SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Scifi books not originally written in English.

Speculative Fiction in Translation (SFT) is a great place to start your research. They have Goodreads lists, a spreadsheet, and an index by original language or pub year in the side bar.

These are the books that were nominated. Please continue recommending books that fit this theme! Nomination rules no longer apply, so short fiction, graphic works, etc. are also welcome.

All You Need Is Kill
War with the Newts
Amatka
The Queue
Roadside Picnic
The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
Gene Mapper
Planet of the Apes
We
The Face of Another
Edge
The Slynx
Metro 2033
Condomnauts

Solaris, of course

Now I can bring him: The Swarm by Frank Schätzing, a translation from German.
It is about an ecological disaster concerning the global oceans. Thoughtfully researched on the scientific side (so much, in fact, that Schätzing published all the research he couldn't use in the story in a separate book (not translated)). Yet the character writing falls flat and several reviews complained about the US Americans being the bad guys. The reviews are very mixed on this one. That's why I didn't bring it up in the nominations.
I loved it for its scientific part.

Some Japanese classics translated to English, tho it might not be translated so well, Japanese is such an ambiguous language...


Mardock Scramble
The Cage of Zeus
The Sky Crawlers
Usurper of the Sun
Self-Reference ENGINE
Dawn
Virus: The Day of Resurrection
Yukikaze
MM9

The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach

I enjoyed The Swarm, even though I don't normally like doorstoppers or suspense. It reminded me a bit of Crichton at his best.

I opine that Vandana Singh's works belong on this list. I've no evidence that she writes in her original language and then translates it herself to English, but her stories, esp. in Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, totally have to flavor of the sub-continent, even though she lives in America now.

Similarly Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor is a totally Nigerian fantasy, though the translation, if any, would be the author's own.

The reason we’re doing translated is to find and support those authors who can’t write in English or publish in the big international markets. If people don’t read, support and ask for these works to be translated, we won’t have them available to us. Not only are we supporting authors, but also translators, who do an amazing job! Those authors who are fortunate enough to be able to translate their own book into English have an easier time getting them published.

In short, let’s please stick to works that were originally written in some other language. Amatka was translated by the author, but she did first write and publish it in Swedish.

Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag, originally written in Swedish. This is an illustrated novel and has been nominated for a couple of prizes, including Locus for Art Book and the Arthur C. Clarke award.

Edit: Goodreads doesn't list the translator, but I think it was Martin Dunelind.

Gabi wrote: "The Swarm by Frank Schätzing, a translation from German."

This looks interesting. It reminds me of The Sands of Sarasvati by Risto Isomäki, translated from Finnish. I loved the climate change aspect, but the dialogue and characters were pretty choppy. I read it in Finnish, and it definitely needed a better editor. From what I hear the same is true for the English edition. I can tentatively recommend for people who are interested in the subject. Isomäki also writes non-fiction about climate change and other environmental issues.

I wanted to read The Sands of Sarasvati but could not find it anywhere to buy.

You can order it from the publisher. They ship internationally, but the site is only in Finnish, which makes no sense at all :D

From Taiyo Fujii, the author of Gene Mapper, there's also a newer book translated into English from Japanese, called Orbital Cloud.

I just recently read Tentacle by Rita Indiana, translated from Spanish. It was so weird!

Another weird one, and disgustingly gory, is Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik, translated from Arabic.

Iraq + 100: stories from a century after the invasion edited by Hassan Blasim is a collection of short fiction by Iraqi writers, who were asked to write about Iraq 100 years after the war.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, translated from Swedish, is a dystopian about old people used for medical experiments.

Anna wrote: "The reason we’re doing translated is to find and support those authors who can’t write in English or publish in the big international markets. If people don’t read, support and ask for these works ..."

I agree that translators deserve more credit, and with the other stuff you said. Do we have another thread in this group for books that have a 'non-Western' pov, like the ones that I suggested?

(And, to clarify, is this list meant to include books that may be written in a language other than English but that still have the setting, pov, etc. of 'Western' books? I mean, if a reader can't necessarily tell just from reading that a book isn't originally English, iirc The Gray House is an example, does it still count?)

This list is for all books translated from some other language into English. Any books not originally published in English are welcome here, regardless of their setting or plot!

We should definitely have a thread for our favorite translations of books from English to other languages, too!

Gotcha. I just had a different concept stuck in my head, but it makes sense when spelled out multiple times to me!

haha, no worries, we do split hairs around here, and I love that you considered the framing of culture in your consideration!

Cheryl wrote: "Do we have another thread in this group for books that have a 'non-Western' pov, like the ones that I suggested? "

We have Afrocentric fantasy, which is where Akata Witch would fit in nicely. But since these book lists are only for themes we've done, we obviously don't have everything under the sun. That doesn't mean that you can't start new ones! We tried to make the nomination theme threads stand out a little by adding "Book list", so please don't use that for other recs threads, but I would love to see threads for all kinds of books! I am always looking for more non-Western reads myself, and I know I'm not alone.

Anna wrote: "Scifi books not originally written in English.

Speculative Fiction in Translation (SFT) is a great place to start your research. ..."

We have recently started a goodreads group affiliated with that website. Check it out here: Speculative Fiction in Translation (Goodreads)

We actually decided to also include works written in English but from non-USA non-Europe market. This is because we had trouble finding SF from Africa not written in English. (There is some in French and Arabic, but not much.) I would be happy to read SF translated from Yoruba, for example, but even people who speak that as a mother tongue will usually read/write/publish in English or another European language.

Ed, yes I used to be in that group. It wasn't active back in the day, and these days I barely have energy to keep up with this group :D

Ed, I'll join, thank you for the alert. I will try to lurk though as I am overbooked already.... ;)

Giving this thread a bump in case there is anything new to add to it. I’d like to read more translated SciFi or speculative fiction in general.

One I can add is:

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov which I think won the International Booker prize last year.