A Nominee!

Posted by jukkahoo

Summer is here and Finncon is just around the corner. Lots of things to do, as one might guess. I've been slaving away at the Interior Ministry for few weeks now and will do so for the rest of the summer, so no holiday problems for me, no sir.

But what of this nomination business, you may ask? Well, it just happened that today the inaugural short list for the prestigious Tähtifantasia Award (Star Fantasy) was published and Uuskummaa? is among the five nominees. And what a line of worthy contenders: George R. R. Martin! Patricia A. McKillip! Jeff VanderMeer! Jonathan Carroll! And... me.

Wahey!

Really good books, makes me think of some recent World Fantasy Award shortlists, which to me have seemed to be the Really interesting shortlists of recent years. Incodentally, we had a panel on this one at Åcon (Å2 is coming...) with Ben Roimola and Tommy Persson, and we pretty much agreed that these shortlists are the Real Deal, not necessarily the winners. These lists (WFA and Arthur C. Clarke especially) have such a wealth of really good fiction that in order to keep up with whats really happening now, one ought to read most , if not all of the shortlisted ones. Recommended, really, just look, for example, at what these awards had in store last year. Great books.

Ah! But what of Tähtifantasia? There is a debate starting at Babek Nabel about the merits of the new award  (which I have no real enthusiasm to get into, as I am one of the contenders and thus somewhat... jäävi? disqualified? to really respond), but I'd love hear people's opinion on Who Should Win and Why? 

I'm extremely flattered and joyous over this nomination, especially with such brilliant co-nominees! Any which one could win this one. And let's not be too modest here: I think Uuskummaa? has a fair chance with this one since I firmly believe that the anthology is just jam-packed with nine extremelliously great short stories! Shurely you have a copy? Available from all the best bookstores and directly from the publisher.

And congratulations to Kirjava in general! Two nominees is a proof that they are doing pretty much everything right. As have the now nearly-deceased Loki-kirjat with their two nominees, sad to lose such an important purveyor of interesting fiction! And let's not forget Karisto, who have managed to gain a modicum of respect with their latest offerings after somewhat lacklustre years, filled with eddingses and jordans. And more good things are coming, so hooray! I hope this is leads way for the bigger publishing houses and their choices for translations of better fantastical literature...

So, rather exiting news to me. Now if people would just buy more copies of the book, so more of the same could be provided for needing masses... :)

By the way, here are some of the reviews and mentions I've found whilst browsing the interwebs (mostly in Finnish, but then again, so is the said collection!):

Netticolosseum
Minkä kirjan luin viimeksi
Sivuikkuna
14theditch
Kirjavinkit
Mediapäiväkirja
Helsingin Sanomat
Toimittajan spekulatiivinen lokikirja
Privaattidosentti
Luetut 2006-2007

To bed!

Comments

[Kenneth]

Congratulations about the nominee.

You´re right on the nails head with that that Uuskumma is in a very worthy company. I have read all the books (in finnish) and are wery proud of that, and I liked them all. Mostly Jeff Vandermeers book.

See you at Finncon

[Saruwine]

While I do agree that Kirjava is doing pretty much everything right, their dominance on the shortlist also suggests that no one else is doing quite enough… Well, you can only ask for so much in such a small country, and with Vaskikirjat soon treading the path they made, we might indeed be up for some fantastic years in the near future.

[jukkahoo]

True words. There are always flickers of hope from pretty much all of the bigger publishing houses, but still they continue to put out mostly this middle-of-the-road fantasy, that really screams out: "Arsenal! Booooo-oring!!!"

Nothing against well-written fat fantasy as such, but there is just too much of it. One can look at the sheer number of fantasy published in Finnish these days and wail at the percentage of decent stuff among that.

Really looking forward to what Vaskikirjat has to offer! Dunsany's translation is a Real cultural achievement of serious caliber and Lieber is such an important fantasy author that it is about time we're being exposed to the tales of Fafhrd and Grey Mauser properly.

And then there's.... Ah, I see another posting coming! But not right now.

[jovain]

Loki-kirjat did very well on the shortlist, too. And Yours Truly as translator :-)
But... "Real cultural achievement of serious caliber"... tästähän tulee paineita!
:-P
terveisin johanna

[tuomas]

From a publisher's point of view I would say that one only has to look at the sales figures of that "decent stuff" published in Finnish and then start wailing for real...

But let's not go there. Congrats on the nomination, hope the anthology sells a gazillion copies. Good stuff.

[jukkahoo]

And more wise words! Good to see that the e/n/e/m/y/ concerned publishing people read this little rantzine. And good work youäre doing too, sir!

I was in fact thinking of this very same thing when writing this piece, but obviously I got so entagled with my thoughts, that the whole thing just slipped my mind.

Reality of course is, that the basic and generic stuff outsells the more, dare I say it?, intelligent and thoughtful, experimental stuff. C'mon, Britney and Celine sell somewhat more copies of their abysmally mediocre (and to my ears godawful) crap, than... let's say DeVotchKa or David Sylvian! Is this good and proper? ("No!")

Wailing won't do that much good, granted, but what I'd like to see is that while the Bread&Butter -fantasy is being published, more of the so-called "Better" fantasy would get translated, acknowledged and readily available for the general public. While it is really good that the small presses are bringing us the real treats, they will never have the ability to reach out for the large, uninitiated masses.