Speculative Fiction in Translation – Page 3 – Your guide to speculative fiction from around the world

Stanislaw Lem at Reactor

By Rachel CordascoOctober 3, 2025spotlightPoland, Polish, Reactor, Stanislaw Lem

Alex Przybyla on “Stanislaw Lem’s Greatest Character: An Introduction to Ijon Tichy” (Reactor). For more on Stanislaw Lem and Polish SFT, go here.

Out This Month: October

By Rachel CordascoOctober 3, 2025out this monthAlex Shvartsman, Anne Thompson Melo, Antoine Volodine, Arabic, Argentina, Blake Stone-Banks, China, Chinese, Clarkesworld, Dutch, Enrique Muñoz-Mantas, Eva Meijer, Fairwood Press, France, French, Gabriela Rábago Palafox, Gina M. Stamm, Harper, Harper One, Honford Star, Hungarian, Hungary, Invisible Publishing, Iskanchi Press, JaeHoon Choi, Janet Hong, Japan, Japanese, K. A. Teryna, Korea, Korean, Krisztina Tóth, Liu Maijia, M. Elizabeth Ginway, Mauritania, Mexico, Moussa Ould Ebnou, Ottilie Mulzet, Paul Roochnik, Russia, Russian, Sarah Moses, Seven Stories Press, Spanish, Sung-il Kim, Takami Nieda, The Netherlands, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Tomás Downey, Tor, Two Lines Press, University of Minnesota Press, Yasushi Kitagawa

“Giant Grandmother” by Liu Maijia, translated from the Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks (Clarkesworld, October 1) Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K. A. Teryna, translated from the Russian by Alex Shvartsman (Fairwood Press, October 1) The world is not how we perceive it. A blizzard may be the fury of a whale god. Intelligent

Review: Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-il Kim

By Rachel CordascoSeptember 30, 2025reviewAnton Hur, Korea, Korean, Sung-il Kim, Tor Books

(The Bleeding Empire #2) translated by Anton Hur original publication (in Korean): ? first English edition: 2025, Tor 384 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Blood for the Undying Throne, the second in Sung-il Kim’s Bleeding Empire series, continues the story of provincial struggle against imperial domination. As

Yuki Tejima on Translating Mizuki Tsujimura

By Rachel CordascoSeptember 27, 2025spotlightJapan, Japanese, Mizuki Tsujimura, Yuki Tejima

On LitHub, translator Yuki Tejima talks about translating Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon (Scribner) into English.

Review: The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

By Rachel CordascoSeptember 17, 2025reviewDanish, Denmark, New Directions, Olga Ravn

translated by Martin Aitken original publication (in Danish): 2023 first English edition: 2025, New Directions 144 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library This small, strange, polyphonic book refuses to settle down into something knowable. As someone who’s learned about and read multiple texts about the (American) witch hunts

Review: Eye of the Monkey by Krisztina Tóth

By Rachel CordascoSeptember 16, 2025reviewHungarian, Hungary, Krisztina Tóth, Ottilie Mulzet, Seven Stories Press

translated by Ottilie Mulzet original publication (in Hungarian): 2022 first English edition: 2025, Seven Stories Press 304 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Eye of the Monkey, Hungarian author Krisztina Tóth’s first novel to be translated into English, could have been one of the best works of SFT

Review: Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin

By Rachel CordascoSeptember 9, 2025reviewArgentina, Knopf, Megan McDowell, Samanta Schweblin, Spanish

*spoilers* Good and Evil and Other Stories is Samanta Schweblin’s fifth book in English, after Fever Dream (2017), Mouthful of Birds (2019), Little Eyes (2020), and Seven Empty Houses (2022), all translated by Megan McDowell. Schweblin’s signature style provokes a sense of dread and disorientation in the reader, with characters who find it difficult to

Out This Month: September

By Rachel CordascoSeptember 7, 2025out this monthAndrzej Sapkowski, Argentina, China, Chinese, Cixin Liu, Dalkey Archive Press, Danish, David French, Denmark, Gollancz, Hanover Square Press, Head of Zeus, Helen R. Lane, Hika Harada, Japan, Japanese, Jesse Kirkwood, Juan Jose Saer, Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzstan, Margaret Mitsutani, Martin Aitken, Max Lawton, Megan McDowell, New Directions, Olga Ravn, Open Letter, Philip Gabriel, Poland, Polish, Rie Qudan, Russia, Russian, S&S/Summit Books, Samanta Schweblin, Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Spanish, Sultan Raev, Syracuse University Press, Vladimir Sorokin, Yoko Tawada

Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan, translated from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood (S&S/Summit Books, September 2) Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of radical sympathy toward criminals has become normalized. The incarcerated are considered victims influenced by their environments to commit crime and are labeled accordingly as Homo miserabilis. A grand,

Arkady Strugatsky at SF Ruminations

By Rachel CordascoAugust 21, 2025reviewArkady and Boris Strugatsky, Joachim Boaz, Russia, Russian, SF Ruminations

Here’s my joint-SFT review with Joachim Boaz over at Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations, this time on Arkady Strugatsky’s “Wanderers and Travellers” (1963, trans. 1966). Check it out here!

Review: On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle

By Rachel CordascoAugust 15, 2025reviewBarbara J. Haveland, Danish, Denmark, New Directions, Solvej Balle

translated by Barbara Haveland original publication (in Danish): 2020 first English edition: 2024, New Directions 185 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Review of Book I We left Tara Selter at the end of Book I attempting to figure out how to move forward, despite being trapped in