23 Comments on “If You Read German”

1. Yeah, a *few* spoilers. That’s the same a saying your novel has a *few* funny moments ;-).

2. My German’s bad enough that I was able to skim it without spoiling the book I haven’t read but plan to. One thing caught my eye though. You actually called it Starfleet and Paramount didn’t sick legal on you?

3. Recommendation of the month! Nice.

   A bit off-topic, but not too far: Years ago, when my wife and I were living in Germany, we happened upon a new TV series called Raumschiff Enterprise… We were still learning German then, and we were entertained by the idea of a “roomship”, not having realized before that while “space” and “room” are English synonyms, they’re not interchangeable.

4. Well, Google Translate helped me get the gist of the review (since despite my last name, my German is at best limited) . Pretty nice write-up!

5. I can read German, however, only if the book has subtitles.

6. My country (or at least my favourite homegrown newspaper) has done me proud! :) Couldn’t agree more with the reviewer. I finished the novel yesterday and LOVED it. Will be recommending it or gifting it at Christmas all round.
   I’d be interested to know what non-Trek fans make of it, though. Is it as fun if you don’t pick up on all the clever asides and winks to familiar tropes, characteristics and plot developments?

7. @Gulliver, it’s “Space Fleet” in the English.

8. Speaking of Germany and science fiction, I wish I could read more than one book by Andreas Eschbach. The Carpet Makers was soooooooo good and I want more.

9. @Ed
   Off topic, but none of the rest of Eschbach’s work is at all like The Carpet Makers. In fact, very little of his work resembles any other part of his work. He’s tried a bit of everything.

10. @ Jacob
    Interesting, because the Viennese newspaper article John linked to calls it Sternenflotte, which is German for Starfleet. Space Fleet would be Raumflotte, the German word for space being the same as room, as Rob indicated, and the English word space being a Latin derivative by way of a Norman loanword. I wonder if Paramount has copyright in Austria.

11. Very nice article and I love how the author points out how much the Codas change the mood of the whole book. Because it’s exactly how I felt and why it’s the reason I’m loving the book so, so much.
    Btw…I never really found a place to mention this, but ever since you wrote about your tour in Germany and mentioned your encounter with the Amerikaner, I’ve started buying one almost everytime I go shopping. I loved those as a child, but at least ten years must have passed by since I ate one before you wrote about it. So….curse you!! :D I had no idea how much I had missed this taste.

12. @Gulliver
    A search of the amazon.de entry for Redshirts has no hits for “Sternenflotte” but does yield hits for Raumflotte. I suspect that the reviewer is just using the term from Star Trek out of habit.

13. “Years ago, when my wife and I were living in Germany, we happened upon a new TV series called Raumschiff Enterprise… We were still learning German then, and we were entertained by the idea of a “roomship”, not having realized before that while “space” and “room” are English synonyms, they’re not interchangeable.”

    The episode titles for Raumschiff Enterprise were sometimes direct translations of the English titles, but sometimes quite different. http://startrek-index.de/tv/tos/ has the complete list, but, for example, “What are Little Girls Made of” turns into “The Ancient Dream” (of immortality, I assume), and “The Menagerie” is “Talos IV – Forbidden!”. There is also “Deadly games of Gothos” and “Bele battles Loki”, “Spock Under Suspicion” and the spoileriffic “Horta saves its children” (and “The Deadly Fog”). I rather like “How fast the years have gone”, and “Do you know the Tribbles?” as alternate titles for “The Deadly Years” and “The Trouble with Tribbles”

14. @ Andrew: Cool, thanks for the pointer.

    the spoileriffic “Horta saves its children”

    That’s very funny. I think German translations of American TV episodes and movies can sometimes be more explicit about what happens; I’m remembering the movie title “The only witness”, for example, where in the American “Witness” that’s just implied.

15. Now I really have to buy that book!!! Btw, it’s so awesome “Der Standard” reviewed your book!!

16. “Der Standard” is an ultra-leftwing newspaper full of politcal correct writers who call anyone a racist and nazi who doesn’t agree with their views.

17. Relevant:
    http://rateyourmusic.com/list/XonE/horrible_german_film_title_translations__with_re_translations____/

18. I really want to read your book, so I logged in to amazon.it and found that they sell it in three kindle versions:
    1) US, at 12,83€;
    2) UK, at 10,99;
    3) German, at 7,13.
    I do read German easily, but I’d rather read what you write, and not just because I find English easier. I guess I will have to wait until my next trip to the US.

    A side note: I bought your Subterranean bundle. What you write is always so typo-free that, when I met the word albegra, I looked it up on the dictionary :).

19. Sooo off topic:
    @Majo: So you’ve felt the paper’s very own Mallet of Loving Correction, then? Yes, the Standard is left-leaning (far from ultra-leftwing, though); giving a voice to and defending the ‘other’ and opposing the troubling conservative right-wing tendencies so prevalent in Austrian society can only be a good thing in my book.

20. @DemetriosX — that just piques my curiosity even more >_>

21. [Deleted for standard-issue racism – JS]

22. Behold the Mallet in action. And I like what you did there, JS. Standard-issue. LOL.

23. Yes, Mr. Majo, sir, Der Standard IS left-wing. And Josefson is one of the best critics in the German speaking sf field. If he says something is worth reading, then mostly it is. And, sir, I’m saying this as a libertarian or classical liberal or whatever you may call it.