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Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Magical Realism or any book with a "speculative element" that has been translated into English from another language and its primary publication.
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293 likes · 
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Comments Showing 1-21 of 21 (21 new)

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message 1: by Candiss (new)

Candiss Note: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is not a translated work. Its original published language is English, and it was included on Time's "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005" list.


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Thanks Candiss!


message 3: by Sérgio (new)

Sérgio Cool list!

I've created a slightly more specific list (only European Sci-Fi) if anybody is interested:

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


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Cheers Sergio!


message 5: by Edward (new)

Edward Fantastic list; saw several titles that I havent read but captured my curiosity nonetheless.


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Thank you Edward,
Exactly my plan!
Happy reading.


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Great lists!

Thank you Kaion.


message 9: by Gareth (new)

Gareth D. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi was written in English.

Lots more for me to read, great list thanks!


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Thanks for your comment Gareth. I'm not sure about that one. Looks translated from Russian to me. Where did you get your information?

Glad you like the list. Happy reading!


message 11: by Candiss (new)

Candiss Shellie (Layers of Thought) wrote: "Thanks for your comment Gareth. I'm not sure about that one. Looks translated from Russian to me. Where did you get your information?

Glad you like the list. Happy reading!"


Hannu Rajaniemi writes in both Finnish and English (not Russian), and everything I've read about this one says English was the original language of TQT.

The first hit I found for a source is from Amazon.com's page for this book, in the "About the Author" section:

"HANNU RAJANIEMI is from Finland and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was a director of a think tank providing business services based on advanced math and artificial intelligence. He holds a Ph.D. in string theory and is a member of the same writing group that produced Hal Duncan. He wrote The Quantum Thief in English."


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Thanks Candiss!

Let's see if I can remove the book.


message 14: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager Some questionable choices here for "speculative fiction" - The Hunchback of Notre Dame????????


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Victor Hugo was French so I am suspecting it's been originally written in French and translated to English. So translated.

As for speculative fiction I haven't read it but it's considered Gothic fiction so I do believe it has some speculative elements in it.

Have you read it?

Has anyone here in this thread read it who can verify - chime in please?


message 16: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager I take speculative fiction to be a similar category to science fiction, with emphasis more on describing societies of the future or re-imagined societies of the past. I don't see how "Hunchback" fits in there. Yes, I have read it - looooong ago in high school.


Shellie (Layers of Thought) I would consider your above definition to be for science fiction or fantasy.

Even if it has ghosts or dreams of some other imagined elements it can be speculative. Like Jane Eyre (although not translated) - it is set in a realistic historical setting but there are some slight imaginations in the text that make it Gothic/horror. Although not all people would not define it as such. But many would. Including myself.

And as mentioned Wikipedia defines Hunchback of Notre Dame as Gothic.


message 18: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager Wikipedia has a pretty long page and a full description of the many kinds of stories that might come under the "speculative fiction" banner. Interesting ...


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Yes "speculative fiction" is pretty complex. It's a sort of catch all term used to define anything that's not realistic - even the slightest.

I'll check out that Wikipedia page on it just for fun.


message 20: by Gareth (new)

Gareth D. I've just been through my 'Read' list properly and added a surprising 24 more books to this list! I think I may have accidentaly duplicated a couple that were already here though. Broken Stars I think, and maybe Roadside Picnic.

A also noticed that The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi is back, but as per the previous discussion it was written in English.


Shellie (Layers of Thought) Hi Gareth. Thanks for the additional adds to this list. It is getting long!

It looks like Goodreads has removed the edit button for lists since I could not find it as in the past. But will check back when I have a bit more time.


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