You could call the resulting novel science fiction, or you could call it an alternate history. Instead, he was drawn to the consequences of energy use in modern society, particularly to the idea that petroleum won’t last forever. In a newspaper interview, Bueso said he wanted to write an unconventional dystopia, one that didn’t involve an autocratic, evil government. Since then, Cenital has been nominated for a 2013 Ignotus Award, the Spanish equivalent to the Hugos, which will be awarded on December 14 at Hispacón 2013: Quartumcón in Quart de Poblet, near Valencia. (The coincidence in the “celsius” names involves a long story that doesn’t matter here.) Bueso’s previous novel, Diástole, a horror novel about a vampire with a different twist, also won the Celsius Award last year. In fact, I bought one of the last remaining copies from a bookseller at the festival, and Emilio (we were all friends there, even if we had never met before) autographed it for me.Ĭenital had already won the Celsius Award at the Semana Negra Festival. I bought this book after hearing it praised during the Celsius 232 festival for science fiction, fantasy, and horror in August in northern Spain.

Diástole by Emilio Bueso