So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: Tatsuaki Ishiguro 石黒達昌

Tatsuaki Ishiguro (石黒達昌 ISHIGURO Tatsuaki) is difficult to decide which genres his novels belong to. It's a kind of science fiction, but neither cyberpunk nor science fantasy. Sometimes his novels are classified under horror. It cannot be horror. I think that his theme is to survive with pain.

His novels often mimic medical articles with using medical terms. Through an enigmatic character of scientist, a delusion that the scientist will expose the secret of science is transformed into the delusion that human being wants to stay alive yet. It's the seeking for a soul by science. Or, it might be said to be a mad scientist story. (but not horror!)

At any rate, he is an active doctor, so medical terms are realistic. And, he is an active doctor, so his books are not many. Sadly, only one book ('冬至草') is sold in Amazon Japan. Other novels in Japan are out of print now. What a shame!

The novel that published in 1994 was very avant-garde. It has no title and includes tables and photographs, and its writing style is horizontal writing. Japanese novel is vertical writing normally but the scientific literature is horizontal writing. It definitely simulates a medical report. For ISBN registration, his book title was set the start sentence of the novel. So, the book of Japanese title is long such as '平成3年5月2日，後天性免疫不全症候群にて急逝された明寺伸彦博士，並びに，'. English title is Biogenesis.

Biogenesis and Other Stories is only one book that is translated into English. Tatsuaki Ishiguro translated his book by himself when he moved to Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. I'd like you to read Tatsuaki Ishiguro before going out of print!