I am a native Ducth and Norwegian speaker, and started speaking English(boarding school) in my childhood, so I am tri-lingual.
I have read all the fan-translations, and picked up Baptism of Fire on pre-order (the cover I did for the fan version ended up as an ad for AMD, actually
)
I am in the middle of the official version of Baptism of Fire, and I have to say I prefer the fan translation, even though this one reads "crisper", I can see a lot of linguistic nuances got lost, in addition to the translator ignoring small things which the fans haven't, like "fucking" instead of ploughing and at times very clumsily constructed sentences.
The fan versions proved that together, we can create something awesome, as long as we pull together, and to be frank, I didnt get the same immersive vibe from the current translations.
(also - as a FYI - Sapkowski uses a lot of Dutch and Scandinavian phrases as foreign words in his books - i.e Drieschot tranlates to English as Threeshot from Dutch, and some other words I will probably remember later)
my 2 cents
I have read all the fan-translations, and picked up Baptism of Fire on pre-order (the cover I did for the fan version ended up as an ad for AMD, actually
)I am in the middle of the official version of Baptism of Fire, and I have to say I prefer the fan translation, even though this one reads "crisper", I can see a lot of linguistic nuances got lost, in addition to the translator ignoring small things which the fans haven't, like "fucking" instead of ploughing and at times very clumsily constructed sentences.
The fan versions proved that together, we can create something awesome, as long as we pull together, and to be frank, I didnt get the same immersive vibe from the current translations.
(also - as a FYI - Sapkowski uses a lot of Dutch and Scandinavian phrases as foreign words in his books - i.e Drieschot tranlates to English as Threeshot from Dutch, and some other words I will probably remember later)
my 2 cents
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I wonder if I could print and bind the fan translations, especially considering we have no idea if/when the other books are going to be translated. Not that I would know where to start with that either
Ah it just sucks buying a product knowing it is inferior and not being able to do anything about it. I can't read PDF's for long periods of time without discomfort either.
Ah it just sucks buying a product knowing it is inferior and not being able to do anything about it. I can't read PDF's for long periods of time without discomfort either.
I think you'd be in serious copyright trouble if you did that without author or agency permission
You can always convert a PDF to a word, ePub or Kindle format, if it bothers you?
Oh, and linguistic irks: The translator managed to go ""‘Indeed. Geralt, also known as the Wolf" .in chapter four, which is a bit of a sloppy error, as it's the White Wolf, Knights are titulated as Knight this, or that in speech, when it's fairly common knowledge that you don't go "Knight This-or-That", you go "Sir This-or-That". In addition, there were no Secretaries of State in the High Middle Ages, there were ministers and advisors. I also see Emhyr is consistently translated as Imperator, where a common emperor would do, and read better, among all the typos, unfinished sentences, and misspellings.
I purchased the book to support the translation effort, but I will be removing the book from my Kindle and re-upload the fan translation, as the people who worked on that, and other translations actually cared about their work, and the books, unlike the treatment the book got by the translator and the person editing the book.
Also - I mentioned Scandinavian words: An'givare is angivare in Swedish. It translates as traitor...(Or Judas - you get the drift ;-))
You can always convert a PDF to a word, ePub or Kindle format, if it bothers you?
Oh, and linguistic irks: The translator managed to go ""‘Indeed. Geralt, also known as the Wolf" .in chapter four, which is a bit of a sloppy error, as it's the White Wolf, Knights are titulated as Knight this, or that in speech, when it's fairly common knowledge that you don't go "Knight This-or-That", you go "Sir This-or-That". In addition, there were no Secretaries of State in the High Middle Ages, there were ministers and advisors. I also see Emhyr is consistently translated as Imperator, where a common emperor would do, and read better, among all the typos, unfinished sentences, and misspellings.
I purchased the book to support the translation effort, but I will be removing the book from my Kindle and re-upload the fan translation, as the people who worked on that, and other translations actually cared about their work, and the books, unlike the treatment the book got by the translator and the person editing the book.
Also - I mentioned Scandinavian words: An'givare is angivare in Swedish. It translates as traitor...(Or Judas - you get the drift ;-))
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Trouble for printing a copy for personal use? I don't see how.I think you'd be in serious copyright trouble if you did that without author or agency permission
@Aliastasia Actually I don't own a kindle (I prefer buying paper) are they any good? Part of my PDF problem is my lack of portability.
@vincentdante:
My bad, I thought you meant for distribution. Let me pull my head out of my ass ;-) :
I gave away my old Kindle, as I prefer to read on my Android pad, but it depends on your visual needs - pdfs on a kindle suck, as they scale the jpg of the converted text, and not the text itself - this can give you a bad reading experience if you enlarge the text a lot. Hence reading Kindle books in Kindle format, or word, or HTML - Kindle can read all of those in addition to its proprietary format.
I prefer using my Android-tablet with a Kindle-app on it, because I just use it for more stuff, has a bigger screen, and it's one device to lug around, instead of two
I also sometimes read Kindle-books on my PC, especially when I am doing lots of renders/graphic work.
For paper-printing, PDFs are fine, though
My bad, I thought you meant for distribution. Let me pull my head out of my ass ;-) :
I gave away my old Kindle, as I prefer to read on my Android pad, but it depends on your visual needs - pdfs on a kindle suck, as they scale the jpg of the converted text, and not the text itself - this can give you a bad reading experience if you enlarge the text a lot. Hence reading Kindle books in Kindle format, or word, or HTML - Kindle can read all of those in addition to its proprietary format.
I prefer using my Android-tablet with a Kindle-app on it, because I just use it for more stuff, has a bigger screen, and it's one device to lug around, instead of two
I also sometimes read Kindle-books on my PC, especially when I am doing lots of renders/graphic work.
For paper-printing, PDFs are fine, though
@vincentdante:
You can take a look at apps, here: Free kindle apps
If you are looking into eReaders, you can also grab others, Wikipedia has a comparison-list
My tablet is an old Asus Transformer EEE TF 201 - that thing just keeps on ticking, no matter how much of a licking I give it - but there are newer and better pads on the market
You can take a look at apps, here: Free kindle apps
If you are looking into eReaders, you can also grab others, Wikipedia has a comparison-list
My tablet is an old Asus Transformer EEE TF 201 - that thing just keeps on ticking, no matter how much of a licking I give it - but there are newer and better pads on the market
Thanks, In the end it comes down to being able to read the fan translations away from my PC without spending a fortune. Or just wait for the official books / suck it up and read them on my PC. A cheap kindle might be one answer. I don't really need a tablet and they are pretty expensive. Printing costs for a novel might potentially be pretty high as well.
If you go for a Kindle rather than a tablet, remember that some Kindles also need a reading light, an issue you don't have with a tablet, if you want to read in a dark room/bed. I see a basic kindle is about 70 US minus PnP.
A Kindle Paperwhite doesn't seem to need that, so keep that in mind, if you're looking to buy
Mine was a 2011 model with a keyboard - for which I needed a light - but I think it's phased out, now. I was, however, very happy with the ease of use, and how light it was
A Kindle Paperwhite doesn't seem to need that, so keep that in mind, if you're looking to buy
Mine was a 2011 model with a keyboard - for which I needed a light - but I think it's phased out, now. I was, however, very happy with the ease of use, and how light it was
I actually live in the UK btw, but all the information is still relevant to me thanks.
If there are places that do photocopying near you, it doesn't hurt to ask. I've had a couple of pretty thick PDF manuals printed off in the past, and was pleasantly surprised. It maybe varies from country to country though.
There are a couple of shops, I'll see what they have to say tomorrow, your right it can't hurt to ask. Thanks Dragonbird.
Ah, ok, I didn't know
if you're a Scandinavian, you can't purchase any kindle stuff at Amazon UK, you have to use the US site, I think that goes for a lot of others as well, hence the US default. As for printing, DragonBird probably knows more about it than I, but maybe there's a Uni near you? they usually have cheap printing facilities nearby
It could be ridiculously expensive. All I know is that it's very cheap in SE AsiaAh, ok, I didn't know
As for printing, DragonBird probably knows more about it than I, but maybe there's a Uni near you? they usually have cheap printing facilities nearby
So it's worth asking, but I've no idea what the answer will be for the UK.
Well, for Kindle you can ony buy eBooks from Amazon, can't you? So it is a bit restricted.
Don't see a problem with printing it yourself, besides it might be a bit more expensive than buying the book.
If there are some positive things about the book translation, maybe those could be adopted for the fan tranlation. But I can imagine the fan translation being better, since more people worked on it and also have a better understanding.
Don't see a problem with printing it yourself, besides it might be a bit more expensive than buying the book.
If there are some positive things about the book translation, maybe those could be adopted for the fan tranlation. But I can imagine the fan translation being better, since more people worked on it and also have a better understanding.
Kindle reads multiple formats, including the non proprietary Mobi and PDF. For instance Project Gutenberg includes Mobi versions that you can simply download and read with Kindle.
About purchasing ebooks, what other options are there? Barnes and Noble? Google? None has nearly as many as Amazon, and they're all equally restrictive. Might as well go for the one with the largest catalogue (by far).
Note that you don't have to purchase a physical Kindle reader necessarily. If you have a tablet or smartphone you can install a Kindle program and read exactly the same content. Or install another reader that supports ePub, an actual standard.