# Science fiction from other cultures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240 "2014-08-10T15:52:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/1 "2014-08-10T15:52:20Z")
I live in California. Ever since I saw this cool old Spanish-language movie wherein Santa Claus lived on the moon (and used a powerful telescope to keep track of who’s naughty and nice), I have had a special interest in science fiction as manifested in cultures other than my own. I’m mostly looking for books translated into English here; although good movies **with subtitles** would be cool too. I have a particular interest in Middle Eastern SF. Recommendations, please? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/2 "2014-08-10T16:13:59Z")
Novel - Roadside Picnic (there’s a new better translation that just came out) Authors - Stanislaw Lem, Jorge Luis Borges ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/3 "2014-08-10T16:17:09Z")
I’m on it! Thanks, **jackdavinci!** ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/4 "2014-08-10T16:19:51Z")
Russia has a fine SF tradition, though I’m not deeply familiar with it. I’m a big fan of Sergei Lukyanenko’s Watches series, starting w/ [Night Watch](http://www.amazon.com/Night-Watch-Book-Sergei-Lukyanenko-ebook/dp/B00DB3FSNW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407687154&sr=1-1&keywords=night+watch); it’s urban fantasy rather than SF, though. There’s also a couple of movies that were rather loosely based on the books; I like 'em, but mileage varies. For SF proper… Zamyatin’s [We](http://www.amazon.com/We-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/0140185852/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z) is a classic from Soviet days. I fairly recently read [Metro 2033](http://www.amazon.com/We-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/0140185852/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z), which was enough of a hit to spawn two video games; for me, the structure’s a bit odd, and I’m not entirely sure what I thought of it. But if you REALLY want weird, there’s [Omon Ra](http://www.amazon.com/Omon-Ra-Victor-Pelevin/dp/0811213641), by Viktor Pelevin. I’ve an acquaintance who is something of a fan of his, and assures me they’re not all that weird, but… well, it was weird. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/5 "2014-08-10T16:20:05Z")
So,\*\* jackdavinci\*\*, we’re not talking about [this one?](http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Picnic-Rediscovered-Classics-Strugatsky/dp/1613743416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407687463&sr=8-1&keywords=roadside+picnic) ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/6 "2014-08-10T16:25:43Z")
Thanks,\*\* LawMonkey,\*\* “Night Watch” sounds good. I am not averse to a little urban fantasy. In fact, while we’re on that topic, I’ll mention my very favorite UF books, Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series. (thoroughly American, though!) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/7 "2014-08-10T16:33:46Z")
> **[The Garin Death Ray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer_Garin%27s_Death_Ray)** > > The Garin Death Ray, also known as The Death Box and The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (Russian: Гиперболоид инженера Гарина), is a science fiction novel by the noted Russian author Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy written in 1926–1927. Vladimir Nabokov, who included parodic elements in his tragicomedy The Waltz Invention (1938), considered it Tolstoy's finest fictional work. > The "hyperboloid" in its title is not a geometrical surface (though it is utilized in the device design) but a "death ray"-la... > **[The Land of Foam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Land_of_Foam)** > > The Land of Foam also known as At the Edge of Oikoumene (Russian: На краю Ойкумены, romanized: Na krayu Oikumeny) and Great Arc (Russian: Великая Дуга, romanized: Velikaya Duga) is a novel written by Soviet writer Ivan Yefremov in 1946. > The novel is divided in two parts, separated by more than 1000 years. > The first part takes place during the rule of the pharaoh Djedefra (26th century BC), who decides to send an expedition to the South, in order to seek the famous and fabled Land of Punt and to... > **[Roadside Picnic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic)** > > Roadside Picnic (Russian: Пикник на обочине, Piknik na obochine, IPA: \[pʲɪkˈnʲik nɐ ɐˈbot͡ɕɪnʲe\]) is a philosophical science fiction novel by Soviet-Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, written in 1971 and published in 1972. It is the brothers' most popular and most widely translated novel outside the former Soviet Union. As of 2003, Boris Strugatsky counted 55 publications of Roadside Picnic in 22 countries. > The story is published in English in a translation by Antonina W. Bouis. A pref... ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/8 "2014-08-10T17:18:49Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > So,\*\* jackdavinci\*\*, we’re not talking about [this one?](http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Picnic-Rediscovered-Classics-Strugatsky/dp/1613743416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407687463&sr=8-1&keywords=roadside+picnic) That is the one I was thinking of (yes two years ago I consider ‘just came out’ relative to when the older one first appeared lol). ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/9 "2014-08-10T17:22:19Z")
It’s by an American (who spent time in Egypt) but you might also like Alif the Unseen for its Middle Eastern vibe… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/10 "2014-08-10T18:59:21Z")
There’s always Stanislaw Lem. His SF is far different from the western veasion. Andreas Eschbach (Germam) wrote one of the best sf novels of the past 15 years in “The Carpet Makers.” It’s his only work translated into English and didn’lt sell well enough to merit more, but he’s quite successful in Europe. There isn’lt very much SF in arab ountries. The genre just never developed. Someone (Fred Pohl?) once asked about it and was told there is only one future, so there’s no point in speculating about it. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/11 "2014-08-10T19:14:32Z")
Thank you,\*\* Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor!\*\* Those other two look great too! ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/12 "2014-08-10T19:18:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > There isn’lt very much SF in arab countries. The genre just never developed. Someone (Fred Pohl?) once asked about it and was told there is only one future, so there’s no point in speculating about it. No shit? Wow, that explains it. Perhaps that will change. Someone on these boards recommended the Budayeen books to me awhile back, and I loved them so much. Of course, that author wasn’t Middle Eastern either. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/13 "2014-08-10T21:47:54Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Jorge Luis Borges From another Argentine contemporary of Borges: The short novel _The Invention of Morel_ by Adolfo Bioy Casares. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/14 "2014-08-10T22:48:22Z")
Recently caught a decent post-apoc movie on Netflix from Spain: _Los Últimos Días_, in English _The Last Days_ which is (thankfully, for those of us who know no Spanish) is subtitled in English. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/15 "2014-08-10T23:09:16Z")
From the French, there’s the original novel [La Planète des Singes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes_(novel)) by Pierre Boule, on which the first Planet of the Apes film was (loosely) based. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/16 "2014-08-10T23:13:29Z")
Another vote for Stanislaw Lem. There’s also “Rossum’s Universal Robots” by Capek, originally written in Czech. Would you count Jules Verne? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/17 "2014-08-11T02:23:20Z")
…a stupid question from me, but have you looked at Japanese science fiction? [Akira](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_%28film%29)—film, and comic—and [Ghost in the Shell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_shell)—comic, film, TV series, and novels—come to mind, immediately, and they hardly stand alone. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/18 "2014-08-11T16:07:58Z")
TV shows: Charlie Jade South African scifi/cyberpunk/apartheid fallout series. Has a Blade Runner type of vibe. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/19 "2014-08-11T16:56:33Z")
Here is a webpage about Islam and Science Fiction, which has many interesting articles [http://www.islamscifi.com](http://www.islamscifi.com) ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240/20 "2014-09-10T01:05:04Z")
Here’s an article about the Islamic roots of scifi: [The Islamic Roots Of Science Fiction](http://io9.com/the-islamic-roots-of-science-fiction-1632693067) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-from-other-cultures/695240.md?page=2)