Interesting News for the Members of Company D
Posted on June 25, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
Got my copies of the German version of The Last Colony today, and put it next to the other books in the series so you can see the wild variety Heyne, my German publisher, provides each new title in the Old Man’s War series:
I have a sneaking suspicion I might know what the cover of Zoe’s Tale will look like when it comes out over there.
But never mind that now. What I really want to say is this: In the German version of The Last Colony, Heyne also added in “The Sagan Diary” as an extra, which I think is kind of cool. But what’s really cool is that when they did the translation, they also kept in the pages that are “In Memoriam” for the ill-fated Company D, the company Jane and her other fellow Special Forces soldiers are meant to rescue on her first combat mission. The names of the soldiers, you may recall, were the names of the folks who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition of TSD from Subterranean Press. So, if you were one of them: Congratulations, you’ve been memorialized in two languages! Don’t worry, your names have remained the same, although it’s now “Kompanie D” that you were part of.
I’m guessing blue………..
I’m also a little green, I want my name in two languages.
Very cool!
Does this mean I’m a German soldier now? My grandfather would not be pleased.
Thats pretty cool…..although my first name is already spelled the German way!!!
Doesn’t “Krieg der Klone” mean “War of the Clones”? Interesting translation for Old Man’s War. Was that intentional?
Not on my part. “Old Man’s War” is a title that didn’t survive the translation process in a lot of different languages.
That’s one way to save on paying artists.
That artist is surely getting some mileage out of the cover:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812568583/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
D
Was that spaceship part of a British/American? Ken MacLeod cover? It looks very familiar.
…”Dinner, dancing, then a night of efficient German” SF.
Since that was originally the cover art for _The Cassini Division_ (Amazon page), yes, definitely . . .
I do hope the artist gets paid each time.
Ah, jink. Was only up to Jasper’s comment @ #6 when I posted.
It must be the German in me, but I like them (assuming the artist is appropriately paid, of course).
Any chance there’ll be a dual language edition? I’m not sure I’m up to reading a whole novel in German but it’s be a good way to practice and fun too. (As opposed to getting out my old text books.)
No chance, Marciepooh. Sorry.
John :
In French, it became Le Vieil homme et la guerre — in a rather nice sounding wordplay on Hemingway’s Le Vieil homme et la mer (aka The Old Man and the Sea)…
Very cool, I always wanted to be Unteroffizier Bernard. Now I am. hehe
When I was in the US Army during the late 80’s we cross trained with some German army units, those guys were way cool.
At first glance, I saw the center book as Kiester Brigade.
Ah, good old German efficiency. Why reinvent the wheel when the original still works just fine. I still think you ought to approach the guys who did the cover for the release in Spain (if I remember correctly) about using their art as a poster. It’d be a kick ass promo and I’d definitely snag one to go up along side my ‘Gears of War’ poster and Warhammer 40K stuff. (Yeah, I’m a Sci-fi gaming geek, what can I say?)
Hm. Now John (my cherished spouse) has been published as dead on two continents. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I’m pretty sure it’s still not enough to convince the life insurance policy to pay up.
Brad:
If you’ve got Warhammer 40K stuff, you may already have my Russian cover!
All novels in German have boring covers, often without any images at all. Most Germans I know complain about the English covers and how silly and tacky and bright and unserious they are. Which, of course, is a great insult because seriousness is taken deadly seriously here. Words should not be made to look silly.
Oh, and the text on the spines goes the other way around which drives you bananas if you have a shelf of mixed language books… turn head right, turn head left, turn head right, turne head lef- no, right again, turn head le….
Dude, LucasArts is totally gonna sue your butt… Totally.
Dude, they’re totally gonna sue Random House Germany, not me.
As a member of Company D, I resemble that statement.
Having read “Die letzte Kolonie” just last week I greatly appreciated the “Bonus Track” of “The Sagan Diary” given by Heyne. That was a very cool and immersive piece of writing.
And for the covers: While it is rather boring to have the same cover art over and over again it´s tradtion in german book covers to have a repetitive element in the covers of a series. Well, the repetitive element in this case is a bit … ample, but it had the benefit of finding the newest Scalzie in the train station bookstore at first glance ^^
And yes, I guess Zoe’s Tale will go by the same pattern, only in green or purple^^
Woohoo! I’ve gone international! (or, should I say, internationale!)
@26, Jeremiah G:
Nope, it’s “international” in german too.
So how do you like the russian covers?
on http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/2670240/?type=308#308