[This is not a review: I haven’t had time to read the book yet. Rather, it’s a discussion and description of the book.]
A long-running discussion in science fiction circles has been the seeming ethnocentrism of English-language—and specifically US-based—science fiction writers and readers. English, after all, is not (yet) a universal language, and there are other writers working in other languages turning out stories that in many cases are the equal of English-language sf, except that they (in general) have smaller audiences.
Tor Books is publishing a new volume to try to rectify the situation, although they also point to one of the reasons we see so little of the products of other countries.
James and Kathryn Morrow, under the aegis of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, have edited The SFWA European Hall of Fame, which is subtitled “Sixteen Contemporary Masterpieces of Science Fiction from the Continent.” The cover flap notes that this project took the Morrows six years, which time was spent choosing stories and getting translations into English. And that may be the key: as much as we want to be globally cosmopolitan, to recognize every culture and all creative endeavors, the fact remains that most people can’t read more than one or two or three languages (and English is one of the five most spoken languages on the planet).
At any rate, the Morrows have gathered sixteen stories which they present as “representative of the best writers and stories in the last twenty years, written in most of the major contemporary European languages.” This volume starts with James Morrow’s own introduction, entitled “Extrapolations of Things Past: A Barbarously Brief Account of European Science Fiction from Micromégas to Microchips.”
The contents of this volume show a very broad international, though European, flavor. They are:
“Separations” by Jean-Claude Dunyach, translated from French by Sheryl Curtis (first published as “Séparations” in Galaxies, September 2005)
“A Birch Tree, A White Fox” by Elena Arsenieva, translated from Russian by Michael M. Naydan and Slava I. Yastremski (first published as “Bereza, belaia lisichka” in Arsenieva’s collection Kartina ozhidaniya, 1989)
“Sepultura” by Valerio Evangelisti, translated from Italian by Sergio D. Altieri (first published in the anthology Metallo urlante, 1998)
“The Fourth Day to Eternity” by Ondřej Neff, translated from Czech by Jeffrey Brown (first published in Neff’s collection Čtvrtý den až navéky, 1987)
“Baby Doll” by Johanna Sinisalo, translated from Finnish by David Hackston (first published in the anthology Intohimosfa rikokseen, 2002)
“You Retoont, Sneogg. Ay Noo.” by Marek S. Huberath, translated from Polish by Michael Kandel (first published as “Wróciees Sneogg, wiedziaam…” in Fantastyka #60, September 1987)
“The Day We Went Through the Transition” by Ricard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero, translated from Spanish by Yolanda Molina-Gavilán and James Stevens-Arce (first published as “Ed día que hicimos la Transición” in the anthology Visiones, 1997)
“Athos Emfovos in the Temple of Sound” by Panagiotis Koustas, translated from Greek by Mary and Gary Mitchell (first published as “O Athos Emfovos sto Nao toy Ihoy” in 9 #133, 22 January 2003)
“Some Earthlings’ Adventures on Outrerria” by Lucian Merişca, translated from Romanian by Cezar Ionescu (first published “Peripeţile Unor Pământi în Exterrior” in the anthology Nemira ’94, 1994)
“Destiny, Inc.” by Sergei Lukyanenko, translated from Russian by Michael M. Naydan and Slava I. Yastremski (first published as “Ot sud’bi” in Yesli #6, 2001)
“Wonders of the Universe” by Andreas Eschbach, translated from German by Doryl Jensen (first published as “Die Wunder des Universums” in SF Media, July 1997)
“A Night on the Edge of the Empire” by João Barreiros, translated from Portuguese by Luís Rodrigues (first published “Uma Noite na Periferia do Império” in the anthology Inconsequencias na Periferia do Império, 1996)
“Transfusion” by Joëlle Wintrebert, translated from French by Tom Clegg (first published in the anthology Univers, 1988)
“Verstummte Musik” by W.J. Maryson, translated from Dutch by Lia Belt (first published in the anthology Zwarte Sterren, 2005)
“Between the Lines” by José Antonio Cotrina, translated from Spanish by James Stevens-Arce (first published as “Entre líneas” in Gilgamesh #25, May 2000)
“A Blue and Cloudless Sky” by Bernhard Ribbeck, translated from Danish by Niels Dalgaard (first published as “En blå og skyfri himmel” in Phantazm #8, 1996)