Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Talk: Horde of the Counterwind by Alain Damasio

Join us for a conversation with Alain Damasio, author of the sci-fi/fantasy classic Horde of the Counterwind!

Alain will be joined by translator Alexander Dickow to discuss the book's long legacy as a beloved French novel, the basis for the video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and its long road to availability in the English language.

About the participants:

Alain Damasio is the author of three bestselling French novels: La Zone du Dehors (1999 and 2007), winner of the European Utopiales Prize 2007, the Imaginales high-schoolers Prize 2006 and adapted for the stage in 2016; Horde of the Counterwind (2004), winner of three literary prizes including the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2006 in the category “Francophone novel” and adapted into a graphic novel in 2017; and Les Furtifs (April 2019). Damasio is a triple recipient of the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, France’s most prestigious science fiction award, and his most recent novel was voted best overall book of 2019.

Alexander Dickow is a poet, novelist, translator and literary scholar who works in French and English. He grew up in Moscow, Idaho, in the Pacific Northwest, and after living in France at irregular intervals for seven years, is now professor of French at Virginia Tech. He has a long-standing interest in science fiction, weird fiction and fantasy, and is the author of a science fiction novel in French, Le Premier Souper, along with several works of poetry in both languages. His full-length translations include: The Central Laboratory by Max Jacob, The Neverending Quest for the Other Shore by Sylvie Kandé, Showers and Bright Spells: Selected Poems 2009–2019 by Henri Droguet, and Air of Solitude, followed by Requiem by Gustave Roud (co-translated with Sean T. Reynolds).

About the book:

France’s defining fantasy/science fiction odyssey of the 21st century, the basis of the award-winning video game Expedition 33 and now published in English for the first time, celebrates twenty-three brave warriors of the wind.

Twenty-three adventurers—each with a unique personality and a precise duty, some trained since birth, some joining over the course of a long journey—climb endlessly against the wind that plagues their desolate homeland. Their only purpose: to make it to the Upper Reaches and identify the wind’s mysterious source. Over the course of eight hundred years, thirty-three hordes before them have tried and failed.

In this masterwork whose epic scope and visionary world-building are commonly compared to the universe of Dune, author Alain Damasio moves among narrators, alternating between breathtaking descriptions of the unique and bewildering world he has invented—ruled by seven types of wind, classified by their forces—and gripping, rhythmic dialogue.

Horde of the Counterwind has ignited the imaginations of more than a million French fans since its publication in 2004. Voted the best book of the twenty-first century by readers of Sens critique and the twelfth-greatest book of all time by Le Monde’s subscribers, the novel served as a major inspiration for the celebrated video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. At last, English-speaking audiences will get the chance to shoulder their packs and join the adventure.