Celebration day

It proves to be a wealthy birthday in gifts already. I have pictures taken of them, but since I would not get near the computer very often today I’ll not be able to download the photos, so here is a small presentation instead.

“The Concrete Grove” & “Silent Voices” by Gary McMahon – Gary McMahon is one of my favorite modern writers and his short stories and the two Thomas Usher novels were truly great for me. The Concrete Grove series was on my wish list for quite a while, but I didn’t get a chance to buy them yet. No need for that anymore, because my lovely wife offered them as a birthday gift.

“The Wild” & “The Sea Wolves” by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon – Jack London was a provider of plenty of dreaming material in my youth so my interest in these two titles was pretty big. I’ve got them in hardcover editions now.

“The Dragon’s Path” by Daniel Abraham – I am in the middle of catching up on all the excellent works of Daniel Abraham and this gift will help me keep this small collection of novels on track.

“Britten and Brülightly” by Hannah Berry – A graphic novel with which I am not very familiar, but I have to admit that I leafed it a bit already and it looks really good.

“Senna” – I loved the man. For me Formula 1 was never the same without Ayrton Senna. Actually, I even lost my interest completely in this racing competition after the death of this magic driver and rarely followed a race since then. I will save this DVD for later, because I might need some paper tissues while watching it.

“Heroes of Might and Magic Collection” – There are some years now since my playing time on the computer is reduced to minimum, but these games were on my highest spot of preferences for a long time. It will give me great pleasure to relive them a bit from time to time.

I am off for further celebration now, but you know, I am still open for more such wonderful gifts if there are still any ;D

Title spotlight - "Dark Currents" edited by Ian Whates

I am vaguely familiar with the dark current concept in physics and chemistry, but these classes were hardly my favorites. As a matter of fact I always preferred a good novel over the homework for these classes, or even the classes themselves when it was possible. After all these years though, it looks like dark current can incite my interest and raise its head from underneath the stack of books gathered on top of it. Only because NewCon Press gave it the form suited for my preferences, respectively an anthology of speculative fiction. “Dark Currents” is a collection of stories based on the two words and the ideas brought to life by them from the writers’ inspiration. 16 authors offered their metamorphoses of the two words in a story, but I have to say that I am not very familiar with many of the writers or works. From the line-up the main point of attraction for me is Aliette de Bodard, who proved to be a very talented and imaginative writer in both long and short forms of fiction. I am aware and enjoyed some of Lavie Tidhar, Adam Nevill and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s works, but otherwise the authors featured on “Dark Currents” line-up are either a mystery to me or I never tried any of their writings. That is hardly a point in disfavor of “Dark Currents”. On the contrary, triggered by the anthology’s presentation and Aliette de Bodard’s presence on the table of contents my curiosity is fuelled further by the possible discovery of new interesting writers. All right, add to all these the complimentary cover artwork by Ben Baldwin. “Dark Currents” will be officially launched at Eastercon in April .

A return to NewCon Press’ tradition of offering an exciting blend of science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and horror; a set of stories that traverses genre boundaries, linked only by their common source of inspiration. Contributors were given just those two words: ‘Dark Currents’ and then asked to write whatever story the phrase inspired. The result is a dazzling blend of exciting fictions, from haunted seascapes to distant starscapes, from reality-hopping soldiers in a surreal war to naval battles in the ether, from the deeply poignant to breathless excitement and back again, delving into the very undercurrents of life… come and immerse yourself in the depths of Dark Currents.

“Introduction” by Ian Whates
“The Fall of Lady Sealight” by Adrian Tchaikovsky
“The Age of Entitlement” by Adam Nevill
“Electrify Me” by Tricia Sullivan
“Alternate Currents” by Rod Rees
“The Barricade” by Nina Allan
“Things that Are Here Now” by Andrew Hook
“Loose Connections” by Finn Clarke
“Sleepless in R’lyeh” by Lavie Tidhar
“Damnation Seize my Soul” by Jan Edwards
“Home” by Emma Coleman
“A Change in the Weather” by Rebecca J Payne
“Bells Ringing Under the Sea” by Sophia McDougall
“In Tauris” by Una McCormack
“Lost Sheep” by Neil Williamson
“The Bleeding Man” by Aliette de Bodard
“George” by V.C. Linde

2012 ROMCON Awards

This week-end at Timișoara a new edition of ROMCON (The National Convention of Romanian Science Fiction Clubs and Authors) took place, organized by Helion (Timișoara), Quasar (Iași) and Victor Anestin (Craiova). On this occasion the winners of 2012 ROMCON Awards were announced. The award winners are designated through a complex voting system that combines the votes of a jury and the convention participants. This year the ROMCON jury was formed by George Anania (president), George Ceaușu, Cătălin Badea-Gheracostea, Viorel Pîrligras and Lucian Vasile-Szabo. The winners and the nominated works are:

NOVEL: “Journey in Capricia” (Călătorie în Capricia) by Mircea Opriță

The other nominated works:
“The Honest Courtesan and the Astrologer” (Curtezana onestă și astrologul) by Voicu Bugariu
“Ink and Blood” (Cerneală și singe) by Ștefana Cristina Czeller
“DemNet” (DemNet) by Dan Doboș
“The Seagulls Island” (Insula pescărușilor) by Mircea Liviu Goga

SHORT STORY: “The Story of Calistrat Hadîmbu from Vizireni, foully murdered by Raul Colentina in a Bucharest’s outskirts inn” (Povestea lui Calistrat Hadîmbu din Vizireni, ucis mişeleşte de nenicul Raul Colentina într-un han de la marginea Bucureştilor) by Michael Haulică(Steampunk: A second revolution edited by Adrian Crăciun)

The other nominated works:
“Via Italia” (Via Italia) by Costel Baboș
“Alice in madmen’s land” (Alice în țara nebunilor) by Beatrice Badea
“The Last Hourglass” (Ultima clepsidră) by Oliviu Crâznic
“Emanoil Popescu, superhero” (Emanoil Popescu, supererou) by Ştefan Ghidoveanu
“The Alphabet for Venus” (Alfabetul spre Venus) by Cristian Mihail Teodorescu

NON-FICTION: “Ştiință și violoncel” (Science and violoncello) by Mircea Opriță

The other nominated works:
“…Neither Torquemada” (…Nici Torquemada) by Michael Haulică
“Comic books and the postmodern canon” (Benzile desenate și canonul postmodern) by Ion Manolescu
“Introduction in the interpretative fantastic” (Introducere în fantasticul de interpretare) by Cosmin Perta

PERIODICAL: Helion, magazine printed on paper, issues 1-6/2011 and online edition

The other nominees:
Galileo, online edition
Gazeta SF, online magazine
Nautilus, online magazine
SRSFF – website

DEBUT: “Ink and Blood” (Cerneală și singe) by Ștefana Cristina Czeller

The other nominated works:
“The return from holiday” (Întoarcerea din concediu) by Adrian Glosic
“Double Spiral” (Spirală dublă) by Alexandru Neagu
“The morning walk of Miss Vu” (Plimbarea de dimineață a domnișoarei Vu) by Ioana Vișan

VISUAL ARTS: Marian Mirescu – for comics

The other nominees:
Lucian Amarii-Jup – for comics
Adrian Chifu – for short film
Cătălin Negrea – for graphic
Veronica Solomon – for comics

SPECIAL AWARD: Bogdan Bucheru

Congratulations to all the winners!

"Bad Power" by Deborah Biancotti

"Bad Power"

by Deborah Biancotti

Publisher: Twelfth Planet Press

The review is based on bought copy of the book

Hate superheroes?

Yeah. They probably hate you, too.

‘There are two kinds of people with lawyers on tap, Mr Grey. The powerful and the corrupt.’

‘Thank you.’

‘For implying you’re powerful?’

‘For imagining those are two different groups.’

From Crawford Award nominee Deborah Biancotti comes this sinister short story suite, a pocketbook police procedural, set in a world where the victories are only relative, and the defeats are absolute. Bad Power celebrates the worst kind of powers both supernatural and otherwise, in the interlinked tales of five people — and how far they’ll go.

If you like Haven and Heroes, you’ll love Bad Power.

Superheroes and supernatural powers are a very common thing nowadays, with plenty of comic books, movies and books focused on one or more figures with uncommon abilities, it is almost impossible to not have heard of at least one. However, most of these superheroes tend to be shallow figures, hidden behind a disguise that wears itself very thin on a closer inspection, the human element that lies beneath their supernatural powers is missed almost completely. Deborah Biancotti tackles this issue in her latest collection of short stories, “Bad Power”.

Deborah Biancotti’s collection consists of five stories interdependent with each other, but that can also be read independently without any difficulty. However, I do believe that “Bad Power” is much better treated a single story with multiple points of view and repays the reader more if approached as one solid product. The five stories bridge each other, mainly through characters, but also through intrigue. “Shades of Grey” has the longest grip, reaching its grasp until the last story, but also introduces Detective Enora Palmer who investigates a case of harassing in “Palming the Lady”. The subject of harassment, Matthew Webb, is the protagonist of “Web of Lies”, but the previous story holds a key of Matthew’s future of which only the reader is aware of. “Bad Power” has a slender connection with “Web of Lies”, but a deeper and meaningful one with the next, “Cross the Bridge”. Five different tales, five different characters, but read them as one single story and “Bad Power” will reveal new layers.

The stories are bridged together, but there are other connections within the stories as well. Links between the main characters and the titles of the stories, “Shades of Grey” the story of Esser Grey, “Palming the Lady” of Detective Enora Palmer, “Web of Lies” of Matthew Webb, “Bad Power” of the character who names herself Bad and “Cross the Bridge” of Maxillius Ponti, his surname meaning bridges in Italian. Not only the characters have a close correlation with the titles, their supernatural abilities share the same correspondence, dissecting the meaning of the stories for new implications that earn new and delightful prizes to the reader. Deborah Biancotti masters these connections playing wonderfully with words, skillfully mastering the language and tone. She even makes a small display of force with “Bad Power”, a story that digresses from the other four in time and tonality, but integrates admirably with the rest. And following the order of stories set by Deborah Biancotti will bring the best out of “Bad Power”.

What I loved the most at Deborah Biancotti’s “Bad Power”, however, is that no superheroes make their presence felt within their pages, only humans with supernatural abilities. The way the characters of the stories come in possession of their powers holds no importance, what matters is the impact these abilities have on their lives, the new implications and emotions the new discovered potentials bring. Flawed and insecure reactions, satisfactions and frustrations, all present the unbreakable link between the supernatural power and the human who holds it. For these reasons all the five characters are very strong, with very engaging stories, but I do like Maxillius Ponti more. For me he was the most emotional one and his story a little more sensible.

After finishing “Bad Power” I am afraid I will not look the same upon superheroes, but then again, it is not very different situation than before. I have always looked for the human behind the superhero, but I was always left deeply unsatisfied by the answers found. It is not the case with “Bad Power”, because Deborah Biancotti’s main concern with the human rather than the superpower finally brought the response I was craving for. For all these and something more I ardently recommend Deborah Biancotti’s “Bad Power”.

4 years of blogging

It is said that four years old children are developing greater self-control and ingenuity and that they can engage in long periods of activity. I am not sure about the four years old Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews, because in the past year my schedule took a sharp-turn change and my priorities shifted irreversibly. As for ingenuity I cannot brag myself with much. However, four years of blogging were rewarding in so many ways that I can’t imagine now how my readings would have looked like without it. Four years ago I started a journey almost blindly, I didn’t have any idea what running a blog meant. I imagined something, but I was totally and completely off the track. I made mistakes, I believe that I still make them. I had times when I felt tired and disappointed with myself, but fortunately those were rare moments. These downfalls pale in comparison with the rewards brought by blogging though. The most important is that I had the chance to meet many people that changed me more or less and I like to believe that only for the better. It is true that most of these meetings were online and I certainly like the direct way more, preferably over a chatted beer or coffee, but that would have been almost impossible. So in this case the online method is good too. I would like to thank all of them, but they are so many that I am afraid I will leave someone out. So, a warm thank you to you all!

My reading speed didn’t change for the better, but the way I read books did. And although I have no intention of reviewing a certain book I find myself taking notes nonetheless. It is not something that helps some of the books I read, as much as I would like to enjoy them without a second thought the notes do not work on their favor. That doesn’t reap entirely the pleasure of a casual reading for the sole purpose of relaxation, but it is not as rewarding as before. However, I would not change the years of blogging for that, because they led to the discovery of plenty of smaller publishing houses with many amazingly beautiful books. Such a discovery would have been very difficult before, after all not all these small presses reached my corner of the world. But with a wider access to information and with the help of the people I met those little treasures were not buried deep anymore. I know that I still have plenty of such gems to find, but that is no longer a problem.

All in all, four years that brought a great experience with them. I am not certain what the future has in storage, but with a couple of ideas for posts, still in need of a push of effort that I am not able to make at the moment, I do hope that my blogging experience would continue to improve.

Cover art - "The Alchemy of Stone" by Ekaterina Sedia (Italian edition)

Ekaterina Sedia’s “The Alchemy of Stone”, one of the beautiful and sensitive works of fiction, has two equally charming cover artworks, the first edition’s made by David Defigueredo and the second’s the work of Andrä Martyna. Recently the cover artwork of the Italian edition of Ekaterina Sedia’s “The Alchemy of Stone”, “L’Alchimista – Il Destino dei Gargoyle”, has been revealed by Asengard, the Italian publisher. And it looks really good. The artist of the artwork for the book cover of the Italian edition is Roberto Pitturru and his artwork is a wonderful addition to the collection of covers “The Alchemy of Stone” has. The artwork is focused on Mattie’s heart again, as was the case with the English first edition, but apart from the same edition solely concentrated on the heart. Nonetheless, it is an excellent artwork that matches the beauty of the novel and compliments “The Alchemy of Stone” in the best possible way. Well, for me the best possible way remains David Defigueredo’s cover artwork, but Robert Pitturru’s approach is almost at the same level.

2011 Aurealis Awards finalists

The nominees for the 2011 Aurealis Awards have been announced. The winners will be announced in award ceremony held on 12th of May at the Independent Theatre in Sydney.

FANTASY NOVEL

“The Undivided” by Jennifer Fallon (HarperVoyager)
“Ember and Ash” by Pamela Freeman (Hachette)
“Stormlord’s Exile” by Glenda Larke (HarperVoyager)
“Debris” by Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
“The Shattered City” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperVoyager)

FANTASY SHORT STORY

“Fruit of the Pipal Tree” by Thoraiya Dyer (After the Rain, FableCroft Publishing)
“The Proving of Smollett Standforth” by Margo Lanagan (Ghosts by Gaslight, HarperVoyager)
“Into the Clouds on High” by Margo Lanagan (Yellowcake, Allen & Unwin)
“Reading Coffee” by Anthony Panegyris (Overland)
“The Dark Night of Anton Weiss” by D.C. White (More Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

“Machine Man” by Max Barry (Scribe Publications)
“Children of Scarabaeus” by Sara Creasy (HarperVoyager)
“The Waterboys” by Peter Docker (Fremantle Press)
“Black Glass” by Meg Mundell (Scribe Publications)
“The Courier’s New Bicycle” by Kim Westwood (HarperVoyager)

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

“Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden” by Joanne Anderton (Hope, Kayelle Press)
“Desert Madonna” by Robert Hood (Anywhere but Earth, Couer de Lion)
“SIBO” by Penelope Love (Anywhere but Earth, Couer de Lion)
“Dead Low” by Cat Sparks (Midnight Echo)
“Rains of la Strange” by Robert N Stephenson (Anywhere but Earth, Couer de Lion)

HORROR NOVEL
No shortlist or winning novel – two honotable mentions awarded to:

“The Broken Ones” by Stephen M. Irwin (Hachette)
“The Business of Death” by Trent Jamieson (Hachette)

HORROR SHORT STORY

“And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living” by Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar, Gilgamesh Press)
“The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt” by Paul Haines (The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Brimstone Press)
“The Short Go: a Future in Eight Seconds” by Lisa L. Hannett (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
“Mulberry Boys” by Margo Lanagan (Blood and Other Cravings, Tor)
“The Coffin Maker’s Daughter” by Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors, Quercus)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

“Shift” by Em Bailey (Hardie Grant Egmont)
“Secrets of Carrick: Tantony” by Ananda Braxton-Smith (Black Dog Books)
“The Shattering” by Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin)
“Black Glass” by Meg Mundell (Scribe Publications)
“Only Ever Always” by Penni Russon (Allen & Unwin)

YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

“Nation of the Night” by Sue Isle (Nightsiders, Twelfth Planet Press)
“Finishing School” by Kathleen Jennings (Steampunk! An anthology of fantastically rich and strange stories, Candlewick Press)
“Seventy-Two Derwents” by Cate Kennedy (The Wicked Wood – Tales from the Tower Volume 2, Allen and Unwin)
“One Window” by Martine Murray (The Wilful Eye: Tales from the Tower Volume 1, Allen and Unwin)
“The Patrician” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Love and Romanpunk, Twelfth Planet Press)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

“The Outcasts” by John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
“The Paradise Trap” by Catherine Jinks (Allen & Unwin)
“It Began with a Tingle” by Thalia Kalkapsakis (Headspinners, Allen & Unwin)
“The Coming of the Whirlpool” by Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin)
“City of Lies” by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

“The Ghost of Annabel Spoon” by Aaron Blabey (author and illustrator) (Penguin/ Viking Books)
“Sounds Spooky” by Christopher Cheng (author) and Sarah Davis (illustrator) (Random House Australia)
“The Last Viking” by Norman Jorgensen (author) and James Foley (illustrator) (Fremantle Press)
“The Deep: Here be Dragons” by Tom Taylor (author) and James Brouwer (illustrator) (Gestault Publishing)
“Vampyre” by Margaret Wild (author) and Andrew Yeo (illustrator) (Walker Books)

ILLUSTRATED BOOK / GRAPHIC NOVEL

“Hidden” by Mirranda Burton (author and illustrator ) (Black Pepper)
“Torn” by Andrew Constant (author) and Joh James (illustrator ), additional illustrators Nicola Scott, Emily Smith (Gestalt Publishing)
“Salsa Invertebraxa” by Mozchops (author and illustrator) (Pecksniff Press)
“The Eldritch Kid: Whiskey and Hate” by Christian Read (author) and Michael Maier (illustrator) (Gestalt Publishing)
“The Deep: Here be Dragons” by Tom Taylor (author) and James Brouwer (illustrator) (Gestault Publishing)

ANTHOLOGY

“Ghosts by Gaslight” edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (HarperVoyager)
“Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010” edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)
“Ishtar” edited by Amanda Pillar and KV Taylor (Gilgamesh Press)
“The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 5” edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books)
“Life on Mars” edited by Jonathan Strahan (Viking)

COLLECTION

“Bad Power” by Deborah Biancotti (Twelfth Planet Press)
“Last Days of Kali Yuga” by Paul Haines (Brimstone Press)
“Bluegrass Symphony” by Lisa Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications)
“Nightsiders” by Sue Isle (Twelfth Planet Press)
“Love and Romanpunk” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet Press)

Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees!