Crux

Mazilu's English is extraordinary – I never felt for a moment that this book was written by a non-native English speaker. I was impressed by the range of his vocabulary and I even looked up many words in the dictionary. From my perspective, a writer who created such a good dark fantasy novel directly in English has two more challenges (and perhaps two “duties”) left: to write a similar novel in Romanian (except Crâznic's celebrated Gothic novel, I don't see much competition) and to write a non-fantasy (“serious”) novel in English. I'm not in the habit of saying grand words but with his level of English, he would be able to able to emulate – let's say – Nabokov. So as far as I'm concerned, Mazilu owes us at least two great novels.

The foreword written by Dana Dorian makes an interesting and supported claim: “[Andrei] takes you by the hand, but doesn't lead you to a quiet spot in the library; instead, you suddenly find yourself transported in a live cinema ...” It is true that Mazilu's writing is highly visual and that his novel could nicely be turned into a movie. Directors like James Cameron (Avatar) or Tom Tykwer (Perfume) are suitable for the subtlety and originality of Andrei's mythology. To continue this sci-fi line of argument, the star from Vampire Diaries, who also played in a TV series related to the story from Crux (Fallen), Paul Wesley would be a good choice for some of the human characters. I'm not sure that I would cast Nina Dobrev (Helena from Vampire Diaries) in Kara's part, although there are several similarities. On the other hand, I don't see a better Akaba than Jason Momoa (Conan) and a better Maar than Chris Hemsworth (Thor).

More about Mazilu's book here!