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sammystarbuck's review
4.0
I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of this collection, and on the whole very much enjoyed it. Much like any other collection, not every story worked as well for me personally as others, but on the whole, I found this a fun read, with some fresh styles and perspectives, which gave it a little more interest for me.
Some highlights:
Three tales of a very windy town - This story is cute and whimsical, and I could immediately picture this as a movie directed by Wes Anderson (it really suits his style)!
Virgil and the Water - Once I got into the rhythm of this, I absolutely loved it. A perfect blend of ancient history and sci-fi.
To Wake a Dragon Girl - An excerpt, and the one I would most like to continue reading.
Love in the time of Con Crud - This one made me laugh (been there, done that!).
Orpheus Descends into Hell - Another enjoyable excerpt I would continue reading.
The Dragon and the Orange Juice - Probably the stand-out of the collection for me. Outstanding world-building for such a short piece, and the pacing is excellent too.
The film-thin Bound - An evocative short. I want to know what happened before and how this situation came to be.
A Small Step - A fun twist on the Moon landing conspiracies that made me laugh.
Mindster - Another fun one that put me in mind of Heinlein's [b:I Will Fear No Evil|175325|I Will Fear No Evil|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1303411477l/175325._SY75_.jpg|45662]. It was definitely a fun note to end the fictional section on.
All in all a fun read for anyone willing to spend some time exploring different styles and ideas from your average "westernised" sci-fi and fantasy.
Some highlights:
Three tales of a very windy town - This story is cute and whimsical, and I could immediately picture this as a movie directed by Wes Anderson (it really suits his style)!
Virgil and the Water - Once I got into the rhythm of this, I absolutely loved it. A perfect blend of ancient history and sci-fi.
To Wake a Dragon Girl - An excerpt, and the one I would most like to continue reading.
Love in the time of Con Crud - This one made me laugh (been there, done that!).
Orpheus Descends into Hell - Another enjoyable excerpt I would continue reading.
The Dragon and the Orange Juice - Probably the stand-out of the collection for me. Outstanding world-building for such a short piece, and the pacing is excellent too.
The film-thin Bound - An evocative short. I want to know what happened before and how this situation came to be.
A Small Step - A fun twist on the Moon landing conspiracies that made me laugh.
Mindster - Another fun one that put me in mind of Heinlein's [b:I Will Fear No Evil|175325|I Will Fear No Evil|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1303411477l/175325._SY75_.jpg|45662]
Spoiler
(probably because of the two minds in one body idea)All in all a fun read for anyone willing to spend some time exploring different styles and ideas from your average "westernised" sci-fi and fantasy.
smcleish's review
4.0
The full review is also on my blog here: I wrote a paragraph about each story in the collection, but the character limit in goodreads means I can't post it all here.
This is an extensive collection, a showcase of Bulgarian science fiction and fantasy, including both writing (translated into English) and art. I have never read any Bulgarian speculative fiction (at least, not knowingly), and so I'm approaching this with interest and am hoping to be impressed. I've written a mini-review of each story, and at the end I've added some general thoughts about the anthology as a whole.
(35 individual story reviews omitted)
Overall thoughts:
I was sent this anthology as an ebook with a request to let the compilers know if there was anything which was significantly less good than the rest, something which should be dropped. It's a big anthology, and the stories do not all appeal equally - but this is true of every anthology, and there is nothing which stands out as much poorer than the other stories. On the other hand, there were several stories which I enjoyed a great deal, including one I would pick as among the best things I've read this year in any genre.
On the negative side, I was not entirely convinced by the structure of the anthology. In a multi-author compilation, it is unusual to feature authors multiple times. This is done repeatedly here, and is more obvious because most of the multiple contributions are clustered together. This has the unfortunate consequence that it makes it seem as though there are not enough good science fiction and fantasy writers to fill the anthology with unique contributions: I hope this is not the case, and that there are plenty of other writers who could have been included. The biggest problem with the content of the anthology is the number of excerpts from longer works. They are clearly meant to give a flavour of the novel they come from, but in some cases, the extract is too short, or the accompanying synopsis doesn't quite give enough context to make for satisfying reading, which is a pity.
Like any other local science fiction community around the world, Bulgaria's is still influenced by the US, but this collection shows that there is local flavour there too, and a good deal of talent. I hope that the release of this ebook raises the profile of Bulgarian writers around the world - there are several I will seek out, given the chance (and, I'm afraid, the translations, as I speak no Bulgarian).
This is an extensive collection, a showcase of Bulgarian science fiction and fantasy, including both writing (translated into English) and art. I have never read any Bulgarian speculative fiction (at least, not knowingly), and so I'm approaching this with interest and am hoping to be impressed. I've written a mini-review of each story, and at the end I've added some general thoughts about the anthology as a whole.
(35 individual story reviews omitted)
Overall thoughts:
I was sent this anthology as an ebook with a request to let the compilers know if there was anything which was significantly less good than the rest, something which should be dropped. It's a big anthology, and the stories do not all appeal equally - but this is true of every anthology, and there is nothing which stands out as much poorer than the other stories. On the other hand, there were several stories which I enjoyed a great deal, including one I would pick as among the best things I've read this year in any genre.
On the negative side, I was not entirely convinced by the structure of the anthology. In a multi-author compilation, it is unusual to feature authors multiple times. This is done repeatedly here, and is more obvious because most of the multiple contributions are clustered together. This has the unfortunate consequence that it makes it seem as though there are not enough good science fiction and fantasy writers to fill the anthology with unique contributions: I hope this is not the case, and that there are plenty of other writers who could have been included. The biggest problem with the content of the anthology is the number of excerpts from longer works. They are clearly meant to give a flavour of the novel they come from, but in some cases, the extract is too short, or the accompanying synopsis doesn't quite give enough context to make for satisfying reading, which is a pity.
Like any other local science fiction community around the world, Bulgaria's is still influenced by the US, but this collection shows that there is local flavour there too, and a good deal of talent. I hope that the release of this ebook raises the profile of Bulgarian writers around the world - there are several I will seek out, given the chance (and, I'm afraid, the translations, as I speak no Bulgarian).
gerhard's review
5.0
It is one of the great ironies of SF that its fans often know more about the alien cultures and civilisations they read about than they do about the myriad cultures of our own planet. Recently when chatting to Kalin M. Nenov on Goodreads about the Apex Book of World SF anthologies, he remarked that there was not a single Bulgarian writer represented in that series, now in its fifth instalment.
I admitted that I did not know a single Bulgarian SF or fantasy writer (Czech writers like Karel Čapek are far more well-known globally.) Kalin – whose ‘The Film-thin Bound’ is one of my favourite stories in this mammoth collection – promptly sent me a link to what is rather weirdly called the ‘Almanac of Bulgarian Speculative Fiction’, which I suspect is a reference to the fact that it is a yearly publication.
My heart kind of sank a bit at that point, because we all know how dreadful fanfic can be … and the Almanac weighs in at a considerable 500+ pages. Imagine then my surprise when I accessed the PDF, and found it to be a beautifully produced document.
It is divided into five sections - Science Fiction, Fantasy & Magic Realism, Avant-garde Speculative Fiction, Futurum (cutting-edge SF) and Fandom (the history and development of the Bulgarian SF scene.) All of these sections are interspersed with colour reproductions of works from a range of talented Bulgarian SF and fantasy artists.
Kalin remarks on Goodreads that this project “is a dream come true – both for Atanas P. Slavov, who has dedicated half a century to the promotion of speculative fiction, in Bulgaria and across the world, and for me, as a translator of Bulgarian SF into English for the past 15 years.”
Atanas, who lives in Sofia in Bulgaria, founded the first Bulgarian SF club in 1968 (a year before I was born!) Incredibly, Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa (SFFSA) was also established in 1969, with its quarterly journal Probe now one of the longest-running fanzines in the world. It also organises the annual Nova short story competition, which has brought to the fore some of the best genre writers in our country, and an annual convention.
Of course, all event-based activity has now been halted in its tracks due to our lockdown for the Covid-19 crisis (not to mention that an ageing demographic has probably meant that the entire SFFSA management is in the high-risk category …)
It was only recently that SF seemed to have escaped its North American bias, with a veritable cornucopia of translated works from as far afield as Cuba and China now colouring the genre. I think this internationalisation has been largely successful due to the tireless efforts of SF fans as far afield as Bulgaria and South Africa, who not only keep the flag flying for SF and fantasy in their own countries, but also add their unique perspectives to enrich the genre even further.
It was a privilege reading the Almanac, which is an astonishingly diverse collection. I learnt a lot about Bulgarian culture and its rich folklore. Many of the stories and book excerpts here are refracted through the lens of Bulgaria’s complicated political past. But SF is all about the future, of course, and the Almanac shows just how strong and diverse the genre scene is in Bulgaria.
Tireless champions like Kalin and Atanas are clearly the backbone of such fan communities worldwide. While a lot of these writers are virtually unknown outside of their native country – due to the added complication that their work has to be translated competently into English for a global audience – I honestly think it is the responsibility of every SF and fantasy fan who cares about the sustainability of these genres to read as widely as possible, and to grab the opportunity especially with a gem like the Almanac.
This is how the values, hopes and dreams of these genres are upheld and passed along, and how we readers and fans can play our small role in making the world more tolerant and vibrant for everyone. In the words of Kalin: “As they say in certain stories, be the force that changes for the better.”
I admitted that I did not know a single Bulgarian SF or fantasy writer (Czech writers like Karel Čapek are far more well-known globally.) Kalin – whose ‘The Film-thin Bound’ is one of my favourite stories in this mammoth collection – promptly sent me a link to what is rather weirdly called the ‘Almanac of Bulgarian Speculative Fiction’, which I suspect is a reference to the fact that it is a yearly publication.
My heart kind of sank a bit at that point, because we all know how dreadful fanfic can be … and the Almanac weighs in at a considerable 500+ pages. Imagine then my surprise when I accessed the PDF, and found it to be a beautifully produced document.
It is divided into five sections - Science Fiction, Fantasy & Magic Realism, Avant-garde Speculative Fiction, Futurum (cutting-edge SF) and Fandom (the history and development of the Bulgarian SF scene.) All of these sections are interspersed with colour reproductions of works from a range of talented Bulgarian SF and fantasy artists.
Kalin remarks on Goodreads that this project “is a dream come true – both for Atanas P. Slavov, who has dedicated half a century to the promotion of speculative fiction, in Bulgaria and across the world, and for me, as a translator of Bulgarian SF into English for the past 15 years.”
Atanas, who lives in Sofia in Bulgaria, founded the first Bulgarian SF club in 1968 (a year before I was born!) Incredibly, Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa (SFFSA) was also established in 1969, with its quarterly journal Probe now one of the longest-running fanzines in the world. It also organises the annual Nova short story competition, which has brought to the fore some of the best genre writers in our country, and an annual convention.
Of course, all event-based activity has now been halted in its tracks due to our lockdown for the Covid-19 crisis (not to mention that an ageing demographic has probably meant that the entire SFFSA management is in the high-risk category …)
It was only recently that SF seemed to have escaped its North American bias, with a veritable cornucopia of translated works from as far afield as Cuba and China now colouring the genre. I think this internationalisation has been largely successful due to the tireless efforts of SF fans as far afield as Bulgaria and South Africa, who not only keep the flag flying for SF and fantasy in their own countries, but also add their unique perspectives to enrich the genre even further.
It was a privilege reading the Almanac, which is an astonishingly diverse collection. I learnt a lot about Bulgarian culture and its rich folklore. Many of the stories and book excerpts here are refracted through the lens of Bulgaria’s complicated political past. But SF is all about the future, of course, and the Almanac shows just how strong and diverse the genre scene is in Bulgaria.
Tireless champions like Kalin and Atanas are clearly the backbone of such fan communities worldwide. While a lot of these writers are virtually unknown outside of their native country – due to the added complication that their work has to be translated competently into English for a global audience – I honestly think it is the responsibility of every SF and fantasy fan who cares about the sustainability of these genres to read as widely as possible, and to grab the opportunity especially with a gem like the Almanac.
This is how the values, hopes and dreams of these genres are upheld and passed along, and how we readers and fans can play our small role in making the world more tolerant and vibrant for everyone. In the words of Kalin: “As they say in certain stories, be the force that changes for the better.”
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