With “Livido” (Livid), Francesco Verso won the fourth edition of the competition for unpublished SF&F novels, Odissea Award, Italy. In 2009, Francesco had won the Urania Award.
“Livido”is set in a world of a not too distant future where the garbage has become a source of livelihood for whole classes of people, a living art of recycling.
The author is Francesco Verso, born in Bologna but for many years a resident of Rome, experienced in computer science, in the recent years almost full time writer, and a contributor to the connectionist magazine NeXT and the Kipple publishers.
In 2004, Francesco was an Urania Award finalist with the novel “Antidoti umani” (Human Antidotes). A few years later he had succeeded to won the Urania Award with “e-Doll”, published by Urania Publishing Press in 2009. Francesco had published stories in various magazines, including “Robot”. “Livido” will be published this year in the Odissea series.
The other Odissea finalists, all novels of quality, were: “L’inconoscibile” (The unknowable) by Roberto Vaccari; “Senza Preavviso” (Without Notice) by Andrea Franco, “Macchia” (Stain) by Corrado Neri, “La Locanda della Quercia Incantata” (The Inn of the Enchanted Oak) by Daniela Ferraro Pozzer.
“Livido” (Livido) by Francesco Verso : 2013 Odissea Award, Italy
An imaginary city is endangered by the growing of “kipple” (garbage & trash) that takes over the whole urban territory. Most of the people live out of “recycling” and the “reusing” of dump materials, while a small part of the population is uploading themselves onto new artificial bodies. They are called nexhumans and represent the upcoming evolution of man.
Peter Pains, a 15 year old disable “trashformer”, sees his older brother Charlie, leader of a teenage gang called The Dead Bones, killing Alba, a nexhuman girl. Peter was in love with her, regardless the difference in age and decides to gather her electronic pieces to build her again with the help of Ion, a homeless tramp. Peter will have to face one by one all the members of the Dead Bones to obtain every piece of Alba. And it will take him more than 15 years to accomplish such mission. The story ends in three ways, each one leading to a different solution for a possible second novel.
Francesco Verso (born in 1973 in Bologna) is editor of the book series Avatar for Kipple Publishing House.
His first novel “Antidoti umani” (Human Antidotes) was short-listed for the 2004 Urania Mondadori Award (currently in the Top 10 Adventure e-books on Amazon.it).
In 2009 he won the Urania Award with “e-Doll” (around 10.000 copies sold and currently Top 10 in SF e-books on Amazon.it).
In 2012 he won the Odyssey Award by Delos Books with the novel “Livido” (Livid). He also wrote “BloodBusters” which received attention from film companies Fox SearchLight Italy & DAP (DeAngelis Group). His latest book „I Camminatori” (The Walkers) will deal with nanotechnology and the disappearance of food.
He lives in Rome, with his wife Elena and his daughter Sofia.
