Free fiction - "Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?" by Andrez Bergen

Sometimes I wander aimlessly between all these wonderful books I want to read and I even lose my path on occasions from writers I enjoy reading and consider to be my favorites. Andrez Bergen is such a writer and somewhere down the line I am afraid I lost the track of reading his novels, despite loving his first two excellent books, “Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat” and “One Hundred Years of Vicissitude”, I utterly failed to catch up with Andrez Bergen’s next two, “Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?” and “Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth”. I keep repeating one of these days I’d finally bring these readings up to date, but until I put my money where my mouth is I should stop repeating it. I am not sure how soon I’ll manage what I wish for in this case or if I succeed in fulfilling this goal of mine until the end of the year, but what I am certain of is that up until December Andrez Bergen’s “Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?” is up for grabs for free. It is a way for Andrez Bergen and Perfect Edge Books to thank everyone who supported his works, including his crowdfunding campaigns for two graphic novels projects, “Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat: The Graphic Novel” and “Bullet Gal”. The latter is still running, so if you want to check the Kickstarter campaign for “Bullet Gal”, a collection of 12 of comic book issues featuring elements of hardboiled noir, pulp, crime, sci-fi and superheroes, you can find more information here. As for “Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?”, the novel of “456 pages, including 35 illustrations by international comic book artists, that’s an homage to silver and golden age comics as well as noir, pulp and sci-fi/dystopia… partially based in the same last-city-in-the-world Melbourne asTobacco-Stained Mountain Goat”, you can downloaded for free from Amazon US, UK or Canada.

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!

Cover art - "Fletcher" by David Horscroft

Joey Hi-Fi’s book covers send me in compulsive behavior (I exaggerate a bit since things are not that extreme and I draw only enjoyment out of his artwork, although this point of view might be consider entirely subjective and could end up being argued). Anyway, ever since I laid my eyes on Joey Hi-Fi’s art for the first time I was fascinated by his style and the depth of his works. Each one seems to hold secrets beyond the first viewing, every time I return to what seems to be a familiar art piece I discover new elements and aspects that escaped my initial experience with the artwork in question. And if such an artwork adorns a book cover my curiosity for that particular book is triggered instantly. I am perfectly aware that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and from most of my previous incidents with the statement in question its truth was proved on countless of times, in both ways. But that doesn’t mean it is not a good starting point for gathering information about a new book or an unfamiliar writer, as good as any other. It happened to me again with the latest of Joey Hi-Fi’s book covers, this one for David Horscroft’s novel “Fletcher”, released by the South African publisher Fox & Raven Publishing. Nothing new when it comes to the artwork, it brought me excitement and made me as curious as a cat about David Horscroft’s “Fletcher”. So, I’ve started digging further and that led me to quite a couple of interesting and intriguing things. Enough not to let David Horscroft’s “Fletcher” pass me with only Joey Hi-Fi’s cover artwork noticed at this novel.

“I once watched K Fletcher devour a hostage, just to outlast a police siege. She—the hostage—lived through it all, right until K started on her lungs. Several officers resigned that day. Two killed themselves within the week.

Ruthless, destructively impulsive, infuriatingly resourceful, manipulative to the extreme and insanely dangerous when bored, K Fletcher is not what I would call ‘human’. Rather, it’s a murderous force of nature, lurking behind the person-mask of an alcoholic, drug-infused private detective. With the world falling apart at the seams, I guess that’s exactly what you need to be to survive.”

– Secret Service briefing, speaker classified.

What people are saying about Fletcher

"This charming killer is nearly indestructible, and goes where even demons would hesitate to tread - a blood-drenched, death-defying thriller."

- Nerine Dorman

In the news - Sofia Samatar works on two new books

I was delighted to see Sofia Samatar’s “A Stranger in Olondria” adding next to a British Fantasy Award and a Crawford Award a World Fantasy Award for best novel the past week-end, in my opinion entirely deserving so, because it was one of the my favorite books I read last year, and not only. It was not the sole reason of joy for me when it comes to “A Stranger in Olondria” since I also discovered that Sofia Samatar is hard at work not only on a sequel of her debut novel, entitled “The Winged Histories”, but also on a volume of short stories, both of them due to be released by the publisher of “A Stranger in Olondria”, Small Beer Press. And both coming with guarantees, “A Stranger in Olondria”, as I’ve already mentioned, lines up awards and praise, while a collection of short stories can only be a great thing, if only we take into account the excellent “Selkie Stories are for Losers” as an example. But there are others such goodies that make a contribution to the said guarantee and you can find a list on Sofia Samatar’s website, with appropriate links to those available for free online. I am looking forward with excitement for both Sofia Samatar’s new books and hopefully to plenty others to come.

2014 World Fantasy Awards

In a ceremony held during the World Fantasy Convention, that took place in Washington, D.C. between November 6^th and 9^th, the winners of the 2014 World Fantasy Awards have been announced:

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT:

Ellen Datlow

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

NOVEL:

“A Stranger in Olondria” by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer Press)

NOVELLA:

“Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10/13)

SHORT STORY:

“The Prayer of Ninety Cats” by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2013)

ANTHOLOGY:

“Dangerous Women” edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (Tor Books/Voyager UK)

COLLECTION:

“The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories” by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)

ARTIST:
Charles Vess

SPECIAL AWARD – PROFESSIONAL:

Irene Gallo, art director of Tor.com

William K. Schafer, for Subterranean Press

SPECIAL AWARD – NON-PROFESSIONAL:

Kate Baker, Neil Clarke & Sean Wallace, for Clarkesworld Magazine

Congratulations to all the winners!

2014 Premios Nocte

The past week-end, during the Gothic Week of Madrid (Semana Gótica de Madrid), in a ceremony held at the National Museum of Romanticism in Madrid, the Spanish Horror Writers Association (Asociación Española de Autores de Narrativa de Terror) has announced the winners of 2014 Premios Nocte:

BEST NATIONAL NOVEL

El hombre que nunca sacrificaba las gallinas Viejas (The Man Who Never Sacrificed Old Hens)  by Darío Vilas (Tyrannosaurus books)

Marquitos Laguna has retired from his job. Now he prefers to care for his garden and to collect the eggs of his hens. Before, in other age, Marquitos was a vigilante of few words, a crytozoological killer in the abundant island of Simetría, a two meters wall of punches sheathed in a glove of a man in a black suit. But not anymore, his darkest nights were left behind. Or it is what he believed until a few hours ago. Because suddenly, the old hens, the ones he never sacrifice, God knows why, have started to flutter here and there, leaving all covered in feathers. The land of the garden that now is dedicated to caring, has begun to tremble. The rotting flesh of a lifetime in black strives to break through from the base of jagged and broken fingernails. And Marquitos, a two meters wall of love down at heel, fears the worse:

That his darkest nights return. That he’ll choke with the smell of a Magnolia.

Or that the time to sacrifice again has come.

“The Man Who Never Sacrificed Old Hens” is a story of bizarre realism, of an island that houses all the human filth, of ghosts from the past returning to down whiskey glasses on a bar counter. Of imaginary vampires, of mental zombies accompanying the protagonist and of a vengeful entity intending to finish a murder masterpiece: The Blue Magnolia.

BEST NATIONAL SHORT STORY

La mirada del Dodo (Dodo’s Gaze) by José María Tamparillas (Anatomías secretas / Nostrum)

BEST NATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

Umbría (Umbria) by Santiago Eximeno (El humo del escritor)

The city of Umbría is a kaleidoscope of perversion and loss, an universe of stories linked by elements such as barbed wire, sex and loneliness, a place that allows Santiago Eximeno to demonstrate the explicit horror of human nature. Umbría is origin and destination and it is present in the memories of all those who have hidden their fears.

With this collection, besides raising a physical and tangible Umbría, Santiago Eximeno gives form to one of the best and most striking examples of argumentative potential of the fix-up technique in literature.

BEST TRANSLATED BOOK

La Casa de Hojas (The House of Leaves) by Mark Z. Danielewski (Alpha Decay)

HONORARY AWARD

Valdemar Publishing House

Congratulations to all the winners!

More Romanian speculative fiction goodies, Gheorghe Săsărman's "Sah-Harah"

Today, Lightspeed Magazine published, as part of its November issue, the fantastic story of the Romanian writer Gheorghe Săsărman, “Sah-Harah”, translated into English by the esteemed Ursula K. Le Guin. So, if you like to taste some more Romanian speculative fiction you can find this short story on Lightspeed Magazine’s website. Gheorghe Săsărman is a Romanian architect, playwright, journalist and speculative fiction writer, born on 1941 in Bucharest, Romania and since 1983 living in Germany. He studied architecture in Bucharest receiving his Ph.D. in the theory of architecture in 1978. He made his debut as a writer in 1962 and since then published numerous short stories, novellas and novels of speculative fiction, but also theatre plays, non-fiction and works on the theory of architecture. His fiction has been translated into English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian and Japanese and received several awards. “Sah-Harah” is part of Gheorghe Săsărman’s collection of short fiction, “Squaring the Circle: A Pseudotreatise of Urbogony”, translated into English by Ursula K. Le Guin and released by Aqueduct Press last year. Therefore, if you like this little taste of Romanian speculative fiction you can find more in Gheorghe Săsărman’s “Squaring the Circle”, a collection that comes highly recommended and includes 24 short stories.

Squaring the Circle presents 24 fantastic tales by Gheorghe Sasarman, originally published in Romanian, to readers in English, thanks to the efforts of Ursula K. Le Guin, a great admirer of Sasarman's tales. Each tale marvelously depicts the world of a city through the eloquence of its architecture.

Eleanor Arnason writes of these tales: ''Squaring the Circle reminds me of some of my favorite books: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Angelica Gordodischer's Kalpa Imperial, and Ursula K LeGuin's Changing Planes. I don't know if there's a name for this kind of fiction Faux history? Fantastic geography? Imaginary anthropology? Whatever it is, I love it. Humans have always liked to hear about fabulous journeys and strange distant places. Othello told Desdemona, ''of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline.'' Maybe books like this meet our need for amazing stories, now that the world is mostly mapped.

''Squaring the Circle is highly readable. (I got it through in one sitting.) And it's fun. There is a playfulness in this kind of fiction, a subversive undercutting of the 19th-century idea of the novel. It gives us all the pleasure of a travel guide, and the additional pleasure of being-- in spite of the meticulous description -- unreal. As it turns out, a cityscape can be as interesting as a bildungsroman and as meaningful. The first section of Squaring the Circle, ''Vavylon,'' is a fine description of a class society that claims to be egalitarian. Anyone can climb to the top of ziggurat, except the ramps are greased. I thought of Stalinist Romania when I read it, but it could also apply to the US.''

“Vavylon”

“Arapabad”

“Tropaeum”

“Senezia”

“Castrum”

“…”

“Gnossos”

“Poseidonia”

“Musaeum”

“Kriegbourg”

“Moebia, the Forbidden City”

“Arca”

“Cosmovia”

“Sah-Harah”

“Plutonia”

“Noctapiola”

“Utopia”

“Oldcastle”

“Dava”

“Hattushásh”

“Selenia”

“Antar”

“Atlantis”

“Quanta Ka”