First Contact and Time Travel

Zoran Zivkovic graduated in literary theory from the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Belgrade in 1973. Until his recent retirement he was a professor at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade where he taught Creative Writing. Zivkovic has won several literary awards for his fiction: in 1994 his novel The Fourth Circle won the Milos Crnjanski award; in 2003, his mosaic novel The Library won a World Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and in 2007 he won the Isidora Sekulic award for his novel The Bridge. In the same year he received the "Stefan Mitrov Ljubisa" award for his lifetime achievement in literature. In 2014 and 2015 Zivkovic received three awards for his contribution to the literature of fantastika: Art-Anima, Stanislav Lem and The Golden Dragon.

Introduction.- Part 1: Essays.- The Theme of First Contact in the SF Works of Arthur C Clarke.- Chronomotion.- The Labyrinth Motif in SF.- Part II: Fiction.- The Bookshop.- The Puzzle.- Time Gifts.- The Cone.- Epilogue.

"Zivkoviæ's fiction is rich in unexpected turns and twists, effects before the cause, and wondrous occurrences. ... This is a fascinating mix, full of the flavor of the past, ranging from the banal to the profound, and best read in small doses." (Franz Rottensteiner, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 46, 2019)

"It is a volume of two halves, combining as it does both fact and fiction largely built around the core ideas of 'first contact' and 'time travel'. ... the book proved to have the most interest, with ... highly original and beautifully crafted short stories based around the two core themes of the book." (John Silvester, Odyssey The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society, Issue 59, 2019)