The Path of Eternal Winter by Niilo Sevänen has been nominated for the Tähtifantasia Award for the best fantasy work published in the previous year.
The Path of Eternal Winter by Niilo Sevänen continues to draw attention and accolades: the first instalment in the Eternal Winter series is now nominated for the Tähtifantasia Award for the best fantasy work published in the previous year.
The Tähtifantasia Award has been awarded since 2007 on a yearly basis by the Helsinki Science Fiction Organization to the best work of fantasy published the previous year, and the winner is picked from a shortlist, that this year also includes Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk with the Finnish edition of her Anna in the Tombs of the World, and the Finnish edition of Robin Hobb‘s The Liveship Traders: Ship of Magic. Previous winners of the prize are Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and multiple instalments in The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski.
The Path of Eternal Winter has been chosen as a “novel set in the Byzantine golden age that combines in a suitable ratio history, adventure, European mythology and fast-paced action scenes. The narration which takes the story to epic levels, is quality fantasy entertainment”.
The Eternal Winter series mixes an extensive background research on real historical events and Finnish folklore and an entertaining prose resulting in a page-turning read that wraps together a well-structured plot, an entertaining style and great marketing potential. The German rights were pre-empted by Bastei-Lübbe in a three-book deal last summer, and the series is published in Finland by Gummerus.
In The Path of Eternal Winter (Eternal Winter #1) it is the year 1007, it has been winter for seven years and we follow Orpheus, a lute player who is fond of taverns and drinking rather than responsibilities and hardships, but he is left with no choice but to take on custody for little Halla, his niece, who is being chased by mercenaries. The pair embark on a perilous escape, which results in an even more dangerous journey towards a destroyed Rome.
This is Niilo Sevänen‘s debut as novelist, but the public may recognise his name as the frontman of the melodic death metal band Insomnium. As the subject matter of Eternal Winter is also the theme of Insomnium‘s most successful album, the book has been turning heads and gathering international attention since the news of its publication reached the Insomnium fandom, which counts over 80.000 followers worldwide, and is currently on tour in Europe.
Warm congratulations to the author and the publisher, and fingers crossed!
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