Mi participación en la LonCon 3

El próximo jueves comienza la LonCon 3, la convención mundial de ciencia ficción, que este año se celebra en Londres. La organización ha tenido la amabilidad de invitarme a participar en varios de los actos y, en concreto, estaré en dos paneles. 

Es todo un honor y una gran responsabilidad. Confieso que me siento francamente nervioso, pero también sé que es una oportunidad única y espero hacerlo lo mejor posible y disfrutarla al máximo. 

Los actos en los que estaré participando son los siguientes:

The Review is Political

Saturday 12:00 - 13:30, Capital Suite 2 (ExCeL)

Every review is a political act because every review makes choices: about which aspects of a work to focus on, what context to provide, which yardsticks to use, and more. And while no choices are neutral, some can be the default -- a focus on plot and character, for instance, and less discussion of style and politics. What other defaults can we identify in SF and fantasy reviewing? How are reviews that depart from those defaults challenged? Are any defaults changing -- and if so, how can we help that process along?

Kevin McVeigh (M), Abigail Nussbaum, Dr. Tansy Rayner Roberts, Elías Combarro

The World at Worldcon: SF/F in Spain

Saturday 18:00 - 19:00, London Suite 3 (ExCeL)

“Fantastic fiction” has deep roots in Spain. After a setback during the Franco dictatorship, it recovered in the 1980s and had an authentic boom in the 1990s. Today, it hosts fifty specialized publishers and a healthy scene of blogs, conventions, festivals, online magazines, and podcasts – plus anthologies, some recently translated into English, and more still to come. This panel of Spanish writers and readers will discuss the scene. Who are the key science fiction, fantasy and horror authors working in Spain at the moment? Where is Spanish fiction being reviewed, and what debates are going on in Spanish fan circles?

Sue Burke (M), Susana Arroyo, Miquel Codony Bodas, Elías Combarro, Leticia Lara, Cristina Jurado 

Vídeo de la presentación de Guardianes de sueños en el Celsius 232

Siguiendo con los vídeos de las charlas del Festival Celsius 232 os traigo hoy la grabación de la presentación de la serie de literatura infantil/juvenil Guardianes de sueños, de Álex Hinojo y Ricard Ruiz Garzón. Además de los dos autores, también participa Jorge Iván Argiz como presentador. 

¡Que lo disfrutéis!  

Ebook gratuito: The Archer Who Shot Down Suns, de Benjanun Sriduangkaew

La colección de relatos The Archer Who Shot Down Suns de Benjanun Sriduangkaew puede ser descargada gratuitamente en formato electrónico sin DRM en Smashwords. Se trata de una recopilación de historias relacionadas temáticamente con su reciente novela corta Scale Bright.

Ésta es la sinopsis del libro:

A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong.

"The Crows Her Dragon's Gate" (first published in BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, 2013. Ed. Scott H. Andrews). The story of Xihe, the mother of suns, when she was young and the world was new: how she met her husband, lost herself, and found it again.

"Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" (first published in GIGANOTOSAURUS, 2012. Ed. Ann Leckie). Houyi rose in heaven, bow and arrow in hand: the hunt was her joy, the slaying of demons her delight. But most delightful was a serving girl called Chang'e.

"Chang'e Dashes from the Moon" (first published in EXPANDED HORIZONS, 2012. Ed. Dash). Chang'e has been a prisoner on the moon while the world turns and cities rise. For centuries Houyi has looked for a way to free her wife, and now she has found it in a distant grand-niece: a young mortal woman named Julienne.

Novedad: Foulsham, de Edward Carey

Ya está a la venta Foulsham, la segunda parte de la trilogía Iremonger, de Edward Carey, que se inició con la maravillosa Heap House. Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

Dark, gothic and delightfully macabre, the Iremonger family return... 

Foulsham, London's great filth repository, is bursting at the seams. The walls that keep the muck in are buckling, rubbish is spilling over the top, back into the city that it came from. In the Iremonger family offices, Grandfather Umbitt Iremonger broods: in his misery and fury at the people of London, he has found a way of making everyday objects assume human shape, and turning real people into objects. 

Abandoned in the depths of the Heaps, Lucy Pennant has been rescued by a terrifying creature, Binadit Iremonger - more animal than human. She is desperate and determined to find Clod. But unbeknownst to her, Clod has become a golden sovereign and is 'lost'. He is being passed as currency from hand to hand all around Foulsham, and yet everywhere people are searching for him, desperate to get hold of this dangerous Iremonger, who, it is believed, has the power to bring the mighty Umbitt down. 

But all around the city, things, everyday things, are twitching into life...

Novedad en Sportula: Mundos en la eternidad, de Juan Miguel Aguilera y Javier Redal

Sportula ha publicado Mundos en la eternidad, una novela de Juan Miguel Aguilera y Javier Redal situada en el universo de Akasa Puspa. Se trata de una obra publicada con posterioridad a las entregas originales de Mundos en el abismo e Hijos de la eternidad y combina elementos de ambas en una forma más accesible.

Ésta es su sinopsis:

Akasa-Puspa. Flor que brilla en el cielo. Un cúmulo globular que orbita nuestra galaxia y por el que la humanidad se ha extendido. Un puñado abigarrado de soles y planetas sometido a un ciclo continuo de auge y caída, de ignorancia y conocimiento, de ciencia y superstición. 

Akasa-Puspa, donde la pujante Utsarpini se expande en la conquista de nuevos territorios, donde el decadente Imperio aún mantiene su influencia, donde la Hermandad posa las garras de su fe. 

Hasta que un día, lo que parece un simple accidente, acaba llevando a lo que quizá sea el mayor descubrimiento de la humanidad, el más grande de todos los enigmas, aquel por cuya posesión matarían los hombres... y puede que no sólo ellos.

Vídeo de la presentación de la HispaCon/MIRCon 2014 en el Celsius 232

Con esta entrada comienzo una serie de posts dedicados a las charlas del Festival Celsius 232 que pude grabar en vídeo. En algunos casos la calidad no es todo lo buena que hubiera deseado, pero pienso que aún así puede ser interesante para aquellos que no pudieron acercarse a Avilés. 

Este primer vídeo corresponde a la charla en la que se presentó la HispaCon/MIRCon 2014, que se celebrará en diciembre en Montcada i Reixac. Los participantes son, de izquierda a derecha: Cristina Macía, Ian Watson, Alejo Cuervo y Alberto Granda. 

¡Espero que os guste mucho! 

Novedad: The Magician's Land, de Lev Grossman

Ayer se puso a la venta The Magician's Land, la esperadísima conclusión de la trilogía de Lev Grossman. Ésta es su sinopsis:

Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams that he once ruled. Everything he had fought so hard for, not to mention his closest friends, is sealed away in a land Quentin may never again visit. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex—and far more dire—than anyone had envisioned.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers buried secrets and hidden evils and ultimately the key to a sorcerous masterwork, a spell that could create a magical utopia. But all roads lead back to Fillory, where Quentin must face his fears and put things right or die trying.

The Magician’s Land is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.