Why does Germany get the cool novel covers?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Graywand2, Sep 5, 2010.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, yes, of course it does. The Excalibur is named after King Arthur's sword, so a sword symbolizes the ship on the covers.
     
  2. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Would have been more fun if it's named after the casino hotel in Vegas.
     
  3. ares93

    ares93 Commodore Commodore

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    Or the pub in downtown Malmö :lol:
     
  4. Stevil2001

    Stevil2001 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Or my high school yearbook.
     
  5. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    The Enterprise-A has an old wooden captain's wheel in Five Forward. We saw it in ST V. The Enterprise-D had a wall display of gold starship shapes. The Enterprise-E had a similar display, with 3D models. I have no problem imagining that, when the old Excalibur blew up, and was replaced by the shiny new one, and Calhoun "returned from the dead", that Shelby and the rest of Calhoun's bridge crew presented him with a sword that represented his war god origins, the Arthurian legend and Starfleet itself, all represented in the one ceremonial sword.
     
  6. Defcon

    Defcon Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    startrekromane. de has updated their upcoming schedule and as part of that they've put up a cover for Losing the Peace:

    [​IMG]

    By the way: They've added quite a few novels to the 2011 schedule, between January and November they plan to release 17 novels.

    What stands out, though, is what they have removed:

    Up 'til the update they had Vanguard: Declassified listed for a release in June (simultaneously with the US release) now it isn't listed at all. Add to that that amazon.de has changed the release date for the original US book from June to August and it makes me wonder if the book has been delayed.
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Hmm... Yahoo! Babel Fish says that Losing the Peace in German would be Verlieren des Friedens. When I put in Den Frieden Verlieren the other way, I get "the peace lose." I assume the fault is in Babel Fish rather than the actual book title, but I'm wondering what the explanation is.

    And their version of Choudhury still looks kind of like Hoshi.
     
  8. William Leisner

    William Leisner Scribbler Rear Admiral

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    This is the third face of Jasminder they've presented, isn't it? Makes you wonder who's making these calls and how many levels there are to the art approval process.

    A simultaneous German translation was probably way too ambitious to begin with.

    As to the possible delay for the English release... well, it wouldn't be anywhere near the first time shit happened and the schedule had to be juggled. (Nor would it be the first time an Amazon site posted bad info, either, if that's the case.)
     
  9. Defcon

    Defcon Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think the "problem" is that they're trying to be fan-friendly, and thus release early cover drafts bigger publishers like S&S wouldn't release. Just speculation on my part, though.

    They had only a delay of one month (Open Secrets) and two months (Precipice) for the last two releases, so pretty close to simultaneous releases (at least in the case of Open Secrets).

    Yeah, that was my first thought, too, espescially since amazon.comn doesn't even lists Declassified yet. It's just a weird coincidence that the German release vanishes from the schedule at the same time.
     
  10. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    While that isn't quite how I pictured Choudhury, I do like that cover. You've got to admit that it is at least better than what we got here in the US.
     
  11. William Leisner

    William Leisner Scribbler Rear Admiral

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    Really, no, I wouldn't admit such a thing. Not that I dislike the German cover -- the artist is actually very good. But quite honestly, I never cared for the fact that the back cover made it sound like this was a Jasminder Choudhury novel; putting an anonymous model's giant head on the cover to reinforce that impression I like even less.

    Not to mention that, putting her giant scowling face over that scene of destruction, makes her look more than a little like Kali the Destroyer to my mind...
     
  12. MichaelS

    MichaelS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That's why you should treat online translations with great caution, especially those of sentence fragments. You can hardly expect one language's structure to correspond exactly to that of another.

    Rest assured that the translation as it appears on the cover is accurate. However, I would have preferred a less literal translation, perhaps even an original title.
     
  13. William Leisner

    William Leisner Scribbler Rear Admiral

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    Oh? Is there something not quite right about Den Frieden Verlieren?
     
  14. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    "Got the silly thing in reverse..." (B. Bunny)
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I'm just speculating here, but I can see two ways in which the phrase "losing the peace" could be interpreted: a) in the sense of losing a thing that you had, such as losing your hat or losing your marbles (i.e., we had a peace but now it's vanishing); or b) in the sense of facing defeat in a competition, as the inverse of "losing the war" (as in Ben Sisko's line "We're losing the peace, which means a war could be our only hope"). And the translation might be different depending on which of those two senses the translator goes with.
     
  16. MichaelS

    MichaelS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but the tendency at CrossCult seems to be to take the English title and translate it word for word*, which sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't. To my subjective ears, Den Frieden verlieren doesn't sound not as good as Losing the Peace.

    *They occasionally do come up with new titles or variations of the original ones (cf. A Singular Destiny or Precipice, which is why I was rooting for the same to be done here. In the end, though, it all comes down to what the translator and the editor at CrossCult decide upon.)
     
  17. Defcon

    Defcon Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^Funny, I think it's one of the times were the literal translation actually fits rather well. :lol:

    But I agree in principal, sometimes the literal translations just don't sound as good, a good example would be Declassified ( Freigegeben). It might be the correct translation, but it just doesn't fit 100% in my opinion.
     
  18. ares93

    ares93 Commodore Commodore

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    ^ i second this statement. this time it ended up quite well. but otherwise... (gonna let silence speak for itself :))

    although, my german i way to rusty to read TrekLit, i do stay up to speed.
     
  19. Stevil2001

    Stevil2001 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    What were the new titles for those ones?
     
  20. MichaelS

    MichaelS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    A Singular Destiny became Einzelschicksale (which translates back as Individual Fates), while Precipice became Vor dem Fall (Before the Fall).

    There's also Before Dishonor (Heldentod - Death of a Hero), Taking Wing (Eine neue Ära - A New Era), and Q & A (Quintessenz - Quintessence, unsurprisingly enough). These are the ones that got retitled; all the other ones (over twenty so far) had their titles translated.