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Well, I guess die Katze is aus dem Sack jetzt. My book Death from the Skies! will be coming out in Germany in January under the title Tod aus dem All (Death from Space). I’m really happy about this (marred only by the lack of an exclamation point in the title), because I think the book will have broad appeal in Europe; there are lots of space enthusiasts there and I get email from them all the time.
It’ll be coming out in at least one other language soon too, but I won’t give that secret away just yet. And since so many people (well, three of you) have asked about a paperback version, I’ll say that one will be coming out, but not for a while.
For now, you can pre-order Tod aus dem All from Amazon.de. Vielen Dank!
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Oh! I like that cover a lot better than the 50′s disaster film font and sun for the US release.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Great…take away one ‘d’ in my name and suddenly I’m death?
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
“It’ll be coming out in at least one other language soon too, but I won’t give that secret away just yet.”
Australian?
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
“It’ll be coming out in at least one other language soon too”…
Esperanto?
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
@Chris Owen; mate, it’s a small book, it won’t be able to hold the appropriate amount of beer (and first person that says “Fosters” is beer gets “The Boot”!).
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Wow, that “Dianetics” volcano really got out of hand.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
It’ll be coming out in at least one other language soon too, but I won’t give that secret away just yet
Klingon?
Vulcan?
Quenya?
Dwarvish?
Pig Latin?
Simlish?
Kad’k?
Nadsat?
Furbish?
Come on Phil, you’re keeping me in suspense here!
We should start a pool:
My guess- Spanish.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Sie schrieben ein Buch, Phil?
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Congratulations, Phil! But I think I will get the english version. I don’t think they got your humor right. Usually a lot of nuances are lost in translations. And when I remember correctly you had a lot of fun with puns.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Australian Translation:
DEADSET MATE WE’RE CACTUS!
These are the ways the world is buggered…
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Minor nitpick: The German part should be: “Die Katze ist jetzt aus dem Sack.” (Or: “Jetzt ist die Katze aus dem Sack.”)
Otherwise, congratulations!
And I’ll buy a copy for my mom.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
@elgarak: you are of course right. I just didn’t dare to nitpick at Phil’s attempts to write German.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Herzlichen Glückwunsch Herr Plait! Deutsch ist die grösste Sprache Europas.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
W00t!
I hope the translation will be ok … count me in!
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Juhu vielen dank Phil.
It will be ordered right away
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
German word order is notoriously convoluted. Mark Twain would translate it as, “Jetzt aus dem Sack die Katze ist.”
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
@ elgarak: Hopefully the translator “Hucky Maier” is better at German than Phil.
I’ll first have a look at the book at a German bookstore before I place orders for birthdays of the family.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Ausgezeichnet! Kommt sofort auf meinen Amazon-Wunschzettel!
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Klingon translation:*
Hegh vo’ chal!
Dochvammey ‘oH Hemey qo’ DIchDaq pItlh…
*Click on my name for the Klingon translator.
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
And for our Swedish friends:
Deeth Frum Zee Skeees! Hoo zee vurld veell ind. By Pheel Pleeet. Bork! Bork! Bork!
(I’m sorry. I am. I love Sweden. But I love the Swedish Chef and the Borkerizer™ even more.)
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
You wrote a book?
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Gut zu Wissen!
When does it come out in portuguese?
I have lots of friends who want to read it,
but are not self-confident with their english…
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Had Hitler won the war, the German/Italian/Japanese versions of your book would have come out first. And then we’d all be here talking about the upcoming English version.
Now let me make a guess, could the third translation of your book be ______se?
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:13 pm
For some reason I can’t fathom, the German cover makes me think of a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book cover (not just because of the exploding planet)…
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Im with #1…and I think the lack of “!” makes the grade. Despite the cover critique, the book itself is fleshy goodness, Im sure no matter what language.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Mort par Ciel!
Ces sont les finis plusiers du monde…
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
You mean “Todd, Oust Them All” is the German title of your book??
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Phil, the Quality Paberback Book Club already has DEATH! in quality paperback (full-sized softcover) form. I got my copy last week.
Tarrkid, did you know that Douglas Adams worked on a show called “The Ends of the Earth”, in which the Earth was destroyed in a different way each episode? The first (and, possibly, only) sketch had the Earth being destroyed by a disproportionate police response to an unauthorized Peony-picking.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Bob From Easton @ 4, maybe William Shatner (star of the Esperanto film “Incubus”) can do the Esperanto audio book version!
(By the way, did you know that your name link has a zero instead of the letter “o” in the “com” part?)
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
iVAN3mAN,
vetlh ‘oH vaj [COOL]
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Btw, Phil, here’s my contribution:
來自天空的滅亡
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
ความตายมาจากท้องฟ้า!
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 am
Congratulations! I’d pre-order it if I’d not already own the english version… On first sight, it looks like one of these doomsayer-books… May lure some woowoos to buy it and unexpectedly expose their minds to some real science…
About the second language: I guess its chinese or japanese…
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:45 am
But what about those puns? Maybe the translator will take liberties.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:10 am
John McBryde said:
Surely that’s “Strine”, not “Australian” . . . ?
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:11 am
Elgarak said:
Heh. Beat me to it!
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 am
@ Tarrkid:
So, all Phil’s book needs is the words “Don’t Panic” in large, friendly letters on the cover . . .
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 am
The BA said:
What do you mean will have? The English version already has appeal in Europe – after all, I got my copy just a few months back.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:17 am
Oh, yes, definitely, Nigel. I´m not going to get the German version, because I´ve read the English one already.
Oh, and one minor nitpick: the subtitle translates as “How the world ends one day”… it just sounds so inelegant and old-fashioned, at least in German. Sorry…
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:52 am
Darn.. now I have to choose between the two… have you read parts of it? Can Plait even BE translated? What do you suggest? Should I read it in my Native Language and understand all the sciency stuff or should I read the english version for the fun part???
I know, I know the authors correct answer would be: BUY BOTH.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:06 am
Sehr schön!
I’ll get it as soon as possible. Keep up the good work, Phil!
Greetings from Munich.
ps: Btw, “die Katze is aus dem Sack jetzt” is slightly wrong. “Jetzt ist die Katze aus dem Sack” is better.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:17 am
Of course, far more of us speak English than German, I believe.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:36 am
37. Nigel Depledge Says:
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 am
@ Tarrkid:
So, all Phil’s book needs is the words “Don’t Panic” in large, friendly letters on the cover . . .
Keine Panik!
Ich freue mich auf beide Versionen! I’ll let you know how the puns turn out side by side!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
Congratulations, Phil.
I already own Bad Astronomy and Death from the Skies!, but i think i will buy the german edition as a present for my stepbrother.
And one more for myself.
Greetings from Salzburg, Austria.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:17 am
That’s cool! I don’t like translations and prefer to read the original, but I’m thinking about buying ithe German edition for my school library – the teens like astronomy books and I’m fairly sure they’ll love this one.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
I’m pretty sure the correct word order is “Jetzt ist die Katze aus dem Sack”
but whatever, AWESOME! Now I officially have an interesting book to read and practice my German
. Is it possible to order this in the US?
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I can see why the obvious translation, “Tod aus dem Himmel”, would be problematic (for those who know no German at all, it’s because German has only one word to cover “sky” and “Heaven”), but when was “Raum” replaced by “All” as the word for the place where astronauts go?
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
By FSM, that’s a very cool cover picture.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
@John W. Kennedy: “Raum” also means “room” in German (it’s the more common meaning), so that would sound a bit strange. (“Weltraum” or “Weltall” are both unambiguous, but “All” as the short form of “Weltall” makes the title a bit snappier IMHO.)
I hoped for the translation. I will certainly buy it.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I understand why “Raum” could be a problem, but it’s what I’ve always seen, along with “Raumschiff”. I’ve never encountered “All” before. (Ich bin 45 Jahre aus Gymnasium; deshalb ist mein Deutsch ganz futsch. Wär ich kein Operettensinger, dann wär es alzusammen verloren.)
June 4th, 2009 at 3:10 am
Tod aus dem Raum would sound very awkward and everynody would think What room are they talking about?
Tod aus dem Weltraum would work, but it does sound a bit clumsy. Weltall or short All is just as common now and as Klopfer said, it makes the title more catchy.
Raumschiff is still used, though, as is Raumstation (space station). Strictly speaking, Weltraum means everything but the Earth and Weltall/All means the universe.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:58 am
In my experience “All” is the prefect word for “Space”. “Raum” works but it’s confusing when talking about death. Here’s the Major Tom lyric by Peter Schilling:
Major Tom denkt sich
“wenn die wüssten -,
mich führt hier ein Licht durch das All,
das kennt ihr noch nicht,
ich komme bald
Mir wird kalt.”
June 4th, 2009 at 11:15 am
“I’m really happy about this (marred only by the lack of an exclamation point in the title), because I think the book will have broad appeal in Europe; there are lots of space enthusiasts there and I get email from them all the time.”
The publishing of the book in German will not do too much for people in Europe to read the book though. I mean, besides Germany, Switserland and Austria, who is going to read it? Having the English version on the shelves, untill it gets translated in other languages, on the other hand will accomplish it far easier.
But congrats anyway, maybe I WILL read it in German, if the translation is good, there is no language to read doom and destruction in as auf Deutsch!
June 4th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Re. the wording… I did German in high school, and read/translated the title as “Death from the Universe”, which I think works quite well! EVERYTHING is out to get us!
June 5th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Any chance of taking the metric measurements from the German volume and making a metric English edition?
June 25th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hello forum! I’m new here, just wanted to stop in and say hi for the first time
I hope everyone is having a great day! Toodle ooo