SF In Very Small Countries

Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Register | Edit Profile

Author Message   A.R. Yngve Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 04:50 am:    This is the "SF In Very Small Countries" thread. People who actually LIVE in small lands (i.e. not the U.S.), please post your observations on SF publishing/media/writers in countries with a population of 9-1 million people (or less). Are there SF writers in places like Iceland, Israel, Lichtenstein, Finland? How about Tonga? Let us know. "Small is beautiful." -A.R. Yngve (Scandinavia) http://yngve.bravehost.com   A.R. Yngve Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 04:56 am:    The SF scene in Scandinavia is very very small (*assumes David Attenborough-style nature-documentary voice*)... it mainly subsists on the vast import of Anglo-American SF from outside, and produces very very little SF itself. During the harsh Scandinavian winter months, the SF "fans" burrow in their thick-walled homes and communicate via the "Internet". Swedish/Norweigan fans have their own online discussion groups at There are very few Scandinavian SF writers -- and no SF film has been made in these parts since SPACE INVASION IN LAPLAND fifty years ago. SF publishing is a dying artform here: Just recently Swedish editor John-Henri Holmberg has re-launched his 1980s magazine NOVA SCIENCE FICTION in quarterly format. Last thing I heard, Sam J.Lundwall still publishes the long-running publication JULES VERNE MAGASINET. -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Gordon Van Gelder Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 05:33 am:    A.R.--- Last I heard from Sam Lundwall---in January---he and his daughter are indeed still publishing JULES VERNE MAGASINET. Sam said he's looking to focus more on European writers in the magazine. I also saw a copy of an impressive Finnish science fiction magazine this year, but the title of it has just escaped my memory. It's a one-word title, starts with the letter P. In partial answer to your other question, I can say that it looks like there's a very active SF community in Israel. I see copies of the magazine THE 13TH DIMENSION regularly and even though I can't read Hebrew, I think from the story selections that the magazine is on a par with, say, the Spanish magazine GIGAMESH. We've published two stories in recent years by Israeli writers (Eyal Teler and Vered Tochterman). Maybe ET will post more about the Israeli SF scene.   CPF Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 06:43 am:    Gordon: This topic, along with your recent issue of F&SF, made me think of a few questions for you. How do you find out about a great story published in another country? Who does the translations from lets say, Flemish to English for an example? And once that translation is done, do you often find yourself changing some of the wording that just doesn’t work in English? Oh, by the way, thanks for another great issue this month. CPF   John Thiel Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 07:09 am:    He not only says he'll do something, he does it. I've got a Netherlands writer and one from Belgium.   Rhys Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 07:56 am:    > please post your observations on SF publishing/media/writers in countries with a population of 9-1 million people (or less). Er... Belgium has a population of just over 10,000,000... Slap my wrist as a pedant!   Charlie Finlay Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 08:34 am:    While I don't keep track of national population numbers, I'm the admin for Online Writing Workshops (http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/). The majority of our members come from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, in about that order. But a number of members come from smaller or non-English-speaking majority countries, including countries you'd expect like Ireland and New Zealand, and many more you might not, like Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France, Hungary, Norway, Latvia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan (many of them are English teachers there), Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa, and others I'm certain I'm forgetting. I know that last time we counted, we had members from about forty countries. One of the things I love about the workshop, and the internet in general, is the way it brings together people from around the world who share a similar interest. Writers without borders.   CPF Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 08:51 am:    Most of the Scandinavian countries have a population of around 5 million, Sweden being the highest with a population of around 7 million. With, A.R. Yngve, being from that region, I thought I would use a country from that general area as an example. If you’d like we could use Iceland, they have a population under one million. Anyway, I thought it would being interesting to hear, Gordon’s, comments on how the editorial process differs from the norm when dealing with foreign works. CPF   ET Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 03:50 pm:    Gordon, I imagine you were referring to The Tenth Dimension. Unless they've added another three since I bought an issue (which has been quite a few years ago, I'll admit). In terms of the SF fan scene, there are quite a few big clubs (and quite a bit of nasty politics between them). The main SF club publishes The Tenth Dimension, which has quite a few articles and one story (again, in the issues I have). There's Vered's magazine, Dreams in Aspamya, which is quite new -- year or two. Haven't bought an issue, but have seen it in a store (although not lately), and it looked quite professional. Damn, I wish I'd have thought of it before, but I guess I won't be able to get my hands on an issue to give to you. It just so happens that I'll be going to the states next Saturday and will be at Norwescon. So if you want me to bring you anything from Israel, I'll try to get it. Anyway, the SF writing scene is alive, although it's rather small.   Gordon Van Gelder Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 08:46 pm:    ET--- Nice to know you'll be at Norwescon, I look forward to seeing you there. Don't tell Dotan and Rami I incresed the name of the magazine by three! My memory has really been bad this week. I still haven't remembered the name of that Finnish magazine (PORTI, maybe?). Anyway, I think copies of Issue #20 of THE TENTH DIMENSION are on their way to me. I can't think of anything offhand I'd like to bring from Israel, but thanks for asking.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 02:59 am:    ET: Is there a website for THE TENTH DIMENSION? I wanna visit... and perhaps submit a short story or some artwork... -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Gordon Van Gelder Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 05:41 am:    A.R.--- It looks like the link I put in my Sept. 03 editorial is dead, but try http://www.sf-f.org.il/ and click around from there. Incidentally, someone who read my latest editorial (about getting Isaac Asimov on a commemorative stamp) pointed out to me that Dr. Asimov has already been on an Israeli stamp, compliments of Avi Katz---you can see the stamps here: http://www.avikatz.net/sf/sfstamps.htm.   Sean T. M. Stiennon Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 06:17 am:    Wow. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells too. To make a larger set, perhaps we could campaign for those two as well?   Lavie Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 07:22 am:    This does happen to be a pet topic of mine, so here goes... China - biggest circulation, biggest market - most prominent magazine/publisher is SF World, based in Chengdu (http://www.sfw-cd.com) - the SF magazine has a circulation of 400,000 or so, the new fantasy one around 40,000 - also publishes a comics and news magazine and many books. Gives the Milky Way Award yearly for Chinese SF. Hell - just look up my article on it in the recent Foundation. Israel - Vered Tochterman (an FSF contributor) edits a fiction magazine called Chalomot Beaspamia which is very professional-looking, and focuses on Hebrew SF. The Israeli SF society also publishes the 10th Dimension, which is (I think) more news and articles but also has fiction. There is a lively internet community, with the e-zine Bli Panika, edited by Rami Shalheveth, containing a great amount of quality translated short stories and original stories. South Africa - Apart from the very-active Nick Gevers (Locus reviewer, PS Publishing editor, etc, etc) there is a small band of new writers seeming to emerge - look out for Richard Kunzmann's new novel soon from PanMac in the UK, or for Lynne Jamneck's new e-zine Simulacrum (though not specifically SA oriented). There are plans in the work to create a sort of unified platform for SA writers - more news later. France - some good stuff, actually. Lots of Steampunk, great cover artists, some ambitious young writers, some good conventions. Not exactly "vibrant", but healthy. But I'm runnning out of steam... more later, maybe.   Lavie Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 08:25 am:    I should also add Russia (again, though, hardly a small country). Not entirely sure what's going on magazine-wise, but there's an active book publishing/convention community, with plenty of "Fantastika" novels in the bookshops. What is interesting in the large community of Israeli-Russian writers writing in their native language and publishing in Russia. They seem to form a distinct group, not quite Russian and not quite Israeli (or perhaps combining the best of the two!) Also, I know one UK artist has recently sold 200 covers to a Russian publisher, so I don't know how heatlhy Russian SF illustration is...   A.R. Yngve Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 10:45 am:    I looked up the Chinese magazine site (http://www.sfw-cd.com) Lavi mentioned -- and my jaw dropped to the floor... do I wish I could read Chinese now! Somebody please start another thread: "SF in ENORMOUSLY HUGE Countries"... SF in South Africa -- now that sounds interesting. Gotta check it out. Thanks for the TENTH DIMENSION link... the site is in both Hebrew and English! When you see the bigger picture, you get a whole new sense of scale, and suddenly the Anglo-American "scene" looks a bit provincial... like my home country when compared to America. ;-P I used to dream of getting published in ANALOG, but I've changed my mind. I want to get published in China, the truly big places for SF! -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Tribeless Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 01:58 pm:    I'm from New Zealand (pop. 3.7 mil). I couldn't name you one NZ science fiction author   ET Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 02:15 pm:    The problem with Zew Zealand writers is that they keep themselves secret. I mean, look at the site of the New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Association (http://nzsfw.sf.org.nz/). There's practically nothing there. There are two New Zealand authors listed at Yahoo Directory. Kevin Maclean, long time Critter, is apparently from New Zealand (he's listed on the NZSFW site as president).   A.R. Yngve Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 03:43 pm:    ET, I see what you mean when it reads, "Updated 10 June 2000". Ouch! ;-) OK, we've heard from Israel, Sweden, New Zealand, Belgium and the Netherlands, and a bit from South Africa... Still eagerly waiting to hear about the rest of Scandinavia, The Baltic states (that's south of Finland )... and other small countries. Finland has an active fan community with conventions and fanzines being published - that much I know. -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Tribeless Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 06:07 pm:    Thanks for the NZ sfw link ET. Perhaps the most significant thing to note, however, from this thread is that now with the Internet, in terms of reading material and discussing ideas with like minded people, it no longer matters where you live   Alan T. Sippola Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 08:00 pm:    Gordon -- Sorry, pal, nice try, but no cigar. Unfortunately, you "missed it by THAT much!" Your flunked the spelling bee contest. ;-) The name of the Finnish science fiction and fantasy magazine which you are referring to that starts with the letter "P", is "PORTTI", which means "Gateway" in Suomi (The spoken language of the restless Finnish natives). Portti, is published only four times a year by the Tampere Science Fiction Society, a non-profit association founded in 1979, that is located in the city of Tampere, the largest inland city in southern Finland. And it is the third largest city in all of Finland (second largest by population), located about 180 km (110 miles) north-east of Helsinki. The first issue of the fanzine was issued in 1982, and since then 85 Finnish language issues have been published — over 10,000 pages altogether. Portti contains original Finnish short stories plus stories translated from the main European languages, articles, cartoons, sf news, video/dvd and book reviews. Although actual science fiction books are not published in Finland in any great abundance, the present field of science fiction writing is rather active. The Tampere Science Fiction Society has annually organized national short story contests since 1986, and the writers' eagerness to participate has been considerable. In some years the number of short stories in the contest has reached up to over 400 stories. Several of the successful participants of the Portti contest are nowadays valued authors. For the benefit of you curious-minded individuals and edge-of-your-seat "Fantasy & Science Fiction" enthusiasts, I have listed below the links to two very informative web pages which provides all of the material that you may need to know on the current situation of science fiction and fantasy in Finland. 1. "A Look At Current Finnish Science Fiction" http://koti.mbnet.fi/pasenka/kirjallisuus/a-look.htm 2. "A Look At Finnish Fandom" http://koti.mbnet.fi/pasenka/kirjallisuus/a-fandom.htm For those of you who might already have guessed, yes, my last name, "Sippola" (Pronounced Sip-po-la. Say it real fast, so it rolls off your tongue), is Finnish. But I am only a half-breed. I can speak some Finn, but I can neither read nor write it, which I find is an absolute bummer, especially when it comes to what I'm missing in their glorious science fiction and fantasy material. How's 'dat, A.R.? ;-) ~ Alan ~   A.R. Yngve Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 02:46 am:    I can only respond: "Moy! Olet ehdoton!" (="Hey! Great!") -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Dotan Dimet Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 03:08 am:    Just a note about the Tenth Dimension (Israel) - an English page about the magazine is here http://www.sf-f.org.il/static/act_meimad.htm Our lovely Hebrew site is here: http://meimad.sf-f.org.il Both pages link to a full list of covers. We currently publish mostly translations and articles. We actually publish less news than Vered Tuchterman's Chalomot BeAspamia (www.aspamia.co.il, Hebrew), and a lot less original fiction: Aspamia has a team of volunteer submissions reviewers and even resorts to bribing writers with the promise of money; we leave the original fiction department mostly in the hands of serendipity and personal favors. Sometimes someone stumbles across us, such as Guy Hasson http://guyhasson.20m.com/ - who has been writing his SF in English because that's where the market is. I suspect there are a few other Israeli writers who do all their SF in other languages - the Israeli Russians are one example that we know about. Eli Eshed has written a lot about SF in Israel, both online and in Locus. When reading his stuff, one should bear in mind that Eshed has a VERY broad-minded view of what constitutes SF&F, and includes anything from technothrillers to surrealism to children's books in this category.   Rob Darnell Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 06:13 am:    I wonder if the people and the China Magazine will accept english written stories and translate them for their magazine.   Gordon Van Gelder Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 06:24 am:    Thanks for the correction, Alan. In terms of New Zealand writers, I'm pretty sure Juliet Marillier is originally from New Zealand, although I think she has lived in Australia for a long time. We get plenty of submissions from New Zealand, though I don't think we've published any of them yet.   Charlie Finlay Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 06:50 am:    Cherry Wilder was from New Zealand. Her last story "Aotearoa" appeared in Asimov's in 2001.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 11:56 am:    Rob wrote: "I wonder if the people and the China Magazine will accept english written stories and translate them for their magazine." Actually, I wrote and asked the editor of SF WORLD about the readers' interest in non-Chinese fiction... but don't hope too much too soon. A magazine with 400,000 readers HAS to receive thousands of unsolicited stories -- in Chinese -- every month. And just getting a reply from the editor... I expect the editor's list of unanswered e-mails to be several miles long. -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Alan T. Sippola Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 04:31 pm:    Gordon -- After doing a little checking, there was one New Zealander whose short fiction appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction". And this was from one of Aotearoa's most prolific romance writer's, Daphne Clair (aka Laurey Bright, Claire Lorel, etc.), who under her married name of Daphne de Jong, wrote "Roimata", which appeared in the March 1985 issue. "Daphne Clair's Biography" http://www.harlequinpresents.com/authors/clair_bio.html By the way, I hope you don't think I'm purposely picking on you. I'm not. I only wanted to make the correction. ;-) ~ Alan ~   Rob Darnell Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 05:17 pm:    A.R., Maybe they have a couple hundred assistant editors. Anyway, if you get a reply, please share the information, even if it takes a few years for you to get that reply.   Thomas R Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 09:15 pm:    Although I don't think she's pro-published yet there's a Christina Sng from Singapore. It seems like there is a more significant SFer from Singapore too. In population it's not that small, but in area it's quite small. Hugo Gernsback was from Luxembourg I believe. Tobias Buckell I think was originally from Grenada, or some very small Caribbean nation. He has been published. What else. Although not that small the Czech Republic has had an importance to SF that I think outweighs its size. Karel Capeck, Josef Nesvadba, and others. As well as several SF films. I knew of an entire magazine of SF that was based out of Hong Kong for awhile. It was called Mirage, but I think closed. Dang we're getting a storm. Here's a link, look for small SF countries there. USFG   Thomas R Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 11:21 pm:    Oh for very large nations there is China which was mentioned. Chinese SF I've read, from the mainland, has had some problems with political interference. Meaning some of it reads like the party's mouthpiece. However I think in the 1990s that situation improved to a great extent. As for Taiwan the end of one party Kuomintang rule, with martial law, I've heard improved things there a great deal. They have a basically free press now I think. The second biggest in population is India. I think their tech industry is growing a good deal and English is a very common second language. (Or even First in a few cases) The English language issue maybe shouldn't matter, but it does make things easier. I could see Indian authors in Year's Best volumes being normal by the end of the decade or start of the next.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 03:15 am:    During the Soviet Union, SF writers living under Communist censorship could sneak in criticism of the system into their stories -- Stanislaw Lem is a well-known example. Naturally, I expect at least *some* Chinese SF writers to do the same. Which should be interesting! India is definitely going to have a strong growth in SF reading -- among tech-sector people, that is. I've tried to make inroads into India, and published a short story in the Indian SF webzine ADBHUT ("Sins Of Our Fathers", at http://www.adbhut.com/en/feb04/10.html ). The great advantage India has over China is that most Indians have English as a second language, so translation isn't a big issue. -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Rob Darnell Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 04:20 am:    A.R., your story grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let me go. I think it ended too quickly, though. I'm left with a feeling that more story could have been there before the ending. However, I'm quite impressed. The theme was very interesting. Just wanted to let you know.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 06:10 am:    Thanks, Rob! I agree that the ending came abruptly, and I felt a bit unsatisfied with it. For some reason I tend to get very impatient when I write short stories... especially when I know they'll end up on the Internet! The novels get longer, though. If you want to see my longer stories, check out "Sniper, Viper" on my website ( http://yngve.bravehost.com/sniperviper.html ) and the very long, satirical "Grisham's World" in THE 12 GAUGE REVIEW ( http://www.12gauge.com/issue6/grisham.html ) -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Thomas R Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 11:20 am:    Well I read Science Fiction from China edited by Pat Murphy and Wu Dingbo. It was from the eighties so things were still a bit on the repressive side. A few though did sneak in criticism. Mirror Image of the Earth, by the recently deceased Zheng Wenguang, had aliens showing the horror of the Cultural Revolution then they decide leaving their world was better than dealing with humans. Conjugal Love in the Arms of Morpheus, or more accurately it's sequel, was surprisingly overt about criticizing the treatment of women in China. Indeed it was so much more overt it really stood out. (Yet by Western standards it's "feminism" was rather unremarkable and read like something by women SFers in the 1950s. However the things I've read lately about the lives of Chinese women makes it seem even more remarkable to me now) Unfortunately I think it was also so much more overt it got its author in a bit of hot water, but nothing like imprisonment or anything. There was also more subtle criticisms of the status quo, but many of these were too subtle for me to recall. One odd thing is Chinese SF writers could be condemned for teaching junk science. For a long time they linked linked SF to science popularization, especially for kids, not with literature. So an SF story could get in as much trouble for theories of biology the Party disliked, or in fairness theories that were truly wrong, as anything political.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 11:37 am:    Very interesting. Could someone please find a Chinese SF fan who could tell us more about this -- in English, I mean? (I know this is the "SF In Very Small Countries" thread, but Thomas R. is on to an important issue here: writing under censorship. We're no longer used to it here in the West, but it's still a reality in many countries... OK, I'll start another thread: SF In Asia.) -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Bojan Sudarevic Posted on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 06:27 pm:    I'm from Croatia (4 million people). - 1 pro-magazine. - 6 con's - 10-15 fanzines - 100 authors (only few of them are really active) Our only professional SF magazine, FUTURA (http://www.zg-naklada.hr/futura) has cirulation of 1500. Most of the stories they publish are from Asimov's and F&SF, but they also publish some croatian authors. Magazine SIRIUS was published in the period 1976-1990, and it was awardwd as Best European SF Magazine, at EuroCon 1986 (or 1984... I'm not sure). We have one publisher that publishes story colections of Croatian authors. Our authors are not known in the US or UK, except maybe Darko Macan who writes SF comics published by Dark Horse (comlete list of his comics published by Dark Horse: http://www.darkhorse.com/search/search.php?sstring=Darko+Macan&match=all&scope=p roducts). He also writes great SFF stories, but (as far as I know) he never tried to publish them in US or UK. Other really good authors are Aleksandar Ziljak, Tatjana Jambrisak & Marina Jadrejcic. Except them, there is about 100 authors (including me) who publishes one (or more) stories per year. We have 6 convetions. Biggest are SFeraKon (organized by SF society SFera http://www.sfera.hr) & IstraKon (http://albus.ipazin.net). This year SFeraKon GoH is Ken MacLeod (Zagreb, April 23rd - 25th)... in 2003. it was George R.R. Martin, in 2002. Lois McMaster Bujold, before that Robert Silverberg, etc. Those two con's are really good. We have many fanzines. Best (and oldest) is Parsek, published by, again, SFera. Others are Gnus, SFemir, Eye of the Palpantine, Faust, Misija, (...) and Via Galactica (http://www.viagalactica.tk ... it has english section). I'm one of two co-editors of Via Galactica. Let me know if you want more informations about Croatian SF. -Bojan Sudarevic http://www.viagalactica.tk   E Thomas Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 09:59 pm:    Welcome to the board! Thanks for visiting and telling us about the sf/f scene in Croatia. It is always interesting to find out what other places are doing. I must say that this was very neat to drop by here and read about the Croatian scene.   L.Z. Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 01:23 pm:    Nosf is good croatian SF e-zine you should visit it http://www.nosf.net/index.phtml   Mathias F. Clasen Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 05:16 pm:    I'm from Denmark (pop. approx. 5.5 million) and I've been reading F&SF since '98. It's such an incredibly marvellous magazine! There aren't many major science fiction publications in Denmark, but there's plenty of fantasy (and some, though in my eyes not enough, horror). However, the sf underground apparently is quite lively, and we have at least two (relatively) major organizations: Science Fiction Cirklen (http://www.sciencefiction.dk) and the recently formed Fantastik (http://www.fantastik.dk). Science Fiction Cirklen has since '74 published a genre magazine called Proxima, which according to the organization is the oldest regularly published magazine of its kind in Scandinavia. In a country this small, a few people can make a big difference. Thus, one man who has specialized in science fiction (and who wrote his doctoral thesis on Danish science fiction in the seventies!), ph.d. Niels Dalgaard, has written a lot about the genre and worked tirelessly to promote sf and fight the usual genre prejudices. So because of him - and a few others as well - there is some serious attention given to science fiction. I was told a few years ago that there are about a dozen subscribers of F&SF in Denmark (I asked the circulation manager), and sf books are rarely published by the major houses. We have some very good sf authors, though, e.g. Dennis Jürgensen, who writes horror and fantasy as well (primarily YA). However, his publisher once told me that science fiction doesn't sell very well, so they'd rather he write something else ... So, science fiction isn't doing too well here, but it's by no means dead, either. You just gotta know where to look.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 05:26 pm:    Cool! Now let's hear from SF fandom in Iceland... all five of them... ;-) -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Thomas R Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 06:18 pm:    I'm not meaning to be cute, but this guy is the only Icelandic SF writer I know of. However he pointed me to another one, do you want me to get him to discuss it?   Ásgrímur Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 05:59 am:    There you are. Reading over this, I noticed that you seem very impressed by the sci-fi publishing in China. 400.000 copies. Now, let me point out to you why this is unremarkable: The chinese are 4X as many as americans, and well over 4000 times as many as us Icelanders. According to the numbers, from 1999 if my memory serves me right, there are about 4500 of them for any one of us. Factoring that in, this magazine would have less than 400 copies of this sold here. Not much. A magazine like that would likely go bankrupt. The bookstores don't carry Asimovs or Analog, I have checked. When I was drunk, but at least I checked. There is at least one sci-fi author I know of, although mainly into childrens books, http://www.bokmenntir.is/enskur/literature.nsf/pages/rithofundur0476 This guy wrote something rather strange, called "lovestar" and had it published around last christmas, or the christmas before that. Anyway, it was in the past. And I haven't read it, so I can't comment. And there's Gyrðir Elíasson, whose work I seem to have read. I liked it. He writes mainly poetry, but has written a few fantastic novels. Publishes short books, less than 150 pages. http://www.bokmenntir.is/enskur/literature.nsf/pages/rithofundur0104 Here's the list of novels: http://www.bokmenntir.is/enskur/literature.nsf/form/skoda_ritaskra.html?openform &flokkur=novels&id=E142EB67A4CF7B1C00256AE400570ADC Here you have it. Two guys. One writes fantasy, the other sci-fi. The thing is, most of the local literature I have read is well over 500 years old, having been written on calfskin in the 12th century. And quite frankly, that's the best stuff.   A.R. Yngve Posted on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 06:52 am:    Well, the actual readership of that Chinese mag is up to 10 times higher than 400,000... the editor has explained that each copy is shared by many poor students. 4 million readers... now, that is not tiny by any standard. Of course, Iceland is mostly know for its venerable Viking-saga tradition. (Is it strictly "fantasy", though? Did the ancient Icelanders think of it as such?? ) :-S Would you say that this Icelandic fantasy writers works in his native tradition, or is he too influenced by Tolkien (I hope not)? -A.R. Yngve http://yngve.bravehost.com   Ásgrímur Posted on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 09:11 am:    You haven't read the stuff I've read. There are the "Fornaldarsögur norðurlanda"* (sorry for the unrenderable letters) that are basically 8th-12th century fiction. There's one there about a guy with a mechanical arm, "Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar Berserkjabana"** or something, it was called, if my memory doesn't run afoul of me - which it often does. It might be considered sciense-fiction. Both my memory and that story. Nowadays everyone wants to be Halldór Laxness, I can't understand why, because the last I heard, he was dead. The chinese: I don't know them personally. * ansient tales of the norther-countries. (scandinavia, that includes russia) ** The story of one armed Egil and Ásmundur the berserk-slayer.   Ásgrímur Posted on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 09:20 am:    You can search for - and find - ancient relics based on what is written in the sagas, (as people insist on calling them) so I gather they are not that fantastic. Tolkien however, was influenced by the stuff I was telling you about, the fornaldasögur. Let me explain those: There is enough plot for some trolls to manually tear each other apart, stumbe around in their own guts, and spray blood on those who are standing around. Then there is heavy drinking, further killing ensues. Dwarfs come out of rocks to build outlandish devises. The gods are involved, sometimes, in some sexually explicit manner. I understand Tolkien toned down the comically over-the top violence. The sagas, are about ome people and things that actually happened. The truth may be stretched here and there, but all in good fun. I don't think they knew they were writing historical records.   Marina of Tiha Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 04:25 am:    I'm from Croatia, and am very interested in old sagas concerning stories about constructing things with songs! Don't know the origin of these sagas, but would appreciate help to links in English. I'm writing a book about giants, very much present in folk-lore in Croatia. I follow this thread, very interesting.   Ásgrímur Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 09:09 am:    Constructing things with songs? Meaning stories with songs in them about construction, or actually singing to make things magically build up? Last time I saw anything remotely like that, it had to do with chanting ancient evil rites and stuff like that. Not that the rites were chanting, of course. If you want links, try http://.www.Google.com   Byron Bailey Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 11:27 am:    It's been a while but I think the Finnish _Kalevala_ has a lot of characters that create using the power of song.   Melissa Mead Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 02:35 pm:    JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion does too.   Marina of Tiha Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 06:16 am:    Thanks for hints, it really is Kalevala. Anyway, this is a thread about SF in very small countries, what Croatia certainly is. But I must tell you about Croatian region - peninsula Istra (about 200.000 inhabitants) that is an SF anomaly in the world. Bojan has already described SF scene in Croatia, the Zagreb SF convention Sferakon (capital city: 1.000.000 inhabitants), SF story-collection book editing, etc. Pazin is the capital of little region Istra, and the host of second biggest three days' convention - Istrakon (end March). Every year there is a SF&F short story concours, with awards in money and glory, and short story collection book issuing. Three months later, Pazin is the host of Jules Verne Days (7 days - very spectacular), which include 3-days Festival of Fantastic Literature, with live reading in the medieval castle. Pazin has 9.000 inhabitants. (No zeros lost.) Being so special, it's worth visiting, and I invite you all, from all over the world. (Too far? Then come to www.ice.hr/davors/pazin-fan.htm) May I initiate sort of nominations for 'SF-towns/places'? My nominee is Pazin, region Istra, Croatia. Also, small countries/productions (as opposed to SF established territories), maybe according to 'survival law', often create excellent and original stories. They have something special, fresh, just like this little SFic town. There is an initiative/project in growing, born in Germany, to start publishing half-yearly collections of unknown small countries' SF (in English). I hope someone of more qualified than me will drop here these days to tell you about it. Warm regards to all SFrs.   Ásgrímur Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 07:34 am:    Your website is in croatian, patulljak. The only thing I know in that language is cursing. Really. Get it from the guys at Lanterna. My brother works there, or worked. It is not very useful for reading in the language though. Sorry. Nice pictures.   Pia Hall Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 12:55 pm:    Mr. Van Gelder, here is a link to the PORTTI magazine's website (or at least this appears to be their site; could be a fan construct): http://www.saunalahti.fi/~portti/index.html --- Melissa, Tolkien's works include a signigicant amount "borrowed" and adapted from Kalevala and other Nordic material. He was very interested in all things Finnish, apparently. --- If I may contribute a little to the original topic: I'm an aspiring Finnish SF/F author. There's just one catch. I've lived in UK for 12 years and don't intend to move back to Finland. Consequently I'm bringing my aspirations to fruition in English, rather than in Finnish. ;) I must confess that I didn't get into any kind of "fandom" until a couple of years ago. I just quietly absorbed all the delicious stories out there and wasn't even aware of any kind of scene. My favourites remain the so-called old school authors such as Stanislav Lem, Heinlein and Samyatin. However, I am very excited by the contemporary authors that approach fantasy, horror and science fiction with fresh eyes. I adore China Mieville and MMS.   Marina of Tiha Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 03:26 am:    Hello to everybody, remember mentioning of a project - half-yearly collection in English of SF stories from 'small countries'? The first issue of "InterNOVA" is out, and is something marvellous and new. The 'NOVA' team (Germany), in cooperation with a large group of people from many countries, did a great job.(Visit the pages http://www.nova-sf.de/index.htm). The stories are realy representing 'small countries': Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro (Brazil): Peak time Guy Hasson (Israel): Her Destiny Eric Brown (England): Thursday's Child Arthur Goldstuck (South Africa): The Fabulous Yesterdays Sven Klöpping (Germany): Let's Talk About Death, Baby Eduardo J. Carletti (Argentina): Gods's Gut Aleksandar Žiljak (Croatia): What Colour Is The Wind Wu Yan (China): Mouse Pad Vandana Singh (India): The Tetrahedron Lino Aldani (Italy): Red Rhombuses Besides this 10 stories, there are two interesting theoretical works: Richard Kunzmann: The Eclipse of a Genre and the Birth of a NOVA Lavie Tidhar: Science Fiction, Globalization and the People's Republic of China If we add the Introduction of great master of SF, Brian W. Aldiss, (who we expect on Istrakon 2006. as GOH!), we realy have something that deserved to be invented. As I understood, the distribution system is 'print on demand'. The book can be ordered from Nova, or via Amazon. All writers, specially from 'small countries', are welcome to submitt stories in English (or short summaries, which can be evaluated and suggested for translation). The project is growing, join in! Illustrators are also welcome. Small countries suddenly grow, don't you think so? Best wishes from Croatia

| Moderators | Administrators