Dude, I am HUGE in Germany + METAtropolis Review
Posted on June 18, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 14 Comments
Look at this kickass ad for the German version of The Android’s Dream, off the German iBookstore, in Germany:
I love it when publishers spend money advertising my books. Makes me all warm inside, it does. I mean, above my normal metabolic rate (Update: Someone noted that in the US at least the iBookstore doesn’t do “co-op” payments, so if that holds true in Germany as well, its presence there means someone at Apple in Germany is a fan. WHICH IS EVEN BETTER). Thanks to Yannick Posse for sending it along so I could geek out to it.
In other me-related news, here’s a nice Bookgasm review of the Tor edition of METAtropolis, which as you all know is out now in the bookstores and pining for your touch. Money quote:
Tor is now releasing the work for the first time in a general trade format, and fans of the post-recession-apocalypse genre should rejoice at that… [This] is an impressively cohesive story collection, offering a varied sample of post-recession literature. Not quite post-apocalyptic, in that the world has not ended, and yet definitely set in the post-recession years, the tales provide a frightening glimpse into what could very well be our future if events continue as is.
I will say it’s been sort of unsettling to watch parts of METAtropolis come into phase with reality over the last couple of years; it’s not necessarily one of those times you want to be able to say “told you so.” But it does make for interesting reading, if I do say so myself.
And here I thought the only decent post-recession literature was the daily newspaper!
Here’s hoping your gig as unofficial high priest of one of the coolest cabals of prophets ever assembled is a lucrative one.
But is it wrong for me to now have a mental picture of you riding an atom bomb out the hatch, waving a cowboy hat, and whooping “Yee haw!”
…in German?
METAtropolis was a good read, definitely. As the review mentioned it was quite cohesive, which was impressive from an editing perspective. The way the stories referenced and built on each other made them seem almost like portions of a longer story.
The weakest story for me was the first one, mostly because I had a hard time buying the notion that the forest-dwellers could persist as an effective society. However, it was well-written and I still enjoyed it – and my opinion is likely just my own biases seeping through. I LOVED the other 4 stories – particularly the humor in Mr. Scalzi’s story and the notions of what constitutes a society in Mr. Schroeder’s . It was a good decision to end the collection with the most forward-looking piece – it really got me thinking.
Oh hey, look. Lasers. You know, I’m tempted to think that maybe the lasers are fueling your sales, you know? Everyone likes lasers.
I remember reading Kim Robinson’s climate change book that contains the event where a storm surge floods Washington D.C. while listening to reports on the radio about a storm surge flooding New Orleans.
So…you’re huge in Germany…
Does this make you the next David Hasselhoff?
What are you waiting for? Get over here and tear down a wall. You will be remembered as “The Scalz”. But be sure to wear a leather jacket with L.E.D. accessories and a piano scarf.
Otherwise, you could just do some readings from the shades of a small s.f. convention. If there were any.
I was in fact invited to a convention in Germany last year, but my schedule did not allow me to go. Maybe some other time.
Seeing how the title comes out in translation, I now want you to write THE ANDROID’S TRAUMA.
OK, so you’re HUGE in Germany, but are you big in Japan?
What is particularly troubling to me is that I am flashing on a subgenre of stories in which writers find that their computer, or (in earlier days) word processor, or (in even earlier days) typewriter possesses powers over reality, such that whatever they type becomes true. (E.g., Stephen King’s short story, “Word Processor of the Gods,” available in the Skeleton Crew collection.)
John, have you noticed anything, well, different about your computer lately?
And if so–could I hire you to do a little typing for me?
So, John, if you’d win the Kurd-Laßwitz-Award, would you be on ElsterCon? Maybe if you promise that some of the voters could be tempted to vote for “Androidenträume” … :)
I can’t wait to see the laser-shooting spaceship on the German edition of “Unscharf Volk”
Glenn@12: It took me some seconds to find out what novel you were refering to. :) But I think the proper translation would be “Fusseliger Staat”, although Heyne will come up with something totally different. They released Prattchets “Nation” as “Eine Insel”, so it will probably be “Eine fusselige Insel”…
:-) cool!