With the accelerating pace of advances in science and technology, and of social changes in general, it is becoming a cliché to say that “we witness SF coming true” or that “we live in the future” (although some current societal phenomena should make one wonder if we are not going backwards to live in the past, which in turn has also to do with SF: the alternative history branch of the so rich SF tree). But as the only constant thing is change, and the future will always surprise us, the role of SF is not over. SF is the future; the future is SF, long live SF!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Tribes of Israel wandered in the Sinai Desert for forty years before they could enter the Promised Land. This book took nearly the same amount of time to gestate. Many people helped us navigate the often treacherous wadis, passes, dry holes, false turns, and dead ends we traversed during this otherwise interminable slog. These included Robert Silverberg, who introduced us to our agent, Eddie Schneider, of the JABberwocky Literary Agency, who ran with this effort long after any other front-ranking agent would have shown it—and us—the door.
Sheldon Teitelbaum would like to offer thanks to our legal Godzilla Guy Mizrachi; Aharon Hauptman, who volunteered for the odious task of translating his words into Hebrew during the heyday of Fantasia 2000; Hanan Sher, who ran his book reviews (he used to refer to them as “Yids in Spaaace!”) in the Jerusalem Post, the first Israeli daily ever to publish a monthly column on SF/F; and Ian Watson, John Clute, and the good folks at Foundation, who at various times offered up much-needed erudition, insight, and other assistance
Emanuel Lottem wishes pay respect to the late Amos Geffen and Aharon Sheer, as well as Dorit Landes and Adi Zemach, the trailblazers, and to add thanks also to Liat Shahar-Kashtan and other members of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy who offered help and advice, in particular Nadav Almog and Ehud Maimon; to Danny Manor and Gabi Peleg, who got me involved with Fantasia 2000; to the many readers who gave me feedback on my SF/F translations (good ones or bad, they were always helpful); to Larry Niven, Brian Stableford, and Ian Watson for their encouragement; and finally, to my good friend Aharon Hauptman.
We both thank Avi Katz, our illustrious illustrator and good friend; Alex Epstein, Elana Gomel, Danielle Gurevitch, Gail Hareven, Eli Herstein, and Noah Mannheim, who helped comprise our editorial board; Adam Rovner and Jessica Cohen-Rovner, who provided early and timely counsel regarding research and translation-related issues; Bill Gough, who went over the manuscript and made some cogent remarks; Adam Teitelbaum, Lance Cody, Adam Roth, and Eric Menyuk, the intrepid gang behind our Kickstarter promo, and Lionel Brown, who supported it wholeheartedly; John Robert Colombo, who first showed us how it was done; and Robert Mandel, who made it his business to ensure that Israel, despite the trepidations of every other publisher we encountered, got a fair shake. Other staff at Mandel-Vilar Press, as well as Noel Parsons and Barbara Werden, were ever helpful. Without their stalwart contributions, and those of so many others, Zion’s Fiction would likely never have emerged from the desert. To them, and everyone else who helped light our way, we remain profoundly grateful.
And of course, we owe a debt of gratitude to all the authors featured in this collection and an apology to the many left out for lack of space. We fervently hope to rectify this in future volumes.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Emanuel Lottem, born in Tel Aviv in 1944, has been a central figure in the Israeli SF/F scene since the mid-1970s: translator of some of the best SF/F books published in Hebrew and editor of others; advisor to beginning writers; a moving force in the creation of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy (ISSF&F) and its first chairman; and founder of its annual ICon convention and other activities.
Lottem’s first SF translation was Frank Herbert’s Dune, which has become a classic. According to Israeli literary historian Eli Eshed, “This translation is considered a masterpiece of SF translations.” More SF/F translations followed, and Lottem’s name became familiar to and respected by Hebrew-reading fans.
After a few career changes, Lottem became a freelance translator and editor. In addition to SF/F, he also specializes in popular science and military history. In 1983 Lottem became chairman of the editorial board of the Israeli SF/F magazine Fantasia 2000. A few years later, in 1996, he presided over the inaugural meeting of the ISSF&F, which he founded with a small group of devoted fans. Visiting author Brian Aldiss officially announced the ISSF&F open for business, and Lottem was unanimously elected its first chairman.
To date, Lottem’s SF/F translations include works by Douglas Adams, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lois M. Bujold, Jack Chalker, C. J. Cherryh, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Michael Crichton, Philip K. Dick, Robert L. Forward, William Gibson, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Ann Leckie, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Mervyn Peake, Frederick Pohl, Christopher Priest, Robert Shea and Robert A. Wilson, Robert Silverberg, E. E. “Doc” Smith, James Tiptree Jr., J. R. R. Tolkien, Jack Vance, and Connie Willis, among many others. In 1994 Lottem won one of Israel’s highest translation awards, the Tchernichovsky Prize, for rendering into Hebrew Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene. The ISSF&F gave him in 2016 a Life Achievement award on its twentieth anniversary.
Sheldon (Sheli) Teitelbaum was born in Montreal in 1955. He attended Concordia University, where he earned an honors degree in history. Upon graduation in 1977 he left Canada for Israel, where he joined the infantry, completed IDF officer training, and served as a staff officer for the Paratroops Brigade. During his compulsory military service in Israel he moonlighted as a member of the editorial board of the seminal Israeli magazine Fantasia 2000 and as in-house SF reviewer for the Jerusalem Post. Upon concluding a five-year military stint, Teitelbaum began a journalism career, working for the Jerusalem Post, which put him to use as a night desk subeditor and, on weekends, as a feature writer. During the days he worked as a writer for the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Teitelbaum moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1986, where he took up new duties as West Coast bureau chief for the acclaimed film magazine Cinefantastique, as founding reporter for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and as a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report. Additionally, he held down a day job for three years at the University of Southern California as a science writer and, later, three more as a subcontractor to the US Department of Energy.
Teitelbaum has commented on SF/F-related themes in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Forward, Time-Digital, Wired, SF Eye, Midnight Graffiti, Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and the Encyclopedia Judaica. He is the recipient of Canada’s first Northern Lights Award and three Brandeis University–based Jewish Press Association awards.