Score

Wow! So many new interesting books were added! Thanks to the newcomers for that.

That said I have doubts about if all of them can be considered science fiction.

Pig Tales sounds like it has unexplained fantastical events, which from the reviews I've read sounds more similar to Kafka's Metamorphosis than any type of science fiction. But I may be wrong since I haven't read the book...

Also, that Nightwatch series seems straightforward vampire stories to me, which usually is just Fantasy (there's the exception of I Am Legend of course). What makes this sci-fi?



If any one has any other doubts about the books in the list be sure to tell us. That's what the comment thread is for... :)

It's a pity that many of the Soviet and Russian authors have either never been translated into other languages, or translated insufficiently. For example, I doubt it that brilliant novels from Olga Larionova's "Labyrinth for Troglodites" trilogy have ever been translated, or that the works by Aleksandr Gromov, Oleg Divov, Leonid Kaganov's short stories, e.g. "Hamster" (Khomka), are well-known to the reading public abroad. On the whole the so-called hard SF is lagging behind the "soft" (social) SF in our country, but the best works of social SF are really worth reading.

Yes, I agree, the Nightwatch series is rather something in between a thriller and a modern vampire story, it can hardly be called SF. it's more of a fantasy series.

Are we to consider adding British SF to the list?

yes I suppose pig tales is more like kafka than sf, i guess i am thinking 'fantastic' rather than sf as you have defined it by wikipedia.

and the nightwatch series? i am going by where i found it in the bookstore. i have not read much 'urban fantasy', so the bureaucratic, real life, description, of moscow etc. was new to me. i do not know if this is sf any more than 'magic realism' is 'fantasy'.

i do not insist these few are sf, and am certainly pleased at all the other titles to read. i only read english so would like to have more fantasy/sf translations.

Frankly speaking, I'd remove the whole Nightwatch series from the list, as it's fantasy rather than SF.
Shall we consider utopias and anti-utopias?
I'd remove from the list the following novels: Blindness by José Saramago, The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, as they are well-established works of modern prose, whose basic task is not exploring new ideas in technology, society, and contacts with aliens, but rather exploration of the psyche of a modern man. Otherwise, we shall end up adding works of the "Blechtrommel" or "Cien anos de soledad" type.

Hi again. Sorry, I've been away for a few days without a internet connection.

So judging from what you guys said I'll remove Pig Tales and the Nightwatch books fromk the list.

Inna wrote: "
Shall we consider utopias and anti-utopias?

I'd remove from the list the following novels: Blindness by José Saramago, The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, as they are well-established works of modern prose, whose basic task is not exploring new ideas in technology, society, and contacts with aliens, but rather exploration of the psyche of a modern man.

"

Hi Inna, thanks for the input. Personally I think that utopias and distopias should count, in the case of them taking place in the future. About the books you mentioned, I haven't read them, but from what I read they can be considered SF, even if they aren't "pure" genre work.

I'm looking to make an inclusive list so I'm thinking of only deleting those works that are clearly not SF, and keep the books that have looser (but clear) connections to the genre.

Inna wrote: "Are we to consider adding British SF to the list? "

The idea is only to include works that weren't originally written in English, and because of that aren't that well known in the SF world (in most of the cases, anyway...).

This list is not only to highlight SF greats like Stanislaw Lem or Jules Verne but also to let people know about literature that has been " translated insufficiently" like you said.

I've erased The Trial by Kafka which doesn't seem to be sci-fi at all, (even though it's a great book).

I have doubts about other books I haven't read:

The Franz Kafka short stories collections - I've never thought of him as an SF writer, did he write some SF stories?

There's some Jean Ray books in the list but from what I've read about him he sounds more like a Horror writer. Should we really include him here?

The last one I have is about Orphée by Jean Cocteau. Does this reimagining of the Orpheus myth has any sf elements to it?

I added some that I found on this site:
http://www.concatenation.org/europe/e...

I also added some works by Keith Roberts, who is credited with creating the science fiction genre of alternat history.

Carolyn wrote: "I added some that I found on this site:
http://www.concatenation.org/europe/e...

I also added some works by Keith Roberts, who is credited with creating the science fiction ge..."

The rating is only for fiction written in other languages than English. Could you please remove everything you added that was written by the English-speaking writers from the list.

Carolyn wrote: "I added some that I found on this site:
http://www.concatenation.org/europe/e...

I also added some works by Keith Roberts, who is credited with creating the science fiction ge..."

Hi there Carolyn. Thanks for that interesting link. :)

I had to erase the following books because, even though they are french books, they're anthologies of american SF.

Histoires de Robots
Histoires Divines
Histoires Galactiques

Good article about SF in the Soviet Union in the 20th century first half.

http://io9.com/5964774/science-fictio...

A good Jules Verne documentary found on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2yti...

I've erased Daimones because of this rule: "Just authors from Continental Europe that didn't write their books in English"

Erased Waystation 65 because it's not from a continental Europe author.

There are at least 5 books by Clarke and 1 by Brunner, who are both British authors.

Ulrik wrote: "There are at least 5 books by Clarke and 1 by Brunner, who are both British authors."

agreed. removed