Stories
magyar | english
1. A world for two (original title 'White circle')
(36,873 characters, without spaces in the original Hungarian version)
This is the tragic story of a father with a wonderful imagination and his daughter who was born deaf and dumb. They recognise that they have a telepathic relationship and then they infinitely expand its scope. They together invite the 'Babes' which leads to a disaster in which both are the first to perish.
2. Kate and the computer
(10,549)
A story which takes place in the seventies, in the early years of computer use (a real 'Hungarian' story). This is the story of a disappointment: the computer arrives finally ('worshipped' by Kate, a well-trained computer technology enthusiast), but it soon breaks down.
3. Symmetry (original title 'There is no perfect mirror')
(11,655)
An absurd space odyssey from the distant future. The honeymoon of a young couple, which not only leads to a natural general symmetry, but also to a special manifestation. However, two women may never be perfectly identical...!
4. A handful of dust
(9,407)
A shameful incident in a small moon-worshipping village located in the high mountains: the teacher who 'indoctrinates' local children with the geography of the sacred Moon, must die. Decades later, the teacher's son Chang, who disappeared at the time, shows up again and takes everybody to the Moon...
5. Street accident
(12,069)
Namba – taken many tens of thousands of years ago from Earth – returns and lands in the centre of a large modern city. He still behaves as the real head of a tribe: without understanding this new brave world at all, he saves the life of an old religious lady.
6. Power breakdown
(10,213)
The first evening at home for a young couple who return from a nice but 'unsuccessful' honeymoon. The embarrassing situation is saved by an unexpected power breakdown, and Emil falls asleep. Viola on the other hand gets in touch with the aliens, who caused the short circuit and who want to find out how human species proliferate on the face of Earth...
7, 8, 9. 30 June 1908, Vanavara
(three versions)
The Hungarian Writers' Federation looked after a young group of new sci-fi writers who were believed to be talented, in 1975-76. Their patron, the Kossuth Prize winner author Gyula Hernádi once gave them the 'homework' of writing about the so-called Tunguska Event. Béla Kasztovszky felt like writing three versions...
7. The eye-witness
(4,650)
Ilya Zvon, the Siberian bear hunter – and his teenage son Alyosa – become witnesses or rather supporting actors when an alien spaceship lands in the Taiga.
8. Two roots of a function
(6,334)
An intelligent computer giant (TER) logically explains to its curious and expert audience that the 'Tunguska Event' was the disaster of a spaceship, which came from the symmetric pair of the Universe, the 'Anti-world', where even time has a negative sign, consequently we can 'still' warn them (to prevent the disaster)!
9. The mean blue planet
(6,087)
An abstract 'cosmologic' solution to the Tunguska mystery. An intelligent small planet wandering here from the world of anti-substance is misguided by a nuclear (annihilation) world war fought (in the near future) on the surface of the Earth. It believes that it has finally come home although – in our past – it surely faces disaster.
10. Strange mine
(11,789)
An alien mine exploration spaceship is approaching planet Earth. They have found out before that there are plenty of valuable fissile materials here, but when they come closer they are terrified to realise that most of the uranium and plutonium traces are in the atmosphere... and hence they are in the midst of an all-out nuclear war!
11. Snapshot
(16,715)
This is the story of an inter-planetary prestige fight ending in tragedy for Jamada and Sisustiken. Jamada is a university undergraduate from the planet Earth, and Sisustiken came here to study from Venus. The fatal dispute erupts about art and personal capabilities, in association with an artistic snapshot.
12. Mustapha
(36,777)
Delta Mustapha Chagil is a leading figure in the 'last' era of planet Earth. His father received the Nobel Prize for producing stabilised anti-helium, by which he could have solved mankind's power problems for good. Unfortunately, this material was used again first of all to make bombs... The Earth becomes uninhabitable, and a young (entirely new) generation starts to build a new civilisation on planet Mars.
13. My beloved family
(10,993)
A single day in the life of a young couple with a small child in a future city, which provides all comforts free of charge. However, a child's blanket which resists kicking off may only be acquired at the doctor's orders...
14. The magic principle
(11,557)
'If any time anywhere such a phenomenon is experienced which defies the laws of physics, it is certain that we have found proof for an intelligent activity'. Papa discovers, travels to the site and perishes with his family. And an abandoned, gigantic space machine is taken by surprise...
15. Viru and Iuba
(23,691)
Two spacemen complete the discovery of a strange planet. It is a pleasant, but uninhabited place. When they are on their way home, they receive signals from a satellite. They fly to the source to investigate and find an old spaceship, in which there is a beautiful hibernated woman! However, their spaceship has room for two people only...
16. The laser star corridors
(78,696)
Cosmogonic sci-fi – with young and nice heroes from planet Earth, who are in love. They understand the 'structure' of Einstein's Universe, and discover the loss-free travel paths cutting across that Universe, i.e. the LS corridors, which are the transport or in fact escape routes of very old or very far civilisations.
17. The star poem
(18,961)
For my twenty-fifth birthday, I have received a wonderful present: a trip to the Omega Centauri cluster of stars! It is an excellent opportunity to write my very own 'Star Poem' I have always dreamed of as a child. But, in the end it becomes a common and simple love poem...
18. A cure for all
(1,677)
A cure for all is when mankind believes in itself. And in the stars, and in... If we understand the 1300 light years of magic offered by Orion, a cure for all may even be plain clear water.
19. Is there life on Earth?
(7,600)
The Reconnaissance Man, who had been to planet Earth, returns to Sirius and reports to his bosses that he saw a demonstration against fur coats on that planet. Thereby it becomes obvious to the inhabitants of Sirius that for the time being they cannot contact such a 'high morality' culture, because they still... eat meat!
20. The diplomat
(45,890)
Donald Holewater discovers a signal from the skies, establishes contact with it and it finally arrives. The passenger of the spaceship is just one ant! – true, a very large one. It has telepathic skills and – as a diplomat – talks Holewater's carefully selected elite team into...
21. Who will stop Senator Speedway?
(27,184)
Senator John Speedway no longer exists. However, if he (still) existed, he would have played a crucial role in the starting and total escalation of the first nuclear war on planet Earth in Iraq. But, his grandson David – the man who discovers the time machine in the 21st century – returns to 1945 and prevents a crucial encounter.
22. Gambling
(22,419)
It is suspected by the four talented members of a group of friends, who regularly play cards together, that the lottery game AutoLotto is computer manipulated. The Dealer, the Mathematician, the Programmer and the Mechanic then bluffs, blackmails and wins.
23. Back to the forest
(24,505)
The 'perfect' City is too good, too nice and too comfortable. One of the contributors to this 'too much of a good thing' status is the main hero, whose job is to draw up the city's maps. He is aware of the truth, and so he makes a decision to get out. Back to the forest – until it is too late. (As he finds out, it is already too late.)
24. The Lift
(16,141)
This story, written in the seventies, is a grotesque parody of the 'socialist' cultural policy prevailing in Hungary at the time. Comrade Serf_z_ visits the Fantasy Club and delivers a Marxist lecture about sci-fi literature. As he picks on the SF short story called The Lift, he is up to a big surprise soon.
25. Yoga
(28,981)
Tim is a young American soldier. In the depth of a forest he handles a state-of-the-art semi-automatic anti-missile facility on his own. However, instead of a practising missile outlined in the Agreement, an alien spaceship shows up. He has to turn to yoga to cope with this shocking situation.
26. Our shelf
(20,026)
This is the idyllic story of one day in the life of a 'small family' in the near future. All goes well, until everyday (e.g. environmentalist) terrorism – the deadly risk of the age – comes knocking on their door.
27. Scholarship abroad
(8,163)
Port is a 'lost and found' man. He is locked into a lunatic asylum, then works in a planetarium, followed by a biological research institute, and then he finally falls in love. As a result, he becomes a bridge – unfortunately doomed to failure – between two endlessly separated worlds.
28. Green light
(77,601)
Tamás Dolmandi is the victim of a serious mental illness. Or is he? He experiences a miracle, and then he works miracles himself – with a little help from a Gloria – an object well-known from cultural history, but (so far) quite neglected in sci-fi literature.
29. Dream trip – at an affordable price
(32,834)
A travel agent offers an unlimited round the world trip, at a low price. Jonathan Gray participates, because he is interested in the technological remains of the past. However, he is carried away by the virtual trip: he consumes alcohol, makes use of sexual services and finally – as a result of gambling – he goes absolutely bankrupt. And finally, as a cute engineer who thinks realistically, he finds the way out of this trouble...
30. The Barnebon Legend
(38,857)
The past: legend has it that a strange alien 'bird' landed on earth. Somehow the bird had human offsprings with special abilities. The present: at the South-East Asia games in the year 2003, sportsmen with fantastic abilities appear in two sports...
31. The technology of a time trip
(24,779)
A solitary man is brooding over the (embarrassing) memories of his life. And suddenly he is visited by an unknown and still very 'familiar' woman. We find out that she is his wife, who finally returns the intellectually derailed famous spaceman to reality: the lunatic asylum.
.
.
.
32. Nova Bellatrix - Romero and Giorgia
(83,547)
The successful astrophysicist Romero Castilia encounters an earthly miracle at the age of 44: a new love. Since his family life has so far been steady and successful, he is unable to solve this psychological problem in real life. Finally - 'thanks' to his heavenly love, the star Bellatrix – he finds the one and only 'fair' solution, but it is life threatening.
33. GRIN (Captain Longfound's country)
(456,000)
This novel is a traditional sci-fi, i.e. an ’optimistic’ Utopia. It is about the idea that all your dreams (may) come true and mankind (may) accomplish all of its goals. And not even in the very distant future. For, the author firmly believes that human abilities are limitless, almost ‘divine’. The only question is whether proper determination and sufficient time exist on this Earth to unfold these abilities and bring them to perfection, in addition to using them to our own advantage. This question arises because the basic and original characteristics (nobility and frailness) of man (and people) have remained unchanged for many millennia.
There are many fantastic people featuring in this fantastic story, as a final outcome of which (thanks to the personal success of the main characters) a very ancient human dream comes true: momentary (out of time) displacement in space! And this would not happen like in a tale, but according to the obligatory rules of sci-fi: by the terrestrial implementation of a ‘scientifically’ defined technology, which can be believed and in fact understood on the basis of creative imagination and logic. What is more, in the very same period of time, remarkable and revolutionary events are also taking place regarding the immortality of personal consciousness, by making another long-time human dream (astral projection) come true! Thanks to a mysterious youth organisation, which becomes increasingly powerful on earth, telepathic communication beyond space and time becomes possible.
However, the essential (and virtually functional) science fiction motive of the novel is practically GRIN – which is nothing less than triple vector (that is out of time) displacement in space as a result of ‘gravitational interference’ produced artificially in a controlled manner!
Indeed, these are huge leaps in civilisation, and the designing of ‘inventions’ dreamed of for a long time is involved. And yet, this is not the essence of and poetic power behind the story. The main question is who are the people who make these dreams come true and how? Real flesh and blood people! And mainly or at least primarily an ‘alien’! Someone who really becomes an earthling and genuinely human while the story unfolds. In summary: they are persons who have an ongoing and complicated relationship with each other and with their world. And, like in all ages, the old natural forces of love leave no stone unturned in this novel.
The characters featuring in the story are young and old, mostly adorable and - almost without exception - extraordinary people, who are challenged by an advanced (22nd century) technical civilisation on Earth. These characters are designed lovingly and thoroughly. (It is suggested openly that each person, in fact man as such is extraordinary!) These people live their lives to the full and experience the miracles of the age, but in the meantime they personally shape and in fact perform these miracles, thereby bringing to perfection the imagined, and perhaps slightly idealised but with all certainty ‘possible’ world of the near future.
And this future world – according to the ambitious concept of the story – could really become capable of making the human culture cosmic and ultimately immortal. (And – according to the author’s way of thinking – this could happen in line with the general and idealised human norms that evolved in the 19th - 20th centuries…)
The ‘time’ of the story:
The actual story spans a period of some 25 years around the middle of the 22nd century, i.e. principally the travelling time of a (‘conventional’) interstellar spaceship. At the time the first ‘alien’ human civilisation was discovered and visited in ‘person’. In the meantime, here on the Earth (where most of the story takes place), the so-called GRIN project is completed! In the meantime, of course, a significant role is given to recollections and bits and pieces of events that had taken place earlier.
Presenting the main characters, and – through their personalities – the general outline and major conflicts of the story
Sebastiano Borneo (‘Captain Longfound’)
He is an extraordinary and mysterious figure. Almost nobody knows where he has come from, how old he is and what his real abilities are. He has substantially different physiological characteristics than those of humans, e.g. instead of light, he has heat vision (and therefore, he constantly wears a huge black mask). He is believed (considered) to be young, although his aging rate is slower than that of men on Earth, and his life expectancy is probably much longer. In addition, a special periodical ‘aqua phase’ is also required for his subsistence and peculiar way of life.
According to a rumour originating in a simple (and extremely anachronistic) village community living in the jungles of a Borneo island, he had come to Earth when his parents suffered a spaceship wreck. “The fallen angels were cast out of heaven”. His father died instantly, but his mother – before she died – gave birth to a child here on Earth. The riverside fishing village stood by, respected and protected him as a divine creature as long as they could…
His life after that is extremely miserable and then adventurous, but his goal in life emerges with time: he wants to go back to the planet of his parents at any cost. Step by step he solves, on his own, the difficulties of his existence on an alien planet, for example the possibility of seeing in a ‘light-oriented’ terrestrial environment, and then he – repeatedly – takes on identities around the globe, every time according to his planned and highly decisive goals. First, he appears in Africa, and then conducts ophthalmologic and theoretical physics studies at various European universities. In both fields, he proves to be extremely talented, and almost becomes a world famous scientist. And yet, he is an unknown man, a real master of social camouflage. He efficiently supports the progress of contemporary science so that interstellar space travel is implemented at the highest standard. At the proper time, he gives valuable advice to one of the most talented (Nobel Prize winner) theoretical physicists of the age.
After that, he disappears again, and then by a clever and deliberate move, he gets himself to the Interstellar Space Research Centre, where he is ‘discovered’ in the depth of a cold lake in the mountains. (This is how he got his well-known nickname Captain Longfound). At the centre – thanks to his extraordinary abilities – he becomes an interstellar pilot.
The GRIN story starts when Captain Borneo is returning home from an interstellar expedition… He then learns that during his recent long absence, the implementation of the momentary (GRIN) voyage suggested by him many years earlier has become a reality on Earth, although it would take some more decades to create a functioning GRIN spaceship. Almost at the same time, he also learns that a young radio astronomer has discovered an even more mysterious (absolutely black) planet of the mysterious red star Nito, where an extraterrestrial civilisation most certainly lives, and where presumably his unfortunate parents had also come from… So he sets out immediately with the fastest possible spaceship representing the highest technology on Earth at the time - in spite of the serious (safety) concerns of the terrestrial population.
In addition, the ‘young’ Sebastiano, who has lived here for approximately 90 years falls in love during his short stay ‘at home’, causing the biggest (and reoccurring) headache of the whole story! Primarily of course to others... And mainly to the two – genuinely young – main characters of the novel: Johanna and Dan.
Johanna Chamorro
She was born on the island of the interstellar spacemen (Prisma Delgado), and her father was the legendary Nicaraguan football player Ermano, who was voted in by television viewers to become a member of an earlier interstellar expedition, stayed on the island and became a popular and talented astronaut.
Johanna is one of the best and most talented students, even amongst those who have been selected on the basis of the highest demands. She is also mesmerised by the GRIN theory, his father’s dream, the possibility of momentary space journey. Her idol is Sebastiano Borneo, the legendary, peculiar and ageless spaceman: she was a little girl at the time of his last departure. When (at the beginning of the story) her hero descends from a starry sky, Johanna instantly falls in love with him.
So as to make things a bit more complicated, Johanna has a ‘singular’ affair with Dan, who is also exceptionally talented, but who is a student astronaut a few years younger than she is. And he is attracted to Johanna the same way she is attracted to the legendary Captain. He adores and is in love with her. Ultimately, perhaps through this affair, it is Johanna, who makes Dan the most genuine outstanding hero of the story. (Dan will make the first GRIN Jump in the world, and he will step for the first time on the surface of an alien civilised planet, although all this for him represents almost certain death ‘at the time’…)
The girl’s objective is much more ‘simple’ and she accomplishes it with strong female determination…
Finally, at the very end, as a final solution for all controversies, Johanna is the one who goes over on a GRIN spaceship to save and bring home both Sebastian and Dan. (And who else? Now this is a surprise even to those who are waiting at the landing site!)
Daniel Kowalski
One of the best students on the island of interstellar experts. He is in love with Johanna enthusiastically and per se. He is jealous of Captain Borneo with a sensitive empathy. He also has all the chance in the world to drive a real interstellar spaceship in a few years time, as a highly qualified captain. However, the heavens declare a different story…
As a romantic ‘Selected Hero’ of the youth world organisation secretly set up under the name Seven Circles (arranged on the basis of IQ ranking and progressive in the long-term), he will participate in the first GRIN Jump! However, Dan does not return to Earth and the terrestrial community – with a lot of compunction – regards him as a hero killed in action, erecting a huge memorial on the surface of the Moon to commemorate him. However, after a time, this tower… shows telepathic features! This means that Dan becomes the first man to demonstrate the SC’s brain development achievements and therefore the first man to demonstrate – the perhaps still possible – ‘mental GRIN’!
Of course, Dan has not died at all. The real story of his jump in space is actually very simple. Because he could not directly return to planet Earth due to the approximately 2 billion kilometre ‘orientation defect’, he rather landed – even before Borneo and his company did so – on the surface of the black, but civilised planet Nito. Hence, he really becomes the very ‘First’!
When after 13 years, Johanna also zooms over with the second (and now faultlessly operating) GRIN MODULE to the star Nito to fetch her love Captain Borneo – she finds Dan there, too. And he already has … a family!
Ivan McLaren
He is the technical chief commander of interstellar space research. His activities and classical personality never leave the main story. He himself has been a famous spaceman – he now teaches the captains of the future. He loves Sebastian like his son, although (as he suspects increasingly stronger now) he was probably born later than the Captain.
He discovers the circumstances of the birth and childhood of an extraordinary creature, and – when the population of the Earth (for safety reasons) makes an inappealable decision to destroy the Nito expedition – he takes measures immediately to save the lives of Sebastiano and his two companions.
After this he does everything to look after Dan and Johanna and also after an extraordinary (very young) woman, who shows up at GRIN’s Alaska site as a representative of the Seven Circles organisation … She is the one who ‘snatches’ from his hiding place Dan, the contemporary Messiah, and falls in love with him instantly… It is not by accident that Sebastiano Borneo or ‘Captain Longfound’ says in the very last sentence of the novel that – contrary to planet Earth – “… over there on that alien planet it is generally the man who chooses his spouse…”