What do you think?
The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria
The first collection of classic and contemporary German-language science fiction in English
This entertaining anthology delivers great reading and an overview of German-language science fiction, including works by the "German father of science fiction" Kurd Lasswitz, the Austrian writer Ludwig Hevesi (author of "Jules Verne in Hell"), the fantasist Paul Scheerbart (a scurrilous, idiosyncratic writer who was an outsider in both literature and science fiction), popular writers Otto Willi Gail and Hans Dominik, as well as the contemporary luminaries of the Wolfgang Jeschke, Herbert W. Franke, Andreas Eschbach, and Carl Amery. The introduction by the editor gives a succinct history of German language science fiction, including its representation in Hugo Gernsback's popular magazines. With select bibliographies of German language science fiction and writings on German science fiction, this book will be appreciated by scholars and general readers alike.
This entertaining anthology delivers great reading and an overview of German-language science fiction, including works by the "German father of science fiction" Kurd Lasswitz, the Austrian writer Ludwig Hevesi (author of "Jules Verne in Hell"), the fantasist Paul Scheerbart (a scurrilous, idiosyncratic writer who was an outsider in both literature and science fiction), popular writers Otto Willi Gail and Hans Dominik, as well as the contemporary luminaries of the Wolfgang Jeschke, Herbert W. Franke, Andreas Eschbach, and Carl Amery. The introduction by the editor gives a succinct history of German language science fiction, including its representation in Hugo Gernsback's popular magazines. With select bibliographies of German language science fiction and writings on German science fiction, this book will be appreciated by scholars and general readers alike.
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Franz Rottensteiner
70 books3 followersFranz Rottensteiner, never a comfortable critic, has enlivened sf discussion for many years. He is a long-tim editor of the respected Austrian fanzine, Quarber Merkur.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 15, 2008
Comprehensive survey of German and Austrian sci fi. Detailed, thorough introduction which discusses people like Hugo Gernsback, the intersection between American and European SF, themes, tropes, etc. Spans pretty much the entire genealogy from the late 19th century up to the late 20th. A must have for the serious SF scholar or fan.
August 21, 2025
A good survey of German and Austrian SF from 1871 to 2008. Pioneer Kurd Lasswitz's stories are stronger on ideas than on narrative drive, which doesn't encourage me to read his 1000+ pages Two Planets.
An interesting section of the anthology is the one dedicated to SF from the German Democratic Republic, whose authors were rather immune to the influence of Anglo-American models.
My favourite stories were those by Horst Pukallus, Johanna and Günter Braun, Angela and Karlheinz Steinmüller and Michael Marrak.
The introductions by Franz Rottensteiner and the translations by Mike Mitchell are excellent.
An interesting section of the anthology is the one dedicated to SF from the German Democratic Republic, whose authors were rather immune to the influence of Anglo-American models.
My favourite stories were those by Horst Pukallus, Johanna and Günter Braun, Angela and Karlheinz Steinmüller and Michael Marrak.
The introductions by Franz Rottensteiner and the translations by Mike Mitchell are excellent.
October 9, 2019
"To the Absolute Zero of Existence," by Kurd Lasswitz (1871): 9.25
- Almost unbelievable that this was written in 1871. It literally prefigured around 60% of the major themes and tropes of a certain type of culturally concerned sci-fi (future art [scent music], the weird backwards looking nostalgia of poetry’s "modernists" in this world [think Hyperions Keats fixation], and the endless discussion concerning the unbridgeable divides between science and art). Most amazingly, however, it even managed to prefigure 35% of the rest of sci-fi at the same time (east Asian war; terrraforming; screens screens screens; and concern for 'public opinion,' aka like culture).
"The Age of the Burning Mountains," by Horst Pukallus (1989): 7
- Oof, hurts to end on a typo. I mean, the many others -- mostly related to misused prepositions and less-common, awkwardly rendered turns of phrase -- are largely forgotten, if you just don't put one in the fucking final sentence. Oh well, was largely pretty scattershot, and severely misdirected (if there was one at all, other than a rambling playing about with post-apocalyptic scenarios by a fan, replete with some unthinking moral characterization thrown in [hell, I'd of accepted a- or im-, as long as the thought was there], a la the domestic abuse and short turn from layabout to nascent dystopian Turn-and-Taxis comms king). The obvious temptation is to read such a story, written in such a place and at such a time, through several different lens: one being climatological, as the response and post-Catastrophe consequences all seem to resemble the inevitable austerities of a post-CC world; and the other being topical, this being 1989 and him being German. The answer seems to be, however, that none of these filters are evident in the work itself, or at least there's little intentional or symbolic here. It's a SF conceit and it's followed through on with conventional SF trajectories, some done more skillfully than conventional SF [the characterization and droll release of details], and some done less skillfully [the prose and emplotment].
- Almost unbelievable that this was written in 1871. It literally prefigured around 60% of the major themes and tropes of a certain type of culturally concerned sci-fi (future art [scent music], the weird backwards looking nostalgia of poetry’s "modernists" in this world [think Hyperions Keats fixation], and the endless discussion concerning the unbridgeable divides between science and art). Most amazingly, however, it even managed to prefigure 35% of the rest of sci-fi at the same time (east Asian war; terrraforming; screens screens screens; and concern for 'public opinion,' aka like culture).
"The Age of the Burning Mountains," by Horst Pukallus (1989): 7
- Oof, hurts to end on a typo. I mean, the many others -- mostly related to misused prepositions and less-common, awkwardly rendered turns of phrase -- are largely forgotten, if you just don't put one in the fucking final sentence. Oh well, was largely pretty scattershot, and severely misdirected (if there was one at all, other than a rambling playing about with post-apocalyptic scenarios by a fan, replete with some unthinking moral characterization thrown in [hell, I'd of accepted a- or im-, as long as the thought was there], a la the domestic abuse and short turn from layabout to nascent dystopian Turn-and-Taxis comms king). The obvious temptation is to read such a story, written in such a place and at such a time, through several different lens: one being climatological, as the response and post-Catastrophe consequences all seem to resemble the inevitable austerities of a post-CC world; and the other being topical, this being 1989 and him being German. The answer seems to be, however, that none of these filters are evident in the work itself, or at least there's little intentional or symbolic here. It's a SF conceit and it's followed through on with conventional SF trajectories, some done more skillfully than conventional SF [the characterization and droll release of details], and some done less skillfully [the prose and emplotment].
November 13, 2008
"'Whenever I think back to that dreadful experience, I feel as if an ice-cold dead man's hand is stroking my back, while at the same time my brain is giving up the third dimension between the buffers of freight trains being switched.'"
So exclaims the narrator in this story by Otto Willi Gail, The Missing Clock Hands: An Implausible Happening, translated by Mike Mitchell and originally published in Germany in 1929.
Science fiction began to appear in Germany around the turn of the century in what were called "novels of the future," or "utopian-technical novels." A major early figure was Kurd Lasswitz, a mathematician, philosopher, and poet whose short story "The Universal Library" -- about a system wherein everything that is written can be stored in a finite number of volumes using a small number of signs -- inspired Argentine Jorge Luis Borges to write "The Library of Babel." (And who knows what Google that inspired.)
For the most part however, German-language science fiction was untranslated and therefore unknown. Franz Rottensteiner, editor of the critical science fiction magazine Quaber Merkur, here brings together for the first time an historical sampling indicating the development of the genre. Spanning 137 years, this anthology, translated by Mike Mitchell, provides a fascinating glimpse into the past and present minds of the future.
So exclaims the narrator in this story by Otto Willi Gail, The Missing Clock Hands: An Implausible Happening, translated by Mike Mitchell and originally published in Germany in 1929.
Science fiction began to appear in Germany around the turn of the century in what were called "novels of the future," or "utopian-technical novels." A major early figure was Kurd Lasswitz, a mathematician, philosopher, and poet whose short story "The Universal Library" -- about a system wherein everything that is written can be stored in a finite number of volumes using a small number of signs -- inspired Argentine Jorge Luis Borges to write "The Library of Babel." (And who knows what Google that inspired.)
For the most part however, German-language science fiction was untranslated and therefore unknown. Franz Rottensteiner, editor of the critical science fiction magazine Quaber Merkur, here brings together for the first time an historical sampling indicating the development of the genre. Spanning 137 years, this anthology, translated by Mike Mitchell, provides a fascinating glimpse into the past and present minds of the future.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews