Fantastic Metropolis

Kiálts farkast! (“Cry Wolf!”), András Gáspár (1990)

A great cyberpunk post-modern novel set in a futuristic Budapest. Zsigmond Vogel returns to Earth to find out who he is and who is his enemy. It is a world of neon lights, computers, businessmen, and a new life form, an intelligent plasma born from litter and radioactivity. Vogel has only one choice: he must destroy the most influential man in the world, who has taken control of the plasma.

A Katedrális legendája I-II (“The Legend of the Cathedral”), Tibor Fonyódi a.k.a. Harrison Fawcett (1998)

The age of Emperor Nero is revived in this novel awarded with the Zsoldos Péter Award, together with the everyday life of ancient Rome, the feasts that last until dawn, the bloody gladiator fights, and the spectacular chariot races… The Cathedral, which monopolizes time travel, sends an elite commando unit armed with high-tech weaponry from the 23rd century back to Ancient Rome. The soldiers have to encounter the supernatural forces occupying the city, which appear as the manifestations of demons and angels. Colonel Kerwin and his men come to realize it in the ancient world that there is no return for them and that not only the future of humankind is at stake in their fight but also their own fate, their salvation or damnation…

Örök visszatérés (“Forever Return”), László L. Lorincz

An astronaut meets an accident far away from Earth and when he regains consciousness, he finds himself in a madhouse 20 years before his departure. His recollections return slowly, he visits his family, meets himself, and next morning he wakes up in that younger body. He needs all his knowledge to relive his earlier life and space travel. The loosely knit novel of stirring plot makes us think about to what extent we are able to control our fate.

Az Excalibur keresése I-II (“Search for Excalibur”), Sándor Szélesi (2000)

This adventure story set in the 30th century takes the reader to a traditional Chinese asteroid empire 65 light-years far from Earth and to Avalon, which is well known from Celtic mythology. The focus of the plot—blended with mystery and magic—is the legendary sword of King Arthur, which is sought by Chinese magicians, super civilizations, desperate adventurers, and alien beings which once visited the Earth. The story is a lighter work of the author who received the Zsoldos Péter Prize for a classic science fiction novel in 1997.

Astra, Fabián László and György Kulin

In a London museum after World War II, a young scientist catches sight of plastic plaits covered with strange figures which came to light from a shell-hole . The English reckon that those are the signs of some German cryptogram but the astrologist discovers that the illustrations move when they are held into the light, revealing the secrets of a dead civilization.