Translated SF Authors

[Stalker]

I have the honour to represent one more extremely interesting and innovative individual who almost broke into Russian Sci-Fi in mid 90s. That is Victor Pelevin, a bright author who added post-modernistic view, or an absurdistic view of the world, to the whole bouquet of modern Sci-Fi writers. I like his books very much.

His books are translated. See reviews on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-4864257-5169558

 

[Elflock]

Well,this forum is years old...but if anybody is remotely interested,several of the excellent French writers I know of,that have been translated,have not been mentioned yet...

J.R. Rosny ... Quest For Fire,Quest of The Dawn Man and many others...all good

Nathalie and Charles Henneberg (N.C. Henneberg) ... they had lots of great stories,some of which are in various anthologies that I forget. There was a really cool short novel called,'The Green Gods',translated by C.J. Cherryh for Ace books in the 80's. You can find that easily at a second hand bookstore. It's totally worth the $2. In fact it's a total classic and I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it here!!

There was a very cool little paperback collection edited by Damon Knight,called '13 French Science Fiction Stories' (A Galaxy of Gallic Fantasy) in the late 60's. This has excellent short stories by the Hennebergs,the aforementioned Gerard Klein,Henri Damonte,Pierre Mille,several others...

I know there are others that I have read...but I can't remember them...some German ones etc.

 

[Toby Frost]

Quick update: Sapkowski's two books The Last Wish and Blood of Elves are now in English translation. Apart from the weird tendency to use "pirouette" as a fighting move ("dodge" or "spin" would have sounded much better) the translation is very good. The Last Wish is a collection of linked short stories which play off fairy tales much like Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was less taken with Blood of Elves, which is set in the same world some years later, and sets the scene for what feels like a fairly standard epic saga. Both books are quite witty, quite vulgar at points and pretty intelligent stuff.

 

[blacknorth]

I read this one in English...it's a really nice book, somewhat in the H.G. Wells vein. The part where the protagonist plays all these mind-games with the apes as a demonstration of his rational thinking is really well-written. Love the end as well.

Boulle's The Garden on the Moon is well worth reading.

 

[Connavar]

Quick update: Sapkowski's two books The Last Wish and Blood of Elves are now in English translation. Apart from the weird tendency to use "pirouette" as a fighting move ("dodge" or "spin" would have sounded much better) the translation is very good. The Last Wish is a collection of linked short stories which play off fairy tales much like Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was less taken with Blood of Elves, which is set in the same world some years later, and sets the scene for what feels like a fairly standard epic saga. Both books are quite witty, quite vulgar at points and pretty intelligent stuff.

Sapkowski is pretty well translated i bought,read The Last Wish in 2008. I got fairy tales vibe and the old school S&S type hero Geralt reminded me of Solomon Kane.

Mostly i enjoyed the eastern,slavic take on fantasy,their own myths,monsters. Would be nice to see more works like this translated from different culture,countries like that.

 

[Stalker]

Well, I don't know if Sapkowski's Hussite's trilogy has already been translated into English. That's really a wonderful study of hidden of underlying history of the Hussite Wars or, at least, their part fought in Silesia.

 

[hitmouse]

Seren Wen ar Gefndir Gwyn aka White Star - Robin Llewellyn. Translated from Welsh. Odd little SF novel. A bit RA Laffertyish.

Won the National Eisteddfod prose prize in 1992.

 

[Vladimir]

I have the honour to represent one more extremely interesting and innovative individual who almost broke into Russian Sci-Fi in mid 90s. That is Victor Pelevin, a bright author who added post-modernistic view, or an absurdistic view of the world, to the whole bouquet of modern Sci-Fi writers. I like his books very much.

Wow, you actually work with Pelevin! IMHO, he is probably one of the best Russian authors, or at least among the living ones. I am not sure whether to classify him as sci-fi, the closest is "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov (which, I guess, you could call sci-fi after all).

He is very authentic, funny, easy to read and thought-provoking... I have not read any translations yet, though. It must be hard, I think, because his themes are very Russian.