I can't find any information about Oliver Henkel's new book
"Wechselwelten". What is it about and when can I order it?

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 13 Jul 2004 08:56 PDT

Dear memm,

It may be hard to believe, but I happen to be a very good personal
friend of the author. If you like, I can ask Oliver Henkel and post
his answer to your question here. Would that be useful for you?

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by memm-ga on 13 Jul 2004 10:17 PDT

Hello Scriptor,

I thought you are the author ;)

I was very happy to see that there will be a new book. Although the
first two books were so good and got renowned awards (SFCD, Laßwitz)
there's not so much information about them on the web (or not as much
as there should be) and there's nothing about Wechselwelten (or I just
couldn't find it). The cover suggests that the book contains short
stories, maybe in an alternate history. Is that right, or are the
stories more like Science Fiction (First book: 1500 yaers ago, second
book: 15 years ago, third book future)? Do you already know when it
will be published? (Which month)

Dear memm,

Even if I were the author, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you due to
the Google Answers Researchers guidelines... ;)

But now back to your original question. As the author just confirmed,
"Wechselwelten" ('Changeworlds') will be a collection of short stories
dealing with "alternate history" in several different ways. It is
subtitled "Seven Trips to Worlds that almost might have existed."

As the titles says, the book will contain seven stories, the longest
one of them featuring a "classic" science fiction theme - time travel.
Here are the English versions of the short descriptions that will
appear on the website soon:

"The 9th of October"
East Germany in autumn 1989. People start losing fear and respect of
the government, thousands are in the streets, demonstrating for more
freedom. The government is undecided and looses ground. And at the
great Monday Demonstration in the city of Leipzig, it looks as if the
5000 troops of army, police and militia will stay in the background
and not attack the 75.000 protesters. But Erich Mielke, minister of
state security, head of the almighty Stasi secret police and an old
Stalinist, has other plans...

"The Eagle has landed"
Granada, southern Spain, in August 1491. The last Moorish stronghold
is besieged by the Most Catholic Regents, Isabella and Ferdinand, and
will soon fall. In the shadow of the city's huge walls, two very
different men meet by coincidence. They have only one thing in common:
They feel cheated by Queen Isabella. And during that meeting they find
out that sometimes you must turn to the North if you want to reach the
East by sailing to the West...

"...thus He shall save Mankind"
When Temple guards and Roman soldiers surround the Garden Getsemaneh,
the travelling rabbi Jesus of Nazareth is content - everything happens
as it should. But he did not assume that sometimes a clear conscience
can't be bought with money, lest alone with 30 silver tetradrachmas...

"Kalifornia Dreaming"
In the mid-50s, Walt Disney gets lots of fan mail. And sometimes, not
only the envelopes are brown.

"Mr. Lincoln goes to Friedrichsburg"
It's not unusual for the lawyer Abraham Lincoln to represent fugitive
former slaves in court. But for this case, he will have to appear in a
Prussian court room for the first time - and he travels to Prussia
without leaving America at all...

"The Immortality of Harold Strait"
How do you get the attention of your dream girl? For Harold Strait,
student of ancient languages and participant in a secret time-travel
project, the answer is clear: By doing something in the past that will
impress her in the present. However, this proves to be harder than it
seemed at first sight...

"From Nikandros of Athen's 'Symposiums': Dialogue XIV, also known as
'Sophronios' Second Symposium'"
Alexander the Great has just recovered from his almost deadly disease,
when he starts looking for new targets for his ambition again. And he
finds those targets by looking westward...

If all goes well, the book will be available by late August. The new
website will be launched in one or two weeks.

I hope that this is what you wanted to know ... please feel free to
ask if there is anything I forgot.
All the best,
Scriptor

Thank you. That sounds very interesting and I hope the book will be
out as soon as possible.

Keep up the good work.

Best wishes,
memm-ga

http://www.oliverhenkel.com/

http://wechselwelten.oliverhenkel.com/

It's a jolly good read.

Get it!

Sorry, I was confusing it with 'Die Zeitmaschine Karls des Großen'.

I now see that Ollie Henkel's 'new book' is to be published 'Late Summer' ...

Well, as it feels like Winter here in the UK, perhaps it's overdue?

I understand this is some of the best German fiction written since
Goethe.  Wish I knew the language.

Amazon and the others won't let you pre-order it yet.... but it's also
not late summer yet...

About the winter here.. the other week I had visitors from Germany and
they were "shocked" that the days are so much longer here.. but the
temperature certainly feels more like winter than summer...

About Goethe... I think it's easier to compare him with contemporary
writers. I don't read a lot, but there are so many famous writers out
there whose books are definitely not written as well as his.

Since Goethe?

Really, Pafalafa, it's worth learning German just for the pleasure.

Come to think of it, Ollie could bring about a renaissance in German literature.

I, too, long for an English translation of Henkel's literature.  If he
writes English well (and I believe he does) perhaps he'll someday find
the time to self-translate his novels.

It takes a talented translator to accurately reflect an author's
nuances and, because Henkel *is* so talented, I know he'd be the
perfect choice.  :)

Best regards,
journalist-ga

P. S.  Mr. Henkel, if you ever chance upon this comment, please
explore the possibility of captivating English-only readers as you
seem to done with European readers!

Apparently, this book is going to be available at a price of EUR 13,98:

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3833415355/302-5831425-3423255

http://www.bol.de/pages/functions.phtml?function=detail&IdentNr=5958607

Really, Journalist, I am surprised that you can't be bothered to learn German!

I saw it yesterday - by chance - and I preordered it immediately.
...hope the release date won't be postponed.

Memm ...

How could you possibly SEE something that has not yet been published?

Never mind, please tell us the ending ...

Did Pippin do it?

Probono, I saw it on Amazon's web site (I obviously didn't see the
real book). I was suprised that it is cheaper than the prvious books.
It has fewer pages, but I thought that wouldn't make it so much
cheaper, though. ...especially not as a Book on Demand, i thought BoD
doesn't pass benefits from economies of scale to the author ..but with
Oliver Henkel being more famous now (than when he started writing) he
will probably sell quite a few.

Available now, a new version of 
http://wechselwelten.oliverhenkel.com/

The book must be out now. I just got a mail from Amazon: they just
sent out the book :)