Daína Chaviano (Author)

Back in 1983, when the first edition of Daína Chaviano's book Amoroso Planeta was sold in Cuba, the popular expression "like hot bread" was never better used. Many years later, and this time with the young readers in mind, Norma publishing house has rescued these science fiction stories and has published them in Colombia within its collection Fuera de Serie (Off the Charts). The painstaking edition, with illustrations by Cristhian Contreras and graphic design by Alejandra Sierra, pleasantly surprises with its beauty and elegance. As for the stories, they have undoubtedly overcome the test of time, because although they were written by their author between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, they have not lost a bit of their originality and literary flight. Some of the stories that make up this work - such as "Níobe" and "The Annunciation" - have been included, and continue to be included, in important anthologies dedicated to science fiction.

"It is a different way of approaching the subject of love," says the author. "The characters that endure it are not only human beings, but also mythological or alien creatures. It is about the reader examining that feeling from different points of view, creating empathy towards anything alien, foreign, strange, to make him understand that many times, under the guise of different appearances, there are beings who feel like us." (Full text in PDF, in the Spanish section).