Chicago Nerds- A Planet for Rent

For the March meeting of the Chicago Nerd book-club, we discussed A Planet for Rent (2001; English translation 2015) by Yoss.

More of a loosely-braided collection than a single-plot novel, A Planet for Rent follows a motley crew in a future where contact with extremely technologically advanced aliens has reduced Earth to a tourist attraction, with humans semi-permanently stuck as galactic second-class citizens. Drawing on a host of classic SF inspirations, Yoss creates a bitterly satiric world that we found enjoyable in its own right, made even richer by the parallels to and commentary on Cuban history.

Extremely brief notes below!

Author Talk- Yoss @ City Lit

Last week City Lit Books in Logan Square hosted a cool author event with Yoss, a Cuban science fiction author whose work has started being translated and published in English, to some acclaim.

Despite apologies for his poor English, Yoss was actually quite a fluent speaker, and gave us some cool history on both science fiction in Cuba, and his own personal writing history. He noted that while magical realism has received a lot of attention and praise in Latin American traditions, more speculative forms like science fiction and genre fantasy have largely stayed outside the spotlight.