Franco
Ricciardiello was born in Vercelli, Piedmont (Italy) on 26th
September, 1961. He began to publish science fiction stories in 1980. He
attended a technical school, then wanted to graduate in History in Turin
University but he never succeeded. He is divorced and has two daughters. He was
editor of the semiprozine “The Dark Side”, awarded with several Premio
Italia (Italia Award) as best fanzine. He is now member of the editorial staff
of “Intercom”, the senior Italian fanzine with its 147 issues. Recently,
Intercom acquired its own website: www.intercom.publinet.it. Franco
Ricciardiello published 2 novels and 43 stories in magazines and collections.
His first novel appeared in 1987: “La rocca dei celti” (“The Rock of the
Celts”, which despite the title is not Fantasy but SF). In 1998 he won the
Premio Urania (Urania Contest) for his novel “Ai margini del caos” (At the
edge of chaos) that appeared in the best selling Italian science-fiction series
of novels, Mondadori Publishing. His stories appear online in this site, edited
by Vittorio Barabino from the University of Rome, in Italian language, together
with critical essays on his writing, interviews, news etc. (www.fantascienza.net/sfpeople/franco.ricciardiello/).
He is among the authors of the Italian Encyclopaedia of Creative Writing,
“Scrivere” (Rizzoli Publishing), where he appears with several reviews of
famous novels from International Literature, and with a long essay divided into
5 chapters on Style. He teaches Creative Writing, together with Professor
Alberto Odone, at the Popular University in Vercelli (member of the
International Bureau of Popular Universities of Amersfoort, Netherlands). His
beloved authors are: Isabel Allende,
Gabriel García Márquez, Umberto Eco, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo; science-fiction:
James G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, the Strugackij bros., William Gibson and
cyberpunk, especially James Patrick Kelly and Neal Stephenson.
FRANCO
RICCIARDIELLO
AI MARGINI DEL CAOS (AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS)
Premio
Urania 1998 for best science-fiction novel
Looking
at a famous painting by A.Böcklin, “The Isle of the Dead” a young Italian
woman called Vic has a trance: she lives an episode of the last days of
Hitler’s entourage into his bunker in Berlin. Helped by a friend, Nico, Vic
looks for a solution; they discover that Böcklin painted 5 different versions
of his picture, one of which was personal property of Hitler. Another version
has now disappeared. Vic falls in trance three times in different Museums, but
nothing happens in Berlin where the 3rd version is shown. According
to Nico, Vic enters into a trance which leads her to a different state of
conscience, a sort of edge of Chaos in which she’s in contact with another
reality. They think that the solution is to be found where Böcklin took an
inspiration for his Island, and where the lost painting is. On their way, Vic
and Nico learn that the Führer himself suffered from trance, and that Islands
of Tombs often appear in Nordic myths that inspired the secret society of Thule,
which in the 20’s counted Hitler among its members. Their quest pass from
Hitler’s burial place and ends in Florence where everything is to be revealed
digging Arnold Böcklin’s tomb.
HIS
OPINION OF S.F.: “Science Fiction is the mythography of Science, not only
according to its meaning “study of Myth”, but in its original Greek
mythographaí (“fantastic tale”): i.e., Science Fiction is the “study of
the myths of Science” or a collection of “fantastic tales of Science”,
either epistemology and fiction.”
HIS THEMES : Franco Ricciardiello published two novels and 42 stories. The Time Travel and Uchronia are among his first themes. Lately he wrote high-tech stories of future wars, of clonation, Theory of Chaos and Virtual Reality. His voice has often a political point of view.
CONTACTS:
e-mail
: ardiello@tin.it.
Agent: Piergiorgio Nicolazzini, e-mail snark@tin.it
A STORY BY FRANCO RICCIARDIELLO:
Winner
of Premio Italia award 1988 for the best non-professional story
translated
by the author and Francis Sgambelluri