2013 April Reading List

Heechee Annals by Frederick Pohl – I liked this series but this book not so much. I don’t usually like whiny characters and in this one the hero was borderline annoying. 3/5 stars

CPSF1 – Not at all impressed by the story and the explanatory article. 3/5 stars

CPSF2 – I very much liked both the Mars story and article. 4/5 stars

CPSF3 – I liked CPSF2 better. Heavily loaded with details prose puts my patience to the test, and I’ll always take sci fi over fantasy. 4/5 stars

Zombii. Cartea mortilor vii (Zombies. The Book of the Living Dead),editor Mircea Pricajan – I don’t normally read horror, but since one of my stories is included in the anthology, I just had to see what the others had written. My favorite stories were those written by Laura Sorin, Liviu Radu, and Florian Nan. 4/5 stars

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (vol.1) by Gardner Dozois – I liked more than half of the stories so a good read. 4/5 stars

Calatorii in timp. Antologie de povestiri SF (Time Travels. An Anthologyof Sci Fi Short Stories) edited by Antuza Genescu – I’ve got a fun little story in there too so I was curious to see how it rate compared to the others. I think I did well. :) However, it struck me as odd the high number of men complaining about their wives or one woman in particular. 4/5 stars

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – I’m not a fan of circus stories, but this was a charming story if we ignore the overly telling, heaps of details and mushiness. 4/5 stars

Jack Glass by Adam Roberts – I loved the cover art. However, I didn’t care much for the first story and the first half of the second one. I was this close to gave up on it and put it down when the story suddenly became interesting. The narrative is somehow twisted and it gets ridiculously sappy by the end, but we’ll ignore that. 4/5 stars

About Eurocon in Observator cultural

Catalin Badea-Gheracostea's newest article for Observator cultural focuses on Eurocon. This is what he has to say about yours truly:

"Ioana Vișan este unul dintre cele mai viguroase debuturi ai ultimilor ani, despre culegerea ei de povestiri Efectul de nautil, lansată la tîrgul „Final Frontier“ de luna trecută, voi scrie în curînd. Cu alte proze scurte, Ioana Vișan este o prezență constantă în toate antologiile de gen recente. Construcția epică romanescă va fi pasul pe care, sînt convins, îl va face în curînd."

I'm looking forward to his review of "Efectul de nautil" and cross my fingers he's right about the last part.

Cover Reveal: Instincte umane

Yes, the Romanian edition of Human Instincts will be published by Millennium Books at the end of May.

Cît de uman mai poţi fi într-o lume descompusă de război? Ce instincte îi mai rămîn omenirii atunci cînd, victimă a nebuniei unor monştri, se stinge încet, fără puterea de a pune capăt propriei extincţii? Frica, furia, dragostea sau încăpăţînarea de a supravieţui? Într-o lume lipsită de orice şansă e oare cu putinţă ca speranţa să renască din cel mai întunecat colţ de iad?

Deanna Nichols trebuie sa salveze ceea ce a mai rămas din oameni. Aruncată într-o luptă fără sorţi de izbîndă, medicul genetician trebuie să găsească o soluţie pentru a crea viaţă din nimic. Izolată într-un penitenciar de maximă securitate, înconjurată de violenţă şi ură, ea va trebui să cîştige încrederea deţinuţilor înainte de a fi prea târziu. Dar şi aceştia sînt oameni şi au instincte…

208 pages, paperback, 115 x 185 mm, ISBN 9786068113890, Millennium Novella Collection, 22 RON.

The Impaler's Revenge Available on B & N, iTunes, and Kobo

Aside from Smashwords and all of the Amazon websites, The Impaler's Revenge is now also available on:

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Kobo

Happy shopping! :)

The Impaler's Revenge Review (2)

A new review of The Impaler's Revenge is available online this time on Angels are Kids and Furkids blog:

"The characters in this book are unforgettable! They each have their own personalities, lives, and pasts that make this book what it is. I like how you are given information about them all to make them more developed, but at the same time there is an air of mystery to them all too, something that tells you as a reader that there is more to them that you will learn as you read on in the book and in the series." - Angie

Thank you Angie for your review! Read the rest here.

The LibraryThing giveaway is still going on this week, but if you can't wait, The Impaler's Revenge is available on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Smashwords.

Human Instincts Review (13)

I haven't talked about Human Instincts in a while, mostly because I had more recent projects to promote. This will change next month, but until then there's a new review online.

Tudor reviewed it for Cititor SF, and he has nice things to say about it, yay! :) He also said he'd be interested in reading a sci fi novel written by yours truly. You and I both, Tudor, though it's quite possible for a fantasy novel to come out first.

Human Instincts is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Sony, Smashwords. 

Has anyone else read it lately? I noticed an increase in the number of sales. If you read it, please take the time to review it on Amazon and rate it on Goodreads. Thanks! 

"Calatorii in timp" Official Launch

"Calatorii in timp" (Time Travels) edited by Antuza Genescu will have its official launch on Friday, at ProspectArt in Bucharest. More details here.

Since it takes place in Bucharest, I won't be there, so I'm missing all the fun, but I'm looking forward to hear how it went from those attending.

The Impaler's Revenge First Review

The first review of The Impaler's Legacy has showed up online barely a week after its release.

"This tale absolutely is not a typical vampire blood-fest, nor is it a thinly veiled excuse for erotica, like so many contemporary vampire publications tend to be. To the contrary, this story has a unique plot, a very entertaining storyline, and is simply an excellent example of good story-telling." - Grampy

Read the full review here.

The LibraryThing giveaway is still going on this week, but if you can't wait, The Impaler's Revenge is available on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Smashwords.

Interview on Galileo Online

Horia Ursu interviewed me for Galileo Online. We talked about the ESFS Encouragement Award received at Eurocon over the weekend, self-publishing, the difference between ebooks and traditional books, my new release, and my plans for the future. There's even a brand new announcement at the end.

Read the full interview here.

The Impaler's Revenge LibraryThing Giveaway

The Impaler's Revenge is brand new, and we need to start the buzz about it somehow so I organized a giveaway on LibraryThing.

There are 25 copies available. If it turns out there's a high demand, I'll increase the number of offered copies.

The giveaway will run for two weeks, starting with today. Go request your copy now!

If you can't wait that long, The Impaler's Revenge is available on Amazon and Smashwords.