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Binge-Worthy Reads: The Very Best Greek and European Sci-Fi From the Last Decade

5 Selected Greek Titles in an article by Iphaistion Khristopoulos

Unborn Brothers by Michalis Manolios (Αγέννητοι Αδελφοί/Μιχάλης Μανωλιός) 2014

A near-future science fiction novel in Manolios’s characteristic style, it touches upon the possibility of implanting multiple artificial personalities (the titular unborn brothers) in a single person. There are three central characters we follow—the scientist who has invented the technology, a world-renowned musician and an assassin—all of which, interestingly enough for a male author, are women. However, there’s actually an abundance of characters in the book, all of which distinct from each other, as we watch each person’s unborn brothers emerge from their subconscious and take control.

It’s a demanding, complex and sometimes brutal novel, full of human drama and difficult dilemmas—a typical trait of the author, who likes placing his characters in situations where all possible outcomes are disastrous or unethical.

Michalis Manolios was born in 1970. He has released four books, two short story collections and two novels, including the one mentioned above. As far as I know, there’s one more short story collection coming in 2020. His story “Aethra” won the Aeon Award in in 2010. His works have been translated into English and Italian and, recently, Filipino.

Exiled Faces by P.M. Zervos (Η Εξορία του Προσώπου/ Π.Μ. Ζερβός) 2017

A short horror novel situated in Athens’s sister city, Piraeus. It’s in a sense the chronicle of a man’s descend into madness, starting with a terrifying dream. The story unfolds in the duration of one year. The nameless narrator keeps having the same nightmare every night at midnight. Soon he finds out that the same happens to the rest of the residents of his building, resulting even in the death of some. Later in the year, the nightmares stop, but an insatiable hunger for food and sex takes their place, which incites extreme behaviours, followed by a period of abject apathy. And so the story unfolds during the four seasons of the year, till we reach a state of normalcy that seems even more terrifying than the previous states of nervous collapse.

It is a strange allegorical book that makes use of the tropes of the horror genre to address the problems and struggles of modern man.

P. M Zervos was born in 1972 and lives in Piraeus. He has published short stories and essays in magazines and anthologies and has also translated some H. P. Lovecraft stories into Greek. A distinctive characteristic of his writing is his use of polytonic orthography, as opposed to the monotonic orthography which was introduced in 1982 and is the official Greek writing system ever since.

The Sons of Ash Trilogy by Eleftherios Keramidas (Οι Γιοι της Στάχτης/ Ελευθέριος Κεραμίδας) 2010

This is an epic trilogy in a pseudo-Byzantine environment. The first volume was published in 2010 by a major Greek publishing house, and later it was reissued in a revised edition, along with the rest of the trilogy, by a different publisher. It is essentially the story of a failing empire, full of court intrigue, magical human and non-human creatures, featuring impressive battle tactics and even a twisted but familiar version of Orthodox Christianity. The story starts with the son of an almighty wizard who tries to thwart his father’s plans, a youth raised in a monastery who finds out he has some special powers and the minister of a demented emperor who tries to manipulate the empire’s politics. The kingdom’s future seems to somehow depend on their actions.

An impressive amount of historical research has gone into this one, and, despite the abundance of characters and names, it’s quite easy to follow and keeps you turning the pages. It is also linguistically very interesting, as the author uses a fair amount of Byzantine terms along with his own made-up archaic words to recreate the atmosphere of a bygone era.

Eleftherios Keramidas was born in 1977 in Ithaca. Said trilogy is his first publication. Before that, some of his short stories had been included in sff anthologies.

Imaginative Stories by Various (ΕΦΦάνταστες Ιστορίες) 2013

First of all, please ignore the fact that there’s one of my own stories in this one. This is by no means the reason I’m including it. This is an anthology comprising short stories from the Science Fiction Club of Athens’s (ALEF) writers’ workshop. The works included are a selection of the best stories presented to the workshop between the years 2005 and 2012. Some of the writers were already established authors with published works, while for others it was their first time in print. The majority of the stories are science fiction, but there are also a few touches of horror or magical realism, and there’s a diversity in topic and style.

The book includes stories by: Giannis Papadopoulos, Panagiotis Koustas, Stamatis Stamatopoulos, Hedwig-Maria Karakouda, Spyros Kintzios and Angela-Lu Petrou, Nektarios Chryssos, Kelly Theodorakopoulou, Christina Malapetsa, Kostas Charitos, Michalis Manolios, Vasso Christou, Teti Theodorou, Hephaestion Christopoulos.

The Science Fiction Club of Athens has been around since 1998. The writers’ workshop takes place twice a year and this is the second anthology coming out of it. It is open to both experienced and first-time authors.

Desert and Fog by Christina Malapetsa (Έρημος και Ομίχλη/ Χριστίνα Μαλαπέτσα) 2015

A book consisting of two medium-length novels set in the author’s fantasy universe. The writer herself describes it as “two character-oriented fantasy stories about duty, morals and free will. Also daddy issues.” The first story pertains to a city beset by a curse that causes water shortage.. The situation is dire, so the city’s ruler decides to ask a neighbouring city for help. It is quite a straightforward fantasy story, but with a consistent worldbuilding and some impressive ideas. The second one is an eerie tale about two female adventurers who land on a bizarre island country inhabited by some not quite human creatures and try to understand the rules of their society. This one is the more magical of the two, full of little and larger details about an imaginary society and species.

Christina Malapetsa lives in Stockholm. Short stories of hers have appeared in anthologies, and Desert and Fog is her first book. Both stories were initially written for a NaNoWriMo challenge, and were later reworked and revised.

Sadly, none of the above titles have been translated in English yet. If you really wanna read some of them, leave a comment on this post so we can gauge interest.

You can read the entire article and find more European spec-fic titles here.

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Do You Miss Old-School Science Fiction? Then Check Out These Little Beauties

There’s a project out there, that is quite interesting. Future Fiction translates sci-fi stories from selected authors around the world and makes them available in English (And Italian, apparently).

Finding the books on Amazon is a mess, to be honest. You can start with a search on Kindle here. Or you can buy directly from the Future Fiction website.

The one I want to point out to you is the one containing two excellent shorts by my mentor, Michalis Manolios. Mentor is a strong word when you’ve had as many beers together as we’ve had, but it’s accurate. I think it was 2010, maybe 2009 when he read my stories, pushed me forward and told me I could do this, and do it well. I was fascinated with fantasy back then, but my true calling has been science fiction apparently. I shifted towards sci-fi and I honed my craft every year. The results seem to be good, as shown by reader reactions and sales numbers.

So, Michalis has two of his best short stories translated into English. They are not my favourite but they are definitely good. The stories in that Greek collection are pretty mindblowing, and these two fit the bill. Aethra and Quantum Mommy.

Read this now


I Wanna Get My Mind Blown

The rest of the volumes are either a single novella or two short stories from authors around the world. It’s a shame that we don’t have access to these stories, and that’s what I like about Future Fiction, they bring these unreachable gems to English, thus making them available to us. Some authors you’ve never heard of, naturally, others are quite well known in their countries.

Everything in the collection has the feel of old-school sci-fi, like the books I have in my bookcase. The covers, the stories, the atmosphere is a way to go back to that time when science fiction showed us what was possible instead of just shoving dystopian warnings at us. Which I’m guilty of, obviously.

Check out some of the volumes:

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I Have a Patreon Now. Patreons Are Cool.

Patronage. Just like the practice of old, we’ve resurrected the model into a digital mold, more fitting to the age.

I’m new to this. Be gentle.

Micropatronage, having a bunch of regular people pitching in small amounts instead of one wealthy patron, is being successful with plenty of examples.

What I had was a PILE of story ideas sitting on my projects folder. Some have merit, some are simply the butt of a joke. Others are pretty damn brilliant, I might say.

I took all that and decided to squeeze out at least one short story per month. That way, I can see the works-in-progress slowly thinning down, I can test them with real people and real readers, and see which one’s a winner and which one’s a dud.

I’ve been doing that already with the Epic Poets, but to be honest, I firmly believe in putting one’s money where one’s mouth is. Feedback from fans is excellent, but feedback from people who have paid a dollar carries much more weight.

Also, I have plenty of ideas that fall into fantasy or urban fantasy. At some point, as I burn through the sci-fi ones, I’ll eventually work on those too. Having patrons will provide a steady and verifiable metric that my output will be worth the time invested. I’m bound to change a lot of this on my Patreon page, I just threw one up quickly.

There’s a short story waiting for you right now, called “Life Coach.”

So, click the orange button to get a steady flow of speculative fiction short stories. I’m your story-dealer. Be patronizing. Or just share the post with your friends.

Become a Patron!

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Massive Freebie Promo on August for Science Fiction and Fantasy Books!

As with every month, be ready for Patty’s Promo.

Promotion Over. Sign up at the Mythographers List and get notified for the next one.

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Let’s just call it speculative fiction, shall we?

This time we’ve really gone far and wide, making books available on ALL major retailers. There’s not a corner of the globe where one of them won’t reach.
We’ve got:

  • Google Play Books,
  • Kobo,
  • iTunes,
  • Smashwords,
  • Nook
  • and of course Amazon.

Check out some of the early offers right now, or just wait for the email on the day.

Our own submission is:

I Can’t Wait That Long! Show Me The Books.

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Rahr! Dragons And Science Fiction eBooks At A May 99-Cent Special Offer

We are running a promotion with other indie authors and publishing houses, all in Science Fiction and Fantasy genres.

science fiction fantasy ebooks kindle discount promo bargain
Here Be Dragons

So, if you like sci-fi, fantasy and horror signup with your email address and get the May email that will give you an insane amount of 99 cent books to choose from!
Yes I Want To Get An Email When The Promo Is Up!

This particular promo focuses on Spec-fic books on Amazon Kindle.

At that promo you’ll be able to get our own book:

Just signup at the ginormous red button above and you’ll get an email soon.

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Massive Freebie Promo on April for Science Fiction and Fantasy Books!

Promotion over! But you can signup at the mailing list through the big button below and get notified on future special offers.

We are running a promotion with other indie authors and publishing houses, all in the speculative fiction genre.

Lets clog those Kindles!
Lets clog those Kindles!

So, if you like sci-fi, fantasy and horror signup with your email address and get the April email that will give you an insane amount of free books to choose from!
Yes I Want To Get An Email When The Promo Is Up!

This particular promo focuses on Spec-fic books on Amazon Kindle.

At that promo you’ll be able to get our own book:

Just signup at the ginormous red button above and you’ll get an email soon.

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Huuuge March Promo! Signup On The List To Get It.

Obviously this promo ended. Join the Mythographers Mailing List below for more promos like these.

We are running a promotion with other indie authors and publishing houses, all in the speculative fiction genre.

Honestly, more than you can read this year.
Honestly, more than you can read this year.

So, if you like sci-fi, fantasy and horror signup with your email address and get the March email that will give you an insane amount of books to choose from!

Yes I Want To Get An Email When The Promo Is Up!

This particular promo focuses on

a) Spec-fic books on Amazon Kindle Unlimited and

b) On Spec-fic books on Kobo, discounted to free for the time of the promotion.

At that promo you’ll be able to get our own books:

The new release: The Girl Who Twisted Fate’s Arm

And on Kobo: Crying Over Spilt Light

Just signup at the huuuge red button above and you’ll get an email soon.