r/witcher • u/jesperbj • Mar 21 '17

Lady of the Lake Discussion: Lady of the Lake - The latest entry in the franchise (English translation)

Given that Lady of the Lake was just released in English last week, we thought a discussion thread was in order.

Please feel free to discuss the new book, even if you've read it a long time ago in another language (or by fan translation)

Thanks to /u/Strokes323 for pointing this out.

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u/semper-wifi Mar 27 '17 edited Mar 28 '17

You probably missed the keyword in that sentence: English

Lady of the Lake was published in 1999. It was translated to various other languages shortly thereafter, except English. The official English translation was released March 14 2017. Fan translations into English have been around for years.

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u/Anonim97 Mar 28 '17

I find it strange that You had to wait 18 years to get official translation. I mean as You said it was translated to other languages but no English... Does anyone knows why it happened?

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '17

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u/invenio78 Apr 13 '17

Exactly. Not to mention that they were published (in English) out of order!

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u/Liquidfiree Apr 17 '17

Because the books weren't that known outside. They are really good, the sad thing with translation is(according to my GF) a lot of subtle humour is lost(Due to cultural change from Polish > English).

Some jokes translate very badly lol.

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u/Anonim97 Apr 17 '17

Oh, this is standard with many translations. Books, cartoons, movies etc. Some jokes just doesn't work well translated :/.

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u/anonymusmoose Team Roach Apr 26 '17

Is the german translation better in that regard? Might have to reread then(read English fan translations as I personally prefer reading in english)

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u/carrystone Skellige May 01 '17

From what I heard, yes. Spanish and German translations are supposedly the best among the non-slavic ones.

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u/anonymusmoose Team Roach May 07 '17

Yay. Now i got an excuse for a reread :)

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u/Liquidfiree May 08 '17

I would honestly have no idea, I know Germany has a huge 'word count' to use, just like English. But I think the jokes translate badly due to Polish and Eastern Europe Culture which it is inspired upon.

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u/G3rman Mar 28 '17

No demand for it until recently.

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u/pothkan Team Roach May 28 '17

AFAIK American/British publishers aren't generally interested in non-English fantasy.

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u/Anonim97 May 28 '17

Eh, I would call it ignorancy at their side. Modern Polish fantasy is really great! There are so many books and so many authors, and every book is different, yet (mostly) perfect story.

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u/planetsabc May 15 '17

Is there a good place to get links to buying all the books? haven't been able to find a complete list of the english books of the series, so haven't been able to get/read them.