finnish fiction

StarShipSofa No 519 Hannu Rajaniemi

Main Fiction: “Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi

Originally published in Subterranean, reprinted in Invisible Planets

Hannu Rajaniemi was born in Finland. At the age of eight he approached the European Space Agency with a fusion-powered spaceship design, which was received with a polite “thank you” note. Hannu studied mathematics and theoretical physics at University of Oulu and Cambridge and holds a PhD in string theory from the University of Edinburgh. He co-founded a mathematics consultancy whose clients included UK Ministry of Defence. Currently, he works as a co-founder of HelixNano, a synthetic biology startup. Hannu is the author of four novels including The Quantum Thief (translated into more than 20 languages), the forthcoming Summerland (July 2018), and several short stories. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Narrated by Al Barclay

Al Barclay has worked extensively over 15 years, most notably playing opposite James McAvoy and Michael Sheen in Stephen Fry’s Bright Young Things, and with David Thewlis in Luc Besson’s The Lady. He will be in the West End at The Arts Theatre this December playing Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

He also once drank two bottles of gin with Peter O’Toole, and danced the night away in Camden with Amy Winehouse.

Fact: Looking Back at Genre History 100!!! by Amy H Sturgis