SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
DEX-ul si sexul

(A Hét, # 48, December 2005)
The whole book is actually a kind of chat with the reader; but it doesn’t lack the substance. Serious topics alternate with less serious ones, but all of them are treated with wit and humor. This is why the volume can be read in one breath, from the first to the last page.

(Observator cultural, # 39, November 2005)
Radu Pavel Gheo doesn’t take himself very seriously; I mean he doesn’t step in the arena with flexed muscles, waiting to „fight the bull” with an inflationist and tasteless discourse. He has a naturalness of expression that turns itself into a very good humor, so that many readers would inevitably burst into laugh. Radu Pavel Gheo belongs to the “new wave” of publicists, people who laugh heartily and react whenever an annoyance arises.

(Familia, # 4/ April 2006)
An intelligent game, conceived with humor, irony and self-irony... an interactive game, where the reader’s final purpose is to destroy a handful of prejudices, stereotypes and clichés.

(Elle, Romanian edition, April 2006)
I believe you’ll need less than thirty days to discover, in DEX-ul si sexul, an author who writes with a similar pleasure about sex and about homeland – two never ending topics, full of tension and hope.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
DEX-ul si sexul

(A Hét, # 48, December 2005)
The whole book is actually a kind of chat with the reader; but it doesn’t lack the substance. Serious topics alternate with less serious ones, but all of them are treated with wit and humor. This is why the volume can be read in one breath, from the first to the last page.

(Observator cultural, # 39, November 2005)
Radu Pavel Gheo doesn’t take himself very seriously; I mean he doesn’t step in the arena with flexed muscles, waiting to „fight the bull” with an inflationist and tasteless discourse. He has a naturalness of expression that turns itself into a very good humor, so that many readers would inevitably burst into laugh. Radu Pavel Gheo belongs to the “new wave” of publicists, people who laugh heartily and react whenever an annoyance arises.

(Familia, # 4/ April 2006)
An intelligent game, conceived with humor, irony and self-irony... an interactive game, where the reader’s final purpose is to destroy a handful of prejudices, stereotypes and clichés.

(Elle, Romanian edition, April 2006)
I believe you’ll need less than thirty days to discover, in DEX-ul si sexul, an author who writes with a similar pleasure about sex and about homeland – two never ending topics, full of tension and hope.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
FAIRIA – A Land Far Away (novel)

(Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2004) (Orizont, # 7 – July 2004)
Radu Pavel Gheo creates a fairy-land with and without fairies, replacing the common imaginary of the mankind in a dimension made up by himself, where centaurs and leprechauns coexist inside a strange, yet familiar reality... The writer does and undoes everything, with nostalgia and humor... Radu Pavel Gheo is more than a gifted story-teller. 

(Academia Catavencu, # 24 – June 2004)
Fairia – a Land Far Away is a mixture of SF and heroic fantasy. A perfect connoisseur of the domain, Radu Pavel Gheo avoids the traps of the genre, with the help of his talent, but also of his humor: the prince is slightly dumb, the princess is fat and pimpled, and inherits a small city nobody cares for, while the witch is beautiful and intelligent. Anything is possible on planet Fairia... Among the serious readers, there are still some – we, the lucky ones – who don’t hesitate enjoying the simple beauty of these charming and perfectly unpretentious games. To them I recommend this book. 

(Cultura, # 14 – June 2004)
After the first pages, I thought I was reading a banal SF story... Instead, it followed one of the most beautiful fairy tales I had ever read in my entire career of fan. The story told by Radu Pavel Gheo in Fairia is not “innocent” at all – it forges a series of different sources, starting with the Odyssey and ending up with the Romanian fairy tales, on a shelf where one can find also allusions to Poe, Michael Ende, Stanislaw Lem, etc. 

(Romania literara, # 25 – June 2004)
With this novel, Radu Pavel Gheo achieves two extremely important things. Firstly, here we have – finally – a natural born storyteller, with an enchanting rhythm of the sentence... Secondly, the major importance of this book is constituted by the genre it fits in. Fairia is a crossbred novel: SF, fantasy and intertextuality, as any high-level narration should be. 

(Pro-Scris, # 2 – June 2004)
Gheo’s latest book, Fairia – A Land Far Away, is presented as a spiritual daughter of Michael Ende’s Never Ending Story. Most of the critics considered we have one of the few fantasy writings from the Romanian literature... But Fairia is based on a subtle and refined drug, distributed extremely skillfully throughout the book. It forces (awful word!) to become all the Little Prince, to ignore the hat, and to see the elephant swallowed by the boa constrictor.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Romanians IS smart (essays)

(Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2004) (Orizont, # 7 – July 2004)
Romanians IS Smart bears witness for a tough and sometimes merciless sense of criticism... The writer uses the cultural models in order to unmask hypocrisies, vassalage ties, and anachronisms that harm a society... The book includes some highly impressive fragments about the ethnic tolerance functioning in Banat and Timisoara, but also about the blood-dripping fall of the Yugoslavian ideal...

(Romania libera, # 134 – May 2004)
Highly instructed and perfectly able to use his skills and (deep) knowledge, Radu Pavel Gheo knows to select the tonality he needs in order to transmit his controversial ideas in the reader’s conscience. This doesn’t mean one has to agree with all the allegations advanced by this novelist and essayist. But all his allegations are worth being judged and discussed. They are never wasted words.

(Romania literara, # 22 – June 2004)
One thing is sure about Radu Pavel Gheo, an author with an acute polemic attitude: he doesn’t have too many cultural taboos... He goes in a personal crusade against the clichés, the common places, the comtemporary cultural illnesses and the constant obsessions from Romania. He is a writer who takes a stand against the falsehood of the world where he lives as an intellectual..., opposing to the stiffness of our cultural system the stress-free vision of his age. And he does it with an infinite irony.

(Evenimentul zilei, # 3774 – June 2004)
The ethno-ironic title of the book reminds us of Gheo’s previous book, Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell, where the author wrote – charmingly, intelligently and lacking prejudices – about his temporary American experience, after he Had initially won the Visa Lottery. The essays from his new book – about Romania, the country he returned to – strenghten the lines of an already known portrait: Radu Pavel Gheo is one of the strongest and the most impressive writers and analysts of the day... (He) writes with an easy hand and a lot of courage, but he’s also relaxed, ironic, self-mocking, blunt and clear.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Adio, adio, patria mea cu “i” din “i”, cu “a” din “a”
(roughly Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell...)

...An extraordinary book, and a brilliant writer, who will landmark a moment of history. 

(Observator cultural, # 198 – December 2003)
Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell... was a surprise mainly because of the subject choesnn by the author: simple and powerful... The description of the American toilets or fast foods are impeccable. The critical eye that demoted Romania also demotes America... It is an exciting and provocative book which should be found on the reading shelf of any youngster. 

(Orizont, # 2 – February 2004)
I believe Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell... is an excellent chapter in the Romanian literature. But it is so different from the common literature, so far from the common places of the Romanian writing..., and it uses such a natural language, that it rises the temptation to place it in a different genre. Gheo’s ability to watch and observe seems to come from anthropology... 

(Adevarul literar si artistic, # 698 – January 2004)
This book, with a memorable title, is the story of the hero-narrator, misfit in the American society – a society seen and evaluated from inside. Even if I cannot always agree with Radu Pavel Gheo’s conclusions, I recommend this book, the result of a real experience and etremely well written. 

(Timpul, # 3 – March 2004)
The comments offered by a Romanian who lived in Seattle touch – with a remarkable elasticity – the weak points of the Romanian and American mentalities... In most of the cases, the comparison is a critical one. The writer himself considers he is a „professional grumbler”. The positive elements from one side of the ocean are opposed to the negative ones from the other side and viceversa. 

(Lumea ieseanului, # 81 – April 2004)
What kind of book is this? It’s hard to choose a reading strategy. You can take it as a diary of a young writer who left for a better world..., as a handbook for cursing America (as a lot of mislead people thought it to be), or – viceversa – as a blow in the Romanians’ head with a hammer... One should notice the author’s strong will and huge effort taken to explain what can be explained only when living this experience.

(Adevarul literar si artistic, # 711 – April 2004)
No matter how we want to judge Gheo’s text, it reveals the same precision (not neccessary in the journalistic sense), and the critic elation... Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell in not only a colection of letters sent home – via e-mail – from and about America. It is also the manifesto of a generation who stubbornly continues to love its country, despite all disillusionment.

“Evenimentul zilei” # 3430/ July 12th, 2003
...This book is extremely interesting for those who prepare to leave for America, but not only for them. The reasons why the author and his wife decided to return to Romania are not – of course – universally valid, but they could give you something to think about.

“Prima ora” # 1249/ July 16th, 2003
Radu Pavel Gheo doesn’t want to teach or to preach, to persuade or to dissuade. He wrote because he felt he had to tell his American story – what happened, how it was, why he returned...

“Ziarul de Iasi” # 3674/ July 25th, 2003
The book avoids the pathos, the grandiloquence or the cheap sentimentalism. It is a testimony of undoubtful honesty, a result of an existential experience. No matter how this experience ended, it gave the author the chance to understand directly another world. His destiny, as a writer and a human being, has gained a lot out of it.

“Romania literara" # 31/ August 2003
Gheo is a self-possessed writer, endowed with nerve and with very few dilemmas when it comes to writing...

“Adevarul literar si artistic” #677/ August 2003
...Therefore, we have here a realistic image of the American way of life, an image which is not entirely bright and joyful, at least not as one can imagine when judging America only by movies and superficial writings...

“Ateneu” # 8/ August 2003
[The author] dissects the American myths, preconceptions and illusions. He tries out if the politically correctness or the sexual harassment issues have the importance we suppose it is attached to them over the ocean. He watches the Americans spending their holidays, the Christmas, the Sundays, meets some other immigrants, goes to the public library, beholds the showcase of an American avenue..., describes the daily life of an average American inhabitant.

“Observator cultural” # 184/ August 2003
Radu Pavel Gheo’s book is not a theoretical study in sociology or anthropology. It is just a collection of subjective essays, endowed with the power of seduction.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Despre science fiction (On Science Fiction)
(Omnibooks Publishing House, Satu-Mare, 2001)

“Playboy” (Romanian edition) #23 / September 2001
Gheo imposed himself as the most authorized literary voice in the [Romanian] S.F. community. His columns and reviews have been equally appreciated in other cultural magazines, such as “Romania literara” and “Dilema”... One should admire the clear, unsophisticated language used by the critic... I hope that “On Science Fiction” will not be Gheo’s last book written in Romanian...”

Pro-scris” #7-8 / July-October 2001
The author, who was born in 1969 and holds a B.A. degree in Letters, is – together with Florin Pitea, one of the extremely promising literary critics from the young generation of the Romanian science fiction. The speculative scope of his critical comments and theoretical approaches is a remarkable one... The first theoretical volume published by Radu Pavel Gheo is a remarkable achievement... (Voicu Bugariu)

Radu Pavel Gheo understands he should approach the science fiction writings like the French approach a woman, namely endowing it with the mysterious charm of the femininity: “la science-fiction”. He dwells upon it as Leonardo in front of Gioconda. This is only one reason why you should read his book. It will not leave you the impression of a dissection table from a mortuary of the spirit..., but will give you the perception of an elegance one could seldom find anywhere else in the literary journalism of this beginning of a new millenium....

Radu Pavel Gheo reopens the door that was closed when we said “Good night” to Sophia... He bewitches us with the fragrance of an utopia distilled from the best essence... (Gyorfy-Deak Gyorgy)

“Observator cultural” #75 / 2001
The contemporary literary criticism [from Romania] was missing an applied study on the science fiction writing. For this reason, Radu Pavel Gheo’s book is not only a successful collection of critical and analytical essays, but also an event for the S.F. cultural movement.

...R.P. Gheo starts from the emergence of the S.F. idea, follows the historical evolution of the S.F. idea as pretext or as props for the story, and reaches at the moment of its decline. Also, the typological analysis of the spaces belonging to the imaginary, the classification of the fictional worlds, the thematic study of the stranger’s figure, the outline of the fantastic inside S.F..., all these prove Radu Pavel Gheo’s critical and theoretical competence in the field of science fiction...

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Valea Cerului Senin
(The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky)

“ArtPanorama” #1 / October 1997
For that who has read Radu Pavel Gheo only in literary magazines, the mentioned collection of short stories will mean for sure a real revelation. The selection has been very skillfully made, underlying the unitary character of his writings, the stylistic and ideational unity… The author succeeds in stirring his reader, to collaborate empathically with him, to transmit him that feeling of terror and anxiety towards the abnormalities that a society reached at… His creation is a sublime attempt of rediscovering the innocence. I truly confess that Gheo’s writings affect me…

“Alternativ SF” #1 / June 25th, 1997
…Gheo’s texts are real; they are pure literature before being science fiction. It seems like Gheo wanted to prove his affiliation to the group “Those Who Don’t”… As a whole, The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky is a success and a promise which we are sure Radu Pavel Gheo will honor cum laudae. The ease he proves while moving in the large spaces of the novella gives us the right to believe his next book will be a novel, one of those novels the Romanian authors avoid to write, for reasons known by nobody else but them.

“Fictiuni” #2 / 1998 ( Satu-Mare, Romania )
This is, probably, one of the most convincing first appearance in the last decade of Romanian fiction… The first thing to be observed from the very beginning is his literary instinct, which is absent at most of the prose-writers from the same generation… The stories from The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky have a density and a structure that can’t be reached by those who produce only literary exercises. Of course, when we confront with real literature, the simple description of literary modalities proves to be insufficient. This is why we are compelled to appeal to ineffable, immeasurable, things that are akin to literary talent. The author has such a talent, and his best passages reach the authentic poetry… Too gifted for becoming a star of the science fiction movement from Romania, too “science fiction” to be granted a common literary recognition in Romania, he hasn’t but the chance to become a Stanislaw Lem, a Strugatski or a Serge Brussolo, I mean an author who writes in other language than English, yet he succeeds to be recognized.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS

SF Dictionary (Nemira Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999)
Radu Pavel Gheo radicalizes even more Voicu Bugariu’s critical discourse, and organizes – for the first time in the Romanian literature of the imaginary – a corpus of theoretical texts designed to support his argumentation. His most recent theoretical position, entitled Preliminary Comments on the Specific of Science Fiction (published in Anticipatia Almanac 1998) ends up with the seemingly paradoxical conclusion: “The definition of a hypothetical specificity on the science fiction literature in accordance with a certain canon should begin with the sentence: ‘Science fiction literature either lacks literary value, or doesn’t exist’…”

“ Romania literara” #8 / March 1st-7th, 2000
The commentator was also delighted by Radu Pavel Gheo’s text on Lucian Boia. The name of this young man (we suppose) drew our attention a few times in “Dilema”, where he published intelligent and well-written texts. Nobody could tell us precisely who this Radu Pavel Gheo is, but all those who where asked agreed that he is very good…

“Lumi virtuale” # 14 / 2001 (electronic magazine)
Radu Pavel Gheo sells his personal library because he is going to America . And from here my scriptorium impulse has almost completely vanished… It happened that many of us offered their views on the Romanian science fiction, some of us even had ‘opinions’, each of us in a more or less articulate manner, but Radu Pavel Gheo was the only one closest to system…

Other relevant bibliographical information about the author:

- Dictionar SF (SF Dictionary), Nemira Publishing House, Bucharest , 1999 (in Romanian) or www.nemira.ro/librarii/dictSF

- www.moldautextur.com (in German)

- www.banat.ro/biblioteca (A Dictionary of the Romanian Writers from Banat , Transylvania )

FAIRIA – A Land Far Away (novel)
(Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2004) (Orizont, # 7 – July 2004)
Radu Pavel Gheo creates a fairy-land with and without fairies, replacing the common imaginary of the mankind in a dimension made up by himself, where centaurs and leprechauns coexist inside a strange, yet familiar reality... The writer does and undoes everything, with nostalgia and humor... Radu Pavel Gheo is more than a gifted story-teller. 

(Academia Catavencu, # 24 – June 2004)
Fairia – a Land Far Away is a mixture of SF and heroic fantasy. A perfect connoisseur of the domain, Radu Pavel Gheo avoids the traps of the genre, with the help of his talent, but also of his humor: the prince is slightly dumb, the princess is fat and pimpled, and inherits a small city nobody cares for, while the witch is beautiful and intelligent. Anything is possible on planet Fairia... Among the serious readers, there are still some – we, the lucky ones – who don’t hesitate enjoying the simple beauty of these charming and perfectly unpretentious games. To them I recommend this book. 

(Cultura, # 14 – June 2004)
After the first pages, I thought I was reading a banal SF story... Instead, it followed one of the most beautiful fairy tales I had ever read in my entire career of fan. The story told by Radu Pavel Gheo in Fairia is not “innocent” at all – it forges a series of different sources, starting with the Odyssey and ending up with the Romanian fairy tales, on a shelf where one can find also allusions to Poe, Michael Ende, Stanislaw Lem, etc. 

(Romania literara, # 25 – June 2004)
With this novel, Radu Pavel Gheo achieves two extremely important things. Firstly, here we have – finally – a natural born storyteller, with an enchanting rhythm of the sentence... Secondly, the major importance of this book is constituted by the genre it fits in. Fairia is a crossbred novel: SF, fantasy and intertextuality, as any high-level narration should be. 

(Pro-Scris, # 2 – June 2004)
Gheo’s latest book, Fairia – A Land Far Away, is presented as a spiritual daughter of Michael Ende’s Never Ending Story. Most of the critics considered we have one of the few fantasy writings from the Romanian literature... But Fairia is based on a subtle and refined drug, distributed extremely skillfully throughout the book. It forces (awful word!) to become all the Little Prince, to ignore the hat, and to see the elephant swallowed by the boa constrictor.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Romanians IS smart (essays)
(Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2004)

(Orizont, # 7 – July 2004)
Romanians IS Smart bears witness for a tough and sometimes merciless sense of criticism... The writer uses the cultural models in order to unmask hypocrisies, vassalage ties, and anachronisms that harm a society... The book includes some highly impressive fragments about the ethnic tolerance functioning in Banat and Timisoara, but also about the blood-dripping fall of the Yugoslavian ideal...

(Romania libera, # 134 – May 2004)
Highly instructed and perfectly able to use his skills and (deep) knowledge, Radu Pavel Gheo knows to select the tonality he needs in order to transmit his controversial ideas in the reader’s conscience. This doesn’t mean one has to agree with all the allegations advanced by this novelist and essayist. But all his allegations are worth being judged and discussed. They are never wasted words.

(Romania literara, # 22 – June 2004)
One thing is sure about Radu Pavel Gheo, an author with an acute polemic attitude: he doesn’t have too many cultural taboos... He goes in a personal crusade against the clichés, the common places, the comtemporary cultural illnesses and the constant obsessions from Romania. He is a writer who takes a stand against the falsehood of the world where he lives as an intellectual..., opposing to the stiffness of our cultural system the stress-free vision of his age. And he does it with an infinite irony.

(Evenimentul zilei, # 3774 – June 2004)
The ethno-ironic title of the book reminds us of Gheo’s previous book, Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell, where the author wrote – charmingly, intelligently and lacking prejudices – about his temporary American experience, after he Had initially won the Visa Lottery. The essays from his new book – about Romania, the country he returned to – strenghten the lines of an already known portrait: Radu Pavel Gheo is one of the strongest and the most impressive writers and analysts of the day... (He) writes with an easy hand and a lot of courage, but he’s also relaxed, ironic, self-mocking, blunt and clear.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Adio, adio, patria mea cu “i” din “i”, cu “a” din “a”
(roughly Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell...)

...An extraordinary book, and a brilliant writer, who will landmark a moment of history. 

(Observator cultural, # 198 – December 2003)
Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell... was a surprise mainly because of the subject choesnn by the author: simple and powerful... The description of the American toilets or fast foods are impeccable. The critical eye that demoted Romania also demotes America... It is an exciting and provocative book which should be found on the reading shelf of any youngster. 

(Orizont, # 2 – February 2004)
I believe Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell... is an excellent chapter in the Romanian literature. But it is so different from the common literature, so far from the common places of the Romanian writing..., and it uses such a natural language, that it rises the temptation to place it in a different genre. Gheo’s ability to watch and observe seems to come from anthropology... 

(Adevarul literar si artistic, # 698 – January 2004)
This book, with a memorable title, is the story of the hero-narrator, misfit in the American society – a society seen and evaluated from inside. Even if I cannot always agree with Radu Pavel Gheo’s conclusions, I recommend this book, the result of a real experience and etremely well written. 

(Timpul, # 3 – March 2004)
The comments offered by a Romanian who lived in Seattle touch – with a remarkable elasticity – the weak points of the Romanian and American mentalities... In most of the cases, the comparison is a critical one. The writer himself considers he is a „professional grumbler”. The positive elements from one side of the ocean are opposed to the negative ones from the other side and viceversa. 

(Lumea ieseanului, # 81 – April 2004)
What kind of book is this? It’s hard to choose a reading strategy. You can take it as a diary of a young writer who left for a better world..., as a handbook for cursing America (as a lot of mislead people thought it to be), or – viceversa – as a blow in the Romanians’ head with a hammer... One should notice the author’s strong will and huge effort taken to explain what can be explained only when living this experience.

(Adevarul literar si artistic, # 711 – April 2004)
No matter how we want to judge Gheo’s text, it reveals the same precision (not neccessary in the journalistic sense), and the critic elation... Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell in not only a colection of letters sent home – via e-mail – from and about America. It is also the manifesto of a generation who stubbornly continues to love its country, despite all disillusionment.

“Evenimentul zilei” # 3430/ July 12th, 2003
...This book is extremely interesting for those who prepare to leave for America, but not only for them. The reasons why the author and his wife decided to return to Romania are not – of course – universally valid, but they could give you something to think about.

“Prima ora” # 1249/ July 16th, 2003
Radu Pavel Gheo doesn’t want to teach or to preach, to persuade or to dissuade. He wrote because he felt he had to tell his American story – what happened, how it was, why he returned...

“Ziarul de Iasi” # 3674/ July 25th, 2003
The book avoids the pathos, the grandiloquence or the cheap sentimentalism. It is a testimony of undoubtful honesty, a result of an existential experience. No matter how this experience ended, it gave the author the chance to understand directly another world. His destiny, as a writer and a human being, has gained a lot out of it.

“Romania literara" # 31/ August 2003
Gheo is a self-possessed writer, endowed with nerve and with very few dilemmas when it comes to writing...

“Adevarul literar si artistic” #677/ August 2003
...Therefore, we have here a realistic image of the American way of life, an image which is not entirely bright and joyful, at least not as one can imagine when judging America only by movies and superficial writings...

“Ateneu” # 8/ August 2003
[The author] dissects the American myths, preconceptions and illusions. He tries out if the politically correctness or the sexual harassment issues have the importance we suppose it is attached to them over the ocean. He watches the Americans spending their holidays, the Christmas, the Sundays, meets some other immigrants, goes to the public library, beholds the showcase of an American avenue..., describes the daily life of an average American inhabitant.

“Observator cultural” # 184/ August 2003
Radu Pavel Gheo’s book is not a theoretical study in sociology or anthropology. It is just a collection of subjective essays, endowed with the power of seduction.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Despre science fiction
(On Science Fiction)
(Omnibooks Publishing House, Satu-Mare, 2001)

“Playboy” (Romanian edition) #23 / September 2001
Gheo imposed himself as the most authorized literary voice in the [Romanian] S.F. community. His columns and reviews have been equally appreciated in other cultural magazines, such as “Romania literara” and “Dilema”... One should admire the clear, unsophisticated language used by the critic... I hope that “On Science Fiction” will not be Gheo’s last book written in Romanian...”

Pro-scris” #7-8 / July-October 2001
The author, who was born in 1969 and holds a B.A. degree in Letters, is – together with Florin Pitea, one of the extremely promising literary critics from the young generation of the Romanian science fiction. The speculative scope of his critical comments and theoretical approaches is a remarkable one... The first theoretical volume published by Radu Pavel Gheo is a remarkable achievement... (Voicu Bugariu)

Radu Pavel Gheo understands he should approach the science fiction writings like the French approach a woman, namely endowing it with the mysterious charm of the femininity: “la science-fiction”. He dwells upon it as Leonardo in front of Gioconda. This is only one reason why you should read his book. It will not leave you the impression of a dissection table from a mortuary of the spirit..., but will give you the perception of an elegance one could seldom find anywhere else in the literary journalism of this beginning of a new millenium....

Radu Pavel Gheo reopens the door that was closed when we said “Good night” to Sophia... He bewitches us with the fragrance of an utopia distilled from the best essence... (Gyorfy-Deak Gyorgy)

“Observator cultural” #75 / 2001

The contemporary literary criticism [from Romania] was missing an applied study on the science fiction writing. For this reason, Radu Pavel Gheo’s book is not only a successful collection of critical and analytical essays, but also an event for the S.F. cultural movement.

...R.P. Gheo starts from the emergence of the S.F. idea, follows the historical evolution of the S.F. idea as pretext or as props for the story, and reaches at the moment of its decline. Also, the typological analysis of the spaces belonging to the imaginary, the classification of the fictional worlds, the thematic study of the stranger’s figure, the outline of the fantastic inside S.F..., all these prove Radu Pavel Gheo’s critical and theoretical competence in the field of science fiction...

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Valea Cerului Senin
(The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky)

“ArtPanorama” #1 / October 1997
For that who has read Radu Pavel Gheo only in literary magazines, the mentioned collection of short stories will mean for sure a real revelation. The selection has been very skillfully made, underlying the unitary character of his writings, the stylistic and ideational unity… The author succeeds in stirring his reader, to collaborate empathically with him, to transmit him that feeling of terror and anxiety towards the abnormalities that a society reached at… His creation is a sublime attempt of rediscovering the innocence. I truly confess that Gheo’s writings affect me…

“Alternativ SF” #1 / June 25th, 1997
…Gheo’s texts are real; they are pure literature before being science fiction. It seems like Gheo wanted to prove his affiliation to the group “Those Who Don’t”… As a whole, The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky is a success and a promise which we are sure Radu Pavel Gheo will honor cum laudae. The ease he proves while moving in the large spaces of the novella gives us the right to believe his next book will be a novel, one of those novels the Romanian authors avoid to write, for reasons known by nobody else but them.

“Fictiuni” #2 / 1998 ( Satu-Mare, Romania)
This is, probably, one of the most convincing first appearance in the last decade of Romanian fiction… The first thing to be observed from the very beginning is his literary instinct, which is absent at most of the prose-writers from the same generation… The stories from The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky have a density and a structure that can’t be reached by those who produce only literary exercises. Of course, when we confront with real literature, the simple description of literary modalities proves to be insufficient. This is why we are compelled to appeal to ineffable, immeasurable, things that are akin to literary talent. The author has such a talent, and his best passages reach the authentic poetry… Too gifted for becoming a star of the science fiction movement from Romania, too “science fiction” to be granted a common literary recognition in Romania, he hasn’t but the chance to become a Stanislaw Lem, a Strugatski or a Serge Brussolo, I mean an author who writes in other language than English, yet he succeeds to be recognized.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS

SF Dictionary (Nemira Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999)
Radu Pavel Gheo radicalizes even more Voicu Bugariu’s critical discourse, and organizes – for the first time in the Romanian literature of the imaginary – a corpus of theoretical texts designed to support his argumentation. His most recent theoretical position, entitled Preliminary Comments on the Specific of Science Fiction (published in Anticipatia Almanac 1998) ends up with the seemingly paradoxical conclusion: “The definition of a hypothetical specificity on the science fiction literature in accordance with a certain canon should begin with the sentence: ‘Science fiction literature either lacks literary value, or doesn’t exist’…”

“ Romania literara” #8 / March 1st-7th, 2000
The commentator was also delighted by Radu Pavel Gheo’s text on Lucian Boia. The name of this young man (we suppose) drew our attention a few times in “Dilema”, where he published intelligent and well-written texts. Nobody could tell us precisely who this Radu Pavel Gheo is, but all those who where asked agreed that he is very good…

“Lumi virtuale” # 14 / 2001 (electronic magazine)
Radu Pavel Gheo sells his personal library because he is going to America . And from here my scriptorium impulse has almost completely vanished… It happened that many of us offered their views on the Romanian science fiction, some of us even had ‘opinions’, each of us in a more or less articulate manner, but Radu Pavel Gheo was the only one closest to system…

Other relevant bibliographical information about the author:

- Dictionar SF (SF Dictionary), Nemira Publishing House, Bucharest , 1999 (in Romanian) or www.nemira.ro/librarii/dictSF

- www.moldautextur.com (in German)

- www.banat.ro/biblioteca (A Dictionary of the Romanian Writers from Banat , Transylvania )