This new e-book SF anthology (which will be available on Kindle in a few days) might be a first for WotF. It contains eleven of Carl Frederick’s stories presented in their original English versions along with their Russian translations. All the stories but one appeared first in Analog Magazine while the one remaining came from Asimov’s Magazine. All the translations appeared in the fine Russian magazine, ESLI. The interior illustrations are also from the ESLI versions.

The anthology title, Zoopark, is Russian for Zoo and alludes to the first story, ‘A Zoo in the Jungle’.

ZOOPARK came about when ESLI bought ‘The Lycanthropic Principle’, the final story in this collection. In mind of the bi-lingual books I’d used in the past to study languages, I thought to produce one myself. I emailed ESLI’s Editor-in-Chief about the idea. He graciously granted me permission to use the ESLI translations and illustrations for this ebook.

The stories that the ESLI editor selected are, I think, are among the most cerebral and among the very best of my stories.

Here is the short Introduction the editor of ESLI wrote for the book. It’s, um, in Russian, but what follows is a rough English translation using Google translate.

INTRODUCTION

Literature knows no bounds, but a fantasy, in my opinion, is the most international genre. It brings together people who are capable of intellectual effort, susceptible to a new, unusual, bizarre and, importantly, have sufficient knowledge base to understand what is happening in the work. This, of course, not a fantasy, and science fiction, and especially of its most serious part – «hard» SF.
I think that after these words the reader understand why the American science-fiction writer Charles Frederick is one of the most popular foreign authors published in the Russian SF-Journal. The stories involve scientific credibility of the writer, the original idea and full of literary images.
I hope that the Russian translation, they have not lost any of its qualities. This book will be useful both to students who are learning Russian, or just fans of good fiction.

Alexander SHALGANOV,
Editor in Chief, ESLI («IF»)

In other news, a few days ago, Analog magazine bought their 39th story from me since my WotF win. One more to go for the big 40 at Analog.

–Carl Frederick