Berlinoir (Reissue) by Reinhard Kleist, Tobias O. Meißner, illustrated by Reinhard Kleist Berlin is no longer the city we know. Vampires dominate the capital and have created a realm that entirely caters to their dark needs. But in the shadows, resistance is forming: a small group of people dares to rise up against their overwhelming oppressors. BERLINOIR takes you into a dark Berlin full of intrigues, power plays, and bloody confrontations. Reinhard Kleist and Tobias O. Meissner create a gripping scenario that exposes the depths of the metropolis. The graphic novel that inspired the Hulu Original series on Disney+ "City of Blood" offers a ruthless glimpse into the darkest side of the capital. Upon the series' launch, the revised reissue will be released with previously unpublished additional material. (translated)

Tuesday, November 10, 7:00 PM Bruno-Lösche-Bibliothek (Mitte) Admission free, no registration required Emma Braslavsky from her narrative "I Am Your Person" and discusses afterwards with the scholars Anna Lena Lange and Vito Mengers from the Excellence Cluster Science of Intelligence. Together, they explore the question of how close science fiction is to what is already technically possible today, and where the difference lies between real understanding and perfect simulation. The series "Science for Fiction" brings literature and science into conversation: authors read from their works, researchers provide context, and the audience engages in discussion. This way, very different perspectives converge on questions about our future. (translated)

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield All children mythologize their birth...So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist. The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission. As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves. The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.

Sea of Charms - Spellshop #3 by Sarah Beth Durst Marin is a supply runner with her own boat that she sails from island to island, delivering whatever anyone will pay her to deliver: letters, flour, even the occasional enchanted lemur. It’s a lonely life, but it’s hers, and she wouldn’t trade the freedom of the sea for anything. Her only companion is a sea serpent, Perri, whom she saved from a fisherfolk’s net. One day, she sails to Alyssium and discovers the city is on fire. There’s been a revolution, and the empire has fallen. Marin, with Perri, begins transporting refugees, finding them new homes where they can start over. One such refugee is Dax, a composer who refuses to leave behind his instruments, no matter how much she tries to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, and his charming smile, Marin discovers perhaps she isn’t saving him ― maybe it’s the other way around.

Wed, Nov 4, 2026, 6:30 PM Free event on Naomi Alderman's "The Future" JMB Book Club with The Future by Naomi Alderman As part of the exhibition The Opposite of Now. Artistic Paths to Another Present Moderation: Monika Sommerer, Head of the JMB Library, and Lena Kugler, Writer and Literature and Cultural Studies Scholar W. M. Blumenthal Academy, Klaus Mangold Auditorium Fromet-and-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin (opposite the museum) When Martha Einkorn fled her father's closed community in Oregon, she never imagined she would one day work for a powerful social media mogul. Now she is surrounded by extremely wealthy companies developing private weather and secret weapons, while proclaiming technological prophecies. Although Martha may have left the sect, when the apocalyptic visions in her father's sermons slowly come true, how much future is actually left? With a handful of friends, she plans a daring coup to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it. (translated)

Green Earth 1: The Forty Languages of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson translated by Barbara Slawig Washington in the near future: A fierce debate rages over the burning question of how to tackle climate change. On one side are powerful politicians who do not want to alienate their voters and cozy up to large corporations. On the other side, scientists desperately work to educate the public and find viable paths to prevent a global catastrophe. Among these scientists are Anna Quibler, who decides on the allocation of research funds at the National Science Foundation, and her husband Charlie, who advises a rising senator on environmental issues. But time for theoretical considerations is running out, as the capital of the USA threatens to drown in floodwaters after a storm... The author of the Mars Trilogy and the bestseller The Ministry for the Future tells how Anna, Charlie, and their friends fight not only for their survival but for the future of all of us. (translated)

Kachelbad's Legacy by Hendrik Otremba Los Angeles, mid-1980s. The German emigrant H.G. Kachelbad is freezing people for the cryonic company Exit U.S., individuals who can no longer live in their present. Soon, a washed-up writing genius, a Ukrainian scientist, a Vietnamese hitman, and other quirky characters gather around Kachelbad. Despite their different motivations, all the "cold tenants" share the hope of one day being thawed out again. From the Jewish Vienna of the turn of the century to the gay New York of the early 1980s, Hendrik Otremba's second novel takes us on a journey into the past to reflect on the future. Kachelbad's Legacy is a captivating thought experiment, an experiment with narrative instances, a worried look into the future of human civilization - and simultaneously reflects on the possibilities of literature to reach into the beyond. Above all, however, the novel tells a great love story. (translated)

During the Berlin Science Week (https://berlinscienceweek.com/de), there is a lecture series in Berlin libraries called Knowledge Between Books (https://www.wissen-zwischen-buechern.de/) One of its subprograms is: Knowledge Between Books and Science for Fiction Participants include Bernhard Kegel, Aiki Mira, Karlheinz Steinmüller, and Emma Braslavsky. And of course, Otherland with a small book table :) Otherland -- SF can be more (translated)

The Dungeon Book by Gareth Hanrahan Enter a world of dungeons and dragons, magic and manticores, goblins and gargoyles in this captivating standalone fantasy from the author of The Gutter Prayer 'Full of wit and adventure, twists and turns, wonderful monsters and astonishing revelations. An absolute joy' M. R. Carey, bestselling author of Once Was Willem Bait doesn't remember a time before the dungeon. Before the dragon stole her from her cot. She doesn't know what her name was before she was handed over to the monstrous denizens of the dungeon beneath the sorcerer's tower. Luckily for Bait, they decided not to eat her. And so, she grew up in the dark - the goblins her adopted family, a vengeful minotaur her protector, a sentient skull her tutor and a faithful blob of corridor slime her main source of nutrition. But the labyrinthine dungeon, with its haunted halls, buried temples and forgotten magics, draws treasure hunters like moths to flame. And as the outside world starts to intrude, Bait will learn what it means to be monstrous, and she will have to decide where she truly belongs.

The Left Hand of Darkness - The Hainish Cycle #4 by Ursula K. Le Guin A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want by Rob Hopkins The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it’s more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it. In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There’s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future—to say nothing of the present—looks grim. But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly—for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network—with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves. We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now.

Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends by Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir (Editor) This unique and enchanting book opens the door to a captivating world of Icelandic folk legends. The six chapters are each based on a different setting: farm, wilderness, darkness, church, ocean and shore. The anthology provides translated tales from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as introductions by the author which place these often-supernatural happenings in the context of Icelandic society. The legends include tales of hidden people, trolls, ghosts, sea monsters and even polar bears, exploring themes of love, revenge and conflict. The book highlights the tension between Christianity and heathen beliefs, past and present, nature and humanity, and divides within society. Drawing from a wide variety of Icelandic sources, this book makes these colourful, entertaining, lively stories available to non-Icelandic speakers, many for the first time.

The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting at Home By Renan Bernardo Won the Word Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction! If you want to read the story, it's free online on reactormag.com, the Website of Tor.com https://reactormag.com/the-hungry-mouth-renan-bernardo/ Otherland -- congratulations and thanks for the free text!

And again an "Oh, wow!" event This time in the fully packed Water Tower in Kreuzberg with the two horror legends Joe Hill and Thomas Olde Heuvelt - moderated by Björn Springorum. Incredible what a charming and fun evening it was with the two - if they decided to make a podcast together, I would listen to every episode. And of course our audience - as always a brilliant bunch of brilliant people with great questions, a lot of patience, and relaxed listening. Wow! Huge thanks also to the team from @penguinrandomhouse, represented by Gabi and Ute - without publishers, such a thing would not be possible for us! Otherland -- we do it because it’s fun. (translated)

Now online on youtube for free on PBS Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin | Full Documentary | Director's Cut | American Masters | PBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZWXqAkGEs4 I cannot recomend it enough to watch it!

Congratulations to Pip Adam for winning the Ursula Le Guin Prize 2026 with "Audition"! Audition by Pip Adam A spaceship called Audition is hurtling through the cosmos. Squashed immobile into its largest room are three giants: Alba, Stanley and Drew. If they talk, the spaceship keeps moving; if they are silent, they resume growing. Talk they must, and as they do, Alba, Stanley and Drew recover their shared memory of what has been done to their former selves – experiences of imprisonment, violence and misrecognition, of disempowerment and underprivilege. Pip Adam’s uncategorisable new novel, part science fiction, part social realism, asks what happens when systems of power decide someone takes up too much room – about how we imagine new forms of justice, and how we transcend the bodies and selves we are given.

Dark Reading Matter - Thursday Next #8 by Jasper Fforde The final novel in the New York Times bestselling series: Will literary Special Ops agent Thursday Next find her happy ending? The Dark Reading Matter is a theoretical realm that suggests that the observable bookverse can only account for 20 percent of the calculated total readable mass. Out there somewhere, possibly, is a larger and more expansive and unseeable "Dark Bookverse" that contains millions of deleted novels, slush-pile manuscripts, lost poems, forgotten pop culture references, long unheard oral tradition, stories and ideas that were still in people's minds when they died. The Goliath Corporation hopes to exploit the Dark Reading Matter for profit, and Thursday Next is once again pitted against a familiar foe. A visitor named Roger Thatt who purports to be from Fourth Wall Publishing, has some peculiar ideas of his own that require careful thought. Is Thursday and everyone she knows living in a simulation? Was her world created from scratch Last Thursday as Roger supposes, and are the books she reads the only direction in which books can be read? With existential questions the least of her troubles and a family to take care of, Thursday must defeat the Goliath Corporation, ensure that a tear in the fabric of the Bookworld does not suck all literature from hers, and conclude her own series so she can enjoy a comfortable retirement, while dodging the threat of the worse fate imaginable for a story: The Scooby Doo ending.

As We Fall Through Time by Claire North In the beginning, the world will end. This is the story of what happens next. When Cal meets a soldier of the French Revolution, he knows his lover is destined to die. But what is the point of being a time traveller if you can't make a few small tweaks to the course of history? A little paradox here, an alteration there - nothing Cal can't fix, to save the man he loves. When Fadimatu walks into a museum in 2018, she stumbles upon her own mummified corpse, setting her on the path to a betrayal that has already killed her, and a murder that has not yet come to pass. And when a sudden rupture in the fabric of history rips through the lives these travellers have built, breaking both past and future, they must reckon with death foretold, love forsaken, and a secret that will shatter time itself.

November Summer by Andreas Eschbach If geo-engineering is to save the climate... It has remained just lip service. No measure has really reduced carbon dioxide emissions; temperatures are continuing to rise worldwide. In Germany, it can sometimes be as hot in November as it used to be in summer. An environmental movement led by the charismatic climate scientist Dr. Frederick Rookwerper is advocating that only geo-engineering can still prevent the heat collapse of the Earth. With the intention of provoking a change in thinking, the activists are launching a pilot project. They have no idea what they are getting themselves into... What happens when politics fails and activists take matters into their own hands? What happens when an experiment goes awry and the effect is much greater than calculated? (translated)

As You Wake, Break the Shell - As You Wake, Break the Shell #1 by Becky Chambers Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough. Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger. Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound—a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career. It is that threat—the “mindbleed,” a dangerous side effect of her piloting—that brings her to Signy’s shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it’s soon apparent it’s not just about losing her license—this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them. Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful. Through a love story centered around survival, we are given a glimpse into the very best of what Becky Chambers does in her writing: explore what it means to be human, and what it means to come together.