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W leju po bombie (In the Bomb Crater) is a science fiction short story by Andrzej Sapkowski, published in 1993, belonging to the genres of military and political fiction, as well as so-called klerykal fiction and politpunk. In 1994, the story won the Janusz A. Zajdel Award.
| Author | Andrzej Sapkowski |
|---|---|
| Language | Polish |
| Genre | science fiction short story |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Publication place |  Poland |
The story is set in the titular bomb crater, in an alternate reality. Poland is ruled by the Curia, and the country is being invaded by Lithuanian paramilitary forces. The protagonists of the story are children on their way to school.
The short story was originally written for a never-published "anti-klerykal" anthology with an unspecified title, proposed in 1992.[1][2] It was first published in the Fenix magazine in 1993[3][4] and, in the same year, a shortened version appeared in Magazyn Wileński.[5] In 1997, it was reprinted in the zine Czerwony Karzeł by the Gdańsk Science Fiction Club[6] and in the zine Fahrenheit.[7] A year later, it was published in the Białystok magazine Kartki.[8] For over a decade, from at least 2002,[lower-alpha 1] the story was available on Andrzej Sapkowski's former official website (Sapkowski Zone); since 2017, it has been accessible on its archived version.[9][10]
The story has also been included in several short story collections. In 2000, it appeared in Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna (Something Ends, Something Begins)[2] and in 2012 in Maladie i inne opowiadania (Maladies and Other Stories).[11]
In 1994, the story was published in the Czech Republic in the anthology Tandaradei!.[12] In 2016, a Serbian translation (U krateru od bombe) was released as part of the collection Maladie... (Maladi i druge priče).[13]
In 2023, the short story was made available for free to users of the Nowa Fantastyka app as part of a campaign supporting the Polish Humanitarian Action's efforts to aid Ukraine, which was under attack from Russia.[14]
The story takes place in the titular bomb crater, located in Suwałki, within an alternate reality where the residents, after the Chernobyl disaster, have become radioactive mutants. Poland is ruled by the Curia, foreigner-attacking skinhead gangs roam the streets, parts of the country have been annexed by Germany, and the Suwałki Region itself is the site of clashes between Lithuanian paramilitary units ("Šauliai") and German and American forces, while Polish troops are involved in pacifying Iraq and the Czech Republic. The protagonists of the story are children on their way to school.[2][15][16][17]
The day begins inauspiciously when the protagonist and narrator of the story smashes a glass with his father's dentures in it and then tries to retrieve it from the drain. The protagonist describes his daily life in Suwałki, where his father is unemployed after being fired for disrespecting religious symbols. The boy's mother works in a German factory (Prussia has once again become part of Germany). Leaving the house, the narrator notices that the city is in chaos due to the ongoing fighting. The narrator tries to stay calm by turning on music on his Walkman and continuing his way to school. Walking through the streets, the protagonist becomes a witness to armed clashes. Mi-28 helicopters appear in the air and tracer bullets cross the sky. The boy wonders who could be involved in the conflict - Lithuanians, Germans, Americans or maybe local criminal gangs. On the way, he meets a group of skinheads lynching a Russian-speaking trader, and then falls into the titular bomb crater, where he meets a classmate. Soon the boys realize that the fighting is between Lithuanian and German paramilitary units; in the meantime they save a classmate who managed to survive an attempted rape and a nearby shell explosion, they witness the death of a German and a Lithuanian who fall into their crater, seriously wounded, and finally they listen to a speech by politician Marcin Kenig on the radio, which is interrupted by his murder. In the evening, the fighting ends, and the teenage heroes return to the city center.[9]
Maciej Parowski described the story as military and political fiction of a near-future setting... one of many instances of Sapkowski stepping outside the fantasy genre.[18] Marek Szyjewski classified it as political/social fiction,[19] and similarly, Przemysław Czapliński and Piotr Śliwiński categorized it as political fiction.[20] Sapkowski himself noted that the story is the only one of my works that can be said with certainty not to be fantasy. Thanks to 'W leju po bombie', I can therefore proudly call myself a 'science fiction author'.[1] Rafał Ziemkiewicz, in the foreword to the story in Fenix, categorized it as politpunk (a genre referencing contemporary history and depicting Polish realities in a "punk" manner),[21] and the anonymous foreword in Magazyn Wileński did the same.[5] However, Adam Mazurkiewicz considered this classification unnecessary, calling it terminological overproduction within the internal criticism emerging for and within the fandom; he emphasized that Sapkowski used the science fiction convention to enhance the adventure-like character of the story.[22]
Jan Ratuszniak described the story's theme as a warning against the rise of nationalism in Poland and globally, as well as the lack of civic engagement.[15] Tomasz Pacyński similarly noted that the text reflects the author's attitude towards xenophobia, human smallness, and stupidity, calling it a morality play about individual freedom. About decency in vile times.[23]
The story also includes anti-clerical motifs (it was written for a never-realized anti-clerical thematic anthology); some secondary characters, such as the protagonist's father and a priest, are portrayed negatively.[1][24] Marek Oramus identified among these motifs a vision of Poland oppressed by the church, the omnipotence of the clergy (the Curia can do anything, so it ideologically pacifies the country), and demonstrating the danger of yielding to the church... how excessive clerical intervention negatively affects individual freedom and citizens' private lives.[16]
The character of the Lithuanian general Želigauskas, who invades Poland, is an ironic reference to the Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski.[15] Another historical reference is the street named after Eligiusz Niewiadomski, the assassin of President Gabriel Narutowicz.[2]
In 1994, the story was awarded the Janusz A. Zajdel Award.[14]
Maciej Parowski praised the story as "excellent"[3] and "delicious".[18] In 2001, Mariusz Cieślik, reviewing the collection of Sapkowski’s stories, considered this one of the weaker texts, writing: To my taste, there are too many not very funny jokes in this text.[2] Tomasz Pacyński had the opposite opinion, writing the same year about the same collection: The true gem, for which it is worth buying the collection, is the story 'W leju po bombie', evaluating the story as still relevant.[23] However, in 2009, Artur Chruściel disagreed, writing that the story was born from fears and diagnoses that have long been – respectively – dead and outdated, while praising it from other perspectives (brilliantly written... excellent effect of combining irony, humor, and serious themes).[25] Similarly, in 1995, Marek Oramus considered the anti-clerical theme (klerykal fiction) of the early 90s as falsified and cast into oblivion by reality, but also praised the story, noting that it would be remembered not for its intellectual qualities, but because such language, such concentration of gags, such a load of grotesque... had not been seen before in national SF.[16] Oramus revisited the story in 2019, writing that the narrative sparkles with witty details and paradoxes, but the reading provokes considerable melancholy: again war, albeit local, but with no coherence, as is the case on Polish soil. Sapkowski occasionally uses broad strokes, depicting the paranoid existence of the local population, hiding from bullets and struggling with their national identity.[17]
According to Oramus, Sapkowski’s story inspired Piotr Gociek's story Jak utopiliśmy Hana Solo (How We Drowned Han Solo) from the anthology Przedmurze (2016), which takes place in the same region, time, and has many similar themes.[17]
In 1998, Marek Szyjewski dedicated a short essay titled Bomba fantazji (The Bomb of Fantasy) to this story in the magazine Kartki. He reviewed it positively, noting that it has a "special charm" and contains "a bit of... magic".[19]
- The short story was posted on Andrzej Sapkowski's official website, sapkowski.pl. The site is no longer active (the last archived version of the homepage on Internet Archive dates back to 2017). The page containing the story was last archived in 2014; it does not have a date, and the oldest archived comment on it is from 2002.
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