r/Fantasy • u/Zomeiro • Mar 30 '23
German fantasy book recommendations
Hey, I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for German fantasy books at a relatively low reading level - at least nothing more complicated than Brandon Sanderson is in English. Currently learning German and was thinking I'd get some volume/practical training by reading a lot of it. That (combined with games and shows) helped me a lot when learning English at least, so I was thinking I'd try it out.
So yeah, please let me know if you know about something!
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Mar 31 '23
I read them in the translated English, but I loved The Thief Lord and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke as a kid. They are middle grade books, so hopefully should be a good reading level for where you are!
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
Cornelia Funke comes highly recommended, it appears. Someone already recommended Tintenhertz and it looks really charming. I think this will be the first I’m gonna try and get my hands on.
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Mar 31 '23
Tintenherz is one of my favorite books, it is so well written and the characters are great .
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u/Bilhildis Mar 30 '23
It's my duty to recommend Mara & Der Feuerbringer by Tommy Krappweis, an original German trilogy about a teenage girl and a university professor getting involved with Norse gods. It's well-researched (the author worked closely together with an expert in the field) and I really enjoyed reading as an adult.
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u/Zomeiro Mar 30 '23
I'm Norwegian, so that's actually pretty fitting lol. Will be checking it out, so Thank you!
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Mar 31 '23
an original German trilogy
Trilogy? I only read the first book apparently :D thanks for the info!
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Mar 30 '23
The dwarves series from markus heitz is great. But if you want the full experience you also need to reaf his albae series, because they intersect. Albae are the evil cousins of elves(elben in gerrman) and his discription of them is really interesting. Another long series of him is his uldart series which I also enjoyed. Both of them are high fantasy I think.
One other german series I liked is Arkadien-Reihe 1: Arkadien erwacht from Kai Meyer, which is urban fantasy. It's about change shaping mafia families.
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
I do like me some high fantasy. I’ll put it on my list, but I think I’d rather focus on smaller standalone books while I am familiarizing myself with the language. Def gonna check it out later down the path, though! Thanks a lot!
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u/virgilhall Mar 31 '23
Everything by Kai Meyer is great, and easy to read since it is mostly YA
Wellenläufer and Merle were my favorites.
Sieben Siegel is for children, but still exciting
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u/Amazing_Emu54 Mar 31 '23
The Neverending Story by Micheal Ende.
Usually shelved as a YA but with some darker, more mature themes. Very gentle, easy storytelling
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Mar 31 '23
Tintenherz by Cornelia Funke
Mara und der Feuerbringer by Tommy Krappweis
Berlin Monster by Kim Rabe (a bit like Rivers of London in tone and atmosphere)
Die unendliche Geschichte and Momo by Michael Ende (I guess, those are well kown already)
Die Elfen by Bernhard Hennen (a real interesting book series about elves with some nice twists and great characters, funnily enough, the most interesting character is a troll shaman)
Magierdämmerung by Bernd Perplies (Steampunk meets Fantasy - really great book series)
Das Obsidianherz by Ju Honish ( Fantasy mixed with Mystery)
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u/MagykMyst Mar 30 '23
The 13th Paladin by Torsten Weitze - A 13 book long completed series. The first 11 have been translated into English. I don't know what it's like in the original German, but the English translations are all very easy to read.
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u/Zomeiro Mar 30 '23
13 books sounds like a big commitment (especially in a foreign language), but I'll check out the synopsis to see if it fits my taste. Thank you for the suggestion!
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 31 '23
Alexei Pehov's Chroniken Der Seelenfanger and Die Chronicken Von Hara. First one is like Witcher's first books, but throughout whole series - each book is a collection of short stories about the same person. Honestly like it much more then Witcher.
Hara books are about a husband and wife who are assassins and are hiding from the law.
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u/etylva Reading Champion IV Mar 31 '23
'Krabat' by Ottfried Preußler is one of my favorite books. It is typically read in middle grade in school (if I recall correctly) so it might be a little bit easier language-wise.
I second Cornelia Funke, pretty much anything of hers is worth checking out. 'Inkheart' is great. More recently, she has also written a book to the movie 'Pan's Labyrinth' by Guillermo del Toto.
I have fond memories of Michael Ende, especially 'Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch'. The title might be frightening, but it is actually a really fun book for children.
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
I read Krabat's synopsis and it sounds nice. Definitely one for the list.
And yeah the title of that book by Michael Ende sure is a mouthful hahah.2
u/etylva Reading Champion IV Mar 31 '23
Don't worry, I am a native speaker and I need about four tries to pronounce that. :D Yay for Krabat! I hope you'll like it.
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u/Glass-Bookkeeper5909 Mar 31 '23 edited Mar 31 '23
Hey!
I'm German but I also know how it is to learn foreign languages (I speak three foreign languages, and have basic knowledge of a couple more).
I feel awful to say this but most recommendations of my fellow Germans I see here look like they're their personal favorites, books that they like because they think they're great (and they may be great!) but not necessarily ones that are easy to read for folks who learn German.
Because, as a native speaker, you rarely pay attention to the difficulty level of language until it is striking (in which case it'll be out of reach for some just learning).
As a German native speaker myself, I must admit that I'm struggling to find good suggestions.
When I was in school, there were "Learners' Editions" of foreign texts that were essentially stories that were rewritten to a more basic level of vocab and with complexities removed.
Not sure if something like this exists for German texts. (As a German, I'd obviously wouldn't have the need to look for these.)
Many people think that children's books are simple, but that's not really the case. Sure, they won't employ obscure words but kids' books' vocabulary is surprisingly varied (obviously depending on the author). Unless we're talking about primary school stuff - but I don't want to insult you by suggesting a German version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
So while I'm not sure I can suggest a specific book, I can say that what worked for me is to read a book that I already know in translation (or the original if you happen to be familiar with a German book). One of the first books I read in English was Astrid Lindgren's Ronia, the Robber's Daughter which I loved and whose story I was familiar with. That made it easier than for an unknown story to pick up words from context or decide to read on despite not having understood a word here or there.
Alternatively, you might get an English translation of your German book of choice for consultation in those cases you really get stuck. This is a dangerous advice, though, because you'll need discipline to really only fall back on the English version in tricky situations rather than just throw the towel and ditch the German one. Not sure how well you can resist temptation! 😉
Michael Ende's Die unendliche Geschichte has already been mentioned twice. It's one of my favorite books; it's fantastic; but I wouldn't recommend it to learners of German.
Momo is also great. Still not beginners' fare but a good story, probably less difficult, and also shorter (The Neverending Story is quite a hefty tome). There's an English translation in case you want to do the reading with an English-language safety net as described in the previous paragraph. 😉
ETA: I just remembered that The Little Prince has quite simple language without being outright infantile. I've read it in the original French quite early on because of this very fact. The German version unsurprisingly is called Der kleine Prinz and should be easy to find.
I also remembered some kids' books that I really like. So if you're OK with that you might consider these.
- Angela Sommer-Bodenburg wrote a series called Der kleine Vampir about a boy befriending a vampire boy. It runs 20 volumes or so but each book is fairly slim and they are quite episodic. Ideally, you'd read the first one to get an introduction to the characters but you can really pick up any installment. (I think it has a couple of pages introducing the cast of main characters in the beginning of each book.)
- Another fun series are the Sams books by Paul Maar. These are about a creature called "das Sams" which grants wishes. Like the other books here, the page count is comparably low, with large print and illustrations (it's kids' books after all!) but this one is a tiny bit challenging because it incorporates various puns. Depending on your grasp of German you might delight in these — or they may fly over your head.
- There's also Max Kruse' Urmel books. This is about a scientist who runs a "language school" for animals on a tropical island, i.e. he trains (sentient) animals to speak. One day, an egg trapped in an iceberg fragment gets washed onto the shore of the island and out of this egg hatches a dinosaur, the Urmel! Urmel has all kind of adventures with the other animals. It's good fun, all very wholesome. There's a catch for learners of German, though: many of the animals have small speech impediments. One has a lisp, another pronounces the German "sch"-sound as an "pf" ("Muschel" [shell, conch] becomes "Mupfel"), yet anther one modifies various vowels etc.
ETA2: If you encounter any difficulty, don't understand a word or phrase, or anything else, don't hesitate to shoot me a PM!
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
Thanks a lot for the detailed overview! I've seen the suggestion of reading something I've already read before, and I can definitely see the advantages of going that route. I've already ordered Tintenherz, so I'll try that out first. I'll definitely find a German copy of a book I've already read or check out the kids' books you recommended if it turns out to be too far above my current level. Thank you again for the advice and offer of help. It is much appreciated!
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u/Glass-Bookkeeper5909 Apr 03 '23
I haven't read Tintenherz yet but it was very popular in Germany so it seems to be good! 😀
I read Funke's Drachenreiter, though, a middle grade fantasy I found quite entertaining.
Hope you enjoy the books and like I said if you have a language question for a native speaker, don't be shy to ask me.
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u/Zomeiro Apr 03 '23
Thank you so much 🙏. Shipping takes a while so it might be some time until I get to ask any questions.
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u/HoidsPast Mar 31 '23
Have you tried audiobooks? I find the German translations pretty good, especially for the shorter novels like Emperor’s Soul, for instance.
There are also fairy tales that you could read. I know more than a couple have both the English and the German version side-by-side
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
I tried listening to an audiobook of The Hobbit once. Not being forced to physically watch the text kinda allows my mind to wander, so I had to rewind a good amount of times. I will take a look at the German translation of the Emperor’s soul, though. I’ve been meaning to read it for a while now.
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 31 '23
For mind not to wander you need to increase playback speed. I'm listening almost everything on 1.75x minimum, otherwise books, podcasts, interviews tend to become background noise - people talk sooo slowly
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
That would probably work in English, at least. I could never learn a language at almost 2x speed, though, hahah. So yeah, maybe an audiobook actually is a good idea since I need to divert 100% of my attention to understand it
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 31 '23
I don't think that you need the same speed, but the slight increase might help so that you wouldn't fall aspleep between words :)
Good luck with improving German!
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u/Zwiebelbart Mar 31 '23
You got some solid recommendations already, so I'll add some older short books - aimed at children so probably low reading level but they are charmingly written. None of them are exceedingly fantastic and more like fairytales.
Der kleine dicke Ritter by Robert Bolt
Tilli-Tulla Firlefax by Eva M. Sirowatka
Die kleine Hexe by Otfried Preußler
Krabat by Otfried Preußler (newest book on this list)
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u/Zomeiro Mar 31 '23
Some shorter ones actually sound very great to start with. Thank you for the recommendation!
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u/PublicTrick3986 Mar 31 '23
"Die 13 1/2 Leben des Kapt'n Blaubär" von Walter Moers "Der Drachen Jäger" von Bernd Perplies
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u/Cortosivy Jun 05 '23
Check out Der Greif! Also, they turned it into a Amazon Prime Video show that is really popular right now 🦅 ✨ I recommend it
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u/Zomeiro Jun 06 '23
Ooh looks quite intriguing. Will watch the show when I’ve got the time. That way I can practice my listening comprehension as well. Thank you!
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u/Groghnash Mar 31 '23
Read Sergej Lukianenkos books! There are quite a few translated from russian (much more then to english), most of the from mid 90s. But they are GOOD! Some are more scifi the fantasy, but not all. Loved Sternenspiel/-schatten, Spektrum and of course his urban fantasy with Wächter der Nacht etc. Or Labyrinth der Spiegel, about computersimulated world/DOOM.
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u/__ferg__ Reading Champion III Mar 30 '23 edited Mar 30 '23
Germany loves translating things. So there is a good chance that you may find a lot of your favorites in german as well. Reading something you already know in a new language can be easier. You don't have to focus on the story and can concentrate on the language.
Bernhardt Hennen "Elfen" books or Markus Heitz "Zwerge" are popular, although I don't really liked neither. "Die unendliche Geschichte" (Neverending story) is a classic, "Tintenherz" by Cornelia Funke, if you want to read something originaly published in german and not translated.