La suerte del dios hambriento. M.C. Arellano

Sportula. Gijón, 2015. Edición digital (epub). 91 páginas.

Trevia es la única persona que ha entrado en Kargen y ha vuelto para contarlo. Pese a haberse retirado hace ya tiempo, no puede evitar asumir la responsabilidad de acabar para siempre con la mayor amenaza para los niños de Larda, Veria y el Thrais: Urboja, el Dios Hambriento. Así, a regañadientes, se embarca en la que espera que sea su última empresa… y que podría serlo en un sentido muy distinto al que desea.

Jugando con habilidad con los clichés de la fantasía épica clásica y la estructura del «quest», M. C. Arellano construye una historia sólida y con personajes creíbles en la que la reflexión va de mano de la aventura. No es la paz lo que espera al final del viaje del héroe, ni su grial la resplandeciente Verdad que nadie refuta. Tal vez solo sea la libertad de criterio, incómoda y molesta, la recompensa por realizar la tarea que nadie más está dispuesto a emprender.

Cat'S Whirld. (Drimar Saga). Rodolfo Martínez

Sportula. Gijón, 2015. Edición digital (epub). 170 páginas.

Ignotus Award 1996, Best Novel.

English Translation by Steve Redwood.

The neutral Convergence Space Station No. 1, known as the Whirld, is the unofficial but deadly battleground in which several Galactic powers fight, by all means at their disposal, to obtain a certain piece of information that would inevitably determine their whole future. But then an all-powerful malevolent AI, for reasons known only to itself, also enters the game…

Cat's Whirld, a book indispensable for understanding the evolution of Spanish science fiction, is an original fusion of thriller, cyberpunk, and space opera, with unforgettable characters, and a frenetic pace and rhythm that never falter; a hybrid novel in which elements from distinct genres make a surprisingly harmonious whole.

Originally published in 1995, it was the first cyberpunk novel in Spanish; a specially remarkable achievement in that it was also the first of Rodolfo Martínez’ many novels, and yet was not afraid to tread new ground, and, moreover, to do so with great narrative confidence. Twenty years later, the story still retains its power, as fresh and exciting as ever.