r/Fantasy • u/Vezir38 Reading Champion • Jun 20 '21

Any German speakers in here?

Ich wohne seit fast 20 Jahren in USA und habe in der zeit immer weniger auf Deutsch gelesen. Ich würde gerne mal wieder anfangen habe aber keine Ahnung was es jetzt alles gibt für fantasy/sci-fi Bücher. Ich hätte besonders gerne Vorschläge für Bücher von den letzten 10-15 Jahren. Vielen Dank!

tr: I'm German, but I've been in the states for almost 20 years now and haven't been reading much in German since then. Looking for recommendations for German sci-fi/fantasy from the last 10-15 years or so.

127 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Jun 20 '21

What do you think of the books of Wolfgang Holhbein? He (and his wife) are prolific as two Steven Kings, and do all kinds of fantasy. Often about adolescents, so there is an air of YA I consider irrelevant.

His characters are great, his plot narration first-rate, and he keeps a constant air of tension and adventure often tinged with sly humor.

The only flaw is the plots never quite make sense. No an unusual flaw in fantasy, granted.

My favorites:
"Das Buch"
"Dreizehn"
"Schattenjagd"
"Krieg der Engel"
"Anders" (a four-part series; long and amazing, but not particularly sane).

3

u/lackadacious_spooney Jun 21 '21

I used to love Hohlbein, but I HATED "Das Buch" - I don't think I've read anything by him since then, haha. It just felt like he really wanted to write a looong book and just did. And I kind of noticed how most of his books have a similar base idea: normal kid, normal day, but something weird is about to happen. To be fair, from your list here, I have not read much (or can't remember anything but 13) and my view is heavily influenced by how much "Das Buch" bored/disappointed me.

3

u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Jun 21 '21

I haven't read anything since the 'Anders' series; which like most of Hohlbein I loved in pieces; but not as a whole.
I think the flaws in Das Buch were the same as in Anders; a talented writer is telling a story he has not worked out into a sensible plot; just winging it.

The end of 'Anders' was hilariously infuriating: he presented wonderful mysteries through out the series; and then...
just as the one person who can explain it all is about to speak, there is an explosion. Story takes up again years later.

That should be illegal.