Zion's Fiction

This is an essential and important work of genre scholarship that will introduce the vital work of Jewish and Arab authors in Israel as they create the future and, to steal a phrase, explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no mensch has gone before. –Mark Altman, Writer/Producer, Free Enterprise, "World’s Foremost Trekspert" (The Los Angeles Times).

What a rate of mutation! That mystic shepherds should become a people of priests and sacrifices, then transform under hard pressure into enduring, argumentative teachers, then again into scientific pioneers… and now? Zion’s Fiction explores the unlimited dreams of a people who have learned to stand on shifting ground. To face a future filled with danger and hope, forging into territory that can only be surveyed with the lamp of imagination on our brows.– David Brin, author of EARTH and Existence

There is no gainsaying the worth of a literary anthology, especially in the field of fantastic literature. Other Canadas created the concept of Canadian science fiction and fantasy. I have no doubt that the anthology proposed by Sheldon Teitelbaum and his collaborators will do the same for the literature of the powerful imagination of the Israeli people.– John Robert Colombo, author, anthologist

I have never been a fan of science fiction but I am fanatic about celebrating the incredible diversity of opinion, artistic expression and, yes, thought that the Jewish people in Israel celebrate every day. In a region where freedom remains as scarce as water in the desert, I know that Zion’s Fiction will attract many followers — Science Fiction mavens the world over... and the rest of us, Jews and non-Jews alike. B’hatzlacha! [Good luck!] – Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles.

When my collection Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction was published eight hundred years ago in 1974, the estimable author Leo Rosten asked, “Jewish Science fiction?” In fact everybody asked… “What? Jewish science fiction?” Bless his heart, Leo Rosten went on to say that the book was “unexpected, delightful, and delirious,” and what seemed at first to be a “huh?” idea became a classic. And now…now, right now, we have the first ever anthology in the entire universe of Israeli fantasy and science fiction: Zion’s Fiction. What??? Israeli Science fiction??? So, nu? Go forth and read…and may you find Zion’s Fiction unexpected, delightful, and delirious!– Jack Dann, author, anthologist

I’m thrilled to hear of this project. At last I can read some of Israel’s best science fiction! Translators are the hidden heroes that make the global village work. I co-edited ‘Speculative Japan’ a collection of Japanese SF, and I know that the translations in Zion’s Fiction will be first rate. The quality of the translation decides the quality of the book, and I know that the translations in Zion’s Fiction will be first rate. I co-edited Speculative Japan, a collection of Japanese SF. I know that the quality of the translations decides the quality of the book, and I know that the translations in Zion’s Fiction will be first rate.– Grania Davis, editor, writer, translator, widow of American-Israeli SF writer Avram Davidson

Israeli writers and readers need an anthology like this. May it accomplish for Israeli science fiction the wonders and mind-opening possibilities that science fiction offers– James Gunn, author, anthologist, teacher, SF historian

The State of Israel’s rebirth was a miracle. Its survival to this day is a continuing miracle. It is a land of scientific and human miracles. It makes perfect sense that Israel’s rich and tumultuous culture should produce a blossoming science fiction community. A land that welcomes Ashkenazi, Sephardim, Ethiopian Jewry, Arabs, Russians — a melting pot of the world’s intellects and creators — will inevitably bless the world with its unique and uniquely varied visions! – Richard A. Lupoff, novelist, editor, SF historian, critic, radio host

One of Israel’s best-kept secrets has been the existence of a vibrant, colorful and imaginative community of mostly young science fiction and fantasy writers. Their work, long hidden behind the language barrier, is now about to burst out to the world in the Zion’s Fiction anthology. May the Force be with them! – Avi Nesher, internationally acclaimed Israeli filmmaker

Great storytelling has been coming out of the Holy Land since the time of the Book of Genesis, and the tradition probably goes back a long way before that. This splendid new anthology will open a window on contemporary Israeli fantasy and science fiction — a stream of powerful work that we need to know more about. - Robert Silverberg, author, anthologist

Zion’s Fiction will supply a distinctive bright line to the spectrum of futuristic fiction, which stands in sore need of broadening, in the cause of promoting cross-cultural understanding as well as showcasing exciting new talent. – Brian Stableford, author, SF historian