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January 26, 2007
Old Man's War, German and French Editions
Someone in one of the comment threads was wondering if there were any German editions of my books, which prompted me to go to Amazon.de and find out if the German translation of Old Man's War was listed. And indeed it is: Apparently in Germany it's going by the name Krieg der Klone, which, somewhat loosely translated, means "The Clone War." Here's me hoping LucasFilm doesn't have any German lawyers. OMW (or, more accurately, KdK) will be out in June in the German language; start saving your Euros now.
As long as I was checking the German language version, I thought I'd check the French language version as well, and, to my surprise, its publication date was apparently last Wednesday. In the French language it's known as Le vieil homme et la guerre, which translates to "The Old Man and the War," which has a nice Hemingway-esque ring to it, I think. I checked Amazon.ca to see if this version of OMW will be available in Canada; it appears it will be, on February 5th. Should some of you Francophones in the Great White North get hold of the book, you'll have to let me know how the translation is.
Posted by john at January 26, 2007 07:51 PM
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Comments
PixelFish | January 26, 2007 08:36 PM
Bucher. Verdammt.
Jon H | January 26, 2007 08:57 PM
That illustration is used on a British (and US?) edition of one of Ken McLeod's novels.
So your German edition is also a doppelganger.
John Scalzi | January 26, 2007 09:00 PM
Which novel?
whiskeyjack | January 26, 2007 09:27 PM
That cover is from the Cassini Division. I knew I knew it as well. Needed the McLeod to ring a bell though.
John Scalzi | January 26, 2007 09:31 PM
Hah! I should let Ken know.
william | January 26, 2007 09:59 PM
Doesn't that title give one of the surprises away?
John Scalzi | January 26, 2007 10:01 PM
No, because there aren't actually any clones in the book.
Jeff Hentosz | January 26, 2007 10:50 PM
PixelFish:
HTML entities to the rescue! This is just one of many places to find a list. You type 'em in with your normal text and let the browser do its business. Umlauts are made with an ampersand, followed by the cap or lowercase vowel, the letters "uml", and a semi-colon. Ït's ümläüt fün för ëvëryönë!
Patrick in the Philippines | January 27, 2007 12:43 AM
It seems to me that illustrations used in cover art in US books are also independently sold/licensed for foreign publications.
A check with Lois Bujolds website listing cover art used for the Italian translations http://www.dendarii.co.uk/Covers/Italian/index.html will reveal art first used for Orson Scott Card, Piers Anthony, John Dalmas and others.
Metal Fatigue | January 27, 2007 12:59 AM
Jeff:
But you still can't type "Spinal Tap" correctly.
Paul | January 27, 2007 01:15 AM
Have had the cover art discussion on the forums at Guy Kay's website in the past. Apparently, recycled cover art is very common in Europe.
Patrick Nielsen Hayden | January 27, 2007 10:13 AM
Nor is it unheard of for North American publishers to buy second rights to art that first appeared on books in the European market.
I recognized that art right away; to my knowledge this is the first time I've seen art from a book I handled for Tor used on a foreign edition of another book I handled for Tor.
KevinC | January 27, 2007 12:22 PM
I knew I had seen that cover already. Nice catch whiskeyjack.
Wickedpinto | January 27, 2007 10:04 PM
I think it means "The War of clones" I think that "clone war" would begin with "der krieg" which means THE WAR. In this case, it means "War of Clones" I think.
Still, a crappy translation of title.
Hal | January 27, 2007 10:07 PM
So what's on the cover of the German version of the Cassini Division? Looks familiar....
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PixelFish | January 26, 2007 08:34 PM
My boyfriend and I once figured out titles for your buchen auf Deutsch:
- Der Krieg der altes Manner
- Die Brigaden der Geister
- Die Letzte Kolonie
(I can't add the umlauts though.)
We were trying to explain them to our German teacher. We also have Der Kadett, which is Lois Bujold's German edition of The Warrior's Apprentice. The Germans insist on concatenating words to make even longer words, so we got about a handful of paragraphs in before stumbling over Uberraschungablenkungsmanover, which is basically surprise distractions and manouevres. We'd be excited to get our paws on your German editions.