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nerakroseTop 100 science fiction and fantasy books
I've read some of the books on this list and some are on my to-read list, while some I've heard of and some I haven't. But I noticed something - none or very few have been translated into English from some other language (I know Verne is on the list, but are there others?). And it got me thinking.
Do you lovely people on my flist, know of a fantasy or sci-fi book/series in your mother tongue (if it's not English, that is) that is really good/popular and either not translated or not on the list?
I'm really curious, because this language thing intrigues me. Many English-language fantasy/sci-fi novels get translated into a zillion languages, but it seems to me that there's not much traffic the other direction. It's a bit like a one-way high way... I discovered the other day that the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare has been translated into Danish and most recently Clockwork Angel. Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle series has been translated into Danish. Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series has been translated into Danish. Anne Rice has been translated into Danish. We all know JKR has been translated into everything. I could mention several more, but let's stop here.
I remember that most of the fantasy and sci-fi novels I read in my youth (and I say youth because I had a massive break of a few years between 15-20 where I didn't read much at all) all had foreign names on the cover.
I read *everything*. I've read several variations on witch!fantasy (magical-object-gives-you-powers, evil-neighbour-witch, witch-in-high-school, prophecied!witch, etc.), elf!fantasy (musical!elves, tree!lelves, secret!lelves, etc.), alien-invasion!sci-fi (alien!masters & human!servants, aliens-in-zoo, post-apocalyptic-alien-invasion, etc.), technologically-advanced-world!sci-fi (instant cloning, children in fake uteruses, children getting sucked into video games, etc.), and...a zillion others.
It was and probably always will be my favourite genre, but fact remains: all this shit was translated. A lot of it was read while I still lived in Iceland and Iceland has a rather terrifying amount of books to be released every year, of both translated and native lit. I never wanted for anything, but you know what? I can't recall a single Icelandic fantasy or sci-fi author. Maybe it's just because fantasy and sci-fi don't exist as separate genres in Icelandic lit - we usually split books into "fiction", "child lit", "poetry", "non-fiction" and "translated fiction" and "translated child lit". within "fiction" there's a subclass called "spennusögur" which roughly translates to "exciting stories". That's where we dump crime novels, adventure and probably also fantasy and sci-fi. I actually think it's pretty interesting because the Icelandic people is a remarkably literate nation. We have a literacy rate of 100% and the most common christmas gift is a BOOK. We read everything, regardless of what it is - the same tendency is very prevalent in the cinema. We don't classify films as anything but "films". Everyone sees everything and this is the main reason why many films premiere in Iceland weeks before they premiere elsewhere in the world; if the Icelanders like the film - it's a success. But I digress.
Some stuff in Danish (translated and untranslated):
The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberbøl which I have to confess I'm really surprised to discover has been translated. It's also the only one I've been able to find that's been translated into English. I read this series back in 2003, partially for class (the first book) and partially because I really liked it (the rest of the series). YA fantasy novels.
Something I think is worth mentioning - you all know the comic series W.I.T.C.H ? I used to be a big fan and I drew fanart and shit for it. also back in 2003 or earlier. Anyway, above mentioned author wrote 9 books for the series for Scandinavia/Denmark, but she was forced to write them in English and then have them translated to Danish for the Danish releases, instead of the other way around. (I've read these books too. I think I owned like three of them at some point...)
Jarastavens Vandring and Blodsbröder by Saga Borg (pseudonym). I thought these were Danish, but are actually Swedish. They've been translated to Danish and Norwegian only so far as I can see. I haven't read them but they've been on my to-read list since forever. YA fantasy novels.
Morganas Kilder by Helle Ryding, a trilogy that's been on my to-read list since forever as well. YA fantasy novels and quite famous. Not translated to any language at all. Draws heavily on nordic mythology, according to several online sources.
There's a bunch of other Danish authors that haven't been translated at all, such as Kenneth Bøgh Andersen.
And I wonder why this is so - Many of these are YA and it's tempting to think that they're not taken seriously as sci-fi/fantasy and therefore no one bothers translating them, but why should that be so? We have zillions English-language YA fantasy/sci-fi translated into Danish. Just look at the authors I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Or is it maybe that foreign language fantasy/sci-fi is deemed "unworthy" ? Must good fantasy/sci-fi be written in English to get recognition? One thing is recognition within a country's own boundaries (Kenneth Bøgh Andersen has won several awards, for example, and Lene Kaaberbøl is widely reknown for being one of the best children and YA lit authors we have), but is it necessary to get recognition outside of these boundaries (=be translated into English) to be deemed a good fantasy/sci-fi writer, someone who's worth reading?
Or is it maybe that Scandinavian fantasy/sci-fi is too nordic and not universal enough? We have proud mythological roots and we aren't afraid of exploiting them in our fiction. But maybe the key here is that good stuff must be unplaceable? generic? That it's only "good" if it's completely made up? Only, that argumentation doesn't hold much water since fantasy ultimately builds upon centuries-old superstitions and mystical creatures and beliefs that we thinking creatures have created. There's only so many ways you can re-create an elf or a dwarf, right? There's only so many supernatural powers you can afflict humans with, right? But is it true that fantasy derived from mythological sources isn't proper fantasy? HMM. Anyone remember Percy Jackson?
But maybe that doesn't count because it's Greek mythology and Greek and Roman stuff has a rather elevated cultural status in the Western world at large?
My mind is boggling and I seem to have forgotten what the point of this post was.
I've read some of the books on this list and some are on my to-read list, while some I've heard of and some I haven't. But I noticed something - none or very few have been translated into English from some other language (I know Verne is on the list, but are there others?). And it got me thinking.
Do you lovely people on my flist, know of a fantasy or sci-fi book/series in your mother tongue (if it's not English, that is) that is really good/popular and either not translated or not on the list?
I'm really curious, because this language thing intrigues me. Many English-language fantasy/sci-fi novels get translated into a zillion languages, but it seems to me that there's not much traffic the other direction. It's a bit like a one-way high way... I discovered the other day that the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare has been translated into Danish and most recently Clockwork Angel. Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle series has been translated into Danish. Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series has been translated into Danish. Anne Rice has been translated into Danish. We all know JKR has been translated into everything. I could mention several more, but let's stop here.
I remember that most of the fantasy and sci-fi novels I read in my youth (and I say youth because I had a massive break of a few years between 15-20 where I didn't read much at all) all had foreign names on the cover.
I read *everything*. I've read several variations on witch!fantasy (magical-object-gives-you-powers, evil-neighbour-witch, witch-in-high-school, prophecied!witch, etc.), elf!fantasy (musical!elves, tree!lelves, secret!lelves, etc.), alien-invasion!sci-fi (alien!masters & human!servants, aliens-in-zoo, post-apocalyptic-alien-invasion, etc.), technologically-advanced-world!sci-fi (instant cloning, children in fake uteruses, children getting sucked into video games, etc.), and...a zillion others.
It was and probably always will be my favourite genre, but fact remains: all this shit was translated. A lot of it was read while I still lived in Iceland and Iceland has a rather terrifying amount of books to be released every year, of both translated and native lit. I never wanted for anything, but you know what? I can't recall a single Icelandic fantasy or sci-fi author. Maybe it's just because fantasy and sci-fi don't exist as separate genres in Icelandic lit - we usually split books into "fiction", "child lit", "poetry", "non-fiction" and "translated fiction" and "translated child lit". within "fiction" there's a subclass called "spennusögur" which roughly translates to "exciting stories". That's where we dump crime novels, adventure and probably also fantasy and sci-fi. I actually think it's pretty interesting because the Icelandic people is a remarkably literate nation. We have a literacy rate of 100% and the most common christmas gift is a BOOK. We read everything, regardless of what it is - the same tendency is very prevalent in the cinema. We don't classify films as anything but "films". Everyone sees everything and this is the main reason why many films premiere in Iceland weeks before they premiere elsewhere in the world; if the Icelanders like the film - it's a success. But I digress.
Some stuff in Danish (translated and untranslated):
The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberbøl which I have to confess I'm really surprised to discover has been translated. It's also the only one I've been able to find that's been translated into English. I read this series back in 2003, partially for class (the first book) and partially because I really liked it (the rest of the series). YA fantasy novels.
Something I think is worth mentioning - you all know the comic series W.I.T.C.H ? I used to be a big fan and I drew fanart and shit for it. also back in 2003 or earlier. Anyway, above mentioned author wrote 9 books for the series for Scandinavia/Denmark, but she was forced to write them in English and then have them translated to Danish for the Danish releases, instead of the other way around. (I've read these books too. I think I owned like three of them at some point...)
Jarastavens Vandring and Blodsbröder by Saga Borg (pseudonym). I thought these were Danish, but are actually Swedish. They've been translated to Danish and Norwegian only so far as I can see. I haven't read them but they've been on my to-read list since forever. YA fantasy novels.
Morganas Kilder by Helle Ryding, a trilogy that's been on my to-read list since forever as well. YA fantasy novels and quite famous. Not translated to any language at all. Draws heavily on nordic mythology, according to several online sources.
There's a bunch of other Danish authors that haven't been translated at all, such as Kenneth Bøgh Andersen.
And I wonder why this is so - Many of these are YA and it's tempting to think that they're not taken seriously as sci-fi/fantasy and therefore no one bothers translating them, but why should that be so? We have zillions English-language YA fantasy/sci-fi translated into Danish. Just look at the authors I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Or is it maybe that foreign language fantasy/sci-fi is deemed "unworthy" ? Must good fantasy/sci-fi be written in English to get recognition? One thing is recognition within a country's own boundaries (Kenneth Bøgh Andersen has won several awards, for example, and Lene Kaaberbøl is widely reknown for being one of the best children and YA lit authors we have), but is it necessary to get recognition outside of these boundaries (=be translated into English) to be deemed a good fantasy/sci-fi writer, someone who's worth reading?
Or is it maybe that Scandinavian fantasy/sci-fi is too nordic and not universal enough? We have proud mythological roots and we aren't afraid of exploiting them in our fiction. But maybe the key here is that good stuff must be unplaceable? generic? That it's only "good" if it's completely made up? Only, that argumentation doesn't hold much water since fantasy ultimately builds upon centuries-old superstitions and mystical creatures and beliefs that we thinking creatures have created. There's only so many ways you can re-create an elf or a dwarf, right? There's only so many supernatural powers you can afflict humans with, right? But is it true that fantasy derived from mythological sources isn't proper fantasy? HMM. Anyone remember Percy Jackson?
But maybe that doesn't count because it's Greek mythology and Greek and Roman stuff has a rather elevated cultural status in the Western world at large?
My mind is boggling and I seem to have forgotten what the point of this post was.
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