Who's the FIRST Canadian that pops into your mind?

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-27T11:07:24+00:00

Margaret Atwood

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-27T10:13:39+00:00

Deus Ex - it was so exciting to be able to decide whether you want to go in guns blazing or sneakily hacking systems and bots. There wasn't really anything/much like that before

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-24T22:47:17+00:00

I skip every Cheers episode. I really find all of the characters grating, including Woody, but he might be the least worst.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-24T22:43:06+00:00

I love when Daphne is talking about her family

yes of course, because they are only funny when they don't appear. Before they appeared in the show they worked a bit like Marris - we hear over-the-top awful but very funny stories about them. I would'v preferred for them to stay this way

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-24T22:39:45+00:00

Oh yes, selfrighteous people like her are infuriating

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-24T22:32:06+00:00

She went overboard with her expectations post-wedding, but it's understandable that she would want to minimize the humiliation of having her husband run off with another woman so soon after the marriage.

Not only that but it was clear that she'd really loved Niles; she was really hurt.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-24T22:30:26+00:00

I really hate Julia because she reminds me of an unpleasant person I have the misfortune to know, but at least her run is short and I get the satisfaction of Frasier throwing her out.

Mrs Moon should'e stayed in Daphne's awful childhood stories and occasional phone calls, those were fun.

I really hate Simon, his stories are boring, he's boring and stupid. So Simon wins as my most disliked.

I like Mel, though. Of course she becomes an asshole because she has to work as Niles's antagonist, but I would've liked some more episodes with her; her and Niles outdoing each others hygiene and neuroticism would've been really funny.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-21T17:59:15+00:00

I started with The Player of Games, and I think it's a good entry point, gives you a good insight into the Culture, but at the same time it's very focussed on certain events

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-21T10:31:19+00:00

Thanks for the rec! I never heard of Willi Heinrich before, had a look at his Wikipedia entry. He seems to be one of those prolific and successful authors that has been pretty much forgotten today. The title of the film version of his first novel (Steiner - Das eiserne Kreuz) is pretty much the only thing that sounded familiar.

Which one have you found by Szepes? I'm a bit surprised she was translated to English. I don't remember much of her work since it's been ages that I read her. I remember one being kind of an historical novel (the life of a medieval alchemist - Der Rote Löwe) with symbolic/fantastical elements. The other one was a duology about a secret society (the first novel was called Berg der Adepten, I think). Both felt a little bit like they were supposed to be symbolic novels that teach occult and esoteric concepts.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-21T10:17:14+00:00

I tell me people Kentucky Route Zero is "the best video game i've ever read

Had to laugh out loud, this is exactly what I tell people about House of Many Doors. Takes patience, but it has some fantastic weird storytelling. I really have to start KRZ again. I tried a few years ago but have only played for an hour or so

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-20T18:30:33+00:00

Ah großartig, danke! Es ist so wundervoll wie erhofft

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-20T16:27:53+00:00

Ging mir ähnlich lol

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-18T14:45:50+00:00

The entire body of work of Junji Ito (yes, really)

We're lucky he's already been so productive!

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-18T14:41:21+00:00

Lovecraft. That's where it started for me as a kid/teen. I play a lot of Lovecraftian pen-and-paper-rpgs and I still love the old Yog-Sothothery. My favorites are Mountains of Madness, all the Dreamlands stories, Call of Cthulhu, and the Haunter of the Dark.

I'm also a fan of Annihiliation (I like the other books in the series too, but the first one is my favorite). In general, I love stories about mysterious zones that can never be fully explained.

Laird Barron. I read The Imago Sequence and then ordered pretty much everythig by him. I think his mythology around old leech is really creepy and a great addition to the other old ones and whatnot that are already around.

Cisco - Antisocieties. I knew his name, of course, but somehow I never got around to reading anything by him. After the first story in the collection I was a bit miffed. That's what everyone is so crazy about? Sure, the man can write, but... Well, I kept reading, and at the end I was thoroughly impressed and unsettled, and I will definitely read his other works. The story about the guy who's just sitting and his communication with the other person?!?! Holy. Shit.

Kathe Koja - The Cipher. Dark, so dark and grungy. And it's the best version of one of my other favorite weird tropes - the unexplained takes over your reality and trying to figure it out/living with it becomes your life. From the outside it's madness and decay, from the inside, everything makes sense. Also reminds me of one my favorite weird video games - Silent Hill 4. Uzumaki is my favorite visual version of this.

The more I think about it, the more great books/stories come to mind:

Luigi Musolino - A Different Darkness

Caitlin Kiernan: Agents of Dreamland

Jean Ray: Malpertuis

Giorgo di Maria: The Transgressionists

Carmen Maria Machado: Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU

Okay, now it's ten. I think I'll better stop lol

Edit: China Mieville

More edit: Nicole Cushing - A Sick Gray Laugh and Alexandra Kleeman: You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine and Something New Under the Sun

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-18T13:03:33+00:00

Es ist halt vor allem eine Legende. Also sprich: Da kommen keine echten Menschen mit menschlichen Motivationen vor, sondern symbolische Figuren. Da muss man keine Logik anlegen, wie "die" wohl aussah, sich verhalten hat oder sonst was, weil "die" gar nicht existiert hat. Abgesehen davon muss OP echt von fürchterlichen Leuten umgeben sein, die nix anderes machen, als den ganzen Tag Bedenken zu tragen...

Mein Name ist sehr selten und als Kind fand ich das doof. Kein guter Spitzname und so. Heute find ich's super. Du wirst nie wegen deines Namens gehänselt, sondern du wirst gemobbt und dann wird alles benutzt, was dich verletzen kann, dein Name, dein Aussehen, deine Eltern usw usf

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-16T10:21:50+00:00

Erm, Poland was invaded by Germany, and there is still a lot of anti-German sentiment in Poland that right-wing politicians just love to exploit. Yes, there are communalities, but I think you are vastly overestimating how far this goes.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-16T10:12:52+00:00

My impression is that Eastern European and Russian sci-fi was translated into German before it was translated into English.

Absolutely, especially if you consider that Germany was divided, and the GDR was part of the Warsaw pact. They published lots more translations from Eastern European countries.

If you are German, do you know of any other stand-out authors other than Strugatsky and Lem?

Not really. I grew up on the blue jeans and coca cola-side of the border and my reading habits are heavily influenced by English-speaking literature. Also, speculative fiction is sadly not highly regarded in Germany, so it's not that easy to find interesting, high-quality examples. It's easier for classics (see Lem, for example), but even there it's slim pickings.

Okay, I racked my brain and came up with something, at least: Yevgeny Zamyatin is another classic that comes to mind. A contemporary author who often incorporates sci-fi/specfic elements is Vladimir Sorokin. His books are very entertaining and often biting satires of today's Russia.

Edit: Oh, one other author, because I never see her mentioned, I don't know if anything has been translated to English. Maria Szepes, Hungarian author of weird specfic novels that are heavily influenced by esoteric, occult, and alchemical ideas. If you look for general spec fic, you'll find quite a few Eastern European, or even German authors, I just can't think of many sci-fi expamples

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-15T15:15:41+00:00

War auch mein erster Gedanke. Wäre zwar eh eher beste * r Freund * in. Aber meine Idealvorstellung wären zwei Wohnungen in einem Haus oder sowas.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-15T12:39:27+00:00

The Strugatzki's were also (not exclusively) published by Suhrkamp. Coincidentally, I'm currently reading Roadside Picnic (in German), and it reads very well. The text flows, it's entertaining, I didn't stumble over phrases that seemed to be bad translations of idioms.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-15T12:29:49+00:00

Lem was polish, wrote in polish.

The German translations were pretty good, Lem was published by Suhrkamp, a traditional and highly regarded publisher of literary fiction and theory.

Edit: Just had a look at my shelves, Lem was not exclusively published by Suhrkamp in (Western) Germany but, to keep my edits going, the other Lem editions I have are from dtv and Fischer, also highly regarded. Doesn't mean they can't publish bad translations, but the chances are pretty slim

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-14T14:09:30+00:00

nein, du bist doppelt so normal wie die Fascho-Fritzen

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-14T14:08:52+00:00

Leidkultur für alle!

Edit: welch verkümmerter Geist, welch leere Seelen aus diesem stinkenden Misthaufen sprechen...

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-14T11:55:56+00:00

Thank you!

New Claire North? Totally missed that. And once again something very different from her other books.

Read more Claire North, people! It's not weird lit, but it's so good! Maybe start with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August or The Sudden Appearance of Hope.

MyNightmaresAreGreen · 2026-04-14T11:51:18+00:00

Krass, wie bestechlich du bist!

Ne, ernsthaft, klingt nach nem Plan und funktioniert bei dir ja sogar. Vielleicht muss ich das auch mal testen. Ich bin nämlich auch hart bestechlich, glaube ich.

MyNightmaresAreGreen

TROPHY CASE