I am monolingual, which limits me to reading works in English. One of the joys of this modern, interconnected world in which we’re living is that any speculative fiction work written in another language could (in theory) be translated into English. One of my frustrations is that, generally speaking, they haven’t been. Here are five works about which I know enough to know that I’d read them if only they were translated.
Issui Ogawa is the author of such works as The Next Continent (a thrilling hard SF tale of lunar development) and The Lord of the Sands of Time (a dense novel about a time war 1 ). The Next Continent was enough to convince me to follow publisher Haikasoru…until their recent hiatus. Alas, they didn’t translate any further Ogawa books, a deplorable situation I blame on all the other readers who didn’t buy Ogawa’s books.
Ogawa’s Signposts to the Stars is described as a ten-volume series set in the 29th century (as far as I can tell from enigmatic comments online about novels in a language I cannot read). Given how enjoyable Ogawa’s two Haikasoru books were, I’d love to see how he handles a lengthy series. Alas!—thus far the books have not materialized in English.
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Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) by Yusuke Kishi is set long after the emergence of psychic powers transformed society. For the ensemble team of protagonists, the chaos of the past is long forgotten. As far as they know, they live in a happy community, heirs to social conventions that will surely lead to a safe and contented life. Their world is (of course) far more perilous than they suspect.
Shin Sekai Yori’s manga and anime have licensed English translations, but as far as I know, the only prose translation is a fan translation. The work appears to be an intriguing exploration of classic SF themes, and I wish I had a full translation of the novel in hand.
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Lee Yeongdo is a Korean author I know from a single translated novella, Over the Horizon. The novella details the adventures of a forme r military fencing master reduced by a combination of bold innovation and poor judgment to a humble existence as a junior functionary in a backwater town. He’s a man unburdened by deep-seated moral principles who is presented with the chance to steal a fortune. The translation wasn’t all that good, but it left me curious what the author was like at longer lengths. I have no idea, because Over the Horizon seems to be the only Yeongdo work available in English.
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Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito secondary universe fantasy novels recount the adventures of a talented warrior, Balsa, whose prowess with the spear is matched only by her disinclination to get involved in deadly court politics… It’s too bad, then, that she cannot avoid being drawn into deadly court politics. The first novel in the series, Guardian of the Spirit (Seirei no Moribito), in which Balsa is forced to guard a young prince on whose well-being the safety of the kingdom may rest, was enough to convince me to race out and purchase all of her translated works. While the author has an impressive backlist in Japanese, thus far only two of the Moribito books (Guardian of the Spirit and Guardian of the Darkness) have been translated, as well as the first book in the Beast Player series (The Beast Player). The second book (The Beast Warrior) is due out later this year. But Uehashi’s written at least eighteen fantasy works that are still untranslated!
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I know Noriko Ogiwara’s Jade Trilogy (Sorairo Magatama, Hakuchou Iden, and Usubeni Tennyo) from the two volumes that made it into English: Sorairo Magatama became Dragon Sword and Wind Child, while Hakuchou Iden is available as Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince. Again, the secondary universe fantasies were enough to inspire me to race out and buy all of the Ogiwara books I could find. Sadly, the only books available for purchase were the books I had already read.
It’s fortunate that each book stands on its own, because the third volume has never been translated. Neither have any of the novels in her Red Data Girl series. Opportunity beckons!
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No doubt you are aware of a myriad of brilliant works available only in languages other than English. Feel free to frustrate me by mentioning them in comments!
In the words of Wikipedia editor TexasAndroid, prolific book reviewer and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll is of “questionable notability.” His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews and Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis). He is currently a finalist for the 2020 Best Fan Writer Hugo Award and is surprisingly flammable.
[1]How dense? It manages to cram an entire Harry-Turtledove-series’ worth of events—specifically, Timeline 191—into a couple of paragraphs.
The rightsholders of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō are amazingly resistant to me giving them money.
Yeah, YKK is pretty great.
As you wish! Last year me and fellow fans from Europe managed to collect 90 European speculative titles from the last decade:
http://file770.com/discover-the-old-continent-ninety-remarkable-european-speculative-books-from-the-last-decade/
If you ask me, I would vouch for the weird fiction novel and the separate collection by Attila Veres.
Thank you!
I’ve been a big fan of their zippers for years.
It’s nice to spotlight this! But it’s… a bit less nice that 80% of the listed works are Japanese, considering Japanese culture is heavily fetishized and also given massive prominence in anglophone circles compared to comparatively sized or larger cultures. It feels weird to have this be an unqualified list of works awaiting English translation, without specifically calling out or explaining why Japanese lit is given the most prominence?
Where’s the Arabic, Spanish, or Hindi SFF awaiting translation? Heck, even Chinese SFF?
(I suspect the reason is that, again, the unique and peculiar fetishization that frames the way Westerners interact with Japanese culture is making these works prominent enough that the author and their editor are aware of them without doing much, while less fetishized cultures are obscured and would require, well, research.)
@6
I don’t know about Chinese works awaiting translation, but translated ones have won the Hugo.
I have Xia Jia collection in Mt Tsundoku but if I read it I won’t have it to look forward to.
Wow many interesting titles here
I’d like to see more French and German novels translated–what I see out there looks intriguing.
Hey Tor, what about translating Andreas Eschbach’s Perry Rhodan hardcover, which just won an award, into English?
Off the top of my head, I want the rest of The Twelve Kingdoms series by Fuyumi Ono; and, anything that was written by Marina and Sergey (Russia)!!!
@@@@@ Misty306: Maryna and Serhiy are Ukrainians.
@Darren
Japan has been good at producing Science Fiction and Fantasy works that people from other countries and cultures want to view and read. The manga and anime markets let publishers see that there was a market for works from Japan so they made some attempts to bring over prose works(with limited success,unfortunately). And there is a large fan translation culture that grew out of anime and manga translations that moved over to working on the source material for the stories they liked.
So there is a much larger awareness of works from Japan in the West because there are just more people who care and make noise about it no fetishization required. And the anglophone bit seems weird when you look at the French ,Italian, and Latin American market for manga and anime. A lot of my manga collection is in French since that is the only official translated version.
There’s a German fantasy novel by Tobias O. Meißner that I’d love to recommend to readers – if it were available in English.
It’s about a battle royale-style tournament. What might be dull in a lesser author’s hand is executed brilliantly by Meißner. The background story for each contestant is written in their unique voice which is a truly impressive deed and a joy to read. The tournament itself takes some unexpected turns. This is partly due to the author’s approach: he “played out” the tournament with dice like in a D&D campaign! Meaning he didn’t know himself who would be the winner until the end. This guarantees a suspenseful read as it’s really impossible to know how the whole thing will end.
I’m aware that this description doesn’t do justice to the novel – and that’s precisely why I’d love to see an English translation so I could buy them and hand it to my friends who aren’t up to reading the novel in German!
I’d like English translations of the rest of Walter Moers’ Zamonia series.
@6: Well, James DID say the comments were the place to list other non-translated works. Since it’s inconceivable that you would call out a writer for something you’re not willing to do, I’m eagerly awaiting your list of untranslated Arabic, Hindi and Spanish works. Well? Come on Darren, don’t be shy- let’s see it!
As for me, being a creature of life tastes, I would merely like to see a decent translation of the Argentinian comic Cybersix. A tricky feat considering it was published in Spain, France and Italy. I liked the TV series, and I hear the comic was much more adult and dark.
I lie- I also would like to see translations of Morobito and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō. As well as Shinohara Chie’s Night of the Sea, Dark of the Sea, Shadow of the Moon. Or Michihara Kasumi about the gender bending hero Joker (Michihara is better known for her series Legend of Galactic Heroes). Or Kadunoki Kai’s Ogre Slayer or any of the other dozens of well drawn 90s shoujo horror manga I have on my shelves.
I echo the request on Nahoko Uehashi and Noriko Ogiwara. I haven’t even started those series but it would be nice just to have them available. Especially with Ogiwara’s third book of a trilogy been untranslated.
A big ask perhaps but I don’t think it’s hopeless and another author I haven’t even started on but it would be nice just to have the option: more Kaoru Kurimoto. Only 5 books of her 130 book series Guin Saga (and 20 spinoff books?) got translated. There were plans for at least 16 translations so it must of done poorly. I think franchise power, new screen adaptations or selling it as the main inspiration behind Berserk could revive it. But she written a whole load of other things.
More wuxia books. Especially the Zu/Shu series by Huanzhulouzhu (only one in english so far). I would absoloutely love an anthology of hong kong horror and dark fantasy (horror wuxia and anything else) or even just someone to write an article about hong kong speculative fiction beyond the known wuxia authors.
If you’re hungry for french books, follow Blackcoat Press, they have an immense catalog. They have one Nathalie Henneberg collection but there’s an untranslated novel called The Plague that sounds interesting.
A Marcel Bealu collection. You can get some of his novels and novellas in english but more would be nice.
I’d very much like an English paperback of Shin Sekai Yori / From the New World but I’d settle for an online fan translation, will have to search for that.
I am hoping someday to find the writings of H. P. Lovecraft translated into English.