Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Hi, I'm new to this group, and I'm looking for recommendations for science fiction novels written by non-Americans. I have read SF books from Canada, Jamaica, Argentina, the UK, France, Czechia, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea. I'm looking to add more countries to that list.

Hi Adam, if you want to add Belgium to the list, try "I Who Have Never Known Men" by Jacqueline Harpman :) There's not much going on in the way of world-building, but it’s a pretty unique book. And short, too, so I’d say it’s worth it. You seem to be the expert though - do you have any recommendations from the countries you've read?

I'll definitely add that one to my list. I had nothing for Belgium, except someone recommended a couple of TinTin books.
For France, I've mostly read lots of Verne. He's always a fun read.
For Czechia, I've read R.U.R. by Capek.
For Japan, I've read Inter Ice Age Four, by Kobo Abe, and also the entire series of My Hero Academia (42 volumes in the main series), and some of the side stuff. It's a superhero manga.
For China, I'm about to start the third book of the Three Body Problem trilogy. And I've read quite a few short stories.
For Thailand, I read Starship and Haiku by Somtow Sucharitkul.
I've read Nnedi Okorafor's Binti books, but she was born and raised in the US, so I'm going to read Rosewater by Tade Thompson.
I read NumberCaste by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne for Sri Lanka, which is a dystopia based on social media ranking numbers.
For Papua New Guinea I read Other Worlds. It's an anthology of speculative fiction from various PNG authors.
I read Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer.
I read Bron Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson for Jamaica, but that was more like horror. I think I'll find something else to count for this project.
Julie Czerneda is a great Canadian option. Her books focus on alien biology.
There are so many big-name British SF writers.

Adam wrote: "I'll definitely add that one to my list. I had nothing for Belgium, except someone recommended a couple of TinTin books.
For France, I've mostly read lots of Verne. He's always a fun read.
For Cze..."

Also for Czechia, I loved Spaceman of Bohemia, and I also want to get to War with the Newts.

For Belgium, I read The Angel Maker

For South Africa, Triangulum was good.

For Australia, Clade

For Denmark, The Employees. On the Calculation of Volume I series is excellent thus far; written in Danish but set mostly in France and Germany.

For Taiwan, The Membranes and The Man with the Compound Eyes.

For Bangladesh, Saad Z. Hossain has written a number of books.

For India, I'm going to try Acts of God

I keep trying to find good German SciFi - The Hair-Carpet Weavers was just okay for me but many love it. I also am going to try Qualityland and The Swarm.

For Denmark, I've already bought Termush by Sven Holm.
South Africa seems to have a TON of SF to choose from.
I have an old SF pulp novel in Chinese from Taiwan, but reading it will require extensive use of a dictionary. Reading something in translation might be more practical.
I though I had bought a book by Saad Z. Hossain, but I'm not finding it on my shelves.
I just bought A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar from India. It sounds like its kinda just on the fringe of SF, being set in the very near future in a dystopian Kolkata.
I have whole collections of Russian SF short stories and novellas.
And I'm finally going to read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.
I'm really surprised at how much SF is in print from African, and also surprised at how many countries have multiple interesting options to choose from.
I haven't really gotten around to exploring the Arabic-speaking world yet. I'm expecting to find plenty from Egypt, Algeria, maybe Morocco, probably Lebanon. I'm not sure what to expect from the rest of North Africa, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Iraq and Syria...idk.
I found a couple of anthologies for the Caribbean that look promising.

Adam wrote: "For Denmark, I've already bought Termush by Sven Holm.
South Africa seems to have a TON of SF to choose from.
I have an old SF pulp novel in Chinese from Taiwan, but reading it will require extensi..."

Termush looks interesting. I need to read more Lem! Which reminds me that I'm currently reading a giant brick of a Polish SciFi (and enjoying it!) - Ice by Jacek Dukaj.

Any more recs on South African SciFi? From Russian SciFi so far I've only read Roadside Picnic.

I'm not reading only SciFi for this project, but I do like SciFi, so enjoy reading it when I find it - do continue to share what you find. I don't think I've read any African SciFi outside of Nigeria and South Africa... I did read (and loved!) Wizard of the Crow which is more speculative/fantasy rather than SciFi.

I read The Queue from Egypt, which is dystopian, but didn't get on with it that well, and Shubeik Lubeik which is fantasy.

For Britian and France, you cannot go wrong with H.G. Wells (UK) or Jules Verne (France). They are classics.

Australia Clade Hive Terra Nullius
New Zealand The Book of Guilt

Meg wrote: "Australia Clade Hive Terra Nullius
New Zealand The Book of Guilt"

Thanks! Those can go on my list to check out! I haven't read from Australia or New Zealand yet.

Mike wrote: "For Britian and France, you cannot go wrong with H.G. Wells (UK) or Jules Verne (France). They are classics."

It's been a while since I read any Wells. I read The Time Machine and War of the Worlds back in junior high, then a couple of times since. I red The Island of Doctor Moreau last year, and I guess that was sci-fi. I have a volume of 28 of his short novels. I should probably dip into that for something soon.
Verne has been a favorite since I first encountered him in junior high. I've read a number of his. The one of his I read most recently was The Chase of the Golden Meteor.

Erin wrote: "Adam wrote: "For Denmark, I've already bought Termush by Sven Holm.
South Africa seems to have a TON of SF to choose from.
I have an old SF pulp novel in Chinese from Taiwan, but reading it will re..."

I can't exactly recommend anything from South Africa, since I haven't read anything yet. But I have a fairly long list of authors compiled, if you want me to share that, I can.

For African SF in general, there's an award called the Nommo Awards, which is for African Writers of sci-fi. There are winners or nominees from Uganda, Malawi, Senegal, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Congo and others.

Dang it - I knew I should not have clicked on this thread. My TBR just grew dramatically! LOL. Also, here's a few more......

A Song for Rust-City by Simina Lungu (Romanian writer)

Iron Widow and Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao (a SciFi/Fantasy fusion by a Chinese writer)

Adam wrote: "Hi, I'm new to this group, and I'm looking for recommendations for science fiction novels written by non-Americans. I have read SF books from Canada, Jamaica, Argentina, the UK, France, Czechia, Ch..."

I am reading The Old Drift. It is set in Zambia. I am not really liking it so far, but I am very picky about science fiction. The African-ness is great. She reminds me of my son in law from Kenya. But the story has been difficult to get into.

The Old Drift

The author is Namwali Serpell who was born in Lusaka and now lives in the US.

Hi, I’m also looking for sci-fi books from around the world to add to my to-read list. This thread is filled with great recommendations, thanks! Here are some books I’ve read that I liked…

India:
-Turbulence (2010) Samit Basu - chatty group of random strangers must become a mighty superhero team, but they’re rather reluctant.
-Ambiguity Machines (2018) Vandana Singh - short stories c2007-15 from a USA physics professor, so the writing isn’t polished but the stories are cool & reflect her cultural upbringing.
-Final Adventures of Professor Shonku (2020) Satyajit Ray - amazing short story collection written c1978-90 thats perfect for kids.
-The Beast With Nine Billion Feet
(1998) Anil Menon - teenagers solve an on-going mystery while running around their utopia/dystopian city.

Hungary:
-Triszex (1974) Fekete Gyula - a lost civilization on a far away planet broadcasts a live video to earth but it arrives too late, leaving the voyeuristic earth scientists scratching their heads as to why they stopped reproducing.

Romania:
-A Love From The Year 41,042 (1958) Sergiu Farcăsan - a generation ship returns to post-capitalist earth, a lite romance is flowering.

Japan:
-The Memory Police (1994) Yoko Ogawa - boring dystopia story not much different from the book’s title.
-10 Billion Days & 100 Billion
Nights (1967) Ryu Mitsuse - a biography of life on earth, starts with protozoa & ends with jesus’ return, but he’s got a laser gun and he’s mean and siddartha kickboxes him.
-The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1967) Yasutaka Tsutsui - a bad day at school gets lived over and over again until the future can change for the better.
-Inter Ice Age 4 (1958) Kono Abe - a programmer looses his job to an AI corporation and so he investigates them and discovers that they have a secret plan to steal fetuses and breed a new human race.

Italy:
-The Complete Cosmicomics (1965-1968) Italo Calvino - surreal short stories by a master, weaving poetry & sci-fi themes.

Cuba:
-A Planet for Rent (2015) Yoss - might as well laugh at this cynical future where everything and everyone is for sale.

France:
-Miss Atomos vs. The K.K.K.
(1966) André Caroff - police thriller set in a future alt-reality.
-Starmasters' Gambit (1958) Gerard Klein - cool novel about a chess loving teenager who escapes military conscription, steals a spaceship and flies around the galaxy meeting people who can help him end the war.
-Orphan of Perdide (1958) Stefan Wul - very fun novel about a space-pirate who helps his friend to rescue his son from a dangerous planet of killer wasps, but is it really his son?
-Niouk (1957) Stefan Wul - after octopus aliens have destroyed all civilization on earth, a brave little boy must help his tribe by travelling solo on foot through the ruins of NYC.

Egypt:
-Utopia (2009) Ahmed Khaled Towfik - 2 rich kids play hooky and escape their walled-in utopian city, but the outside world has a few lessons to teach them.

Belgiums:
-The Employee (1958) Jacques
Sternberg - crazy surreal stream of consciousness autobiography that mixes absurd bits of sci-fi elements.
-Where Were You Last Pluterday? (1968) Paul van Herck - fanboys at sci-fi convention loose their minds when reality collides with fiction.

China:
-Folding Beijing (2014) Hao Jingfang - story about how our lives go back and forth through differnt dimensions.

Norway:
-Ring round the sun (1967) Jon Bing & Tor Åge Bringsværd - random short stories by two authors, some were interesting but most were just sketches.
-Epp (1965) Axel Jensen - claustrophobic life in an utopia/dystopia where nobody ever has to leave their apartment block.
-Fugl (2019) Sigbjern Skäden - emotional story about a close knit family trying to survive on a rugged planet.

Denmark:
The Employees (2020) Olga Ravn - cringy short stories/sketches of work-life on a corporate generation ship.

Poland:
-Eden (1958) Stanislaw Lem - team of explorers crash land on a habitable planet, a la star-trek.
-Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (1961)
Stanislaw Lem - after the paper-apocalypse a man wanders around a (mostly) empty building, its all very boring, very backroomsy.
-The Futurological Congress (1971)
Stanislaw Lem - there’s a big press convention going on, but in this future everyone is forced to be on LSD, so the paranoia gets wild pretty quickly.
-The Star Diaries (1957) Stanisław Lem - very entertaining sci-fi short stories about an astronaut who’s ship has stalled in the middle of space and the amazingly silly things he must do to get back home.

Argentina:
-Trafalgar (1979) Angelica Gorodischer - gossipy short stories about the interplanetary dealings of a suave player.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (so many L's!) is a near future dystopian US, where a Moroccan American is detained for "observation" when her Drams push her "risk score" too high. This is a surveillance state gone beyong Orwell's wildest dreams. The author, herself is a Moroccan immigrant. I liked this one MUCH more than what I read for Algeria.
My Algerian read was Who Remembers the Sea by Mohammed Dib. That thing's a fever dream of a 1960's experimentalist drug trip. It's saving grace is that it is short.
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar is a good character-driven near-future story set in Kolkata as climate change is drowning the city on the verge of famine. There are robot police dogs, synthetic food and a billionaire living on a floating island.