Worlds Without End Blog

I thought it was easier to count the ones I hadn’t read: 97. Most of those are pre-1950 books. M

@Meridian: You’ve read half of ’em. Impressive. I’ve only read 30 from that list so far. I’ve got about 20 more on my to-read list. There are a lot of pre-50’s in the list to be sure. I like that about the list. Most folks are looking for the latest and greatest and might forget about the old stuff.

I read the list author’s explanation / essay of how he selected the books. A fine read, the most interesting observation to me was that the list is primarily Anglo-American and that he has heard of a strong Russian / Soviet science-fiction tradition. Wow. I would love to know more about these classics in other languages, particularly the space-faring people of Siberia. The only well known Sci-Fi author I can think of, that is not an English speaker, is Stanislaw Lem, the author of Solaris and His Master’s Voice among many, many others. We must be missing out on so much! Do other cultures that venture into space have as developed a Sci-Fi body of work as GBR and USA? USSR? Maybe PRC? Or IND?

@Wintermute: I’ve always been interested in finding English translations of Russian and Polish SF. I agree that there must be tons of great SF that we can’t access. There is a new award for translated works that will debute in the Spring. Check out the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards: http://www.sfftawards.org/

Dave, that is great news! Exactly what we need. I have not read the site yet but translated SciFi Awards is exactly what I had in mind. If they do it right this will be a very important new award, in my humble opinion.