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!

2011 February Reading List

The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl – Considering who the writers are, I was expecting something more. 3/5 stars

This Immortal by Roger Zelazny - My first encounter with Zelazny’s writing. So far not impressed. 3/5 stars

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny – I liked the other one better. I think I’m done with Zelazny. 3/5 stars

Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood – I didn’t mind the biographic feel, but it seemed kind of pointless in the end. 3/5 stars

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood - An interesting, even if depressing, read. 4/5 stars

Orcs: Warriors of the Tempest by Stan Nicholls – I only read it to see how the trilogy ends but I wasn’t keen on the overall video game feel. 2/5 stars

Take That - Kidz

Since we've been talking about Steampunk lately, imagine my surprise when I saw the new Take That video Kidz. I really like this one, and it's been a while since I could honestly say this about one of their videos. I love the fact that it actually has a plot, even if it kinda gets lost towards the end when it turns into a concert, and being sci fi is just the cherry on top of the cake. I reckon abductions will be very popular for a while and think about the tons of fan fics about to be written. Captain Barlow FTW!

Steampunk: The Second Revolution - Making of

My part for the "Making of" series regarding Steampunk: The Second Revolution has been published in Galileo Online.

If you want to know how "Miss Vu's Morning Ride" came to life, read here. No spoilers, though, it's mostly about the writing process.

The photos were taken inside Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and they were used as inspiration for the vehicles appearing in the story. You might actually recognize one, when you get to read it. :)

Steampunk: The Second Revolution - PR

Romanian blogs wrote about it, but it was a really nice surprise to see Steampunk: The Second Revolution announced in The World SF Blog, Clockworker, and even WIRED magazine by none other than Mr. Bruce Sterling himself.

I love all the excitement, and the book is not even out of the presses yet!

While waiting for Steampunk: The Second Revolution to hit the stores, there's a "Making of..." series running in Galileo Online. It's very interesting to see every writer's process to come up with the story and the concepts used. My piece should be up in a few days, too.

2011 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

15-20.02.2011
Taipei City, Taiwan

Official Website

Full Results

Men

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Daisuke TAKAHASHI	JPN	244.00	1	1
2	Yuzuru HANYU	JPN	228.01	3	3
3	Jeremy ABBOTT	USA	225.71	2	4
4	Takahiko KOZUKA	JPN	223.52	6	2
5	Adam RIPPON	USA	210.01	4	5
6	Jinlin GUAN	CHN	201.98	9	6
7	Armin MAHBANOOZADEH	USA	200.67	5	9
8	Jialiang WU	CHN	199.78	10	7
9	Nan SONG	CHN	195.13	12	8
10	Shawn SAWYER	CAN	192.94	7	10

Pairs

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Qing PANG / Jian TONG	CHN	199.45	1	1
2	Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD	CAN	181.79	3	2
3	Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS	CAN	171.73	2	4
4	Caitlin YANKOWSKAS / John COUGHLIN	USA	166.97	4	5
5	Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH	CAN	166.22	5	3
6	Amanda EVORA / Mark LADWIG	USA	157.30	6	6
7	Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN	JPN	152.63	8	7
8	Mary Beth MARLEY / Rockne BRUBAKER	USA	144.46	10	8
9	Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG	CHN	138.93	7	10
10	Huibo DONG / Yiming WU	CHN	135.10	9	9

Ladies

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Miki ANDO	JPN	201.34	1	1
2	Mao ASADA	JPN	196.30	2	2
3	Mirai NAGASU	USA	189.46	4	3
4	Rachael FLATT	USA	180.31	3	4
5	Alissa CZISNY	USA	168.81	5	5
6	Cynthia PHANEUF	CAN	163.14	7	6
7	Akiko SUZUKI	JPN	162.59	6	7
8	Min-Jeong KWAK	KOR	147.15	8	8
9	Amelie LACOSTE	CAN	137.48	9	9
10	Cheltzie LEE	AUS	127.90	10	10

Ice Dance

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SD	FD
1	Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE	USA	172.03	2	1
2	Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI	USA	155.38	4	2
3	Vanessa CRONE / Paul POIRIER	CAN	151.83	5	3
4	Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE	CAN	151.14	3	4
5	Madison CHOCK / Greg ZUERLEIN	USA	142.44	6	5
6	Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG	CHN	130.29	7	6
7	Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG	CHN	125.75	8	7
8	Xueting GUAN / Meng WANG	CHN	106.26	9	8
9	Danielle OBRIEN / Gregory MERRIMAN	AUS	104.69	10	9
10	Corenne BRUHNS / Benjamin WESTENBERGER	MEX	88.55	11	10