Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

So I thought it would be a great idea to make a list of the vest Science Fiction books of all time that were, in their ORIGINAL versions, in a foreign language, french for example. So send in your book recommandations and I will make a list and post it whenever we're done !

Hoping to get fast answers,
- Victor, French-Canadian Sci-Fi Fan

What if they don't have translations?

Victor wrote: "a list of the best Science Fiction books of all time that were, in their ORIGINAL versions, in a foreign language, french for example...."


When I think about science fiction in French, I can't help but think of Jules Verne (Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon, etc) the man was writing Steampunk before Steampunk was cool :)

His "science" has become as bogus as any old pulp sci-fi, but he writes a good story (Or at least his English translator does.)




As a secondary suggestion, with somewhat less enthusiasm, another oldie:

L'Ève Future (1886) by Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

This may be an acquired taste. Villiers casts Thomas Edison as the constructor of the first Android (as a favor for a British friend who's been unlucky in love.)

(In that way it reminds me of the motivation of Rotfeld in commissioning the construction of a Golem in our current Book discussion topic, "the Golem and the Jinni".)

On a sci-fi level, the discussion of how Thomas Edison manages to construct his robot, Hadaly, are often ingenious (a good thing, because Villiers drones on about it at length.) I was particularly struck by the system for maintaining balance by pumping Mercury around through the robot's limbs.

On a socio-historical level, its rampant misogyny is gag worthy.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanisław Lem

I also have to throw in that after Jules Verne, the next most interesting non-English sci-fi author I can think of is Russian Stanisław Lem. His book Solaris is probably best known, since a 1972 Russian movie was released in the US (subtitled) to some critical attention; and has more recently (2002) been remade in English by George Clooney. Solaris is good, but Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is better, IMO.

A couple of German originals:
The Golem by Gustav Meyrink
Das Gesetz des Atum by Werner Bergengruen
Two Planets: A Novel by Kurd Lasswitz by Kurd Laßwitz

There also is a Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis, an award for German-speaking authors of science fiction.

And you'd like "German SF" by Franz Rottensteiner in Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction

I don't know if i could call them "best of all time" but they are quite popular:
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Apropos of this, IO9 put up an article yesterday:


Stanisaw Lem's Summa Technologiae portrays a grim and sober singularity .

The article looks at a recently-released in translation non-fiction book of Lem's thoughts on technological futures.

Lem has been dead for over a decade, but the delay of translation pipelines means we English speakers can still have"new" books from him.

What about Arkady and Boris Strugatsky?

Roadside Picnic

And my favorite:

Сините пеперуди. Сборник новели