Tag: book fair

Meeting Robert Blond at the Christmas Book Fair

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Today was the last day of the International Book Fair in Sofia. My book harvest this year was primarily gamebooks because there was a shortage of books I wanted and didn’t already buy before it. The Black Friday promotions were too good.

The Gamebook association organized a signing with one of our local gamebook celebrities, Robert Blond, who published a new book and a short story. I had a chance to read both. I finished the short story before it was published and the book – before writing the post.

The 2024 edition of Agamor is also out, which holds 4 gamebooks. One of the books is an official spinoff of Blood Sword. It’s expected to be published in English as well.

We also got a translation of Simon Duhope’s Shadow Chaser, which was surprisingly sophisticated. Took me 3 days to discover the path to the end.

The Shadow Chaser is available in English. Agamor is of local significance as of today.

Another writer who visited the city this week was Rhianna Pratchett. Despite being subscribed for updates on the publisher’s Facebook page, Facebook let me see the event’s announcement after it was over. Missed that opportunity.

Rhianna Pratchett is the author of Crystal of Storms. Would’ve loved to attend her signing.

Mind Storm by Andrew Greene

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

The prettiest cover from the first 6 books I purchased during the book fair is already on the “read” bookshelf. It’s the second book I read this year that doesn’t have a Goodreads entry. If any of my readers here is a Goodreads Librarian, please add it – I posted two requests on Goodreads for book additions.

From what I see, the gamebook writers in some countries that aren’t Bulgaria, seem to prefer publishing their works on Google Drive as a PDF and just let them be available to anyone for free. This one is published in English here.

The photo of the cover is from an angle on purpose – to see all the shiny letters. Then each page has decoration, and the illustrations are stunning. I’m not sure why and how that happened but this is a first edition and a translation at the same time.

The story is Gibson-style cyberpunk, with some references to Gibson and other gamebooks. The gameplay felt linear – you must go through most episodes for a successful read. I’d consider it easy. The writing is good, and the story is engaging.

4/5 for the book, 5+/5 for the editing/illustration/publishing. It’s a piece of art.

International Spring Book Fair Sofia – 2024

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I love the International Book Fair in Sofia. I have a system where I visit the fair multiple times before buying books to get the full experience.

This time I violated the system. Here’s my harvest from Day 1.

Rebecca Yaros, 2x Brandon Sanderson, and 3x game books. 5 out of these 6 books are likely to be 5/5s.

And here’s a photo from the book fair with no books:

The book fair will be open for 10 days until June 2nd.