Omtale: Manden i den hvide kittel

Genfødt!

 

Ovre på Thomas Gluds blog, Om kunsten om kunsten og kunsten  ligger en længere, nær-mirakuløs anmeldelse af “den stort set samlede Manden i den Hvide Kittel 1987-2004” (eller er det 2003? Kan aldrig huske det). “Mirakuløs” ikke mindst, fordi en anmeldelse og dermed samlet ind-læsning nu findes, og fordi dén gør MidHK tilgængelig.

Det var det bedste begyndelse på dagen, jeg kunne have ønsket mig!

Om kunsten om kunsten og kunsten: Anm. Manden i den hvide kittel – Kenneth Krabat.

eBogen kan hentes i ebutikken, og betales for efter endt læsning ved at bruge linket forrest i ebogen. Hvis du sender din emailadresse til forlagetsesne [at] menneske.dk, at du har købt, får du en lille glædesgave i dagens anledning.

Sølvbyen og andre Helsingør-noveller

Helsingør har meget at være stolt af. Og nu har en mængde forfattere naglet byen til det litterære verdenskort.

 

I dag, d. 11.11 2011 kl. 11.11 udkommer med brask og bram “Sølvbyen og andre Helsingør-noveller”, en samling historier og fantasier om Helsingør.

Jeg deltager med Novellen “Modstand uden ende”. (Læseprøve ses nederst.)

I morgen, d. 12.11. kl. 14, læser forfatterne op i biblioteket på Kulturværftet… i Helsingør.

Digter, forfatter, interviewer, redaktør og initiativtager til adskillige offentlige digteraktiviteter, Lonni Krause, er initiativtager og fundament  under samlingen, der havde sit udspring i en lille samling digte og fortællinger fra 2010 om Helsingør, som blev vel modtaget af forfatterne og omverden lige.

Fra Foromtalen:

“Helsingør er en bemærkelsesværdig by. Ikke blot siges Amled, Shakespeares Prins af Danmark at hjemsøge Kronborg Slot og spille terninger med Holger Danske i kassematterne uden for åbningstid. Helsingør er også den yderste spids af Danmark i mere end ét henseende: Hér tanker svenskerne op, når de ikke kan få drikkevand hinsidan, som stort set ikke er længere væk, end at en rask dreng eller pige kan slå smut og ramme bjælkerne i færgelejet i Helsingborg på den anden side af Øresund. Og byen ligner noget, der ikke brændte ned i København i 1866, hvilket helsinganerne endnu er meget stolte af. Ikke at det var dém, der påsatte branden. Det kan i hvert fald ikke påvises.

Nå, men helsinganere og andre kan fra og med i dag købe bogen i velassorterede boghandlere, og inden så længe kan den også lånes på biblioteket.

Den formidabelt lave pris for humor, spænding, overraskelse, kærlighed, historie, fantasi og virkelighed er199 kr.

I dag ved du så nu, hvad du skal gøre, når tid er. God læselyst. Og god rejse til Helsingør.

vh, Lonni Krause

(Omslag: Bjørn Rønne)

Uddrag af “Modstand uden ende, af Kenneth Krabat”:

Foran kopien af statuen af den legende, folk kendte som Holger Danske, rullede Holger Wuideliin sit værktøj ud.

Som hvad som helst kan blive rutine, der er underlagt et steds kausalitet, var jobbet rutine: Når energien Holger Danske søgte manifestation for at opfylde sin sagnforpligtelse over for nationen, skulle den metafysiske ports tænkte hængslers og dørforstærkningers forestillede bolte efterspændes, og ditto uhåndgribelige håndtag og låsebeslag gås efter for tegn på eftergiven.

Kort fortalt skulle energien neutraliseres, når der blev for meget af den.

Varede det for længe, inden porten blev solid igen og uigennemtrængelig for HD-energiens insisteren, ville borgere i Helsingør og Helsingborg og Hørsholm, Lillerød, Tikøb Helsinge, Gilleleje, ja alle omegnsbyerne inden for en radius af 25 km opleve sig uforståeligt gennemsyret af den akkumulerede harme over landets tilstand, der havde skabt HDs navn i populærhistorien. Og jo, det lykkedes af og til Holger Danske kortvarigt at nå ud til nationen – selvom Bureauets top insisterede på vedvarende nedjustering af energiens indblanding i nationale kriser. Folk skulle i kausal forstand flytte til Nordøstsjælland på grund af naturen og havet og husprisernes evne til at tiltrække sig national opmærksomhed. Ikke i væsentlig grad på grund af indigneret omsorg for nationens fremtid.

Som det nu var muligt for ham at opleve sig personligt involveret, var Holger Wuideliin ikke helt uinteresseret i Helsingør. Arbejdet hér var rutinepræget, men det var altid en udfordring, ikke mindst på grund af  Holger Danske-energiens til tider meget kraftige udsving.

Han forstod, at drilleriet blandt de andre agenter var anerkendelse, og at han så ofte blev sendt til Helsingør, fordi han gjorde bedre fyldest dér end andre steder. Skadesstatistikken sagde, at HDs lejlighedsvis massive harme sjældnere berørte ham end de andre agenter, der blev udsendt for at udføre neutraliseringen, når han var optaget andetsteds.

Nej, problemet var, at der var opstået et mindre, kausalt set, uforståeligt problem: Han var begyndte at føle noget, når han som Holger Wuideliin kom til Helsingør. Noget selvstændigt.

Hvilket i sig selv var en del af problemet – det burde ikke være muligt. Ikke for en agent.

Dét forvirrede ham. Hvilket i sig selv var forvirrende.

 

Omtale: Sky City (ed. by Carl-Eddy Skovgaard)

Endnu en omtale.
Desværre mere om Bogen end om Indholdet.

 

Sky City edited by Carl-Eddy Skovgaard.

This is another worthy volume of SF gathered away from the beaten track from Denmark’s Science Fiction Cirklen. Their previous collection I reviewed a few years ago (Creatures of Glass and Light) that sprang out of Denmark hosting that year’s Eurocon (European SF Convention) and was an anthology of European SF short stories. Now (2011) SF Cirklen have given us a window into Denmark’s own contemporary science fiction short story scene and as such will be sought by those who are die-hard serious SF reader with a passion for the genre.

The volume includes a short, non-fiction article by Niels Dalgaard that presents a summary of the history of Danish SF which itself will be of interest to those non-Danes with both a casual passing interest in SF beyond their own country as well as those whose study of the genre is more scholarly.

First though a word about the book’s publication details as these are not as clear as they might be. My understanding, and I checked with the publisher for this review, is that this volume first came out in 2010 printed in Danish with an ISBN 978-8-790-59248-6 and these are the details given on the inside front (copyright) masthead page of this English language volume. However this English volume came out in 2011 and (according to the accompanying press release) has a different ISBN 978-8-771-14158-0 (which is not the one on the masthead or back cover bar code). Now, I mention this not only because those who send us review copies like us to get the publication details right, but also because we are aware that the SF2 Concatenation site is occasionally used by those studying the genre for arts courses, as well as because you may want to buy a copy, and the last thing you will want (if you do not speak Danish) is the original edition as opposed to the 2011 edition in English. Translation volumes are a nightmare to produce and in this case we are told that another publisher (effectively acting as producer and distributor) took over the printing and much of the distribution with SF Cirklen doing the commissioning and copy editing. The good news is that this other publisher (BoD) provides print-on-demand copies in Great Britain, Germany, Canada and the US. Hopefully that explains everything, so let’s move on…

This book came about as part of a very laudable goal of the Danes wishing the rest of us to have a taster of what they were producing. SF Cirklen does, and has for each of the three years up to and including 2010, ran an annual short story competition with the best getting published in a paperback anthology. The first two of these anthologies were called Leige Under Overfladen [Beneath Surface] (2007) and I Overfladen [The Surface] (2008) and the stories in Sky City (2010/2011) are taken and translated from these two earlier anthologies.

Before getting on to the stories, potential readers will want to know about the quality of translation. Translation between languages is extremely difficult. Professional translators are expensive; so much so that even major fiction publishing houses in developed markets, such as Britain’s, do not always use the professionals. Furthermore, it is nearly always (but not absolutely always) best to use a translator whose first language is the language into which the translation is being made. Failing to follow these two general rules of thumb can result in trouble. Indeed a number of SF translations of non-Anglophone fiction into English that I have come across from various countries in my time have been truly horrible: one country is particularly bad and I have yet to come across an SF anthology (having tried to read four) from that nation that is not so awful that the stories are impenetrable. So it was a little worrying when before reading Sky City I noticed that the translations were undertaken by different Danes. Having said that, I was hugely relieved to find that all the stories were translated into quite a readable standard of English with only the occasional awkward use of phrase or opaque sentence: Science Fiction Cirklen is to be commended. In fact the only thing that leaps out at you is the non-standard (non-Anglophone) use of speech inverted commas but this the reader can easily ignore. Less prominent is that the anthology is written in a mix of English and non-English North American, and sometimes both English and American English are used in the same story: someone at SF Cirklen needed to set their PC Word.doc program language to one or the other (English as written in England as part of Europe would probably have been the more appropriate). However this last is a minor point. For the most part the quality of translation is sufficiently good for readers to follow, and indeed enjoy, the stories on offer.

As for the stories themselves, I was personally pleased that they were all science fiction and not fantasy that does seem to dominate a lot of Eastern European speculative fiction and even sneak into some major annual US anthologies that purport to be SF. (Logical genre nomenclature determines that fantasy and science fiction are sub-genres of speculative fiction: fantasy, though worthy, is not a logical sub-genre of science fiction even though some consider it to be so and, of course, not withstanding the fantasy-science fiction overlap of science fantasy where the fantasy (such as a super alien from planet Krypton) has its rationale explained in completely fake science (the alien gets his powers from our yellow sun).)   Sky City’s stories are firmly science fiction.)

As for the stories themselves, as would be expected, they use a range of the genre’s established tropes. Here is a brief teaser run-through without spoilers:-

Sky City by Manfred Christiansen. A woman wakes up in a tall skyscraper built by nanobots. Do they want something with her? This is the title story for the volume and sets the anthologies tone.

Departure by Niels Gerloff. A research team on Europa prepares to boldly go…

The White Bear by Richard Ipsen. A tale set in a future China.

Helium Loves Company by Glen Stihmoe. In a post apocalyptic world half destroyed by nanotechnology run rampant, an engineered team explores the desolation to encounter… Helium Loves Company is an interesting tale.

The Last Astronaut by Flemming Rasch. An astronaut lands on a distant planet after a journey of hundreds years. The next day another ship lands and a fourth generation descendent of the first astronaut steps out…

The Organism on Maneo by Morten Brunbjerg. On a spaceship a crew member discovers an unusual creature…

The Tourist by Patrick Leis. A military officer is questioned as to why he authorised an attack in a civilian area of his own country. The motive is obscure and further investigation leads to the unbelievable…

Know Your Target Audience by Dan Mygind. A new way of getting audience feedback help tailor programme makers’ efforts which in turn feedback to the audience. But the result is not quite as expected.

The Red Parakeets by Camilla Wandahal. Future genetic engineering is not just controversial, it splits society…

The Short Arm of History by Kenneth Krabat. They were queuing up to enter the portal to who-knows-where… This story is vaguely (only ‘vaguely’) reminiscent of Pohl’s novel Gateway (1977), and there is nothing wrong with that as you should not keep a good SFnal idea down and this variation of the theme is an interesting one.

A Contribution to the History of Denmark by Soren Hemmingsen. In 1961 an expedition to Lapland in search of minerals found the tail of a frozen dinosaur… This is the story of the days that followed.

When the Music’s Over by A. Silvestri. A spaceship lands in Central Park. What do they want..? Now without wishing to introduce a spoiler, I was surprised at the aliens distain for the character Captain James T. Kirk. After all this is a Danish anthology and Denmark is famous for its bacon, whereas William Shatner is known for his ham… (Groan now if you will.)

The E-Puzzle by Nikolaj Hojberg. In the far future questions of soul and death will be answered, but then how will we deal with mortality and, as important, how might we cope with the afterlife?

Leeding, Feeding by Miriam Pederson. An alien dissection, but ultimately who is studying whom?

You are my Best Friend by Camilla Friis. We all need friends. But what are friends?

Dreams of Stone by Brian Ornbol. The city was big. I mean really big. You may have thought it a long way down to the chemist but the city really was big… Now this tale is very reminiscent of one I first read back in the 1970s (when Brian Ornbol was just beginning to go to school) and I am sure I have read it a couple of times since in different anthologies (it was a good story), but for the life of me I cannot recall where but the followers of SF Signal tell me it could be ‘Concentration City’ by J.G. Ballard). Nonetheless, as with ‘The Short Arm of History’ above, a good idea can always be revisited, and maybe it was Brian Ornbol’s first encounter with this idea.

(Han fokuserer på teknologien, der kunne minde om Gateway, og ikke på, hvad historien egentlig handler om. Titlen, ikke? Historiens korte arm. KK)

The Green Jacket by Gudrun Ostergaard. Thirteen year old Ivara has more than everything she can want but has not seen the world beyond her tower city. So she decides to have a look.

In the Surface by Sara Tanderup. A tale set in a future where the sea covers the planet.

Interrogation of Victim No. 5 by Lars Ahn Pedersen. The patient is questioned as to what happened to her… and then the patient realises…   This story is one of the best in the anthology and was a good note on which to end.

To be honest, none of the stories would likely to be professionally published in the west as they are presented here. Nearly all of the writing could be tightened; in a short story every paragraph has to work propelling the story along and some of these stories were way to long. Story endings also need thought; a good central plot is not sufficient by itself as the reader needs to be given a sense of completion if not story fulfilment. Having said that, a few with minor tidying and a clean up of the English, would not be out of place in a professionally published anthology. Very encouraging is that some of the authors are young: in their 20s or 30s. This is good news for Danish SF and it will be interesting to see if any in the future make professional sales in Britain (or North America). Science Fiction Cirklen is to be congratulated for enabling those of us outside of Denmark to get a taster of what those Danes are up to these days.

Jonathan Cowie

We also have much else in our autumnal edition (volume 25, No 5)
http://www.concatenation.org/whatsnew.html

Including a big news page
http://www.concatenation.org/newsindex.html

which also has much Eurocon news 
http://www.concatenation.org/news/news9~11.html#eurocon11

There is also a separate, stand-alone review of Scandinavia’s Eurocon this summer
http://www.concatenation.org/conrev/eurocon11.html

“Anything you can do to spread the word  and links of this edition to appropriate Scandinavian blogs and SF news sites would be very welcome.” JC

tekst 2011, so far

Arbejdsdage, arbejdstimer, input, output. Sjovt. Følelsesfuldt.

 

PAPIRTRYK

– Den Tredje Vej (digt, essay) – 2839 tegn (Poetisk Bureau, antologi om det, der samler nationen)

– Modstand uden ende (prosa) – 36588 tegn (Helsingørantologi)

– Tænke på silke under invasionen (prosa) – 19734 tegn (SFC – Lige under Overfladen 5)

– KRYBBERUM AF NIKKEL – 2488 tegn (La Granada, Norge, net+papirmagasin)

– GPS på tiden – noter om drømme og visioner – 2220 tegn (100 stemmer, en idébog om drømme og visioner (Michael Svennevigs menneskeprojekt)

DIGITALTRYK

– ELOPENSENS TVÆRGEVIR – 3565 tegn (La Granada, Norge, net+papirmagasin)

– Tidens Kælven 1, redigering, korrektur – 56347 tegn (Forlaget Se, sne!)

– Dræbersneglen fra Venus – 3113 tegn (Twitter)

– email-interview, Mette Ø Henriksen – Kenneth Krabat – 27505 tegn (blog)

RADIO

– Den Røde Sofa, Interview i Dansk Forfatterforening

BLOG
(alle på 1000 stemmer, http://krabat.menneske.dk/kkblog og http://1000stemmer.menneske.dk)

– GOOGLE PROJECT, THE LIFE SERVER (essay) – 4612 tegn
– Swans don’t swim under water (prose) – 11690 tegn
– eBøger: Låst tekst og forfatteren som kollektiv (essay) – 7136 tegn
– Grundloven hviler på ytringsfrihed (essay) – 4659 tegn
– Ringen (prosa) – 3721 tegn
– Stort, lille, eget forlag = stor, ringe, ingen beskyttelse (essay) – 3233 tegn
– RettighedsAlliancen satser på digitalt salg og mener “de samme salgsled som altid” (essay) – 5288 tegn
– ”Tag det væk, far!” (essay) – 3326 tegn
– LYST – drevet, båret, styret, betonet (essay) – 3637 tegn
– Fredhelligt sted, før døden, søges! (essay) – 2733 tegn
– Kursusforslag til Dansk Forfatterforenings lyrikgruppe (liste) – 8231 tegn
– Sidenumre i ebøger (essay) – 3891 tegn
– FORMAT? – Åbent brev til bogindustrien (og lidt til Leif Davidsen) (essay)
– 6962 tegn
– Forlag snyder eforfattere (og dem på papir) (essay) – 1329 tegn
– Forlag – omlægning til e (essay)- 8829 tegn
– absolute positioning: Asking Amazon to help the opposition, ie. the whole industry and poets too (essay) – 3015 tegn
– Upatenteret tortur (rejseessay) – Goa 4 – 7239 tegn
– Status for faldne profeter; en projektansøgning (essay) – 7350 tegn
– Dream on… [om absolut positionering i ebøger] (essay) – 2348 tegn
– Gyldendal, Publizon, underhåndsspyt og pissen i drikkevandet (essay) – 7369 tegn
– Overlevelse fremmer bogen – om høje ebogspriser (essay) – 3638 tegn

VIDEO
3 videoimprovisationer (Reflex #14, 57˚ Nord)
– At skrive handler om… Improvisation 1&2 (essay) – 6 min.
– Til verden med spegepølse og brandbil (digt) – 2 min.

HJEMMESIDER

– facebook bogsalg (http://on.fb.me/ForlagetSeSne)
– forlagsside (http://tiden.menneske.dk)

I arbejde (•) og uplacerede

Noveller
• Rain of Blood – science fiction
• Bliss so totally Over Being (The Empire Never Ended) – science fiction
• Genopfindelsen af Sorg – science fiction
• New Foundland – samling, fortid til fremtid

Længere prosa
• Pernille Grøn (HALD-skrift)
• INTET ER INTET

Digte
I am having a conversation with a dead man EPICURUS
+ godt 40 til

Essay
• Mirça Eliade og rusmidler i dag
• the BITTORRENT WARS
• 1025 spørgsmål om digtningen
• KÆRE MORFAR
• ESSAYS TIME TRAVEL MOVIES 1892-2012 synopsis, devices, plotspoilers

Kortprosa
01 FLAT HEMLINE, NO EXCUSES – 9855 tegn
02 STARLIGHT RHYTM ORCHESTRA – 2542
03 Reach & Credence – 1107 tegn
04 THE BROWN SWING – 1996 tegn
05 a pilot MUST think the world beautiful – 797 tegn
+ diverse løst

Børn
• (uden titel) spejling, tegning, piratskib

Novellekonkurrence, deadline 19/4.11

Genre: SciFi, Fantasy og Horror.

 

Forfattervaerk.net og Forlaget ViraBooks har indgået aftale om en skrivekonkurrence – hvor deltagerne har mulighed for at blive udgivet i en professionel e-bog hos forlaget!

Max. 1 novelle pr. deltager

Mindst 10 A4 ark og max 15 A4 ark lang, normal linjeafstand, skriftstørrelse 12.

For at deltage skal du:

A) Blive medlem hos Forfattervaerk.net. Det er gratis, og du kan tilmelde dig helt frem til konkurrencens sidste dag (du behøver ikke at forlænge dit medlemskab, når dit gratis medlemskab udløber efter 30 dage).

B) Manuskriptet sender du dernæst til forlaget, hvis mailadresse angives på linket nedenfor. Indsend venligst din historie som PDF-dokument. Dit fulde navn samt dit brugernavn hos Forfattervaerk.net, din adresse og e-mailadresse skal stå på forsiden!

Manuskripter kan indsendes til ViraBooks fra 1. marts til 19. april 2011.

via Vira Books konkurrence.

Science Fiction-panel: Lige under overfladen 4

Debattér med forfatterne d. 23.2., med udgangspunkt i antologien, Ingenmandsland.

23. februar afholdes paneldebat i forbindelse med udgivelsen af

Lige Under Overfladen 4, Ingenmandsland

Det foregår i Valby Kulturhus, 3.sal, vær 1, kl. 19-22. Gratis adgang.

Vel mødt!

SFC om arrangementet

Science Fiction: PLAN og The Short Arm of History

For dén, der måtte mene, at Verden er det bedre sted…
MIne nyeste science fiction-udgivelser.

 

Har 2010 bidraget til ovenstående to antologier fra Science Fiction Cirklen

SKY CITY [SFC | Anmeldelser | Omtale 1, 2 | Bibliotek]
– New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors (Science Fiction Cirklen, 2010)
199 kr. (medlemmer: 159,20 kr), ISBN 978-87-90592-48-6
KK-bidrag: novellen “The Short Arm of History”

INGENMANDSLAND [SFC | Anmeldelser | Omtale 1 | Bibliotek]
– Lige under overfladen 4 (Science Fiction Cirklen, 2010)
298 kr. (medlemmer: 238,40 kr), ISBN 978-87-90592-42-4
KK-bidrag: novellen “PLAN”

Ny dansk science fiction-antologi: I Overfladen

En ny Science-fiction-antologi, denne gang med 20 danske forfattere


15. august 2008 udgiver Science Fiction Cirklen

I OVERFLADEN
– Lige under overfladen 2 –

en ny Science-fiction-antologi, denne gang med 20 danske forfattere (i kronologisk rækkefølge): Kenneth Krabat, Richard Ipsen, Flemming R.P. Rasch, Arash Sharifzadeh Abdi, Patrick Leis, Søren E. Hemmingsen, A. Silvestri, Nikolaj Højbjerg, Camilla Wandahl, Ellen Miriam Pedersen, Rasmus Wichmann, Camilla Fønss Bach Friis, Johan Peter Andersen, Brian P. Ørnbøl, Gudrun Østergaard, Manfred Christiansen, Sara Tanderup, Lars Ahn Pedersen, Dan Mygind og H. H. Løyche

Fra pressemeddelelsen:

“Sidste år udgav SFC originalantologien Lige under overfladen. Den blev heldigvis godt modtaget, og vi håber at vi nu har påbegyndt en tradition, med en årlig originalantologi, med nyskrevne science fiction-historier.

Antologien indeholder noveller af et udsnit af de forfattere i Danmark, der i øjeblikket skriver science fiction. Nogle af dem har allerede udgivet romaner enten inden for science fiction, fantasy eller andre genrer, men mange har tidligere kun udgivet enkelte noveller i andre tidsskrifter, men er snart klar til det store marked.

Titlen i år: I overfladen, er både titlen på en af novellerne, og på samme tid ment som en antydning af at ‘Lige under overfladen’ nu er kommet et step videre.

Læseren vil finde rumrejser, tidsrejser, fremtidsscenarier, aliens i forskellige sammenhænge, spekulativ fiktion, og også et par historier de fleste nok vil mene befinder sig i genrens udkant.”

ARRANGEMENT i forbindelse med udgivelsen:

D. 24. september 19-22 vil man i Valby Medborgerhus i Kbh. kunne møde en række af forfatterne; læs merepå Science Fiction Cirklens hjemmeside.


I overfladen – Lige under overfladen 2
268 sider, 269 kr.
(medlemmer af SF-Cirklen: 215,20 kr)
ISBN 978-87-90592-34-9

Kan købes
– gennem boghandlen
– ved indbetaling på giro 3 26 19 48. Science Fiction Cirklen c/o Lars Wriedt, Dagmarsgade 3A, 3., 2200 Kbh. N
– ved indbetaling på bankkonto reg. 6610 konto 66102688393 (skriv til kasserer snabelA sciencefiction.dk og fortæl, at du har betalt)
– direkte via hjemmeside

ANDRE UDGIVELSER fra Science Fiction Cirklen