Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

I’m feeling like discussing science fiction books from Europe, since I don’t know that much about it even if I’m from there.

There aren’t many well known authors compared to Americans and British but there is some really good stuff that I need to discover further.

Eastern Europe sci-fi in the sixties apparently was thriving and from the little I’ve read of it, they created really good stuff. The couple of books I’ve read from Stanisław Lem (Solaris, The Invincible) and Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Brothers are among the best and most original sci-fi books I’ve ever read.

In France there was a lot of sci-fi written but I don’t know how much of it was good and/or original. I’ve only read Planet of the Apes which is pretty entertaining. I’m going to try Jean-Pierre Andrevon, the books I’ve found of his seem intriguing.

What do you guys know about this subject?

Let’s share some information here. :)


By the way, I’ve created a list for European Sci-fi were we can share our favorite books.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/18...

I didn't add this book to the list, as it doesn't focus on only Europe but on countries all over the world, but it might be of interest to readers looking to sample authors who are neither American nor British:

You've added some interesting books Candiss.

I must admit that the only one I've read is Saramago, but not Blindness.

Seems like some of them are from writers who experimented with science fiction themes before sf was really an established genre. I'll have to try and check some of them out.

- Eastern Europe sci-fi in the sixties apparently was thriving and from the little I’ve read of it, they created really good stuff. The couple of books I’ve read from Stanisław Lem (Solaris, The Invincible) and Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Brothers are among the best and most original sci-fi books I’ve ever read -

Interestingly, adaptations of both SOLARIS and ROADSIDE PICNIC were among the films in acclaimed director Andrei Tarkovsky's rather small ouvre - ...PICNIC was filmed by Tarkovsky as 'Stalker'. Having read SOLARIS, it's interesting how the film is more internal and psychological - much more about the mind-f*cking loneliness of the space station than weird doings on the planet's surface.
Can't say I thought too highly of MONKEY PLANET - I actually thought PLANET OF THE APES, as equally heavy-handed as it was, made the point more entertainingly (having Rod Serling as one of the screenwriters could have only helped).

Yes, that's what attracted me to those books in the first place.

I didn't know anything about SF then so a movie adaptation was as good a reference as any other thing.

Yes, the book Monkey Planet is kind of heavy-handed but I liked it.

It's not a masterpiece but I'm fond of it. There's some interesting differences comparing to the movie, like the apes being as civilised as human beings.

So, a bunch of months have passed since I created the list and it already has 22 voters and 35 books.

As expected the Strugatsky brothers and Stanislaw Lem dominate the list, although I expected to see a lot more Jules Verne books in it just because of how popular and important he is for sci-fi.

There’s also a whole bunch of other French and Russian writers but not many writers from other countries.

Here’s the top 5:
1. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
2. Roadside Picnic - Strugatski brothers
3. We – Yevgeny Zamyatin
4. R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots - Karel Čapek
5. The Carpet Makers - Andreas Eschbach

What do you guys/gals think of the list? Are there any lost classics missing?

Here’s the link again if you want to participate:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/18...

Sérgio wrote: "So, a bunch of months have passed since I created the list and it already has 22 voters and 35 books.

As expected the Strugatsky brothers and Stanislaw Lem dominate the list, although I expected t..."

Sérgio wrote: "Yes, that's what attracted me to those books in the first place.


I didn't know anything about SF then so a movie adaptation was as good a reference as any other thing.

Yes, the book Monkey Planet..."

I love Solaris. I've seen the film twice and read the book and I'd see/read either again.

I couldn't get on with Roadside Picnic. I owned a copy for years and kept taking it off the shelf and trying it, but never got past the first few pages. Eventually I gave it away.

I read R.U.R. many years ago. I remember finding it enjoyable but I can't recall a single thing about it except the cover. (This happens to me from time to time – I remember how I felt about a book better than the book itself.)

I've never heard of the others. Maybe I'll try them one day.

E A M Harris wrote: "I couldn't get on with Roadside Picnic. I owned a copy for years and kept taking it off the shelf and trying it, but never got past the first few pages. Eventually I gave it away."

That's too bad. :(

I personally think it's a very good book. The Strugatskys really manage to convey the incomprehensible weirdness and eeriness of "The Zone" and the depressing and tense reality of the people living around it.

When I ran a big genre poll a couple of years ago, the only continental books to make the top hundred were We, Solaris, and also Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game".

Wastrel wrote: "When I ran a big genre poll a couple of years ago, the only continental books to make the top hundred were We, Solaris, and also Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game"."

Yeah, that is the main reason why I created this list - european SF books aren't that well known.

Can you provide a link to that list? Now I'm curious to see it.


By the way, since I left out British SF from this first list, I created a new list exclusively for those books.

Check it out here: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/25...

The problem with creating such a list is that european SF books that aren't well known will usually not be available in english translations.

A few I know that exist in English translations is the Swedish author Sam J. Lundwall, and Karin Boye's classic dystopia Kallocain.

Norwegian authors in the genre include Jon Bing, Tor Åge Bringsværd, Ingar Knudtsen jr., and Øyvind Myhre.

Axel Jensen wrote two SF books I believe have been available in both english and french translations, and highly recommended if you manage to find a copy: Epp and LUL: Til norsk fra oblidorsk