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Dukaj, Jacek

Entry updated 12 May 2025. Tagged: Author.

(1974-    ) Polish Fantastika writer and publicist, widely regarded as the leading figure in contemporary Polish sf and the successor to Stanisław Lem. He made his literary debut at sixteen with the short story "Złota galera" (February 1990 Fantastyka; trans Wiesiek Powaga as "The Golden Galley" in The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy, anth 1996 ed Powaga), a space-operatic tale of a demonic Starship crewed by devils launched by Satan as an existential threat to space-faring humanity. Over the next decade, he published about a dozen more short stories, primarily in the Polish fantastika magazines Nowa Fantastyka and Fenix. 1996 saw his first two nominations for the Janusz A Zajdel Award. First was a short story "Wielkie podzielenie" ["Great Divide"] (March 1996 Nowa Fantastyka), a thriller tackling Gender and Feminism, displaying an onset of Disaster, when a virus turns women into men-killing psychopaths. Second was the novella "Szkoła" ["School"] (November 1996 Nowa Fantastyka), a Dystopian novella in which an elite educational institution (see Education in SF), aiming to help the youth from poverty-stricken favelas of a future Brazil, turns out to be an instrument of exploitation rather than enlightenment – the students' minds and bodies are harnessed as living components in various medical (see Medicine) experiments aiming, among others, to facilitate space exploration. The main character, Pulo, is conditioned into an entity that can operate an autonomous space probe capable of First Contact with Aliens.

Dukaj's first book, Xavras Wyżryn (coll 1997), collected two longer works, the eponymous Xavras Wyżryn and Zanim noc ["Before the Night"]. Xavras Wyżryn could be described as a long novella; Zanim noc is technically a novel, although it never received a standalone edition. Xavras Wyżryn is an Alternate History in which Polish partisans wage an insurgency against Soviet occupation, smuggling an atom bomb into Moscow (see Nuclear Energy). Xavras, the Polish resistance leader, is followed by an American journalist, and the novella tackles such issues as what line separates freedom fighters from terrorists, as well as the role of media in shaping public opinion. Zanim noc is a horror story set in occupied Poland during World War Two. In it, Trudny, a Polish businessman and collaborator, moves into a new house, which appears haunted; in time, he himself transforms into a ghost, or perhaps a Posthuman-like entity. The story can also be seen as belonging to the difficult Holocaust Fiction genre, as the house is a former appropriated Jewish property, something that – together with its Jewish ghosts – Trudny tries his best to ignore. Dukaj's solid grounding in philosophy and science, combined with a penchant for bold speculation, marked him as an heir to the intellectual tradition of Lem even in these initial works.

Next year saw his story "Serce Mroku" ["Heart of Darkness"] (November 1998 Nowa Fantastyka), whose title deliberately echoes the title and premise of Joseph Conrad's famous novella, retelling it in sf form. It is set in an alternative future, in which the German Third Reich survived and colonized other worlds; the main character, a German soldier, is tasked with exploring an alien jungle and finding an escapee, a former Polish slave, who developed supernatural powers and is organizing a resistance movement.

The next decade can be described as Dukaj's Golden Age, during which he published most of his novels, and earned multiple honours: by 2001 he had already won the Janusz A Zajdel Award for both short fiction and novel-length works, signalling his rising prominence; by the end of that decade he would hold six Zajdel trophies – one for short story, five for novels (his record would be matched next decade by Robert M Wegner, but as of 2025 it has yet to be overtaken by another writer). This period (2000-2012) also saw fifteen out of his twenty total Zajdel nominations.

That decade opened with his short story collection W kraju niewiernych ["In the Land of the Unbelievers"] (coll 2000). The volume collected eight of his stories, including many debuting in it – most notably "Katedra" ["The Cathedral"], a mystical sf tale that won him his first Zajdel Award and inspired an Oscar-nominated short film under the same title, released in 2002. The story touches upon philosophical and theological concepts in the Hard SF form. Its protagonist, Father Pierre Lavone, investigates miracles attributed to the grave of Izmir Predú, a hero whose sacrifice led to the formation of a mysterious Nanotechnology-grown Cathedral on an Asteroid. Gradually, Lavone discovers the Cathedral's Extraterrestrial origin as he becomes infected by its living crystal, slowly transforming into stone and merging with the enigmatic structure, posing a question: has he found divinity or merely been consumed by an indifferent alien organism? Other stories in the volume exemplify Dukaj's penchant for constructing whole cosmologies and intricate universes in service of fiction; it has been said that he tends to include as many ideas in a single short story as many other writers use in their lifetime of writing. "Ruch generała" ["The General's Move"] (trans Michael Kandel as "The Iron General" in A Polish Book of Monsters, anth 2010 ed Kandel), is a fantasy Military SF story, told through Hard SF vocabulary, exemplifying Dukaj's genre-bending tendencies and increasing fondness for experimental literature (see Thought Experiment). The titular protagonist is a near-immortal national hero – almost a thousand years old – who has led his nation through epochs of conflict but must now face new threats related to the spread of new cultures and ideas. "Ziemia Chrystusa" ["Christ's Earth"] is set in a world similar to ours, but possessing the technology to discover and travel to Alternate History Parallel Worlds; locked in a Cold-War-like conflict with other realities sharing this technology. The setting, however, is merely a backdrop to the story of culture shock when a team of explorers have to come to terms with a world in which Jesus Christ did not die, God undeniably exists, and Christian eschatology (the promised Kingdom of God on Earth) has become a concrete historical reality. In "Irrehaare", the main protagonist, suffering from Amnesia, finds himself trapped in a Virtual Reality gaming multiverse (see Videogames), which is being taken over by AI. The plot follows a small group of gamers and developers striving to outwit the malicious code and escape, essentially a high-stakes dungeon crawl through layers of unreality. Written in 1995, the story, according to several Polish critics, anticipated most of the themes of the blockbuster movie The Matrix (1999). "In partibus infidelium" is a Future History of humanity, seen through its focus on the Catholic Church. In this vision, Catholicism has spread to the stars, being embraced by numerous Alien civilizations, and the story tackles theological topics such as doctrinal crises over alien souls, while portraying a galactic commonwealth in which humans are increasingly marginalized and treated with contempt as the "Jews of Space", who killed Christ. The story's image of an alien Pope is both cosmic irony and a sincere exploration of faith's adaptability, underscoring Dukaj's Lem-like penchant for mixing satire with deep philosophical inquiry. "IACTE" follows an immortal Vampire coerced into piloting a sleeper Starship on a 200-year interstellar colony mission. Upon reaching a distant planet, he escapes – only to find the new world rife with bizarre phenomena: Biology decays, Machines crumble, and dreams manifest in reality. In "Medjugorje", predictive algorithms and AI agents identify people likely to have a supernatural vision (for example, an apparition of the Virgin Mary, as in the real Medjugorje of 1981). Then, teams of scientists are dispatched to arrive ahead of the possible miracle to establish a controlled Communication channel between God and humanity. "Muchobójca" ["The Fly Killer"] is xenobiological horror, set in a future where humankind explores distant worlds via Teleportation gates. When a far-flung outpost is threatened by ghost-like creatures, an extermination specialist is dispatched, discovering that the ghosts could be Time Traveling aliens.

Dukaj's first full-length novel, Czarne oceany ["Black Oceans"] (2001) is a Near Future thriller exploring the topic of the Singularity; it won him his second Zajdel. The story mainly follows Nicholas Hunt, a cynical American bureaucrat overseeing seemingly marginal military research into memetics (see Meme) and paranormal phenomena, who becomes embroiled in a global crisis when millions suddenly descend into madness. Set around 2060 in a Cyberpunk-influenced world of augmented reality, advanced biotechnology, and ruthless Economic warfare, the novel explores themes of surveillance, political correctness, and the worldwide chaos caused by what may be a transformative technological singularity – or perhaps an invasion of alien memetic lifeforms.

His novella "Aguerre w świcie" ["Aguerre in Dawn"] (in Wizje alternatywne 3, anth 2001), a baroque mix of noir, Space Opera and whodunit murder mystery set at the dizzying heights of Posthuman civilization in which the most advanced posthumans can sculpt space-time with willpower. Here Dukaj asks: what does crime mean and what are the stakes of morality when reality itself is malleable?

Next year saw Extensa (2002), a short novel blending the Singularity with Pastoral fiction and intimate family drama; here, the story is set in an enclave of humans clinging to their old ways, resembling the Amish, while the rest of the world moved on and transcended. The novel's unnamed protagonist struggles with choosing whether to remain with his friends or family or venture into the new world. In the same year the "Córka łupieżcy" ["Plunderer's Daughter"] (in Wizje alternatywne 4, anth 2002) portrayed an archaeologist's daughter who stumbles upon the archetypal City in which all cities that ever existed, human or alien, are merged into one entity that in turns influences cities around the universe; the work again explores various concepts related to Posthumanity.

Dukaj's reputation for visionary world-building was cemented with Inne pieśni ["Other Songs"] (2003), an ambitious fusion of Alternate History and alternative Physics set in a world governed by Aristotelian metaphysics. The book, with rich philosophical underpinnings, is based on an audacious premise – that reality is malleable under the influence of influential personalities.

2004 saw his fourth Zajdel win, for Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość ["Perfect Imperfection"] (2004). This Far Future novel is set in the twenty-ninth century, where digital immortality led to Posthumanity and new definitions of personhood. Here, Adam Zamoyski, a twenty-first-century astronaut revived in the twenty-ninth century, struggling with Amnesia, finds himself future-shocked by a bewildering post-singularity world ruled by hyper-intelligent posthuman entities. The novel also introduced a new grammatical gender and neopronouns to the Polish language that became known as "dukaisms" and are now used by some non-binary people in Poland.

His other major work of that year was "Crux" in PL +50. Historie przyszłości ["PL +50: Stories of the Future"] (anth 2004) edited by Anita Kasperek, a near-future cyberpunk-themed political sf story set roughly 50 years ahead in a transformed Poland where Nanotechnology has eliminated the need for physical labour, creating a welfare-state "paradise" whose idle masses are derisively called "socjers" (from social welfare). Against this backdrop rises a messianic revolutionary called Crux, who is hacking the nanotechnology and rallying support via memetic propaganda. Here, Dukaj created a socio-political satire, tackling many Polish national myths (from the Sarmatian ideology to the memory of Solidarity) examining a post-scarcity setting in which all physical needs are met but spiritual and societal ones are not, pessimistically predicting that in a "paradise of workers where no one needs to work" most will either languish or turn to extreme ideologies.

His next novel – winning his 5th Zajdel plus several other awards including the European Union Prize for Literature – was Lód ["Ice"] (2007) was a 1000-page alternate history opus set in an alternate 1920s, where the 1908 Tunguska event brought with it reality-changing aliens. The new laws of physics, radiating from Tunguska, affect much of Eurasia, thrusting it into a new Ice Age, and change the rules of logic from the many-valued logic of "Summer" to the two-valued logic of "Winter" with no intermediate steps between true and false. They enable new, Steampunk-like technologies and affect human psychology, effectively freezing history, making geopolitical change extremely difficult. Dukaj said that in writing this novel, he wanted to create science fiction – but this time, the "science" in question was philosophy. Ice is a historico-philosophical epic – featuring mathematicians, revolutionaries, and a literal "Ministry of Winter" – which earned widespread acclaim from "mainstream" as well as critics.

2008 saw the publication of a short story "Kto napisał Stanisława Lema?" ["Who Wrote Stanisław Lem?"], originally published in a new edition of Lem's Doskonała próżnia ["A Perfect Vacuum"] and translated by Danusia Stok as "The Apocrypha of Lem" in Lemistry (anth 2011), edited anonymously. This is a faux scholarly review in the style of Stanisław Lem's own pseudepigraphical writings, with an sf twist – it examines a body of posthumous works purportedly written after Lem's death, by digital recreations (AI) of Lem as a writer (a vision that seems to be rapidly approaching reality as of mid-2020s).

After Ice, Dukaj took a stylistic turn with Wroniec ["The Crowman"] (graph 2009), a surreal dark fantasy set during Poland's 1981 martial law, stylized as a picture book but aimed at adult readers. This short novel, richly illustrated by Jakub Jabłoński (not a Graphic Novel, since it relies on "walls of text") uses dreamlike allegory and linguistic wordplay to portray the horrors of a police state through a child's eyes.

The collection Król Bólu i inne opowiadania ["King of Pain and Other Stories"] (coll 2010) assembled several of his newest shorter pieces. Chief among these was the novella "Król Bólu i pasikonik" ["King of Pain and the Grasshopper"], for which he won his sixth Zajdel award. Set in the Near Future, it portrays a world in which escalating bioterrorism led humanity to fragment itself into regions defined by radical Genetic Engineering, which makes it impossible for most their inhabitants to physically visit other areas, as their aggressive multi-layered large scale immune systems eliminate anything that is not "local". It can be seen as a commentary on geopolitical and cultural differences, taken to the next level (as is often done in sf), here, with a new layer of incompatible biology.

That collection also included "Linia oporu" ["The Line of Resistance"], another heavily experimental and philosophical piece, described by some critics and reviewers as his most challenging piece to date. Leveraging the language of Videogames, it follows an unnamed Polish protagonist through a series of vignettes or "levels" that correspond to real-life stages (family life, career, personal crisis) viewed in game-like abstraction, depicting his existential crisis – the collapse of his family, a profound sense of aimlessness – as if he were a player stuck in a game he no longer understands. Another new story in this collection was "Oko potwora" ["Eye of the Monster"], a retro-style sf horror/thriller reminiscent of mid-twentieth-century space Paranoia tales. A spaceship crew, whose members are known only by their functions, such as Navigator or Doctor, fears that a monstrous alien entity has infiltrated their ship; they begin to turn on one another. The work, stylistically and thematically inspired by works of Lem, asks whether the very concept of a monster, and fear associated with it, can lead to their creation, and underscores a theme central to much classic sf: that the most terrifying monster may be human irrationality itself. The final new story in the volume was "Piołunnik" ["Wormwood"], an alternate-history tale with a strong supernatural sf twist. That story is set in April 1986, where the Chernobyl disaster was a cover story fabricated by the Soviet authorities to hide a far more otherworldly catastrophe: instead of radioactive fallout, what falls over parts of Europe is a mysterious substance that reverses Entropy's arrow, leading to the dead rising from their graves, era by era. Those dead, however, are not mindless Zombies; they retain their sentience, which leads the communist authorities to dispatch secret police to take them down, to literally rebury the past again, to prevent people of the past from challenging the historical memory reshaped by the totalitarian regime of the present. Simultaneously, the story tackles the issue of what happens if the linear progression of time – the backbone of causality – is broken, as reality starts collapsing into a single temporal point: an apocalyptic now where past and present are the same.

2011 saw his novella "Science Fiction" (in Science Fiction, anth 2011), described as a tribute to the entire sf genre. It is a meta (see also Fabulation) story of a sf writer and his book, in the form of a series of nested stories-within-stories. It earned Dukaj his second Jerzy Żuławski Award. Perhaps prophetically, one reviewer noted that the story gives the impression of being a profoundly personal farewell to sf, seeing it as the author's expression of existential fatigue with the genre, or perhaps, literature in general. Indeed, Dukaj's output as a writer over the next few years decreased significantly.

Dukaj's short story "Portret nietoty" (in Zachcianki. Dziesięć zmysłowych opowieści, anth 2012) portrays a world in which most beings are born with a sixth sense; the protagonist is one of the few who lack it, and the plot revolves around attempts by their lover, an artist specializing in sixth-sense works, to convey the meaning of their art to her. This work marked Dukaj's experiment with concepts of eroticism, art, and philosophy of language and aesthetics – the artist in the tale struggles with essentially translating alien concepts into terms his lover can understand, echoing the classic sf challenge of communication across a knowledge gap.

After a two-year hiatus, Dukaj returned with Starość aksolotla ["The Old Axolotl"] (2015 ebook), a post-apocalyptic novella or short novel in which the last humans survive as digitized minds in machines after a global catastrophe. Released as an innovative ebook with multimedia content, The Old Axolotl became the first of Dukaj's works to appear in English translation in the form of a stand-alone book translated by Stanley Bill in 2015; it was also another literary experiment, as it is intended to be primarily read as an ebook, with heavy use of hypertext (clickable links taking readers to relevant entries or sections); its paper edition came out only in 2019.

In 2016 and 2017 he published, again, only a single short story. In 2017 Dukaj also presented a new translation into Polish of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. His final work of fiction (as of 2025) was the novella Imperium chmur ["Empire of Clouds"] (in Inne światy, anth 2018; exp 2020), an alternate-history Steampunk adventure contrasting Western scientific rationalism with Eastern philosophical perspectives. It is set in an alternate Meiji-era Japan that reimagines the early twentieth century with giant Mecha and Airships, with commentary on how language influences our culture and reality. It earned Dukaj his third Jerzy Żuławski Award. It was also his last published work of fiction of any format.

In addition to fiction, Dukaj has written nonfiction essays and reviews. His earlier ones were generally related to fantastika, and were published in Nowa Fantastyka, Fenix, Science Fiction, and similar outlets. His more recent ones tended to be related to Futures Studies and contemporary cultural trends and geopolitics, and appear in more mainstream outlets. Some have been collected as "Po piśmie" ["The Twilight of the Written Word"] (coll 2019), a futurist, nonfiction contemplation on the decline of text in the age of digital media. In a 2024 interview, Dukaj wrote that in the last decade, he has been "writing mostly non-fiction" to shape public discussions in Poland about Technology, culture, and large-scale civilizational change.

As indicated above, Dukaj's most prolific period spans the decades of the 1990s to mid-2010s, leading many readers and critics to see another, perhaps less optimistic (for readers) parallel with Lem, who eventually also burned out as a writer, and in his later years primarily published non-fiction essays (although Lem, who debuted in his 20s, burned out in his 60s; Dukaj, who debuted in his teens, has been publishing fiction until his 40s).

Across his varied novels and stories, certain specific themes recur as hallmarks of Dukaj's oeuvre. Foremost is an exploration of Posthumanism and the future of human Evolution – from the radically transformed posthumans of Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość to the disembodied digital beings of Starość aksolotla, Dukaj continually asks what "humanity" means in the face of advanced technology and artificial intelligence. He often engages with Vernor Vinge's notion of the technological Singularity in a way that resembles works of contemporary English-language writers such as Charles Stross and Greg Egan, extrapolating its implications in far-future settings. Equally integral is Dukaj's fascination with alternative realities governed by different physical or metaphysical laws (see Alternate Cosmos) – for example, the Aristotelian cosmology of Inne pieśni, or the quantum-logical "ice" of Lód, which freezes not only matter but historical time itself. These high-concept premises are grounded in meticulous world-building and intellectual rigour. Dukaj has stated that a cohesive vision of an invented universe is crucial to speculative fiction, and accordingly, his works abound in dense technical terminology and neologisms to authenticate their realities.

Another signature motif is the interplay of Religion and Metaphysics within science fiction frameworks. Many of his early works were classified in Poland as Klerykal Fiction – a Polish take on sf that critically examines religious themes. This tendency places him in a lineage with authors like Marek S Huberath (another Polish sf writer known for metaphysical themes), even as Dukaj's treatment is often ambiguous – neither preaching nor outright condemning, but using religious ideas as a lens to interrogate humanity. He is also known for linguistic stylistic experimentation, from pastiches of archaic Polish in Lód, (evoking the literary style of nineteenth-century Polish prose), the playful nursery-rhyme distortions in Wroniec or the videogame framing of "Linia Oporu". His experiments extend into blurring genre boundaries or narrative formats. He has blended the structure of a hard-boiled political thriller with nanotech sf (Czarne oceany), the tropes of high fantasy with scientific paradigms ("Ruch generała"), and even crafted fictional scholarly articles such as the Lem-inspired pastiche "Kto napisał Stanisława Lema?". It is also related to his disregard for traditional length considerations – many of his works are novella length, and have been variously and inconsistently described as critics as short stories, novellas and novels; Polish fantastika critic Wojciech Sedeńko remarked that Dukaj "himself often treats a work of over 200 pages as a short story, and the elaborate, epic form is his distinguishing feature". This hybridity of form and genre underscores Dukaj's central preoccupation: the expansion of sf's imaginative scope. Yet for all its abstruse complexity, his writing maintains a keen narrative drive – the suspense of political intrigue, the awe of cosmic discovery, or the horror of metaphysical menace. This balance of idea and plot has made Dukaj a favorite of both academic critics and genre fans. However, in his most recent works the balance has increasingly swung from plot to ideas, which can be a hint concerning why both his writing and criticism, and readers' recognition of it, peaked in the 2000s (as seen in both his output, measured by volume, and its critical and fan reception, measured by awards received).

Despite his renown in Poland, Dukaj's work remained little-known in the English-speaking world for many years, a situation often lamented by fans and critics. For a long time only two of his shorter pieces had appeared in translation: "The Golden Galley" in The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy (anth 1996). Michael Kandel also translated passages from "Katedra" (as "The Cathedral"), which, however, were never released outside of a short-lived sample on the Polish publisher's website. "Kto napisał Stanisława Lema?" was translated as "The Apocrypha of Lem" for Lemistry (anth 2011). The first full-length Dukaj book in English was The Old Axolotl, translated by Stanley Bill and published as an ebook in 2015. In the mid-2010s, the London-based publisher Head of Zeus acquired the translation of Lód ["Ice"], scheduled for release later in 2025. In the meantime, his works have been translated into many other languages, including German, French, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, and others. In 2023, he was honoured with the European Science Fiction Society's Best Author award at Eurocon, reflecting his stature among Europe's sf community.

His works also saw limited adaptations in other media; crucially, "Katedra" was adapted into a 2002 short animated film directed by Tomasz Bagiński, which gained worldwide attention after earning an Academy Award nomination. The Old Axolotl (or to be precise, its opening chapter, set in the present era) served as inspiration for two Television series: the Belgian Into the Night (2020) and its Turkish spin-off Yakamoz S-245 (2022). There are reports that Dukaj is now involved in Videogame development; time will tell what results this new line of activity will bring. [PKo]

Jacek Dukaj

born Tarnów, Poland: 30 July 1974

works

  • Czarne Oceany ["Black Oceans"] (Warsaw, Poland: Supernowa, 2001) [pb/]
  • Córka łupieżcy ["Plunderer's Daughter"] (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2009) [novella: first appeared in Wizje alternatywne 4 (anth 2002) edited by Wojtek Sedeńko] [pb/]
  • Extensa (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2002) [pb/]
  • Inne pieśni ["Other Songs"] (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2003) [pb/]
  • Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość ["Perfect Imperfection"] (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2004) [pb/]
  • Lód ["Ice"] (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2007) [pb/]
  • Wroniec ["The Crowman"] (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2009) [pb/]
  • Linia oporu ["The Line of Resistance"] (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2024) [novella: first appeared in Król Bólu i inne opowiadania (coll 2010): pb/]
  • Science Fiction (Poland: BookRage, 2013) [novella: ebook: first appeared in Science Fiction (anth 2011) edited by Michał Cetnarowski & Katarzyna Sienkiewicz-Kosik: na/]
  • Starość aksolotla ["The Old Axolotl"] (Poznań, Poland: Allegro, 2015) [ebook: na/]
    • The Old Axolotl (Poznań, Poland: Allegro, 2015) [ebook: trans of the above by Stanley Bill: na/]
  • Imperium chmur ["Empire of Clouds"] (Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2020) [exp from novella in Inne Światy (anth 2018): pb/]

collections

nonfiction

  • Po piśmie ["The Twilight of the Written Word"] (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2003) [pb/]

links

previous versions of this entry



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