and unimaginable. Lavie Tidhar’s story (The Smell of Orange Groves) stands out as a thought-provoking examination of a narrator who is cognizant of changes in his life and his surrounding Tel Aviv world as past, present, and future weigh heavily on his conscious. On the other hand, Rotem Baruchin’s dark tale (In the Mirror) is a throwback to the Twilight Zone era with a sinister magic mirror that alters reality every time it is broken. And Gur Shomron’s modern take on the popular Young Adult adventures (Two Minutes Too Early) is sure to please the younger audience. Simply put, there’s plenty for everybody. Zion’s Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature is one of those anthologies where readers should be able to find at least one, but most likely, many stories they’ll want to reread over and over. Like most anthologies, this will open a gateway to some of the worlds most talented authors they may not have otherwise been exposed to, but more importantly, it will as entertain your imagination.