2011 March Reading List

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick – I always struggle a bit when I start reading one of his books. 3/5 stars

Beastly by Alex Flinn – A story written about a female writer about a boy who thinks like a girl. 2/5 stars

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie – I have a feeling this is better received by male readers, army, war, battles, etc. Normally I would give it 3 stars, but Inquisitor Glotka deserves a star of his own so 4/5 stars

Rashomon Gate by I. J. Parker – I had quite a problem with the translation because of the verb tense used. 3/5 stars

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois – I’m a big fan of this particular collection. The books never disappoint. 4/5 stars

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – Lots of cool idea in what turns out to be way to light reading. 3/5 stars

Steampunk: The Second Revolution Official Launch

It's getting closer. The first launch of Steampunk: The Second Revolution will take place on March 19, in Timisoara at "Cartea de Nisip" bookstore. Invited guests will be Mircea Opriţă, Michael Haulică, Florin Pîtea, Cătălin Badea-Gheracostea and Marian Truţă. The event will be moderated by Millennium Books director Horia Nicola Ursu.

The second launch will take place in Bucharest on March 27.

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to either of the events, but I'm looking forward to reading the reports and seeing photos from the launches.

Update: Reports and photos from the 1st launch can be found on the publisher's blog and in Galileo Online. The editor's speech is posted on Cititor SF (still laughing!).

And the first review of the anthology is already available on AdinaB's blog, yey!

Reports and photos from the 2nd launch can be found here, here and here.

More reviews:

• Nautilus
• The Romaniuc Files
• SRSFF
• Nautilus
• Leverinasgaard
• Saptamana Financiara
• Dilema Veche

Steampunk: The Second Revolution Full Cover Art

Only a week left until Steampunk: The Second Revolution hits the stores. Here is the full cover art as presented on the publisher's blog.

Steampunk: The Second Revolution Collector's Edition

Aside from Steampunk: The Second Revolution trade edition, the published announced there will also be a collector's edition, limited to 50 copies out of which only 30 are available to the general public. The hardcover copies are numbered, and also include the "Making of" series beside the actual texts. Cover art by de Vlad-Mihai Botta. More details on the publisher's blog.

I can't wait to get my hands on this baby!

Story: Giants

Giants is the story I wrote in the middle of writing "Mrs. Vu's Morning Ride", which will appear in "Steampunk: The Second Revolution". I got the idea when we were returning to Frankfurt, where we spent our vacation last summer. There were two buildings on the left side of the road, something like in the photo at the left, only that not all the lights were on, so as we passed by them they really looked like the two giants featured in the story. I still kick myself for not taking a picture since we had not one but two opportunities to do it. The photo used here was taken in Vienna the summer before that, but it's basically the same concept.

Enjoy and have a spring full of sun and smiles!