Other realities and other universes materialize at literary week

Chinese author Curtis Chen, who recently had the Chinese edition of his novel Waypoint Kangaroo published by CITIC Press, spoke about his childhood days in Taiwan when he watched shows like Bewitched and Star Trek on television. He became more immersed in the world of fantasy and science fiction when he moved to the United States aged 5.

He began writing science fiction in high school and it was only 20 years later that he got his works published. Waypoint Kangaroo, Chen's first published novel, was only available in the US a few years ago.

As Chen has been fascinated with the Japanese cartoon series Doraemon since his childhood, he created a spy nicknamed Kangaroo who possesses an extra-dimensional pouch that allows him to store and retrieve items. During a vacation, Kangaroo is roped into the investigation of a double murder on the passenger liner to Mars.

The book was lauded as "an auspicious start for the author and his wisecracking series" on Publishers Weekly. Kangaroo Too was published earlier this year and was hailed to be "as smart and sassy as its title character" on Publishers Weekly.

Another author present at the International Literary Week was Rysa Walker, who just had her first novel Timebound published in Chinese by Zhejiang Literature and Art Press. She gave a speech at Shanghai Library on Aug 20. The novel was originally titled Time's Twisted Arrow.

Published in 2012, Timebound won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013. The book has since developed into The Chronos Files series which consists of three novels and three novellas.

Timebound is about a teenage girl who discovers that her grandmother is a time-traveling historian from the future. The latter sends the teenager back to 1893 to stop her grandfather from altering the course of history.

Walker noted that time travel is the most popular theme in fantasy stories in China where a number of time-traveling novels have gained large numbers of fans. Many novels have also been turned into TV series and movies.