Ondrej Neff
Encyclopedia
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. He is the founder of Neviditelný pes (The Invisible Dog), one of the earliest and most popular Czech daily news/comments websites, and Digineff, a website about digital photography for amateurs.
His father Vladimír Neff
Vladimír Neff
Vladimír Neff was a popular Czech writer and translator. He wrote numerous historical novels, political satires and parodies on criminal stories and adventure tales....
was a popular writer, author of many historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s.
Ondřej Neff is a global warming skeptic who has supported Czech President Václav Klaus
Václav Klaus
Václav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...
in his fight against environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
. He described his opinions, for example, in the article Klaus versus the Warming Ideology http://virtually.cz/?art=14093.
Works
- 1978 Holky se perou jinak (with Vladimír Kovářík ml.)
- 1980 Klukoviny a tátoviny
- 1981 Tajná kniha o fotografii
- 1983 A včely se vyrojily (humorous novel)
- 1987 Večery u krbu (remembrances of his father)
- 1991 Černobílé hodinky
- 1997 – 1999 Neviditelný pes (books)
Non-fiction
- 1978 Podivuhodný svět Julese Vernea (Monography about Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
and his work) - 1981 Něco je jinak (history of Czech SF)
- 1985 Tři eseje o české sci-fi
- 1987 Všechno je jinak (history of world sci-fi – with Alexandr Kramer, unacknowledged due to censorship)
- 1999 Jak blufovat o sci-fi
- 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Klon (essay collections)
Own sci-fi writings
(Only a small part of these creations were translated to English; names in parentheses are just approximate translations of the titles.)- 1984 Jádro pudla (juvenile novel)
- 1985 Vejce naruby (An Egg Inside Out), a collection of short stories, including:
- Bílá hůl ráže 7,62 (White Cane 7.62) - a horrorHorror fictionHorror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
story describes an alien invasion through hijacking a visual signal coming from an interstellar probe captured by the aliens. The modified signal triggers a process similar to a buffer overflowBuffer overflowIn computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly where a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns the buffer's boundary and overwrites adjacent memory. This is a special case of violation of memory safety....
in a human brain, rewriting the victim's DNA and turning it into a copy of the alien attacker. A very similar theme was used independently by David LangfordDavid LangfordDavid Rowland Langford is a British author, editor and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter Ansible.-Personal background:...
in the short story "BLIT"BLIT (short story)BLIT is a short science-fiction story written by author David Langford. It features a setting where highly dangerous types of images called "basilisks" have been discovered; these images contain patterns within them that exploit flaws in the structure of the human mind to produce a lethal...
. - Zelená je barva naděje (Green is the Colour of Hope) - describes an invention of an apparatus used for reading animal's minds and presenting them to humans in image form. The inventor tests the device on his friends' aquarium, causing much distress and anger because the apparatus shows the aquarium fish dreaming about killing and eating the humans, and dominating the world; as a consequence, all humans who saw the experiment feel they will never be able to trust any pet animal again.
- Strom (The Tree) - a vision of a society after a near-miss ecological catastrophe, which was avoided only thanks to draconian laws of environment protection that put the nature and its preservation well above human life. The characters, last dwellers of a small village, are fighting a losing battle for their homes against a growing forest, as the laws prevent them from harming any tree.
- Bílá hůl ráže 7,62 (White Cane 7.62) - a horror
- 1987 Čtvrtý den až navěky (The Fourth Day Forever, coll)
- 1988 Měsíc mého života (The Moon of My Life, novel)
- 1989 Pole šťastných náhod (The Field of Good Chances, marginally fantastic novel)
- 1989 Čarodějův učeň (The Wizard's Apprentice, sequel to Jádro pudla)
- 1990 Zepelín na Měsíci (A Zeppelin on the Moon, coll)
- 1991 Vesmír je dost nekonečný (The Universe is Infinite Enough, coll)
- 1991 Šídlo v pytli (sequel to Jádro pudla)
- 1992 – 1995 Milénium (The Millennium) - three parts: Země ohrožená (Earth Endangered), Země bojující (Earth Fighting), Země vítězná (Earth Victorious)
- 1997 Reparátor (The Reparator, novel)
- 1997 Bůh s. r. o. (God, Ltd., coll)
- 1998 Tma (The Darkness, award for best Czech SF; revised version Tma 2.0 in 2003)
- 2003 Pravda o pekle (The Truth about Hell, coll)
- 2003 Tma 2.0 (The Darkness, 2.0, a revised version of Tma)
- 2004 Dvorana zvrhlosti (The Hall of Aberrations, coll, ISBN 80-204-1534-3)
- 2006 Rock mého života (The Rock of My Life)
- 2007 Tušení podrazu (A Glimpse of a Dirty Trick, ISBN 978-80-00-01942-0)
Scenarios for comicsComicsComics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
of Kája SaudekKája SaudekKája Saudek is a Czech comics illustrator. He is one of the most important exponents of the Czech comics since the late 1960s. He is the twin brother of the photographer and painter Jan Saudek.- Biography :...
- 1988 Arnal a dva dračí zuby (ČSS)
- 1990 Štěstí, Slavkovská romance, Příhoda na mostě (ČSS)
- 1992 Silvestrovský speciál (Nei report)
- 1993 Noc upírů (Nei report)
- from 1996 comic strip Bart sám doma
Works for radio
- 1984 Portonský dryák
- 1985 Počkej, Hektore
- 1987 Velká solární
- 1988 Ano, jsem robot (prix Bohemia 1989)
- 1991 Havárie Drakkaru
Dramatization
- 1990 Zvíře z hvězd (The Star BeastThe Star BeastThe Star Beast is a 1954 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a high school senior who discovers that his late father's extraterrestrial pet is more than it appears to be...
by Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
) - 1996 Válka světů (The War of the Worlds by H. G. WellsH. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
)
Verne's books
- 1988 Michal Strogov aneb Carův kurýr (Michael Strogoff, or the Tzar's CourierMichael StrogoffMichael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876. Critics consider it one of Verne's best books. Unlike some of Verne's other famous novels, it is not science fiction, but a scientific phenomenon is a plot device. The book was later adapted to a play, by Verne...
) - 1991 Honba za meteorem (The Chase of the Golden MeteorThe Chase of the Golden MeteorThe Chase of the Golden Meteor is a novel by Jules Verne. It was one of the last novels written by the prolific French hard science fiction pioneer and was only published in 1908, three years after his death. It is one of seven such posthumous novels, many of which were extensively edited by his son...
) - 1986 Cesta kolem světa za 80 dní (Around the World in Eighty Days)
- 1995 20 000 mil pod mořem ( (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...
- 5 parts) - 1996 Vynález zkázy (2 parts)
Other
- Comics Pérák (own scenario and drawings).
- Many fan conventionFan conventionA fan convention, or con , is an event in which fans of a particular film, television series, comic book, actor, or an entire genre of entertainment such as science fiction or anime and manga, gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and...
talks, in the 1980s especially about English-language SF - Translation of William GibsonWilliam GibsonWilliam Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
's NeuromancerNeuromancerNeuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy... - SF stories in anthologies: Lidé ze souhvězdí Lva, Železo přichází z hvězd, Lety zakázanou rychlostí, Let na Měsíc etc.
External links
- Overview of his 1990s work in a USENET post about Czech SF