The Black Mirror

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The Black Mirror & Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany & Austria, ed. Franz Rottensteiner, trans. Mike Mitchell

My brother the German expert recommended this book to me a while back and I eventually got around to requesting it through ILL.  It's a neat collection!  Rottensteiner does a historical survey of SF in the German language, beginning with material from the 1870s (which predicts the Internet!).  Sections cover pre-WWI, the inter-war period, post-WWII stories from West and East Germany separately, and then a final post-reunification period of current SF.

Quite a few of the stories are excellent and I really enjoyed them.  A few are a bit dull.  A couple of the modern ones are a little too freaky for my taste, one is alternate history, and the last one will make you sniffle (so don't skip it if you're getting tired).  Here are the ones I liked best:

The Martian Spy
Malvu the Helmsman
Meteorites
The Black Mirror
A Letter From the Other Side

A very interesting collection--if you're an SF person put it on your list of necessary reads. It's worth reading if you're not an SF aficionado too.  I'm not a big SF fan and I liked it.

Comments

  1. AmyOctober 17, 2012 at 5:43 AM

    I read (very badly) in German; this looks fascinating, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanOctober 17, 2012 at 6:58 AM

    If you read it tell me what you think!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChinoiseriesOctober 21, 2012 at 2:37 AM

    Oh, German SF! I'd love to get my hands on this. Onto the tbr pile!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ArenelDecember 7, 2012 at 6:07 AM

    This seems to be a much more diverse collection than the one I read. Thanks for pointing it out to me, I'll definitely look for it!)

    ReplyDelete

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