Carlos Saiz Cidoncha

Carlos Sáiz Cidoncha (Ciudad Real, February 13, 1939-Madrid, March 27, 2018) Spanish writer, one of the classics in the Spanish science fiction genre, in the scope of the space opera. Multifaceted author, in addition to his literary work in the fantastic, science fiction and horror, he was an essayist and literary popularizer in this field and also researched and published in the field of military and Spanish history. A young spirit that always encouraged him, and his work as a pioneer speaker, essayist and organizer of HispaCon, the Spanish science fiction conventions, made him a bridge between the generations of Spanish readers and fans of the century XX and XXI. His loss marks the end of an era in Spanish literature of the genre.

Biography

Carlos Sáiz Cidoncha was born on February 13, 1939 in Ciudad Real. He was the son of the prestigious veterinarian from Ciudad Real Dr. D. Laureano Sáiz Moreno (1906-2006), a scientist of international stature and academic, and it can be affirmed that he had in him a living example of appreciation for study, responsibility and respect for science. From a very young age he had been a great reader of literature in Spanish, English and French, languages spoken by her mother, Eloisa Cidoncha, who had helped her husband as a translator in her scientific activity. Carlos did not stop training throughout his life, accumulating an encyclopedic culture.

After his first studies in Ciudad Real, Carlos Sáiz Cidoncha settled in Madrid and graduated in Physics at the Complutense University of Madrid where he had highly valued professors such as the institutionalist Salvador Velayos, a specialist in electromagnetism and energy fields. Shortly after finishing his degree, he prepared for the opposition to the National Meteorology Corps, obtaining a place brilliantly.

Already a career civil servant at the National Institute of Meteorology, he requested a posting in the then province of Equatorial Guinea, where he lived the experience of colonization and subsequent decolonization; the African world view powerfully influenced his narrative, which he then began to create. After the independence of Equatorial Guinea, he continued in the country for another two years until the political situation of the Spanish aid workers and residents deteriorated and he had to return to Spain in a difficult evacuation and rescue operation.

In the following years, he continued his studies, obtained a Social Graduate degree, a Diploma in Criminology, obtained a Private Detective's license, a Law Degree —collegiate in Madrid— and, finally, a PhD in Information Sciences with a pioneering doctoral thesis on science fiction in Spain..

In Madrid he began to frequent the gathering of science fiction fans, writers and critics known as Círculo de Lectores de Anticipación and he collaborated in the magazine Nueva Dimensión frequently with stories and reviews. In the seventies the Círculo became the Spanish Science-Fiction Association and in 1975 it organized the Hispacón or annual meeting. In 1978 Mario León, at the time director of the Albia collection of Editorial Espasa-Calpe, published his first long novel, The Fall of the Galactic Empire, the first novel by a trilogy that would close thirty years later. In addition to science fiction and fantasy, he also wrote on history and military history, displaying a certain sensitivity to social issues.

Importance

Known by Spanish fans as "the good doctor" (an appellation also given to Isaac Asimov), Sáiz Cidoncha has written more than a dozen novels, dozens and dozens of short stories and several hundred articles. He has published in Spain, France, the United States and Hungary and, aside from his work as a researcher on military or historical issues (he is the author of a History of piracy in Spanish America, of a History of the guerrillas in Cuba and other Latin American countries and a three-volume History of Republican Aviation), he has always written science fiction works set in the distant future. Sáiz Cidoncha is the most “classic” chronicler of the Galactic Empire in Spanish-language science fiction (The Fall of the Galactic Empire, Chronicles of the Galactic Empire).

His written work stands out for cultivating a sense of wonder, which makes him a living representative of the so-called Golden Age of the genre, appreciation for exotic themes, the richness and variety of his characters and the treatment of language (spectacular in Memoirs of a Stellar Marauder, where he narrates the adventures of a stellar rogue during the long night of the fall of the galactic empire in a clear homage to the Spanish picaresque novel of the Golden Age). His works are equally tinged with a great sense of humor and full of references to famous works of the genre, which delights the connoisseur and enriches the reading of new readers.

Sáiz Cidoncha was also one of the founders of the contemporary fandom of Spanish science fiction. He participated in the 1960s in the creation of the Círculo de Lectores de Anticipación, in the first Spanish Association of Fantasy and Science Fiction, he was the organizer of HispaCon in 1975 and an active contributor to the mythical magazine Nueva Dimensión, mainstay of the genre in Spain in the 70s. He also wrote several comics for cartoonist Alfonso Azpiri, being the co-creator of the famous Lorna. He has also collaborated on dozens of fanzines and professional or amateur magazines, carrying out its incessant activity in defense and extension of the genre through dozens of congresses, Spanish conventions (it has been in all HispaCon since its foundation) or foreign conventions (Bielefield RFA wolrdcon, and Glaswow GB) such as guest speaker.

At HispaCon in Gijón in 1993, he received the Ignotus Award for Lifetime Work, awarded by the Spanish Association of Fantasy and Science Fiction,

Bibliography

• PALMER, Óscar and FRATTINI, Eric (1998). Basic comic book guide. Nuer Editions. ISBN 84-8068-054-7.