Iraq + 100

Blasim observes in the foreword that sci fi genre writing is not part of the modern Iraqi tradition, and counts that as one of the challenges of this project. Some of the stories are expectedly a little clumsy—not bad, but perhaps not what a western audience would expect from science fiction. Some stories are extraordinarily executed. However, the story “Kuszib” was so wild and thought provoking (and gross and creepy and shocking), I expect it will stay with me forever. At least I hope it does.

IRAQ +100 IS RATED 85%.10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNFWhat will Iraq look like in the year 2103? That was the question proposed by writer/editor Massan Blasim to Iraqi writers around the world. The result is what is being hailed as “The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq.”Blasim is blunt about Iraqi Science Fiction in his introduction."Iraqi literature suffers from a dire shortage of science fiction writing. … Perhaps the most obvious reason is that science fiction was allowed to track the development of actual science from about the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. The same period was hardly a time of technological growth for Iraqis, languishing under Georgian ‘Mamluk’ then returning Ottoman overlords; indeed some would say the sun set on Iraqi science centuries before — as it set on their cultural and creative impulses— in the wake of the Abbasid Caliphate. …Today there is great hope in a new generation, a generation native to the internet and to globalization. … Serious attempts to write science fiction have started to appear, especially not that science is so much easier to get hold of."The future Iraq’s created by these authors are very unlike the science fictional futures traditionally presented. Aliens and robots appear, but large global movements are more important. Many imagine an Iraq still under control of another power, often China. Others imagine the United States shredded by its own religious extremists. Still more discuss extreme horrors in such a matter-of-fact way that modern readers would want to label these with a “content warning,” but I feel would insult so many that have lived with and through those horrors.This is an offbeat and alien collection and it is for those reasons that I strongly recommend it. Thoughtful and strange visions of the future - visions that are really of the present - are what makes Science Fiction so interesting.Two stories in this anthology really stand out:“Baghdad Syndrome” by Zhraa Alhaboby. Trans: Emre Bennett. This is a beautiful and delicate story of an architect coming to grips with the fact that he has Bagdad Syndrome while he is designing a town square. He is haunted by exotic dreams that focus his attention on the history of the square and its former occupants. This is a bittersweet story told is crystalline prose.“Kuszib” by Hassan Abdulrazzak. Hard. Ugly. Brutal. Extremely violent. Weirdly sexual. Angrily satirical. This intense story follows a low level employee and his wife who get the chance to take part in the Feast. The gourmet festival highlights human delicacies. Read that sentence again! A savage allegory for the kindly horrors of colonial power and pulling no punches whatsoever. You may not like this, but you will not forget it. Not a word is wasted.***IRAQ +100 IS RATED 85%.10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF“Kahramania” by AnoudGood. A young woman, fleeing from an arranged marriage to a warlord, seeks asylum with the Americans and finds herself a pawns in a game of propaganda and bureaucracy.“The Gardens of Babylon” by Hassan Blasin. Trans: Jonathan WrightGood. An artist of video games, living in Chinese-controlled Iraqi domes, needs help from a psychedelic brain insect to find inspiration for a new work.“The Corporal” by Ali Bader. Trans: Elisabeth JaquetteGood. An Iraqi solider, killed by an American sniper in 2003, returns from the afterlife to experience the dramatic changes and tell his story..“The Worker” by Diaa Jubaili. Trans: Andrew LeberAverage. The Governor of Basra uses the horrors of life elsewhere to say that the horrors his people are experiencing aren’t that bad, but there is someone else in that town square.“The Day by Day Mosque” by Mortada Gzar. Trans: Katharine HallsAverage. 99-year-old vinegar sparks a tale of a Snot Collector and a local mosque.“Baghdad Syndrome” by Zhraa Alhaboby. Trans: Emre BennettGreat. An architect who is slowly becoming blind - the Baghdad Sydrome - becomes fanatically focused on his last product. To design a town square.“Operation Daniel” by Khalid Kaki. Trans: Adam TalibAverage. A Chinese overlord censors everything about the past, but a few young people casually rebel.“Kuszib” by Hassan Abdulrazzak.Great. Brutal, horrible, disgusting, and brilliantly conceived. An alien couple go to a high end Feast where human delicacies are served. An unforgettable inversion of the Iraqi occupation in horrific alien allegory.“The Here and Now Prison” by Jalal Hassan. Trans: Max WeissGood. The past, including the dead, exists within the Old City, but one young couple with sneak inside to experience it.“Najufa” by Ibrahim al-Marashi.Good. A large family of Iraqi Alaskans - now its own country - make a pilgrimage back to a Iraq that has been transformed by benevolent AI. The purpose of the trip become a very important turning moment in the family.

I found the stories thought provoking, but I had trouble feeling like I was part of the world in most of the stories. It's worth reading, but not the kind of read that carries you away.

"Iraw + 100" is, according to Hassan Blasim, the editor of this project, “the first anthology of science fiction to have emerged from Iraq.” That alone makes it worthy of attention from the broader sci-fi community. There has been increased interest in non-Anglo-American sci-fi in recent years, but I admit I was actually surprised to see an anthology focused on Iraq by Iraqi officers. However, it makes sense in that great art often thrives under adversity.So, how are these stories as works of sci-fi? I think the one telling feature of the stories is that they are for the most part pretty heavily situated in Iraq. These aren't just sci-fi stories by Iraqis, they're sci-fi stories about Iraq. The stories presume some familiarity with Iraq's history and Iraq as a country. Some of the stories envision an Iraq in 100 years that is far better than the current situation. This might limit the appeal of these stories for some readers used to more sci-fi not tied to a specific place or region, but the stories still do work on a universal level.Another thing I found surprising about the anthology is that it's surprisingly optimistic given the current situation in Iraq. These writers value Iraq's heritage and history of scholarship. Some of them clearly hope Iraq can one day reclaim its place as an intellectual capital of the world. Hopefully, this book helps set the country towards that goal by giving Iraqis a hopeful vision of the future.[Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]