Alien Earth

[Chrischa]

I've just received my order for Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm from Amazon UK - and it's in French!!

Honestly; a book with an English title bought from an English shop, you'd think it would be in English, wouldn't you? What on Earth are they doing even selling French books?! Now that I know I can indeed see, in the description; "Language: French". But who thinks of checking that?!

Now it's going to cost me just as much to send it back as it would to just buy a new one. Sniff!! I'm not happy!

[Farseer]

Oh, no, Chrischa! I can see why you'd be so disappointed... how ANNOYING!!!!

[Nuytsia]

What? That sucks!
Is the title printed on the actual book in English?
Like, does it say 'Alien Earth' instead of the equivalent in French?

[Mervi]

Oh Chrischa, I'm so sorry that happened to you! I know exactly the book/edition you're talking about, I've seen it on amazon and wondered whether it's an actual book or some kind of mistake - sometimes online sellers list ISBNs that were never released etc. (It's this one, right?) but I guess this proves it that it really does exist. (The only French editions I knew before this are black/blue "space" covers.)

If you can't/don't want to return it, maybe you could try to sell it online? Feel free to use our Bingtown's night market room if you want to.

[Chrischa]

Yep, it's that one. (kick!) If you ask me, Amazon themselves made a mistake when they ordered them from the printer and are now selling them, hoping that some twits like me won't notice until it's too late.

I don't understand the English title thing either. Allright, the French are notoriously bad when it comes to correctly translating titles. They called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"; "Harry Potter at the Wizard's School". And "Finding Nemo" they re-titled "The World of Nemo". That's just two examples that spring directly to my mind, but there's loads more. So Eda knows what they would have made out of this title.
On top of that they also ommited entire paragraphs out of the French Harry Potter books.

So I refuse to read any of our beloved author's books in French! Selling it online is indeed not a bad idea, Mervi, thanks for letting me use Bingtown's market. And I'm glad I inadvertently helped you figure out which edition it is... . (sniff)

[Mervi]

Well, I've now added the cover and the details to the wiki, so maybe this will prevent others from making the same mistake? Chrischa, if it's not too much trouble, could you check if the cover artist's name is mentioned anywhere in the book, I'd like to add it to the information we have as well. Thanks!

Gee, I really want to re-read this book right now!

[Chrischa]

Yes, on the back it names the cover artist as "Manchu".

I've also just noticed that above that, it says in big letters; "texte intégral" - complete text. As if that's something to be proud of!!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I don't understand the English title thing either. Allright, the French are notoriously bad when it comes to correctly translating titles. They called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"; "Harry Potter at the Wizard's School". And "Finding Nemo" they re-titled "The World of Nemo". That's just two examples that spring directly to my mind, but there's loads more. So Eda knows what they would have made out of this title.

I suppose it comes down to the fact that a direct translation doesn't always sound good. One (rather extreme) example that comes to mind is Terry Goodkind's Temple of the Winds. This was translated directly into Dutch as Tempel der winden. The problem with that is that it's completely impossible not to read that as "Temple of Farts" when you're Dutch. (I know "wind" can also mean "fart" in English, but in Dutch, no one uses the plural of "wind" to refer to the kind that blows outside your window - if someone uses the plural, they're talking about farts.)

That said, I do know some pretty bad titles in translation in Dutch.

NOTE: I have never read Temple of the Winds, but I don't suppose it was about farts, right?

[maulkin]

NOTE: I have never read Temple of the Winds

A smart move in my opinion.

but I don't suppose it was about farts, right?

Not quite, although the plot could be described as hot air. Not my favourite book!

[Nuytsia]

Hah maulkin beat me - I was also going to say something along the lines of that Dutch title maybe not being so completely inappropriate ....