The Fredösphere

Previously at the Fredösphere we discussed the discrete charm of French science-fiction.  (La Flamme Cosmique!  Métal de Mort!)  While French is an inappropriate language for le futur, Russian seems perfect, especially when spoken in the impatient growl of a Soviet apologist.  Io9 raises the topic; Dark Roasted Blend remains my go-to guy for images (galleries are here, here and here).  It would seem that, in space, all the stars are red.

While researching this post, a few oddities turned up that I cannot turn down:

Turns out there's a literary award for Russian science fiction which, as far as I can tell, is referred to as "Literary Award 'Russian Science Fiction'" (how ... appropriate!) which is interesting only because the trophy they give the winners looks like Howard Roark built a skyscraper model out of chocolate and then left it sitting too close to the radiator.  (Speaking of ill-placed radiators....)

Here's an alt-history novel that until now has flown beneath my radar:  it posits a world where the United States turned communist in 1917, but Russia remained imperial.  It's called Back in the USSA.  Cute.

An expert in ancient engineering techniques reviews some books in his field.  Any fan of the Age of Empires RTS (real-time strategy) game will fall in love with the catapults.  It seems the Romans (and even the Greeks) had some serious firepower at their disposal, including even hand-held weapons that could kill at one hundred yards.

BLDGBLOG has a wonderful collection of fanciful ruins, all from the game Guild Wars.  Don't you just want to eat these up?  I'm tempted to find a city and blow it up, just for the chance to indulge in some spooky/artsy melancholy.  (Memo to the good folks at the Counter-Terrorism Unit:  Just!  Kidding!  Anyway, why would I need a blown-up city when I have one so conveniently located just 45 minutes east of here?)

UPDATE:  Links are fixed now.

Labels: Architecture, Futurism, sci-fi