Science Fiction in Poland - Modern Writers

Modern Writers

Popular modern Polish science fiction and fantasy writers include:

• Ewa Białołęcka
• Anna Brzezińska: one of the youngest Polish writers, known for her ongoing fantasy saga, the first book of which (Zbójecki Gościniec) was released in 1999.
• Eugeniusz Dębski: a writer of fantasy and science fiction, best known for two series—the science fiction detective stories of Owen Yeates and the humorous adventures of a 'chameleon knight', Hondelyk.
• Jacek Dukaj: one of the most acclaimed writers of the 1990s and 2000s, and winner of many awards. He is known for the complexity of his books, and it is often said that a single short story by Dukaj contains more ideas than many other writers put into their books in their lifetime. His books are generally hard sf; popular themes include the technological singularity, nanotechnology and virtual reality. Among his favourite writers is Australian Greg Egan, and Dukaj's books bear some resemblance to Egan's.
• Jarosław Grzędowicz: author of fantasy stories, winner of Zajdel award for book and short story in 2005.
• Anna Kańtoch
• Tomasz Kołodziejczak: science fiction and fantasy writer, screenwriter, publisher and editor of books, comics and role-playing games.
• Marek Huberath: author of many short stories, he focuses on the humanistic aspects (psychology, feelings, motivations, etc.) of his characters.
• Maja Lidia Kossakowska: a fantasy writer, her trademark is the frequent appearance of angels.
• Feliks W. Kres: best known for his two fantasy cycles: Księga całości (The Book of Entirety), set on a world called Szerer, where cats and vultures as well as humans are intelligent, and Piekło i szpada (Hell and spade), a dark fantasy set in an alternate 17th century, where demons and beings older than Satan openly interact with humanity
• Jacek Komuda: known for his fantasy stories set in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; his writing often closely resembles a historical novel, though he doesn't shy from supernatural elements such as witches and devils. He is also one of the authors of the Dzikie Pola role-playing game set in that period.
• Stanisław Lem. Lem was Poland's most acclaimed and famous science fiction writer (although he has mostly stopped writing in the science fiction genre before 1990s), and the only one who had had most of his works translated into English. He often veered into philosophical speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, and humankind's place in the universe. His works are sometimes presented as fiction, to avoid the trappings of academic life and the limitations of readership and scientific style, while others take the form of essays and philosophical books.
• Konrad T. Lewandowski
• Łukasz Orbitowski
• Romuald Pawlak
• Jacek Piekara
• Andrzej Pilipiuk is best known for his humorous series about Jakub Wędrowycz, an alcoholic exorcist and unwilling superhero. Recently he started another popular series, featuring the adventures of three women: a 1000-plus year-old vampire, a 300-year old alchemist-szlachcianka, and her relative, a former Polish secret agent from the CBŚ (Polish 'FBI'). A recurring character in the series is the alchemist Michał Sędziwój, and the universe is the same as the one of Wędrowycz (who makes appearances from time to time).
• Andrzej Sapkowski. Sapkowski is one of the bestselling Polish authors, translated into many languages (recently into English), he is best known for his The Witcher fantasy series. The main character of the series is Geralt, a mutant assassin trained from childhood to hunt down and destroy monsters and other unnatural creatures. Geralt moves in an ambiguous moral universe, yet manages to maintain his own coherent code of ethics. At once cynical and noble, Geralt has been compared to Raymond Chandler's signature character Philip Marlowe. The world in which these adventures take place owes much to J.R.R. Tolkien, while also heavily influenced by Polish history and Slavic mythology.
• Jacek Sobota
• Wit Szostak
• Janusz Zajdel. He became the second most popular Polish science fiction writer (after Stanisław Lem) until his sudden death in 1985. Zajdel's novels created the core of Polish social fiction and dystopian fiction. In his works, he envisions totalitarian states and collapsed societies. His heroes are desperately trying to find sense in world around them; sometimes, as in Cylinder van Troffa, they are outsiders from a different time or place, trying to adapt to a new environment. The main recurring theme in his works is a comparison of the readers' gloomy, hopeless situations to what may happen in a space environment if we carry totalitarian ideas and habits into space worlds: Red Space Republics or Space Labour Camps, or both. The Janusz A. Zajdel Award of Polish fandom is named after him.
• Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz. In the 1990s he was one of the most popular Polish science fiction authors. For his novels Pieprzony los kataryniarza (1995) and Walc stulecia (1998), as well as his short story Śpiąca królewna (1996) he was awarded the prestigious Zajdel Award. A popular theme in his works is the fate of Poland and more broadly, Europe, in the near future (from several to several dozen years). His books often paint the future in dark colours, showing the Commonwealth of Independent States disintegrate into a civil war, European Union becoming powerless in the face of Islamic terrorism, and predatory capitalism and political correctness taken ad absurdum leading to the erosion of morality and ethics. Thus his books are often classified as political fiction and social science fiction, although they stop short of being seen as dystopian fiction.
• Andrzej Zimniak
• Andrzej Ziemiański. Ziemiański writes both science fiction—with themes like post-apocalyptic Autobahn nach Poznan and alternative history Bomba Heisenberga, and fantasy, like his most recent Achaja series.