The Citadel – Fanzine
Citadelata.com is thrilled to be the Bulgarian nominee for the Best Fanzine Award at the 2014 ESFS Awards. This is the first time we represent our country at a Eurocon.
Citadelata.com was founded in 2003 by Vasil Mirchev Jr. , son of a famous Bulgarian movie director. Vasil wanted to create a website from and for the fans, and this has remained our motto to this very day. Later in 2003, Alexander Draganov joined the website as an author of reviews. Initially, the website had a narrow focus on the epic fantasy subgenre and reviewed mostly series like A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin or The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist. Later, it added reviews of books from various subgenres such as children’s books, young adult fiction, science fiction and horror.
Citadelata.com has several different sections. On our main page, we have everyday news from the world of fantasy and science fiction in literature and cinema. We started the news section in 2006 and, if the reader is interested, he or she can check them right from the start.
Citadelata.com has an Authors section featuring biographies of fantasy and SF popular writers: from authors of epic fantasy like Raymond E. Feist and Terry Brooks to prolific writers of both science fiction and fantasy like Simon R. Green to authors of children’s books and young adult novels like J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan and Cassandra Clare.
The Books section contains numerous book reviews, sometimes more than 50 per year. Again, they come from different fantasy and SF subgenres; we include even some fanfiction and gamebooks. We review Bulgarian books and international books that have been translated into Bulgarian—or not yet.
The Interviews section contains the interviews that we have managed to get from famous authors from our country and abroad during the years. Among them, you can see the names of authors such as Raymond E. Fiest, R.A. Salvatore and Simon R. Green, as well as some fan writers like George Norman Lippert, author of the immensely popular James Potter series, or Razmus Tirzitis, director of Star Wars: Threads of Destiny, a feature fan movie in the Star Wars saga. Of course, we have interviews with some of the most famous Bulgarian authors as well, including Khristo Poshtakov and Branimir Subev.
The Various section includes editorials, Top 10 lists and articles about fantasy and SF in general or specific titles, for instance, predictions for a highly anticipated book, like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007.
The Games section is relatively weak, but contains reviews of fantasy or SF games, mostly beat ’em ups like Tekken and Soul Calibur, but also other games as the hugely popular Arkham series. Usually, in these reviews we focus on the story and characters and not so much on gameplay.
The Movies section includes reviews of some of the hottest fantasy and SF movies: novel adaptations, superhero movies and SF actions, as well as some films which are released for DVD, like the DC Universe animated features. We also review cartoons and sometimes non-SF or fantasy movies starring popular actors, such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower drama or the Non-stop action movie. We also have many horror movies reviews, although only if they contain a fantastical element – like The Thing or A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Among the other sections of the website, those of interest include the Actors page, in which we have biographies of actors who have participated in fantasy or SF movies; the Heroes page, featuring bios of fictional characters; the Videos page, where we post trailers made by our team. Probably the biggest fan favorite however is the Duels section, where we pit characters from different movies or novels in fictional matches, often decided by fan voting. Sometimes these Duels evolve into whole Tournaments, dedicated to a popular series.
We also have a discussion board and a Facebook group.