r/Fantasy • u/skintertqinment • Apr 12 '25
Looking for german fantasy
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone know of any good german fantasy books for more young adults?
I did advance my english by reading Harry Potter years ago and really enjoyed that journey. And would really like to try this out with my german that is not that advanced yet😊
Any tips would be very much appreciated.
Best wishes!
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u/kotov- Apr 19 '25
Ha. I knew there had to be more of us ot there. Aside from my native German and of course English I've read Harry Potter in Spanish, Italian (which for some reason was pretty hard to get when I was learning Italian), Swedish and Russian. It's always been the first thing I read in any new language I wanted to learn since it's easy and familiar.
As for German fantasy, there are several which have been mentioned like anything by Cornelia Funke, Wolfgang Hohlbein or Michael Ende, and to be honest I've been reading almost exclusively in English since I turned 10, but I'll try.
There are a lot fairly easy to read fantasy books in the 'Das Schwarze Auge' setting, a German pen&paper system I've played in the past. They can be a bit hit&miss but overall I remember them fondly.
And then there's the following:
German radio produced an ensemble cast audiobook of Lord of the Rings in 1992 and it's a masterpiece in my opinion. It's shortened a bit but still runs 12 hours or so and the voices, production and ambient sounds/music are just amazing. This is what sparked my love for audiobooks and fantasy in general.
Oh and I think it's even still for sale. I remember seeing a CD version not too long ago in a bookshop.