Some days ago the 2017 Guillermo de Baskerville Awards (Guillermo de Baskerville [In Italian original: Guglielmo da Baskerville] is an imaginary Franciscan friar with detective skills and main character in the historical novel and mystery, “The Name of the Rose”, written by Umberto Eco in 1980) were announced, for the best indie books of the year.
The jury composed of the writer, bookseller and blogger, David Pierre, the writers Sonia Rico, Javier Font and Diego Marcapáginas has decided to give the 2017 Guillermo de Baskerville Award for the best anthology to “Dark Fantasies”.
Since 2014, “Libros prohibidos” (Prohibited Books) had the honour and pleasure of organizing the Guillermo de Baskerville Awards for the best independent books of the year. This award was born with the idea of giving recognition to the most outstanding works that we have the opportunity to read and review on Libros Prohibidos website.
And the 2017 Best Anthology Guillermo de Baskerville Award was for “Dark Fantasies”, a horror and dark fantasy stories book, edited by Sportula, a Spanish science-fiction and fantasy publishing house.
Edited by Mariano Villarreal, the Nova Fantástica collection has been characterized since its inception by its commitment to offer the best stories of SF&fantasy genres.
After “Terra Nova” , “Butterflies of the West”, “Castles in the Air” and “A Drift in the Sea of Rains”, it is the turn of “Dark Fantasies”, an anthology of tales of dark fantasy and horror of international and Spanish authors with an important feminine presence .
A thematic volume that includes sixteen stories, most of them awarded with the most important distinctions of the genre (Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, World Fantasy) that combine a very high literary quality with the characteristics of dark fantasy fiction.
The anthology includes stories by Anglophone (US&Australian) authors Alyssa Wong, Angela Slatter, Caroline M. Yoachim, Damien Angelica Walters, Eugie Foster, Lucy A. Snyder, Maria Dahvana, Mike Resnick, Rachel Swirsky, Víctor Sellers and Spanish ones, Alfredo Álamo, Elia Barceló, Ferrán Varela, Luis Eduardo Bermejo, Mercurio D. Rivera, Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría.
“Without a doubt, an anthology that you will love if you are a lover of fantasy, short fiction … and good literature in general“. – Cristina Martínez Carou (Fantasy Mundo)
““Dark Fantasies” has been a unique experience. Reading it has been very enriching. There have been some stories that have not finished going with me, but they still have a great quality. The more than representative presence of authors and that many stories have had a LGBT component deserves my congratulations. Other anthologies have much to learn from it, especially for the balance of sexes. (…) I can only say that I am looking forward to reading other anthologies of the Nova Fantástica label and that I will be more than attentive to the next thing that brings this stamp“. – Fairy Reader
“We have an editor who knows the material, knows what he does and selects excellent authors and translators. (..) Given its quality, all the stories deserve attention and space of their own. Each of them is a reason to read Dark Fantasies” .- Gema Moratalla (Books in Vein)
“I encourage you very much to read this book or to put it in your pile. It is very worthwhile. The fact that there are so many authors in the anthology is a joy, especially because they are authors who are difficult to access in Spanish in another way, although the vast majority have stories published in different anthologies, websites and magazines. To check the status of the voices of the genre in the international scene, to enjoy some fantastic readings and to suffer a bit during that reading: in any case, choosing Dark Fantasies is right.” – Sara Terrero (Libros Prohibidos)
“Dark Fantasies” (…) is part of a titanic effort to give visibility to works and authors that do not normally arrive through the commonly established channels. It also achieves the delicate balance between offering a personal version of what fantastic literature has to offer and at the same time making us question our own criteria and prejudices regarding gender. With the expected ups and downs of any selection, I found it a very attractive volume that, once again, has forced me to take note of several authors that I should review in the future.” – Ricardo Riera (Lobohombre Riera)
“The average quality of the stories has seemed very good, but is that the short novel that ends the anthology, is that, exceptional.” – Quantum Origin
“A successful selection of authors who, as is usual in the Nova Fantástica anthologies, invites us to follow their careers closely and wish that their works were published more frequently in our homeland.” – Santiago Gª Solans (SagaComic – Lothlorien)
“Dark Fantasies”
Cover illustration: Tullius Heuer
Cover design: Sportula
http://sportula.es/?p=3561
