Unfinished Novel of a Student

WORKING

Dilov, Lyuben (variously transliterated). Unfinished Novel of a Student. «Незавършеният роман на една студентка» 1982. Translated in collaboration with Margarita Todorova.[1] Scheduled for publication in 2021 but listed only in Bulgarian as of November 2021 (The green ear. The unfinished novel of a student).[2] Note: We depend upon internet pages cited for the Bulgarian and apologize for any errors caused by our ignorance.

Discussed by Andy Erbschloe, "The Life and Work of Bulgarian SF Writer Lyuben Dilov" in SFRA Review 51.3 (Summer 2021).[3]

The protagonist of Unfinished Novel of a Student is Cyana (named after cyanide), a well-intentioned but flippant aspiring chrononaut. [...] Her superior, the aged Professor of Temporal Flight, warns her about the dangers of time travel with his own tragic testimony but to no avail. [... H]e sends her to the asteroid belt. The central research computer has stopped responding to the scientists there but only after it compiled an unsolicited treatise on human abuse against machines. Tasked with debugging the stubborn computer, Cyana and Dilov check all the familiar boxes of asking where the human and the machine begin and end and so on, but the way Cyana fixes the “broken” computer is purely Dilov. She tells it a story. [...]

…they’d been envisioning a being less selfish than themselves, to be objective and fearless in its judgement. Humans have always strived to become that ideal, but when they realized they would never achieve it, they created a computer from metal and energy to have a more virtuous companion on their path. And here again, with these stories of yours, you’re making yourself just that — their fair and fearless judge.[...].

“Colleague Cyana, you are a cutie,” said the computer beyond the wall that humans had placed between it and themselves.[4]

RDE, finishing, 9Nov21