The Gondolier in Latvian

It's been a while since my last translation of The Gondolier. This Latvian translation is the 40th language for this story. 16 have been published and the rest appear on my blog.

Gondoljers

Manas gondolas melnais paceltais zobenveidīgais priekšgals vienmērīgi dreifēja cauri kanāla mierīgajiem ūdeņiem. Gludais kuģis bija man labi kalpojis daudzus gadus, pārvadājot pasažierus pa pilsētas ūdensceļiem tieši tāpat, kā to bija vadījušas manu senču rokas no paaudzes paaudzē.

Saule rietēja pār seno pilsētu, pārvēršot ūdeni par iespiedkrāsas pārklātu lenti, kas vijās starp elegantām smilšakmens ēkām. Es dziļi ieelpoju vēso vakara brāzmu.

 Vai ir vēl kāda skaistāka vieta par šo brīnumaino pilsētas kanālu? Tā kā gondola atviegloti ieslīdēja pietauvošanās vietā, es ar gandarījumu pārstāju lūkoties augšup tumstošajās debesīs uz Marsu.

Translated by Daiga Veikmane

Book Review: The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

Cixin Liu’s classic of Chinese Science Fiction continues in this second volume, translated into English by Joel Martinsen as ‘The Dark Forest’. The same mixture of contemporary settings, cutting-edge technology, political intrigue and glimpses of a frighteningly powerful alien civilisation make this book just as riveting as the first volume ‘The Three Body Problem’.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Heat of the Night

My flash fiction story Heat of the Night is now on-line at Perihelion magazine. This is my third story to appear there over the past couple of years.

Book Review: Central Station by Lavie Tidhar

I read several of Lavie Tidhar’s ‘Central Station’ stories when they appeared in ‘Interzone’ magazine in recent years. They were all interlinked, both by the location and by some of the characters, but chiefly by the richly imagined world that revolves around the edifice of Central Station.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Writing a Sequel

I'm currently writing a sequel to Squirrels, Foxes and Other Fine Specimens which appeared at Escape Pod last week. I hadn't particularly planned to write a sequel, but I enjoyed the story so much when I listened to it (three times) that I was inspired to write another story about Yorick and Sandy. This time they're going to Scotland.

Waste Management in Science Fiction

Author Dan Koboldt runs a blog series entitled Science in SciFi, Fact in Fantasy in which:

Each week, we tackle one of the scientific or technological concepts pervasive in sci-fi (space travel, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, etc.) with input from an expert.

This week, the expert happens to be me dealing with the subject of Waste Management in Science Fiction.

Enjoy!

Squirrels, Foxes and Other Fine Specimens

My slightly humourous urban SF story Squirrels, Foxes and Other Fine Specimens is now available to read or to listen to at Escape Pod.


The narrator is brilliant. He sounds a bit like Idris Elba and gets all the punctuation and emphasis just right to make the story really shine.

I'm really pleased with it.

Ten Professional Story Sales

When updating my submission tracking spreadsheet this week, I realised that my recent sale to Escape Pod is my tenth professional story sale.

Huzzah!

Victorian SF Story Sale

I'm very pleased to have sold my 7100 word stoy The Long Afternoon of Sir Rupert Moncrief to steampunk / retro futurist podcast Gallery of Curiosoties.

This is my second recent podcast sale after Squirrels, Foxes and Other Fine Specimens was accepted by Escape Pod last month.


Moncrief is my second Victorian SF story, the other being The Journey Within that first appeared in the anthology Ancient New and this year was published in German in Austrian magazine Visionarium.

Third Story Sale to Perihelion

I've sold my flash fiction story The Heat of the Night to Perihelion magazine. It will be on line on September 12th and will be my third story to appear there, following on from Rose Coloured Tentacles last year and Crowd Control the year before.