Ondřej Neff (born June 26, 1945,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) is a Czech science fiction writer and journalist. He is the founder o
''Neviditelný pes''
(''The Invisible Dog''), one of the earliest and most popular Czech daily news/comments websites, an
''Digineff''
a website about digital photography for amateurs. His father

Vladimír Neff Vladimír Neff (13 June 1909, Prague – 2 July 1983, Prague) was a popular Czech writer and translator. He wrote numerous historical novels, political satires, and parodies on criminal stories and adventure tales. He was declared as a in 1979. H ...

was a popular writer, author of many historical novels. Neff had two children with his first wife: a son, David, born in 1970, who works as a photographer for Mladá fronta DNES and a singer; and a daughter named Irena, born in 1979, murdered by her husband on 23 February 2008. Ondřej Neff has supported Czech President

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

in his fight against environmentalism. He described his opinions, for example, in the article Klaus versus the Warming Ideology .

Works

* 1978 ''Holky se perou jinak'' (with Vladimír Kovářík ml.) * 1980 ''Klukoviny a tátoviny'' * 1981 ''Tajná kniha o fotografii'' * 1983 ''A včely se vyrojily'' (humorous novel) * 1987 ''Večery u krbu'' (remembrances of his father) * 1991 ''Černobílé hodinky'' * 1997 – 1999 ''Neviditelný pes'' (books)

Non-fiction

* 1978 ''Podivuhodný svět Julese Vernea'' (Monography about

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

and his work) * 1981 ''Něco je jinak'' (history of Czech SF) * 1985 ''Tři eseje o české sci-fi'' * 1987 ''Všechno je jinak'' (history of world sci-fi – with Alexandr Kramer, unacknowledged due to censorship) * 1999 ''Jak blufovat o sci-fi'' * 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 ''Klon'' (essay collections)

Own sci-fi writings

(Only four short stories were translated to English, collected later on as "Fourth Day to Eternity and Other Stories" (Manila: Anvil 2015); names in parentheses are just approximate translations of the titles.) * 1984 ''Jádro pudla'' (juvenile novel) * 1985 ''Vejce naruby'' (''An Egg Inside Out''), a collection of short stories, including: ** ''Bílá hůl ráže 7,62'' (''White Cane 7.62'') – a horror story describes an alien invasion through hijacking a visual signal coming from an interstellar probe captured by the aliens. The modified signal triggers a process similar to a buffer overflow in a human brain, rewriting the victim's DNA and turning it into a copy of the alien attacker. A very similar theme was used independently by

David Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and Literary criticism, critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science-fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'' and holds the all-time ...

in the short story "BLIT". The invasion is thwarted with the help of a blind

stunt driver A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Befo ...

trained to shoot on sound, who, to add to the conflict, happens to be a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. ** ''Zelená je barva naděje'' (''Green is the Colour of Hope'') – describes an invention of an apparatus used for reading animal's minds and presenting them to humans in image form. The inventor tests the device on his friends' aquarium, causing much distress and anger because the apparatus shows the aquarium fish dreaming about killing and eating the humans, and dominating the world; as a consequence, all humans who saw the experiment feel they will never be able to trust any pet animal again. ** ''Strom'' (''The Tree'') – a vision of a society after a near-miss ecological catastrophe, which was avoided only thanks to draconian laws of environment protection that put the nature and its preservation well above human life. The characters, last dwellers of a small village, are fighting a losing battle for their homes against a growing forest, as the laws prevent them from harming any tree. * 1987 ''Čtvrtý den až navěky'' (''The Fourth Day Forever'', coll) * 1988 ''Měsíc mého života'' (''The Moon of My Life'', novel) * 1989 ''Pole šťastných náhod'' (''The Field of Good Chances'', marginally fantastic novel) * 1989 ''Čarodějův učeň'' (''The Wizard's Apprentice'', sequel to ''Jádro pudla'') * 1990 ''Zepelín na Měsíci'' (''A Zeppelin on the Moon'', coll) * 1991 ''Vesmír je dost nekonečný'' (''The Universe is Infinite Enough'', coll) * 1991 ''Šídlo v pytli'' (sequel to ''Jádro pudla'') * 1992 – 1995 ''Milénium'' (''The Millennium'') – three parts: ''Země ohrožená'' (''Earth Endangered''), ''Země bojující'' (''Earth Fighting''), ''Země vítězná'' (''Earth Victorious'') * 1997 ''Reparátor'' (''The Reparator'', novel) * 1997 ''Bůh s. r. o.'' (''God, Ltd.'', coll) * 1998 ''Tma'' (''The Darkness'', award for best Czech SF; revised version ''Tma 2.0'' in 2003) * 2003 ''Pravda o pekle'' (''The Truth about Hell'', coll) * 2003 ''Tma 2.0'' (''The Darkness, 2.0'', a revised version of ''Tma'') * 2004 ''Dvorana zvrhlosti'' (''The Hall of Aberrations'', coll, ) * 2006 ''Rock mého života'' (''The Rock of My Life'') * 2007 ''Tušení podrazu'' (''A Glimpse of a Dirty Trick'', )

Scenarios for comics of Kája Saudek

* 1988 ''Arnal a dva dračí zuby'' (ČSS) * 1990 ''Štěstí'', ''Slavkovská romance'', ''Příhoda na mostě'' (ČSS) * 1992 ''Silvestrovský speciál'' (Nei report) * 1993 ''Noc upírů'' (Nei report) * from 1996 comic strip ''Bart sám doma''

Works for radio

* 1984 ''Portonský dryák'' * 1985 ''Počkej, Hektore'' * 1987 ''Velká solární'' * 1988 ''Ano, jsem robot'' (prix Bohemia 1989) * 1991 ''Havárie Drakkaru''

Dramatization

* 1990 ''Zvíře z hvězd'' ('' The Star Beast'' by

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein ( ; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific acc ...

) * 1996 ''Válka světů'' (''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ...

'' by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

)

Verne's books

* 1988 ''Michal Strogov aneb Carův kurýr'' ('' Michael Strogoff, the Courier of the Czar'') * 1991 ''Honba za meteorem'' (''

The Chase of the Golden Meteor ''The Chase of the Golden Meteor'' () is a novel by Jules Verne. It was one of the last novels written by the prolific French hard science fiction pioneer. The book, however, is seen as less an early example of hard science fiction than a social ...

'') * 1986 ''Cesta kolem světa za 80 dní'' (''

Around the World in Eighty Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...

'') * 1995 ''20 000 mil pod mořem'' (''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' () is a science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may inclu ...

'', 5 parts) * 1996 ''Vynález zkázy'' ('' Facing the Flag'', 2 parts)

Other

* Comics ''Pérák'' (own scenario and drawings). * Many

fan convention A fan convention (also known as a con or fan meeting) is an event in which Fan (person), fans of a particular topic gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and each other. Some also inc ...

talks, in the 1980s especially about English-language SF * Translation of

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

's ''

Neuromancer ''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian author William Gibson. Set in a near-future dystopia, the narrative follows Case, a computer hacker enlisted into a crew by a powerful artificial intelligence and a traumatis ...

'' * SF stories in anthologies: ''Lidé ze souhvězdí Lva'', ''Železo přichází z hvězd'', ''Lety zakázanou rychlostí'', ''Let na Měsíc'' etc.

External links

Overview of his 1990s work
in a USENET post about Czech SF {{DEFAULTSORT:Neff, Ondrej 1945 births Living people Writers from Prague Czech male writers Czech journalists Czech science fiction writers