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A review by smcleish
ФантАstika: Almanac of Bulgarian Speculative Fiction by Khristo Poshtakov, Vladimir Poleganov, Vesela Flamburari, Elena Pavlova, Kalin Nikolov, Atanas P. Slavov, Emil Valev, Maria Velcheva, Magdalena Godalcheva, Johan Vladimir, Peter Stanimirov, Stefan Lefterov, Radoslav Genchev, Kalin M. Nenov, Nikolay Svetlev, Genoveva Detelinova, Margarita Stoyancheva, Val Todorov, Zlat Thorn, Krasimira Stoeva, Lights amidst Shadows, Dimitar Yankov, Svetoslav Todorov, Valentin D. Ivanov, Aleksandar Karapanchev, Drake Vato, Mari Paskalev, Zdravka Evtimova, Ivan Popov, Georgi Markov, Svetoslav Nikolov, Lora Petrova, Nikolay Tellalov, Yancho Cholakov, Kate Danailova, Plamen Semkov, Ivaylo G. Ivanov, Velko Miloev, Dimo Milanov, Maria Popova, Vasil Ivanov, Rossena Petkova, Georgi Malinov, Lyubomir P. Nikolov, Polina Petkova
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).