Yoss

The most successful and controversial Cuban Science Fiction writer of all time, Yoss (aka José Miguel Sánchez Gómez) is known for his acerbic portraits of the island under Communism. In his bestselling A Planet for Rent, Yoss pays homage to Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and 334 by Thomas M. Disch. A critique of Cuba in the nineties, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, A Planet for Rent marks the debut in English of an astonishingly brave and imaginative Latin American voice. Praise for Yoss “One of the most prestigious science fiction authors of the island.” —On Cuba Magazine "A gifted and daring writer." —David Iaconangelo "José Miguel Sánchez [Yoss] is Cuba’s most decorated science fiction author, who has cultivated the most prestige for this genre in the mainstream, and the only person of all the Island’s residents who lives by his pen.” —Cuenta Regresiva Born José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, Yoss assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David Award in the science fiction category for Timshel. Together with his peculiar pseudonym, the author's aesthetic of an impentinent rocker has allowed him to stand out amongst his fellow Cuban writers. Earning a degree in Biology in 1991, he went on to graduate from the first ever course on Narrative Techniques at the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Center of Literary Training, in the year 1999. Today, Yoss writes both realistic and science fiction works. Alongside these novels, the author produces essays, Praise for, and compilations, and actively promotes the Cuban science fiction literary workshops, Espiral and Espacio Abierto. When he isn’t translating, David Frye teaches Latin American culture and society at the University of Michigan. Translations include First New Chronicle and Good Government by Guaman Poma de Ayala (Peru, 1615); The Mangy Parrot by José Joaquín Fernandez de Lizardi (Mexico, 1816), for which he received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; Writing across Cultures: Narrative Transculturation in Latin America by Ángel Rama (Uruguay, 1982), and several Cuban and Spanish novels and poems.

A Planet for Rent

The winner of the UPC Science Fiction Award in 2011, Cuban science fiction master Yoss delivers a space opera of intergalactic proportions in Super Extra Grande. Set in a distant future, the novel features creatures of immense variety—Amoebas that cover entire worlds, sensual females that feed on substances from males’ reproductive systems, talking reptiles, and other creations drawn from international science fiction—all of which serve as fellow adventurers, teachers, or militia in the governing Galactic Commonwealth. Our protagonist, Jan Amos Sangan Dongo, has a special role in this otherworldly menagerie: He is a veterinarian who treats enormous animals. Coupling his own extensive studies in biology with his wild imagination, Yoss brings us a rare specimen in the parodic tradition of Cuban science fiction. Praise for Yoss “One of the most prestigious science fiction authors of the island.” —On Cuba Magazine “José Miguel Sánchez is Cuba’s most decorated science fiction author, who has cultivated the most prestige for this genre in the mainstream, and the only person of all the Island’s residents who lives by his pen.” —Cuenta Regresiva Born José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, Yoss assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David Award in the science fiction category for Timshel. Together with his pseudonym, the author's aesthetic of an impenitent rocker has allowed him to stand out amongst his fellow Cuban writers. Earning a degree in Biology in 1991, he went on to graduate from the first ever course on Narrative Techniques at the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Center of Literary Training in 1999. Today, Yoss writes both realistic and science fiction works. He produces essays and compilations, and actively promotes the Cuban science fiction literary workshops, Espiral and Espacio Abierto. When he isn’t translating, David Frye teaches Latin American culture and society at the University of Michigan. Translations include First New Chronicle and Good Government by Guaman Poma de Ayala (Peru, 1615); The Mangy Parrot by José Joaquín Fernandez de Lizardi (Mexico, 1816), for which he received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; and several Cuban and Spanish novels and poems.

Super Extra Grande

From beloved Cuban science fiction author Yoss comes a bitingly funny space-opera homage to Raymond Chandler, about a positronic robot detective on the hunt for some extra-dangerous extraterrestrial criminals. On the intergalactic trading station William S. Burroughs, profit is king and aliens are the kingmakers. Earthlings have bowed to their superior power and weaponry, though the aliens--praying-mantis-like Grodos with pheromonal speech and gargantuan Collosaurs with a limited sense of humor--kindly allow them to do business through properly controlled channels. That's where our hero comes in, name of Raymond. As part of the android police force, this positronic robot detective navigates both worlds, human and alien, keeping order and evaporating wrongdoers. But nothing in his centuries of experience prepares him for Makrow 34, a fugitive Cetian perp with psi powers. Meaning he can alter the shape of the Gaussian bell curve of statistical probability--making it rain indoors, say, or causing a would-be captor to shoot himself in the face. Raymond will need all his training--and all his careful study of Chandler's hardbitten cops--to outmaneuver his quarry. As he did in his brilliantly funny and sharp science-fiction satires A Planet for Rent, Super Extra Grande, and Condomnauts, Yoss makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar in Red Dust, giving us an unforgettable half-human hero and a richly imagined universe where the bad guys are above the laws of physics.

Red Dust

“Yoss (Super Extra Grande) is an eminent Cuban SF writer who also fronts a heavy metal band; his iconoclastic spirit and rock-and-roll aesthetic are on full ingenious display in this daring, rollicking, and joyous novel…. This extended dirty joke is also an impressive science fiction novel with much to say about sex, culture, and what it means to be alien.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review In the 24th century, Josué Valdés’ rise from an orphan in the slums of Rubble City, Cuba to one of the galaxy’s most accomplished explorers was nothing short of meteoric. On the streets, Josue raced cockroaches for cash—until he discovered his true-calling: as a sexual ambassador for humanity and the Nu Barsa colony. Every so-called “condomnaut” knows that diplomacy and trade deals depend on sexual pacts in the galactic community—and every encounter becomes a close encounter. While some condomnauts have been raised and genetically enhanced to meet the needs of any tentacled insectoid in the galaxy, Josué is a natural whose ego could eclipse the big dipper. Our intrepid condomnauts travel light years across the galaxy and discover that old rivalries—and prejudices—are never far behind. When the first extragalactic beings arrive in the Milky Way, and with them the potential to negotiate for extraordinary new technologies, Josué must call upon every ounce of his talent to seal the deal for his colony and all of humanity. Indirectly investigating current sexual mores, Cuban science fiction rock star Yoss plays upon stereotypes while making it clear that under Communist Cuba what is daring is not always funny and vice versa. Following the success of Super Extra Grande and A Planet for Rent, Yoss brings us another uproarious space adventure with Condomnauts, a wildly inventive and unapologetic tale that would make even Barbarella blush.

Condomnauts

YOSS (José Miguel Sánchez Gómez) es sin duda el autor más renombrado y controversial de la ciencia ficción cubana. En su best-seller Se alquila un planeta, nos ofrece la visión desgarradora de un porvenir en la Tierra que le sirve de espejo para reflexionar sobre la Cuba de los años noventa bajo el régimen de Fidel Castro. En este futuro mordaz, nuestro planeta es rescatado de sus problemas económicos y ambientales por la invasión de extraterrestres que lo transforman en un resort turístico interestelar. Consignados a una burocracia interestelar brutal, los desposeídos de la Tierra se empeñan en mejorar sus vidas a través de las pocas vías disponibles que tienen a su alcance, como son el trabajar para la policía colonial, ganarse la vida en el mercado negro, invertir en el narcotráfico, gozar del mundo galáctico del arte y la prostitución, y extraviarse en vacío en naves espaciales de fabricación casera en busca de una vida mejor. Yoss es conocido tanto por su estética de rockero impenitente como por sus retratos mordaces de la actualidad cubana. Este libro ingenioso y fascinante marca el debut en inglés de una de las voces literarias latinoamericana más intrépidas e imaginativas. Nacido en La Habana en 1988, el escritor José Miguel Sánchez Gómez adopta el nombre de pluma YOSS luego de ganar el prestigioso Premio David de Ciencia Ficción por su libro de cuentos Timshel. Se graduó con un título en Biología en 1991 y formó parte del curso inaugural sobre técnicas narrativas en el Centro de Jorge Cardoso Onelio de Formación Literaria en 1999. Yoss, que se destaca tanto por su estética de rockero como por su pasión por la ciencia y la mitología, es autor de obras de ficción realista así como de CF. Escribe novela, ensayo y crítica y es promotor de talleres literarios. Además de su labor como traductor, David Frye imparte cursos sobre cultura y sociedad latinoamericana en la Universidad de Michigan. Ha sido traductor de la obra del andino Guamán Poma de Ayala (Nueva corónica y buen gobierno, 1615), del mexicano José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (El Periquillo Sarniento, 1816) para la cual fue premiado por el NEA en 2001, del uruguayo Ángel Rama (Transculturación narrativa en América Latina, 1982), y de numerosas novelas y poemas cubanos y españoles.

Se alquila un planeta

Superextragrande, ganadora del premio UPC 2010 de novela corta de ciencia ficción del autor cubano Yoss (José Miguel Sánchez Gómez), un biólogo veterinario o médico de animales, especializado precisamente en los organismos más grandes de toda la galaxia, y destaca por su tono paródico, divertido y, en algunos momentos, incluso escatológico (en la segunda acepción que da el Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española "quien avisa no es traidor"). Les puedo asegurar que los miembros del jurado coincidimos en que la sonrisa, cuando no la risa, frecuentaron nuestra compañía mientras leíamos la novela. Miquel Barceló

Premio UPC 2010 novela corta de ciencia ficción

Superextragrande

Raúl Aguiar Alvarez

José Miguel Sánchez

cuentos cubanos de rock

Escritos con guitarra

Thomas Harris

Patricia Esteban Erlés

Álvaro Bisama

Diego Muñoz

Jorge Baradit

Laura Ponce

David Roas

Jesús Diamantino

Javier Ignacio Alarcón

Julio Gutiérrez

Pablo Illanes

Francisco de León

Carolina Melys

Armando Rosselot

El experto en cine y literatura de terror, Jesús Diamantino, nos invita a leer los espeluznantes cuentos de los más connotados autores del género de terror de habla hispana, que se reúnen en este libro para homenajear e inspirarse en el clásico de Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein o el moderno Prometeo”, a propósito del aniversario número 200 de su publicación.

Yoss

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