The Tähtifantasia (“Star fantasy”) award for the best fantasy translation published in Finnish in 2006 has been given to Pyhimysten ja mielipuolten kaupunki (City of Saints and Madmen) by Jeff VanderMeer. The jury describes the book as “a wild plunge into the dark side of the fantastic city of Ambergris, its forgotten secrets and strange destinies of its inhabitants,” and says, “Jeff VanderMeer has managed to create a rich alternate reality, an enchanting world rising to epic proportions thanks to the full history, interesting details, and well-rounded characters, adorned with playful humor. The book has literary merit and redefines fantasy as a genre.”
The Tähtifantasia award winner is chosen by the Helsinki Science Fiction Society, and this was the first time the award was presented. The jury consists of critics Toni Jerrman and Elli Leppä, author Anne Leinonen, and journalist Vesa Sisättö. The book is a selection of stories from the English-language editions; it was published by Loki-kirjat and translated by Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo.
Congratulations, Jeff, for a worthy win!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Finncon 2008 Announces GoHs
Next year’s Finncon (in Tampere) has announced their guests of honor. The foreign guests of honor are author M. John Harrison, scholar and author Farah Mendlesohn, and illustrator Charles Vess. The Finnish GoH is comics creator and illustrator Petri Hiltunen.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Ian McDonald GoH of Åcon 2
The Guest of Honor at Åcon 2 is the British science fiction novelist Ian McDonald. McDonald is a PKD and BSFA award-winning author whose latest novels are the acclaimed River of Gods and Brasyl. His novella The Djinn’s Wife is currently nominated for the British Fantasy Award and the Hugo Award.
Åcon 2 will be held in Mariehamn on May 1–4, 2008.
(picture from McDonald’s Wikipedia page, licensed under GFDL)
Eurocon Signup Deadline is Here
If you’re thinking about going to Eurocon in Copenhagen next month, and haven’t registered yet, now is the time to act! The deadline for pre-registration is tomorrow, so sign up at the convention members page now!
At latest count, 15 Finns (+ 3 children) are going, but there is of course room for more. I’ve put up a Finnish-language info page at euroconiin.googlepages.com, and will be updating that about things that come up as the convention approaches.
Update Aug 8: The last-minute campaigning seems to have worked: I’m happy to report the total number of pre-registered Finns is now 18 + 3!
Friday, August 03, 2007
Old & New
An anniversary mafia today: congratulations to Harri on his 50th! We had wine in honor of the birthday boy and it was sweet. The book fair planning progressed promisingly; it looks like there will be some sf programming at this year’s Turku book fair.
Also, some new people! Welcome to Riina & Jukka who’ve just moved to Turku from Joensuu (and to Maarit who also recently came from there)! Their loss, our gain.
Biggest mafia zine ever: 18 pages! In my time, I’ve edited several issues of Spin that were smaller than that… Must restrain myself better in the future.
The Viikinsaari picnic is in two days. See you there!
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