Anthology line-up

As I said in a previous post one of the titles that hold great interest for me is the upcoming Romanian anthology, “Dansînd pe Marte şi alte povestiri fantastice” (Dancing on Mars and other fantastic stories), edited by Michael Haulică. It holds great interest because it is a praiseworthy effort in promoting Romanian speculative fiction authors and because I’ve seen a few names on the line-up that I like and a few I am not familiar with and this is a nice reason for discovering their works. As I also said I will review the collection as soon as I get a copy of it, but until then here is the complete line-up for the Michael Haulică’s anthology:

Mircea Coman – Cybervals (Cybervals)

Cătălin Sandu – Duel cu ceaţă şi lotuşi (Duel with fog and water lilies)

Liviu Braicu – Heptozaur (Heptozaur)

Roxana Brînceanu – Saltul pisicii (The cat's leap)

Robert Coller – Între ceşti de capuccino (Between capuccino cups)

Ioana Vişan – Sufletele arborilor (The trees' souls)

Aron Biro – Valori familiale (Family values)

Liviu Radu – Vînătoare de vulpi (Fox hunt)

Mircea Pricăjan – Radio Live (Radio live)

Marian Coman – Testamentul de ciocolată (The chocolate testament) - this, most probably, is a piece from the Marian Coman's volume that I reviewed here on my blog

Cătălin Maxim – Dansînd pe Marte (Dancing on Mars)

Bogdan-Tudor Bucheru – Zalm per Oxis (Zalm per Oxis)

Ana-Veronica Mircea – Fără doar şi poate (Indisputably)

Andrei Gaceff – Evidenţa unor promenade (The evidence of some promenades)

Ben Ami – Probabilitatea fiBANară (The fiBANar probability)

Dumitru Cl. Stătescu – Pulbere în vînt (Dust in the wind)

Ştefana Czeller – Băieţelul cel fierbinte şi Hîrca Pămîntului (The torrid little boy and the Earth Witch)

Florin Pîtea – Plimbarea de seară (The evening walk)

Mioara Musteaţă – Legenda menestrelului (The minstrel's legend)

A follow-up

Here is a follow-up of yesterday’s post with the cover artwork for the PS Publishing edition of Joe Hill’s upcoming novel, “Horns”. Actually this is the first of seven illustrations made by the very talented artist, Vincent Chong, for the edition of Joe Hill’s “Horns” published by PS Publishing also on February 2010. Actually the novel will be released in two editions, one edition of 500 slipcased hardcover signed copies and one edition of 200 traycased hardcover copies signed by both Joe Hill and Vincent Chong. I understand that both editions are exhausting fast and anyone interested in such a copy should hurry. I personally, although I would certainly love to have a copy signed either by Joe Hill or Vincent Chong or by both, I find these to be a bit too expensive for me, so I’ll stick with the Gollancz edition. However, I still can admire the wonderful artwork made once again by Vincent Chong.

Cover art - "Horns" by Joe Hill

One of my favorite authors and one who will always have a special place in my heart is Stephen King. There are many other authors who join him in my preferences, although Stephen King remains my weakest spot. One of the authors who might take a place closer to Stephen King is none other than his son, Joe Hill. I read almost everything he wrote, with the exception of “20th Century Ghosts”, and with each reading I liked him more and more. On the horizon there is a new reason for Joe Hill to set himself strongly among my favorite authors, because on February 2010 Gollancz will release his new novel, “Horns”.

The blurb sounds really interesting, intriguing and based on an original idea, at least for me. Also the cover artwork of his novel looks interesting and appeals to me. The horns on the front of the cover are related to the title and the idea of the novel, but there the four corners of the cover that intrigue me the most. And together with the four elements set in the corners there is also the presence of the butterflies that make me wonder about the story within the covers. So these are quite a few motives for me to look forward for the release of Joe Hill’s “Horns”.

Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.

Once, Ig lived the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned American musician, and the younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, Ig had security and wealth and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more - he had the love of Merrin Williams, a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.

Then beautiful, vivacious Merrin was gone - raped and murdered, under inexplicable circumstances - with Ig the only suspect. He was never tried for the crime, but in the court of public opinion, Ig was and always would be guilty.

Now Ig is possessed with a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look, and he means to use it to find the man who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge; it's time the devil had his due.

Two new categories for the David Gemmell Legend Award

Last year the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy was founded and its first edition was welcomed with over 10,000 votes around the world. The first ceremony was held this year in June in London and the first winner was Andrzej Sapkowski for his second work translated in English, “Blood of Elves” (and the one I voted for). The nominations for this year David Gemmell Legend Award haven’t been announced yet, but exciting news came from the organizers. This year, besides the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy, two more categories will be rewarded, “The Morningstar Award for Best Newcomer” and “The Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art”.

The Morningstar Award will give recognition to emerging talent in the field of fantasy fiction. As David Gemmell always took a keen interest in new writers, and helped many onto the path to publication, we regard this as an appropriate category to add, and one we feel sure David would have approved.

The Ravenheart Award will honour the best fantasy book cover art. The importance of fantasy cover art deserves admiration, as do the artists who produce it, yet there is no major UK award acknowledging this. The Ravenheart Award will fulfil that role.

I am excited about these two new categories, especially for The Ravenheart Award, since I love fantasy art and the artwork for book covers and I tried to promote it us much as possible here on my blog. The addition of these two categories is praiseworthy and it remains now only to see the nominations for this year awards.

2009 World Fantasy Awards

The 2009 World Fantasy Awards winners have been announced this week-end at the World Fantasy Convention:

Life Achievement: Ellen Asher & Jane Yolen

Best Novel: "The Shadow Year" by Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) & "Tender Morsels" by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)

Best Novella: "If Angels Fight" by Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)

Best Short Story: "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson (Asimov's 7/08)

Best Anthology: "Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy" edited by Ekaterina Sedia (Senses Five Press)

Best Collection: "The Drowned Life" by Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)

Best Artist: Shaun Tan

Special Award - Professional: Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)

Special Award - Non-Professional: Michael J. Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

Congratulations to all the winners!

Happy Halloween

Lately it seems that my country is importing holidays too and the only reasons behind this are the material ones and the excuses for parties, although you don’t need to import a holiday for a party reason. I don’t like that much this practice, but I like seeing and learning about other people’s holidays. And one that I like the most is Halloween (we have a similar holiday, but not celebrated as much, in fact almost at all as long as I can remember, Saint Andrew’s Night which takes place on 30th November). Keeping to the present days of Halloween I have to say that I really like the traditions around this holiday. The decorations of this day remind me and work as an introduction for Christmas, the costumes, the trick or treating (we have a similar tradition for Christmas when children sing Christmas carols from house to house for sweets) and above all the jack-o-lantern. I think that the last one is my absolute favorite, I love the jack-o-lantern and I think that my childhood plays a role in this too because I used then to make them together with my grandmother for fun. I have to admit though that I follow one of the Halloween’s traditions, but that is for personal entertainment, I watch these days a few horror movies (although I'll watch them anyway ;D). So with this said I would like to wish you a very

Happy Halloween!

"Feeding Ground" by Sarah Pinborough

"Feeding Ground"

by Sarah Pinborough

Format: Paperback, 320 pages

Publisher: Leisure Books

The review is based on a bought copy of the novel.

London streets that were once filled with pedestrians, tourists and shoppers are now clogged with thick webs and dead bodies. Spidery creatures straight out of a nightmare have infested the city, skittering after their human prey, spinning sticky traps to catch their food…

A few desperate survivors have banded together, realizing their only hope for survival is to flee the dying city. Their route will take them through wrecked streets, into an underground train station. Only too late will they discover their deadly mistake: their chosen tunnel is home to the hungry creatures’ food cache, filled with cocooned but still living victims. Instead of escape, the group has run straight into the heart of a…FEEDING GROUND

Sarah Pinborough won the British Fantasy Award this year for the best short fiction and that proved to be an excellent reason for me to start reading her works. And the first opportunity appeared with Sarah Pinborough’s latest released novel, “Feeding Ground”.

“Feeding Ground” works on the premises set by another novel of Sarah Pinborough, “Breeding Ground”, but nothing says that this is a sequel of that novel and I can’t tell if it is, because I haven’t read that one yet. Still, “Feeding Ground” works very much on its own and I didn’t find many gaps unfilled by the connection with “Breeding Ground”. It is true that it might be possible for some of the novel’s aspects to have a deeper explanation in the first novel, but there is nothing that stand in front of my enjoyment of reading the novel in that way.

What I liked the most at the “Feeding Ground” is that although the novel’s scenario has in its center some nightmarish creatures Sarah Pinborough doesn’t concentrate necessary on them. Sarah Pinborough doesn’t overuse her creatures, excessive violent images or gory scenes and that is a thing I very much appreciated. Instead she focuses on the human factor, on the psychological aspect of the situation imposed by the novel’s scenario and on the characters’ struggle for survival. This approach makes the novel more powerful and I enjoyed more because of it.

I also liked how Sarah Pinborough deals with her characters. She follows three groups which in the end will converge and in these three groups there are quite a few characters with which the author deals. Although there isn’t much room for the characters to develop properly, mainly because of their numbers, I don’t find them to be flat and uninteresting. It is true that I attached myself more to some of the characters than the others, but all of them are playing their role in the right way and I could easily see the changes they suffer because of the situation they are facing. Also I liked a lot that none of the characters are excused in the survival game and can end up in situations without an exit.

“Feeding Ground” is a well balanced novel, with a steady rhythm and pace. It starts its action right from the first paragraph and installs its unsettling atmosphere from the same paragraph. There are a few twists and turns within the story and quite a few action scenes, but nothing in excess. There are a few weaker aspects of the novels, but not many. One thing that I can’t pronounce myself to is the questions regarding the creatures of the novel and their provenience. This is more of a personal curiosity and nothing serious that stood in my enjoyment of the novel and I think that although there are hints in the novel regarding this aspect there might be a deeper link with the “Breeding Ground” novel I mentioned. But that I have to investigate by reading that novel. Second there are a few introspections within these creatures which I thought that could have been left out. I didn’t find them very relevant and I think that their connections from the story could have been made without them.

Sarah Pinborough’s “Feeding Ground” proved to be a catchy reading and a novel that besides its horror scenario forays into the human condition and the changes it suffers when facing a survival situation.