Foreign SF writers that are alive and active?
Michael Grosberg
writers from non-English speaking countries. The responses were mostly
names of dead or very old writers. This got me thinking - I know SF is
mainly an anglo thing, but exactly how rare is SF in other countries?
So, I'm changing the rules a bit, let's see if we can get more names.
Please name SF writers who:
1. Are living and active at the moment.
2. Write Science fiction, not fantasy
3. Write in a language other than English
4. Are NOT available in English (not necessarily, anyway)
5. They don't have to be "the best". merely not sucking is enough.
What do these writers write about? Do they write cyberpunk novels,
space opera, futurism, political speculation, time travel stories? How
similar is SF in other countries - the stuff that doesn't get
translated - to that of the English speaking world?
I'll start with Israel. Most of what passes for SF here is either
short stories,magical realism or slipstream. The only bona-fide, no-
excuses SF novel in recent years that was any good was "Hidromania" by
Assaf Gavron. according to this:
http://www.assafgavron.com/english/
It was also published in Germany and will soon be available in the
Netherlands.
It's a Bruce-Sterling-esqe story about Israel in 2068, combining
cyberpunk and ecological themes. I mentioned Sterling because it has a
similar vibe to Heavy Weather or Holy Fire.
OK, your turn.
--
Michael Grosberg
Jack Bohn
>In another thread, Tue Sorensen asked for the names of the best SF
>writers from non-English speaking countries. The responses were mostly
>names of dead or very old writers. This got me thinking - I know SF is
>mainly an anglo thing, but exactly how rare is SF in other countries?
>
>So, I'm changing the rules a bit, let's see if we can get more names.
>Please name SF writers who:
>1. Are living and active at the moment.
>2. Write Science fiction, not fantasy
>3. Write in a language other than English
>4. Are NOT available in English (not necessarily, anyway)
>5. They don't have to be "the best". merely not sucking is enough.
Hiroyuki Morioka, the first trilogy of his "Crest of the Stars"
series is (was) available in English, the introduction said he'd
previously written short stories set in the near future, but
Crest is in a far future where a lot of interstellar colonization
had taken place at STL, but now that FTL has been discovered,
empires are starting to form. It's a space opera retelling of
the movie, "Roman Holiday," sorta.
--
-Jack
netcat
@j4g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>, grosberg...@gmail.com says...
> In another thread, Tue Sorensen asked for the names of the best SF
> writers from non-English speaking countries. The responses were mostly
> names of dead or very old writers. This got me thinking - I know SF is
> mainly an anglo thing, but exactly how rare is SF in other countries?
>
> So, I'm changing the rules a bit, let's see if we can get more names.
> Please name SF writers who:
> 1. Are living and active at the moment.
> 2. Write Science fiction, not fantasy
> 3. Write in a language other than English
> 4. Are NOT available in English (not necessarily, anyway)
> 5. They don't have to be "the best". merely not sucking is enough.
You really need a Russian (or someone else from a Slavic country) to put
this list together. SF has always been really popular there. Previously,
utopias, of course. And these days military SF seems to be the thing.
Although I understand that Russian specfic has also suffered the
explosive popularity of fantasy over science fiction.
I'm sad to say I quit following Russian SF as soon as I gained more
access to SF available in English, so I can't speak of them with any
authority.
Perhaps you should look at http://www.rusf.ru/english/ which provides
links in English to some most popular current SF and fantasy authors.
SF has never been a very popular genre in Estonia, nor is our population
large enough for any writer of SF to quit their day job. But even we
have some local authors producing stuff that could be called SF. And
some of it is even good enough to merit translation, even though to my
knowledge, none has been translated yet.
rgds,
netcat
Szymon Sokół
> You really need a Russian (or someone else from a Slavic country) to put
> this list together. SF has always been really popular there. Previously,
> utopias, of course. And these days military SF seems to be the thing.
> Although I understand that Russian specfic has also suffered the
> explosive popularity of fantasy over science fiction.
Seconded. We have quite a lot of SF/fantasy writers here in Poland, too, but
just a couple satisfying Michael's criteria (still alive, writing SF rather
than fantasy, not sucking). Most prominent two would be Jacek Dukaj and
Marek Huberath:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_Huberath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacek_Dukaj
It is worth mentioning that Oscar-nominated animated movie "The Cathedral"
by Tomasz Bagiński was based on Dukaj's short story, and you may find a
short excerpt from this story here:
http://dukaj.pl/English/ReadingRoom/TheCathedral
--
Szymon Sokół (SS316-RIPE) -- Network Manager B
Computer Center, AGH - University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland O
http://home.agh.edu.pl/szymon/ PGP key id: RSA: 0x2ABE016B, DSS: 0xF9289982 F
Free speech includes the right not to listen, if not interested -- Heinlein H
Evelyn Leeper
> In another thread, Tue Sorensen asked for the names of the best SF
> writers from non-English speaking countries. The responses were mostly
> names of dead or very old writers. This got me thinking - I know SF is
> mainly an anglo thing, but exactly how rare is SF in other countries?
>
> So, I'm changing the rules a bit, let's see if we can get more names.
> Please name SF writers who:
> 1. Are living and active at the moment.
> 2. Write Science fiction, not fantasy
> 3. Write in a language other than English
> 4. Are NOT available in English (not necessarily, anyway)
> 5. They don't have to be "the best". merely not sucking is enough.
>
> What do these writers write about? Do they write cyberpunk novels,
> space opera, futurism, political speculation, time travel stories? How
> similar is SF in other countries - the stuff that doesn't get
> translated - to that of the English speaking world?
>
LOCUS frequently has reports on SF in other countries. Ones that I
recall showing up frequently are Poland, Japan, Israel, Brazil, Spain,
and Mexico.
<http://axxon.com.ar/axxon.htm> is an Argentinian site about SF (and
fantasy, etc.) in Argentina. There is also
<http://worldsf.livejournal.com/>, the "World SF News Blog".
--
Evelyn C. Leeper
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods
when I nod; my shadow does that much better. -Plutarch