Antonio Caronia, Italian sf critic and translator, died January 30 at the age of 69.

An Italian Wikipedia article deciphered with the help of Google translation says Caronia was born in Genoa.

In 1978 he became interested in science fiction, joining a Milanese group, "Ambiguous Utopia," named for Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed. In the 1980s his work appeared in numerous publications including Linus, Virtual, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Cyberzone, Pulp, etc. He translated works into Italian, including J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition.

Another website calls him "a key figure in the history of popular culture and radical movements in Italy… known as a media scholar, critic of electronic arts, philosopher, translator and a critic of Marxism."

The SF Encyclopedia takes note of his book Il Cyborg ["Cyborgs"] (1985), on the artificial human in sf.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]