François Bordes

[Image:François Bordes.png|thumb|right|François Bordes]
François Bordes, also known by the pen name of Francis Carsac, was a French scientist, geologist, archaeologist, and science fiction writer.

Biography

He was a professor of prehistory and quaternary geology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of [Bordeaux 1]. He decisively renewed the approach to focusing on prehistoric lithic industries, introducing statistical studies in typology and expanding the use of experimental flint knapping. He was internationally known among archaeologists for his ability to replicate ancient stone implements; his technique was showcased in a photo essay in the "Early Man" volume of the Life Nature Library.
He also published many science fiction novels under his pen name. In the USSR the science fiction of Carsac was very popular. He was translated and published into Russian as well as Romanian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Hungarian, Estonian, Portuguese, amongst others. However, no translations into English existed until 2020, when Pour patrie l’espace was published as The City Among the Stars.

Prehistory

"Principes d'une méthode d'étude des techniques de débitage et de la typologie du Paléolithique ancien et moyen", L'Anthropologie, t. 54
A Tale of two Caves, Harper and Row
Typologie du Paléolithique ancien et moyen, Delmas, Publications de l'Institut de Préhistoire de l'Université de Bordeaux, Mémoire n° 1, réédition CNRS 1988 :
Leçons sur le Paléolithique, CNRS, 3 vol.

Science fiction

Novels

'
*Doctor Vsevolod Clair helps out an alien in a flying saucer, joins him in an interstellar travel via ahun, and joins the struggle against invaders called misliks, who prefer to live near the absolute zero because their metabolism is based on superconductivity, and therefore they are extinguishing the stars in the star systems they colonize.
'
*A piece of French land is ripped off from the Earth during a galactic collision and planted on an alien planet.
Pour patrie l’espace
*The first English translation of Carsac's novels. Lieutenant in the Stellar Guard of Earth Empire is rescued by the "People of the Stars" who are born and live in space with minimal contact with planets.
Ce monde est nôtre
La Vermine du Lion
*A geologist Teraï Laprade struggles against a mining company from Earth whose activities on the planet Eldorado are detrimental for the indigenous population
''Sur un monde stérile''

Shorter works

"Hachures"
"Taches de rouille"
"Genèse"
"L’Homme qui parlait aux martiens"
"Le Baiser de la vie"
"Sables morts"
"La Revanche des Martiens"
"Quelle aubaine pour un anthropologue!"
"Les pauvres gens"
"La Voix du loup"
"Premier Empire"
"Une fenêtre sur le passé"
"L’Ancêtre"
, also "Dans les montagnes du destin"
* A prequel to La Vermine du Lion
"Le dieu qui vient avec le vent"
"Tant on s’ennuie en Utopie"
"L’homme qui voulut être Dieu"
"Les Mains propres"
*The third story involving Teraï Laprade, a "sidequel" to La Vermine du Lion
"Celui qui vint de la grande eau"

Translations

"Souvenir lointain"