New (to me) on Amazon - "Nimue Alban: Mit Dampf und Donner"

Those definitely make sense - I figured 'The Force' was waay too simplistic a translation.
But my German is, well, enough to order a coffee if they're being patient. I'll happily give Google both the credit and the blame XD

TN4994 wrote:I found a partial numeric listing of the German Editions on goodreads.com.
I disagree with a few of your literal translations though.

Uber usually means superior, but can also be mighty. Macht is force or Army. Like the Wehrmacht.
A so Ubermarch could be a mighty Army. And it is Book 5:1.

Streitmacht, I interpret as Enemy Force. Book 6:2

Die Flotte von Charis, either "The Fleet or The Flotilla from (not of) Charis. Book 2:2

The Iron Fortress is book 4:1 A Mighty Fortress.

Native German here.
The reason the books are split is because of the "Buchpreisbindung" meaning roughly that the price of a book is fixed by regulation. Unimportant where I buy, it being Amazon, the little bookshop or a big reseller, a Soft Cover ("Taschenbuch") is always 10€. So if they split a book in half, they sell it for two times 10€ -> double margin.
Sad fact: That law leads to ebooks being just as expensive as physical books.

friessomecircuits wrote:Native German here.
The reason the books are split is because of the "Buchpreisbindung" meaning roughly that the price of a book is fixed by regulation. Unimportant where I buy, it being Amazon, the little bookshop or a big reseller, a Soft Cover ("Taschenbuch") is always 10€. So if they split a book in half, they sell it for two times 10€ -> double margin.
Sad fact: That law leads to ebooks being just as expensive as physical books.

One more example of the "Law of Unintended Consequences."

TN4994 wrote:

GlynnStewart wrote:Skipping the easy ones, Google Translate gives me:

Nimue Alban: Die Übermacht
"The Superiority"

Nimue Alban: Der Krieg der Ketzer
"The War of The Heretics"

Nimue Alban: Mit Dampf und Donner
"Steam and Thunder"

Nimue Alban: Die Streitmacht
"The Force"

Nimue Alban: Der Kriegermönch
"The Warrior Monk"

Nimue Alban: Kampf um die Siddarmark
"Struggle for Siddarmark"

Nimue Alban: Der Verrat
"The Betrayal"

Nimue Alban: Die Eiserne Festung
"The Iron Fortress"

Nimue Alban: Haus der Lügen
"House of Lies"

Nimue Alban: Die Flotte von Charis
"The Fleet of Charis"


... from those titles, I'm now really curious which ones line up with which English books.

I found a partial numeric listing of the German Editions on goodreads.com.
I disagree with a few of your literal translations though.

Uber usually means superior, but can also be mighty. Macht is force or Army. Like the Wehrmacht.
A so Ubermarch could be a mighty Army. And it is Book 5:1.

Streitmacht, I interpret as Enemy Force. Book 6:2

Die Flotte von Charis, either "The Fleet or The Flotilla from (not of) Charis. Book 2:2

The Iron Fortress is book 4:1 A Mighty Fortress.

I disagree with your re-translation for "Die Flotte von Charis"
As far as I know, "from" refers to the origin of a person or a thing - say: "He/She's from New York." or "It's a souvenir from the Wimbledon Championships."

But this aspect of the german "von" isn't the one which is used here. Here "von" means "it belongs to someone" and that is better translated with "of". So, "The Fleet of Charis" is the correct re-translation.

Btw - Flotilla means only a part of the whole fleet, right? But the german book-titel refers to the whole thing - else the book would be named "Das (or maybe, in case of a plural form: Die (spoken: dee)) Geschwader von Charis" so "Fleet" is the word of choice.

To your other translations: You can't divide all german words to their single parts. Even if "Übermacht" consists of the 2 words Über and Macht - you can't translate the two parts for themselves and get a meaning for the original word that makes something even remotely regarded as sense in English. So you have to accept, that "Übermacht" translates to superiority. Period.

Streitmacht - that's not necessarily an enemy force. "Streitmacht" as such is a neutral word and means simple "a big force, compiled (or maybe "assembled" would be the better word?) with the intention to attack or defend an objective."

And yes - I'm a german native speaker.

friessomecircuits wrote:Native German here.
The reason the books are split is because of the "Buchpreisbindung" meaning roughly that the price of a book is fixed by regulation. Unimportant where I buy, it being Amazon, the little bookshop or a big reseller, a Soft Cover ("Taschenbuch") is always 10€. So if they split a book in half, they sell it for two times 10€ -> double margin.
Sad fact: That law leads to ebooks being just as expensive as physical books.

... so how long before they turn each book into a trilogy?
After all, 2x 10€ < 3x10€...

Eagleeye wrote:TN 4994 --
I found a partial numeric listing of the German Editions on goodreads.com.
I disagree with a few of your literal translations though.

Uber usually means superior, but can also be mighty. Macht is force or Army. Like the Wehrmacht.
So Ubermarch could be a mighty Army. And it is Book 5:1.

Streitmacht, I interpret as Enemy Force. Book 6:2

Die Flotte von Charis, either "The Fleet or The Flotilla from (not of) Charis. Book 2:2

The Iron Fortress is book 4:1 A Mighty Fortress.

I disagree with your re-translation for "Die Flotte von Charis"
As far as I know, "from" refers to the origin of a person or a thing - say: "He/She's from New York." or "It's a souvenir from the Wimbledon Championships."

But this aspect of the german "von" isn't the one which is used here. Here "von" means "it belongs to someone" and that is better translated with "of". So, "The Fleet of Charis" is the correct re-translation.

Btw - Flotilla means only a part of the whole fleet, right? But the german book-titel refers to the whole thing - else the book would be named "Das (or maybe, in case of a plural form: Die (spoken: dee)) Geschwader von Charis" so "Fleet" is the word of choice.

To your other translations: You can't divide all german words to their single parts. Even if "Übermacht" consists of the 2 words Über and Macht - you can't translate the two parts for themselves and get a meaning for the original word that makes something even remotely regarded as sense in English. So you have to accept, that "Übermacht" translates to superiority. Period.

Streitmacht - that's not necessarily an enemy force. "Streitmacht" as such is a neutral word and means simple "a big force, compiled (or maybe "assembled" would be the better word?) with the intention to attack or defend an objective."

And yes - I'm a german native speaker.[/quote]
Ich habe gelesen, Deutsch schlecht.
Kaiserslautern Deutsch.
On 'von': If the book title is referring to the Convoy relieving Siddarmark then it could be from Charis (from showing in this instance, ownership). Bob, of Baltimore and Bob from Baltimore basically mean the same thing.
I posted a 'ether or' about the word Flotte. And Flotilla gets confusing. It's sometimes a fleet; and sometimes it includes warships and merchant vessels sailing in a convoy. But I'll give you The Fleet of Charis. Meaning's about the same.
And I understand the problem with context, intent, and meaning. I realize that translations are not black and white.
Substitutions of words and wordplay are made to get a meaning across.
My Hollander cousin translated Streitmacht to "other force; not ours."
I believe she meant enemy, but Dutch is not Deutsch.
"Übermacht" has several meanings: predominance; great numbers; supremacy; overwhelming force; dominant; almighty.
"Wie Eine mächtige Armee" would be more correct for Like A Mighty Army.
I just wondered if the translator was doing a little wordplay.
Nothing like translating to another tounge and back again.

friessomecircuits wrote:Native German here.
The reason the books are split is because of the "Buchpreisbindung" meaning roughly that the price of a book is fixed by regulation. Unimportant where I buy, it being Amazon, the little bookshop or a big reseller, a Soft Cover ("Taschenbuch") is always 10€. So if they split a book in half, they sell it for two times 10€ -> double margin.
Sad fact: That law leads to ebooks being just as expensive as physical books.

Thats a oversimplification²
Yes, monetary gain does play a role, but not quite so overtly grasping as described.
Its not that the book price as such thats fixed, its 'a certain amount of pages' thats fixed (an anachronistic holdout from the high of the "Bildungsbürgertum" phase).
So lets say a book up to 800 pages would cost 10€, a book up to 1k pages will cost 12€ and everything above 14€ [not the real numbers].

German is not as compact as English, so translations tend to be ~30% longer, and as we all know Weber isnt the best guy to write short books
Which means every book in the Safehold series would be a 1500+ pages monster. First of all, its very uncomfortable to read. I wouldnt want to have such a boulder on my bookcase, let alone try to squeeze it into my pocket ("Taschenbuch" =paperback literaly means pocket book, because you can/could transport it in your pocket to read wherever you want).
And lastly, people are more inclined to buy two books for 8€ or 10€ instead of one for 14€ or 16€.
Illogical but a fact of life (and marketing).

So yes, the publisher does make more money per page printed, but no its not 100% more.

TN4994 wrote:
Die Flotte von Charis, either "The Fleet or The Flotilla from (not of) Charis. Book 2:2

Not being German, but instead of "The Fleet of Charis", "The Charisian Fleet" is better English.

gamarus wrote:

TN4994 wrote:
Die Flotte von Charis, either "The Fleet or The Flotilla from (not of) Charis. Book 2:2

Not being German, but instead of "The Fleet of Charis", "The Charisian Fleet" is better English.

Oh yeah, make it short and sweet; why don't cha?

gamarus wrote:

TN4994 wrote:
Die Flotte von Charis, either "The Fleet or The Flotilla from (not of) Charis. Book 2:2

Not being German, but instead of "The Fleet of Charis", "The Charisian Fleet" is better English.

Is better German too.

However "Die Flotte von Charis" sounds more bombastic than "Die Charisische Flotte".

I've long noticed a tendency towards bombast in German SciFi and Fantasy translations and wonder where that comes from? Is almost as if publishers selectively employ bombast-loving translators with an underdeveloped feel for languages in their SciFi/Fantasy departments.

Maybe part of the reason is bad pay? Just speculating.

Anyway - it's one of the factors contributing to the genre's bad name I'm afraid.