will be 'people'. As one can see, the crisis of alienation and the crisis of identity are great concerns of Abe Kobo." In his introduction to a pair of Abe's essays published in the November, 2002 issue of Science Fiction Studies, Christopher Bolton writes: "Abe's work in the 1950s included short stories about robots, suspended animation, and alien visitation, but it was the 1959 publication of his novel Dai yon kanpyôki (Inter Ice Age 4, 1970) that marked a real turning point for SF in Japan. Incorporating hard-science elements on a scale that no Japanese novelist had attempted, Abe nevertheless pushed the story toward a disturbing, almost surreal conclusion. A number of critics have identified Inter Ice Age 4 as Japan's first full-length science fiction novel, and a work that helped jump start Japanese interest in the genre." References Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD: "Abe Kōbō" External links (Lists the Japanese editions plus all translations) (only lists English language translations) Inter Ice Age 4 at the Internet Archive Tech Anxiety & Apocalyptic Paranoia in Post-WW2 Japan: Kobo Abe’s Inter Ice Age 4 article which also includes some of Abe Machi's illustrations Novels by Kobo Abe 1959 science fiction novels Japanese science fiction novels