Take a Trip Around Planet Earth with 9 Translated Science Fiction Novels

Slowed only by language barriers, science fiction has flourished throughout the world, telling dazzling stories of the future, and the world we live in. But as the world grows ever more connected, something extraordinary has begun to happen: diverse strands of the science fiction literary tradition have begun to seek one another out. Magazines and major publishers are making a concerted effort to ramp up translations of genre works from all over the world. Here are eight science fiction novels translated into English (some recently, some less so) that provide just a glimmer of what the world has to offer.

Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii

This debut from Japanese author Taiyo Fujii, translated by Jim Hubbert, is set in a post-human future where gene-hacking has radically altered everything from the food we eat to our own bodies. The planet is overpopulated, virtual reality has supplanted most in-person contact, and the food supply is vulnerable to genetic collapse. A scientist named Hayashida discovers that a custom rice plant he engineered has suffered just such a calamity, and suspects a conspiracy. He travels to Ho Chi Min City to hunt down the culprit, but finds a plot that goes far deeper than a simple vendetta. Originally self-published in Japan, this translation introduces a major new voice in SF to Western readers.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

In this fantastic novel from Sweden, those women over 50 and men over 60 without families or jobs are sequestered into The Unit, a facility where they live in relative comfort, but also serve as living lab rats and, eventually, are expected to donate more and more of themselves to benefit the greater good. Dorrit Weger checks into a facility expecting to live our her live comfortably, but then she falls in love, and the walls begin to close in. This is a powerful novel about the roles we each play in society, and how individuality is often sacrificed in the name of something greater.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

In perhaps the greatest (and certainly most well-known) works of Polish science fiction, Stanislaw Lem takes Kris Kelvin to a far out research station orbiting the planet Solaris, where strange things have been occurring. The crew, and later Kelvin, is plagued by repressed memories and past regrets, haunting visions that have them questioning their sanity. Solaris is a fantastic novel that teaches us that universe is far stranger than we’d ever imagined.

The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End by Cixin Liu

The first and second Chinese science fiction novels to be translated into English (by Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen, respectively) make up two-thirds of Cixin Liu’s fantastic hard-SF trilogy. Three Body Problem begins in China’s recent past, as the Cultural Revolution shapes the events of the future as contact is made with an alien race known as the Trisolarians. In The Dark Forest, the Trisolarians are on their way to Earth, and only four people stand in the way of the destruction of the human race. Liu’s trilogy has gained considerable acclaim within China, and the first book picked up nominations for the Hugo and Nebula awards Stateside.

A Legend of the Future by Agustín de Rojas

The jacket copy of this novel proclaims de Rojas, “the Father of Cuban science fiction,” and this 1985 first contact story is among the first Cuban SF novels translated into English. Against the backdrop of a massive war on Earth, a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan is jeopardized by a malfunctioning spacecraft and a paranoid crew that believes it may have been infiltrated by aliens. This looks to be a fantastic, socially relevant adventure.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Red Schuhart is a Stalker in this Russian science fiction novel from brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Stalkers are scavengers who venture into The Zone to search for alien technology. Years ago, Earth was visited a mysterious alien presence that left behind unexplained technology with strange properties, which the Strugatskys liken to litter left after a picnic on the side of a road; once the humans leave, perhaps the insects try to understand what’s been left behind. Would humans be able to understand aliens any better?

A Planet for Rent by Yoss

In this second newly translated Cuban science fiction novel, a wrecked Earth is saved by an alien race that turns the planet into a tourist destination. An oppressed humanity seeks to survive in any way possible, collaborating with their conquerors or escaping to space in cobbled together spaceships. Yoss, one of the best-known living Cuban genre writers, takes a critical look at the communist nation’s history of oppression and totalitarianism.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

This work was originally published in 1924 by Yevgeny Zamyatin, an exile from Soviet Russia. It’s a stunning dystopia set in the 26th Century, where the OneState rules over all. There’s no privacy, only regimented work and pleasure for its citizens. We is a critical look at the extremes of communism and the hard-lined policies of Soviet Russia.

What translated SF do you recommend?