SF in Translation

[che2000]

I recently finished reading Roadside Picnic by Arcady and Boris Strugatsky. A wonderful, mind-blowing novel, which had led me to a few other short stories by various Russian (mostly Soviet Era) writers.

Over the years I've read a few translated works (mostly via The Penguin Book of World SF from many moon ago and the World Treasury of Science Fiction). Has anyone else read any non-English sf or fantasy and if so who do you like/dislike and/or what do you think of sf outside the usual Anglo-American tradition?

Just throwing it out there...

[Jaqhama]

I've read all of Sven Hassel's war novels and most of Louis Masterson's Morgan Kane westerns. Both those guys were translated from their native languages I understand. They were great reads.
Fantasy: I loved Bjorn Nyberg's Conan the Avenger. Maybe the best Conan novel by a non english writer.
I read a crime novel set in Marseilles, written by a French pulp crime author back when I was a youngster, full of action and passion, felt very different from an english crime novel. Can't recall the author or the novel, I'm afraid.
Also read a few military genre novels, non-fiction by non english writers translated into anglo. Couple about Le Legion Entrangere, few more about modern day German, Corscican, Finnish, Belgium Special Forces commandos.

I've probably read quite a few SFF books by non english authors, just didn't know it. I think the translator should get a lot of credit also. Some translators have to practically ghost write some books, especially if they are written in some Asian languages, as the literal translation from the original story wouldn't make any sense to an anglo/western reader.

[che2000]

I've read a little Japanese SF (again via The World Treasury of Science Fiction, which is a great doorstop of a book with stories from every corner of the globe) and there's a lyrical, poetic quality to those stories (stuff like Triceratops by Kono Tensei) much less emphasis on the mechanics of plot and more upon mood and texture, similarly with some of the French SF I've read (again I've not read a lot so perhaps I'm not really getting the full picture).

It seems to me that the Russian writers worked/ are working in a parallel to Anglo-American SF and a couple of the contemporary Eastern European writers - like Poland's Andrzej Sapkowski or Russia's Alexy Pehov - are writing fantasy that shows a great deal of influence from writers like Tolkein, Howard et al.

With so much contemporary science fiction and fantasy coming from the same mould these days, I'm trying to cast my net a wee bit further just to see what I can find that might be new to me.

[che2000]

Not strictly SF or even fantasy (well, maybe very borderline) but I've just started reading The Autumn of the Patriarch by Garbriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa. There an almost hallucinatory tone to the book that has me well hooked already and a vividness to the imagery that gives the whole thing an other worldly aspect.

[Jaqhama]

Not strictly SF or even fantasy (well, maybe very borderline) but I've just started reading The Autumn of the Patriarch by Garbriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa. There an almost hallucinatory tone to the book that has me well hooked already and a vividness to the imagery that gives the whole thing an other worldly aspect.

You sure that's not just the Jameson effect?

[Frank]

Many of those Soviet SF books printed in America in the 70s are translated from existing French editions and not directly translated from the Russian originals. Being twice translated it's surprising that these stories can still have a strong impact on an English reader. Who knows what has been lost or twisted in double translation?

[che2000]

Kinda makes sense, the French have, as a rule, always treated SF with more dignity than their English speaking counterparts, Philip K Dick, for instance, was much lauded in France and, to go to another genre, so were writers like Chester Himes, so maybe the more overt 'rockets n rayguns' aspect of some of these tales got downplayed in favour of the more metaphysical.

Still can't understand the Frankish obsession with Jerry Lewis though (The Nutty Professor to one side)