Dukaj, as anybody else can self-publish on Amazon. It is XXI century already (*sigh* not XXIII unfortunately).

Late to the party but… excellent review.
What Dukaj’s works have benn, finally, translated into english?

I have actually exchanged emails with Dukaj about translations, and long story short, he (like most foreign authors, really) cannot find a publisher in the English-speaking country interesting in translating his works. So if you want to email somebody to get this in English, focus on English publishers.

Looking for a good synopsis of ‘Perfect Imperfection’ by Dukaj I found your essay. When I read about “Accelerando” in the first sentence, I knew it will be a decent read. After reading the whole thing I must admit your English essay on the Polish science fiction work is the most complete and informative thing I found regarding the book. Good job! I wrote a piece referring to your review on my website.

Greetings!

[…] Read the plot synopsis and know more about world vision of “Perfect Imperfection” by Luke Maciak […]

I’d like to recommend another great novel by the same author: Lód (Ice), which is probably one of the greatest sci-fi novels I’ve ever read. I’ve been reading it every Winter (it’s way more immersive that way) for the last three years (I’m a busy man and the book’s over 1000 pages long). It’s written in heavily russified Polish, as Poland in this alternative history is still under Tsarist Russia’s rule, which makes it a pleasure to read on its own merit. Here’s what wiki has to say about the book (no spoilers here):

“The story of the book takes place in an alternate universe where the First World War never occurred and Poland is still under Russian rule. Following the Tunguska event, the Ice, a mysterious form of matter, has covered parts of Siberia in Russia and started expanding outwards, reaching Warsaw. The appearance of Ice results in extreme decrease of temperature, putting the whole continent under constant winter, and is accompanied by Lute, angels of Frost, a strange form of being which seems to be a native inhabitant of Ice. Under the influence of the Ice, iron turns into zimnazo (cold iron), a material with extraordinary physical properties, which results in the creation of a new branch of industry, zimnazo mining and processing, giving birth to large fortunes and new industrial empires. Moreover, the Ice freezes History and Philosophy, preserving the old political regime, affecting human psychology and changing the laws of logic from many-valued logic of “Summer” to two-valued logic of “Winter” with no intermediate steps between True and False.

Dukaj noted[1] that in this book, science in science-fiction stands for the philosophy of history.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_%28Dukaj_novel%29
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/fierce-auctions-among-busy-day-frank furt-dealmaking.html

“Atlantic Books acquired world rights, excluding Poland, to Ice by Jacek Dukaj, a “philosophical and historical adventure”. Nic Cheetham, publishing director at imprint Corvus, bought the rights directly from Pawel Ciemniewski at Wydawnictwo Literackie, Dukaj’s Polish publishers. Corvus plans to publish Ice, which won the Polityka Prize for the “Most Important Polish novel of the last 20 years”, in June 2012.”

Hopefully the English translation retains the beauty of the language used in the original version. :)

@ Liudvikas:

One must wonder how exactly would that feel. Installing a language patch I mean. After all, it is almost impossible to divorce the language itself from it’s culturally meaningful idioms and phraseology. In fact, languages seem to be more than just data mappings for ideas – they influence how you think. At least I know that I need to “switch gears” (so to speak) if I want to think in Polish vs English.

@ Christopher Anthony:

Will do. :)

@ Agnosis:

Well, the thing about translating fiction is that it takes a lot of literary skill. I could probably trudge my way through it and translate it to the best of my ability, but it would be a pale shade of the original. Also, translating idioms and cultural references while preserving their intended meaning is extremely difficult.

@ Åka:

Nope, I didn’t. Thanks for the link. :)

@ Halka:

I have not read that one. Also, bonus points for Kimiko Ross gravatar. :)

Heh. Tease.

So, that’s the second polish book I’m not quite able to read in my queue (aside from “Nikt” by Magdalena Kozak).

Well that was a great tease

Many are interested to know about science fiction in other languages than English, if nothing else because they realize that there is so much out there that they will not know anything about if they don’t expand their horizons beyond that language sphere. Do you know about the World SF blog?