2014 Ion Hobana Award

I keep saying that there are signs of encouragement within the Romanian speculative fiction, that we are taking steps towards a healthy genre market for our writers and readers. Of course, I am optimistic, maybe a bit too much, we still have a lot of work ahead of us and we still need to put an end to all these skirmishes taking place within our genre literature. Let’s take for instance the Ion Hobana Award. Organized by the Romanian Science Fiction and Fantasy Society the Ion Hobana Award is an excellent initiative, a good way to celebrate and recognize the local speculative fiction. However, as it is the case with the 2014 Ion Hobana Award news of it came out of the sudden, the little information about the National Ion Hobana Colloquy, held by the Romanian Science Fiction and Fantasy Society together with the Romanian Writers Union and the Romanian Cultural Institute, and the Ion Hobana Award seeming to appear out of nowhere. True, I might be wrong and perhaps I arrived a little too late to this party, but I doubt this to be entirely true since a small scavenging around the Internet for further information provides little more. I failed to find a list of nominees or the exact publishing period taken into consideration for the 2014 Ion Hobana Award, I only assume that we are talking about October 2013 – October 2014, since the 2013 Ion Hobana Award recognized works published between June 2012 and October 2013. So, without further ado here are the two winners of the 2014 Ion Hobana Award. Still, I have only one thing to add before I finish, I welcome such initiatives and consider them commendable, but we really need to move forward. We need to establish a yearly, powerful award taking into consideration and recognizing all the praiseworthy efforts made on the Romanian speculative fiction. It would be the next important step towards making our genre stronger and towards the encouragement and recognition of our both new and established writers and their wonderful work and efforts.

“We’ll Return to Muribecca” (Ne vom întoarce în Muribecca) by Sebastian A. Corn (Nemira)

The ancient fortress “Z” is hidden in the Brazilian jungle, the old legends say. Surrounded by an air of mystery, the explorer Percy Fawcett goes in its search. The time and space are multipling, the characters and stories are blending in a novel that defies the literary genres and conventions. Sebastian A. Corn is returning with a book recommended to all those for which dreaming and thinking are essential actions.

“Vegetal” (Vegetal) by Marian Truţă & Dănuţ Ungureanu (Nemira)

Congratulations to the winners!