Italo Calvino: Tutte le cosmicomiche (Cosmicomics)

This collection includes the 12 original Cosmicomics, but adds to that the another 12 stories Calvino wrote later (between 1965 when the original was published and 1984). Those have been published in various compilations, but as far as I can tell, this collection contains all Cosmicomics. Unfortunately, it seems the collection hasn't been translated in English.

It's a pity. The original Cosmicomics are available in English, and those are a wonderful compilation of absurd science fiction stories. Calvino takes a scientific fact (some of those facts are actually false these days, but that doesn't matter) and weaves a story around it. The stories always feature the ubiquitous Qwfwq, who has apparently been around since the dawn of time (and actually, before that - it was apparently his doing that the time itself began), involved in various absurdities - like recalling his relationship with this girl when the colours first arrived, or telling about how they used to visit the moon when it was much closer than it is these days.

The 12 new stories continue describing the antics of Qwfwq, though one of the stories stands out as it has absolutely nothing to do with Qwfwq and it doesn't fit in the style of Cosmicomics - it's not a bad story, but just quite unlike the others. If you enjoyed the original Cosmicomics, there's no reason why you wouldn't enjoy these new stories.

In general the Cosmicomics stories are fun, insightful, hilarious, tedious - some are clearly better and very, very entertaining, some are less interesting. I suppose absurdity is a tough art, and if a story misses a step and doesn't really connect with the reader, there's little hope. Fortunately you can then just skip to the next story and that's likely better - there are several very good stories in the collection. (Review based on the Finnish translation.) [ Cosmicomics (Harbrace Paperbound Library) at Amazon.co.uk ] [ Tutte le cosmicomiche at LibraryThing ]