Pub Meeting, Christmas Party

The last mafia this year will take place this Thursday (December 1). Everyone is welcome to join us in Bar Bremer at 6 for fannish chatting and b(h)eers.

On Saturday, TSFS and STK will arrange a Christmas party at the Student village Tenants’ association’s Festival hall (which isn’t quite as grand as the name suggests). The address is Inspehtorinkatu 4 B, and the party starts at 7. The theme this year is fairy-tales. There will be food and drinks fitting for the season (bring your own bottle of anything stronger). Come meet fen from Turku (and perhaps a few from other cities too)!

Risto Isomäki Candidate for Finlandia Prize

The candidates for this year’s Finlandia Prize have been announced, and there is an sf novel among them: Sarasvatin hiekkaa by Risto Isomäki. The story is described by the nomination committee as “an ecological thriller of apocalyptic proportions” and “frighteningly believable in its topicality”.

On a related note, Isomäki is the Finnish guest of honor at Finncon 2006.

Finncon 2006 Has a LiveJournal

Next year’s Finncon has a LiveJournal for info sharing, comments and questions. The only entry so far is in Finnish, but I’m sure questions in English are welcome there too. So, if you are planning to attend (and why wouldn’t you be), go take a look.

First Thursday

First Thursday of the month is the pub gathering day in Turku. Bar Bremer at 6, welcome! Hope we’ll see some new faces due to advertising during the book fair.

Fair Reporting From Helsinki

I wasn't able to attend the Helsinki Book Fair, but Jukkahoo has a report of the fair, mainly its Scifi-Sunday, and some further links.

Pub Meeting on Thursday

Tomorrow is the first Thursday of the month, and that means a pub meeting in Turku. Bar Bremer, at 6, as usual. Welcome!

Atonova 2005

The Atonova event was held in the Culture Center in Turku on Saturday. The room was packed: there were about 40 persons present in the audience. Some of them were attending the STK writer’s course that same weekend, but quite a few came just to see the awards event.


The program started with a couple of presentations: Liisa Rantalaiho talked about “garden gnomes” (character development in sf) and Markku Soikkeli gave a presentation on religion and time travel in science fiction.


Three members of the Nova preliminary jury gave some insight into this year’s competition and some general feedback about the competition entries. After that (and a brief coffee break), it was time to announce the winners of the competition and the results of the Atorox award.

The first prize in the Nova competition went to Johanna Nordling for her short story, Hukkuneet äänet (“Drowned voices”). Unfortunately, the winner wasn’t there to pick up the prize.


There were a few strong contestants for the Atorox award this year (speculated on by for example Ben Roimola on Enhörningen web site and Petri Laine in Usva 2/2005). The award went to Tero Niemi and Anne Salminen for Matka Reformaan (“Journey to Reforma”), published in their short story collection Nimbus ja tähdet (and one of their stories I wished on my Usva coverage would get translated into English).


The traditional after-hours party was held in Cosmic Comic Café. The Atonova pub gatherings tend to be a bit different from normal findom meetings in that the discussions circle around writing and reading (Finnish) sf more than usual. Also, there are people present who don’t visit the normal events that often. My general feeling of the buzz was that most were satisfied with the results this year.


All in all, this year’s Atonova was very succesful. The presentations were professional and entertaining, and I found it very interesting to hear about the background and inside workings of the Nova competition. The place was just big enough to hold the event comfortably, and the fun fen made sure the event was entertaining well after the official part had ended.

Although I still feel that on those years there is a Finncon, the Atorox award should be presented there, if the organizers want to keep making the event better, the Atonova event has potential to develop into a minicon worth attending in the future.

Atonova photos