Tag Archives: Science Fiction

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD … There are problems with costumes too and makeup and hairdos. The Harkonnens here are all bald, in emulation of the Baron. But in the original novel they are bronze blonds and have big lips, and in the old movie they are redish blond and …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD A number of factors worked against me enjoying this movie. I’m a fan of both Frank Herbert and the 1984 David Lynch movie, am hypersensitive about Hollywood politics and I’d recently watched two stunning movies that upped my expectations to breaking point. A wonderful fanedit[1] …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     Before I say anything at all I have to highlight that this movie, Mousa (2021), is to be commended just for the fact that it’s an Egyptian (and Arabic SF) production, something almost unheard of and inexcusably neglected nowadays in the world of …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     Just watched The Suicide Squad (2021) and while it is technically entertaining its way too long and way too confused and way too annoying, and way too gory. It just left you feeling frustrated, and empty. I was so perplexed I found myself …

Interview conducted by Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD This interview is centered on the seventh edition of Shams Al-Ghad, an anthology series published by the Egyptian Society for Science Fiction (ESSF). The seventh Shams Al-Ghad was titled Al-Muqawimoun (المقاومون), the Resistors, dedicated to resistance literature, broadly conceived. Emad El-Din Aysha: Let …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD “The sooner we admit our capacity for evil the less apt we are to destroy each other. … People love seeing violence and horrible things. The human being is bad and he can’t stand more than five minutes of happiness. Put him in a dark …

Lebanese-British actress Razane Jammal is set to join the DC Universe. The “Paranormal” star was selected to join the cast of the new Netflix series “Sandman,” alongside fellow cast members Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook and Charles Dance. “What a dream come true! Thrilled to have joined …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD Ramadan television is changing, and not just in Egypt it seems. The previous year we were greeted to Egypt’s first sci-fi production, Al-Nihaya (The End), helmed by Egyptian actor extraordinaire Youssef El Sherif. This Ramadan he did a significantly smaller SF production with Covid-25, with …

Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, Shurooq, announced the addition of Moon Retreat to their eco-luxury tourism destinations, state news agency SPA reported. The retreat will open to guests during the first quarter of 2021 in the archaeological area of Mleiha. Moon Retreat will offer visitors stargazing activities as there is …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     “Fucking men like you built the hydrogen bomb. Men like you thought it up. You think you’re so creative. You don’t know what it’s like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you. All you know how …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     Lieutenant Commander Data: “I wonder. What would Dr. Freud say about the symbolism of devouring oneself?” Counselor Deanna Troi:  “Data – sometimes a cake is just a cake.” — Star Trek: TNG, “Phantasms”, S07E06   “I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     I advise you to throw out altogether § 3—the “demand (women’s) for freedom of love”. That is not really a proletarian but a bourgeois demand. — Vladimir Lenin, in a letter to Inessa Armand, dated 17 January 1915       For once I’m …

Netflix Inc will on Thursday debut its first Egyptian television series “Paranormal,” a major step in the streaming service’s Middle Eastern strategy. The series is based on Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Tawfik’s books about a doctor whose lifelong scientific convictions are suddenly called into question. His critically acclaimed novels in …

I’ve been struggling to write a review of this little sci-fi action masterpiece Tenet (2020) for quite some time now if only because it’s such a hard movie to understand. And I’m saying this as a sci-fi buff whose watched and read his fair share of reverse flow time travel …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   CONTINUED from yesterday…   A Parting of Genders, a Meeting of Minds? When I began to dream up this article some time ago I’d stumbled onto a fan of MD’s on Twitter, a fellow Arab, Nayli Yasmeen (@nayli_yasmeen), and we got to talking about …

A triptych by British artist Banksy of the Mediterranean Sea depicting the European refugee crisis has sold for more than £2.2 million ($2.9 million) at auction in London. The three-paneled work, “Mediterranean Sea View 2017,” was put up for sale at Sotheby’s auction house on July 29, where it was …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD I have written an article a long time ago about a horror-SF movie I watched largely against my will, Dark Skies (2013), which fits into my longstanding research on sexual anxieties and alien abduction scenarios. I’d been thinking of writing a follow-up for some time …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   I’ve been planning to write about Youssef El Sherif’s Al-Nihaya (The End) since the holy month of Ramadan began but found it difficult to research and preferred to wait till the end before passing judgement on it. It is Egypt’s first ever sci-fi TV …

In the 1951 science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, an alien in human form visits the planet accompanied by a giant metallic robot and delivers an ultimatum: change your warlike ways or face obliteration. The movie ends with world leaders pondering their choice. By Aaron David Miller …

As an SF author, activist and reviewer from the Eastern part of the Arab world, I can’t help but feeling humbled if not downright jealous of what is going on in the Western part of the Arab world, the so-called Maghreb. I say this after reading a novel I’ve been …

Emad El-Din Aysha: Tell me something about yourself, your CV? Asmaa Kadry: Forget CV’s, they’re highly overrated. I think you could say that I’m an eclectic soul: Internationally accredited Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist & NLP life coach Public speaker & certified trainer Author whose written and published 10 books until now mostly …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   Was watching an annoying science fiction movie the other day called variously The Holy Relic and The Hunt for the Hidden Relic (2002), and was struck by a number of things, good and bad. First, the bad. The movie is German, adapted from a novel …

I’ve written previously about Ammar Al-Masry’s novels Shadows of Atlantis and Throne of Atlantis, so it only seems fair to write about the third and supposedly final instalment in the New World series, Heart of Atlantis (2019). I’d finished reading the novel the previous year but held out on writing …

The Levant News Exclusive – By Emad El-Din Aysha | Mark Sedgwick is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University, and Chair of the Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies. He studied history at Oxford University, did his PhD at the University of Bergen, and taught for many …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     I made the mistake of watching a horror movie once late, late at night. Had drunk a cappuccino earlier in the day so I couldn’t sleep and I thought watching one would keep me sharp. And, knowing me, I agreed to go along …

By Layla Azmi Goushey   In Palestine + 100: Stories from a century after the Nakba, twelve Palestinian writers answer the question” What might your country look like in the year 2048?” Their answers are encased in a thrilling collection of speculative, dystopian, and futuristic short fiction edited by Basma …

By Massimo Luciani   “Political travails of Time travel” (“Kaalap payana Arasiyal”) by Gouthama Siddarthan was published for the first time in 2018 with the English version translated from the Tamil by Maharathi. Partly an essay on time travel, partly a commentary on two short stories on the subject by …

By Gouthama Siddarthan   When my book, ‘I travagli politici del viaggio nel tempo’ – (Translation by Davite Mana), was published in Italian, it was Domenico Attianese, who for the first time introduced it. It was thanks to his introduction that my book hogged a widespread attention. Also, Vincenzo Barone …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   As journalist with The Levant and a member of the Egyptian Society for Science Fiction (ESSF), I’m always on the lookout for fellow Arab and Muslim authors of science fiction, and one area that has peaked my interest as of late is Sufi science …

The Moon: A Voyage Through Time“ explores wonder, knowledge, and beauty inspired by the moon through the ages     Toronto, Canada — The Apollo 11 lunar landing on July 20, 1969, was a transformative event for humanity, yet the moon has captivated cultures since the dawn of civilization. “The …

By Layla Azmi Goushey*   “Lambs of the Desert”, a short story by Dr. Emad El-Din Aysha is an intriguing blend of science fiction and resistance Literature.[1] Dr. Aysha, who is bilingual in English and Arabic, and whose birthplace is the United Kingdom, is currently a resident of Cairo, Egypt …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   What can I say about Ammar Al-Masry’s Throne of Atlantis, the long awaited sequel to Shadows of Atlantis? It’s a mind-boggling treat! To remind those who have forgotten, myself included, here is a summary. In Shadows of Atlantis you have a near perfect world …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   This is a different review than any other I’ve written to date. The reason is, I’m a proud participant in the book in question – The Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror volume IV! This is an anthology, and a big one at …

  Hello, Mr.Gouthama, welcome to Melange ! Could you please tell us about you and what you are ?   From the International arena, you welcome me and my writings. I thank you and International readers of sci-fi as well on behalf of Tamil.   I am primarily a fiction writer …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ أَوْ يُخْرِجُوكَ ۚ وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ And [remember, O Muhammad], when those who disbelieved plotted against you to restrain you or kill you or evict you [from Makkah]. But they plan, …

by Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     The shower of His merciful bounty gratifies all, and His             banquet of limitless generosity recognizes no fall. The inner secrets             of His subjects, He does not divulge, nor does He, for a rogue’s             slight frailty, in injustice indulge.               …

The is a translation of an interview conducted by Mohamed Nazreen Shahul Hamid and published in the November 2018 edition of “Dewan Sastera“, a Malaysian literary magazine edited by Zaharahanum Kamarudin. The interviewee, Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD, is currently a member of the Egyptian Society for Science Fiction (ESSF) and a …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     Resistance literature, in the Arabic tradition, has been defined as: The literature of any group or people that are aware of their identity and fighting for their freedom against an aggressive other, and for their collective deliverance. The key words are freedom, collective …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   I had the good fortune of attending a book signing event once, with Ibrahim Nasrallah as the guest of honour, and during the question-answer session, somebody mentioned George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984. This was no coincidence since the book being signed away was Nasrallah’s …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     I made the mistake of reading, and the even bigger mistake of ‘buying’, M. M. Tawfik’s novel Candygirl: An Egyptian Novel, published in English by the AUC Press in 2013. (Mr. Tawfik did the translation himself, and he does a reasonably competent job …

By Anna Kucirkova   The problems of overpopulation and environmental issues have our world leaders considering what the next step is to ensure the survival of humanity. What are we to do once the population has reached the critical tipping point? What about if the earth become uninhabitable? Our sister …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD*   Iritdad or ‘Backwards’ is a science fiction novel by Egyptian author Muhammad Ahmed Al-Nagui, published originally in 2016. As you can probably guess from the title, the novel fits in the time-travel genre. The story is set in the distant future, 2107 to be …

Robots are a regular staple in science fiction, from Isaac Asimov’s book I, Robot to the latest episode of Westworld. So while I was at an event in Boston, I picked up Generation Robot: A Century of Science Fiction, Fact, and Speculation by Terri Favro. It’s an interesting and funny …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD We tend to think of post-apocalyptic novels as the exclusive preserve of the modern world. We tend to think of science fiction in general as the exclusive preserve of the modern world. Not so, says Egypt’s youthful fantasy, SF author Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi[1] in his …