11 Must-Read Filipino Sci-Fi Books
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- 21 Jun 2022
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Philippine literature is slowly gaining international recognition, especially when it comes to general fiction and fantasy. And there are even more sub-genres waiting to be explored by international readers. For instance, though there’s a dearth of Filipino sci-fi books, they are so rare and precious that it’s only once in a while when they come out. In fact, you can count them on one hand.
“Fantasy is more popular in the Philippines given our rich heritage of folklore and mythology. Science fiction on the other hand, suffers from the difficulty of achieving suspension of disbelief in the readers. The Philippines is generally still not perceived as a technologically innovative society despite the scientific and technological achievements of our scientists and engineers,” Emil Francis Flores, professor at the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman, told me. Flores is also one of the editors of the Filipino science fiction collection Diaspora Ad Astra: An Anthology of Science Fiction from the Philippines, which we will go over later. According to him, Filipinos are also “users of technology but the technology is mostly perceived to be foreign,” and he hoped that this perception will change.
Although there’s an apparent short supply of Filipino science fiction books in circulation, I’ve managed to find 11 of them.
Just a quick note for everyone: Philippine literature has more speculative fiction that incorporates sci-fi, so you’ll mostly find “science-sy” spec fic books in this list. And though that’s the case, there are also books that perfectly fall under the sci-fi genre. Finally, this list also features both Filipino authors from the Philippines as well as those from its diaspora.
THE BEST FILIPINO SCI-FI BOOKS
SCIENCE FICTION: FILIPINO FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS BY DEAN FRANCIS ALFAR AND KENNETH YU
Dean Francis Alfar, one of the more widely recognized Filipino speculative fiction writers, has written many books in the genre. Salamanca, his first novel, is considered to be a modern classic.
In this collection, however, he edited science fiction stories for Filipino young readers, which might be the first in the Philippines. The collection features stories from known Filipino spec fic writers such as Victor Fernando Ocampo, Nikki Alfar, Eliza Victoria, and Gabriela Lee. This is really sure to please.
DIASPORA AD ASTRA: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE FICTION FROM THE PHILIPPINES EDITED BY EMIL FLORES AND JOSEPH FREDERIC NACINO
Flores and Nacino’s science fiction collection features 15 stories. In “Ina Dolor’s Last Stand,” some 250 Filipino families prepare for a spaceflight to Mars. In “The Keeper,” a futuristic Philippines has adopted the two- or three-child rule. Meanwhile, in “Robots and a Slice of Pizza,” robots assist Manila’s citizens. There are also stories from renowned Filipino writers like Dean Alfar and Eliza Victoria.
If you want to read science fiction in the lens of Filipinos, look no further.
TABLAY BY KATRINA OLAN
Olan’s science fiction debut is a unique blend of futuristic fiction — specifically, the mecha genre — and fantasy as it incorporates elements from Philippine mythology.
Set in a reimagined, far-future Intramuros, New Intramuros is a city replete with technological marvels. But beyond its high walls lies aswangs, or monsters in Filipino folklore. I find the worldbuilding intricate and dense; it offers a glimpse of Manila a hundred years into the future.
VIRTUAL CENTER AND OTHER SCIENCE FICTION STORIES BY RAISSA CLAIRE FALGUI
Falgui’s collection of science fiction stories won first prize in the Futuristic Fiction category at the 2002 Carlos Palanca Awards, a major literary prize in the Philippines. It was rereleased by Penguin Random House Southeast Asia in 2020.
Despite the title, the stories in the collection incorporate both fantasy and science fiction. One story features a tiyanak, a small, mythical creature in Philippine mythology, and there are also aliens and genetic clones in other stories. Read More…
