AtraMikaDelia t1_j9m5s1u wrote on February 22, 2023 at 11:34 PM

Which books are you talking about? I guess I probably haven't heard of them anyway but there's different publishers that I'd have vastly different expectations from.

Like, a book published by a major publisher is not going to be in the same category as a relatively unpopular book being translated on the cheap. For the former I'd expect it to be written in a way that may not exactly be easy to read, but is at least intentional.

For the latter I'll be happy if there's no obvious translation errors, and if it happens to flow a little strangely that's just a natural consequence of a rushed translation. If a number is 99 but should obviously be 9, or 10,000 but should be 100,000, then I'm more happy that I could catch the error than I am annoyed that it exists.

JingleHelen11 OP t1_j9mbjuu wrote on February 23, 2023 at 12:16 AM

I've gone back and forth about giving the titles. I know there are people who enjoy them, so I will name the two traditionally published ones at least: In Deeper Waters by FT Lukens and House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson.

From my review of In Deeper Waters: "I didn't dislike it ... I would have liked it if it had just gone through one or two more rounds of editing ... I read a lot of fanfiction so I'm used to this level of writing, but since this was published by an imprint of Simon & Schuster I would have expected it to be publication ready and frankly it's just not"

From my review of House of Hunger: "[quotes a scene that I thought was really well-written] am I crazy for thinking that scene deserved a better book, that had set it up so I believed the characters felt that way? ... It feels like this was written to the end but the book itself didn't lead to the end ... It was disappointing honestly."

MPPreads t1_j9mhaz6 wrote on February 23, 2023 at 12:57 AM

I have read both of those books and agree with your take. I also read a lot of queer fiction in general.

I have noticed a trend that newer books with cover blurbs that invoke catchphrases like "gender-swapped" or "queer retelling" or "sapphic __ meets __" may lean strongly on their LGBTQIA+ representation to "carry" the story. Then, we end up with a mediocre or poor-quality story that's neither well plotted nor well written, but it satisfies the criteria of the cover blurb. Bummer.

JingleHelen11 OP t1_j9milpy wrote on February 23, 2023 at 1:07 AM

Oh you know what that makes a lot of sense, like we are so starved for stories that publishing houses are rushing things out bc they know it'll sell. And I feel like I've read some older stuff that's better (Song of Achilles, They Both Die at the End, The Fifth Season) but a lot of the more recent stuff is falling flat.

AtraMikaDelia t1_j9n9gfg wrote on February 23, 2023 at 4:35 AM

I mean, the books I am talking about are also published by relatively large publishers who do hire real translators. I've read other things that were translated unofficially by hobbyists, and with those you run into a much wider variety of shit. There's some stuff that's just as good as any translation I've read, and a lot of stuff that's marginally better than using Google Translate, and everything in between.

But even with the big publishers, there's still some books they don't spend as much money on, or expect to sell very well, and these are the books that will have errors and somewhat awkward language.

Still, just from reading a description of those two books and looking at them on goodreads I wouldn't see any giveaways that they are clearly a lower quality book, so I'd think you'd be fair to treat those with the same expectations as any other book.