ROTTENSTEINER, Franz

(1942-)

   Austrian sf critic, editor and literary agent; he has a PhD from the University of Vienna. He has edited the SF of the World series for Insel Verlag, the Fantastic Novels series for Paul Zsolnay Verlag, and theFantastic Library series - now over 250 vols - for Suhrkamp Verlag. He writes in English as well as in German, his critical articles having appeared in SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES and elsewhere. He is particularly well known for his spirited promotion of the work of Stanislaw LEM, for whom he is literary agent, and for the contempt he has often expressed for much GENRE SF. His criticism is intelligent, polemical and left-wing, and bestexpressed in fairly academic formats; his popular illustrated history of sf, The Science Fiction Book (1975), is generally felt to be sketchy. In the same vein, but perhaps better, is The Fantasy Book: The Ghostly, the Gothic, the Magical, the Unreal (1978). In English he is also known forhis collection of European sf, View from Another Shore (anth 1973); for his collection of "literary" fantasies by Jorge Luis BORGES and others, The Slaying of the Dragon: Modern Tales of the Playful Imagination (anth1984); and for Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction (coll 1984) by Lem, ed and introduced by FR. Many of his critical writings in German appear in his own high-quality FANZINE, QUARBER MERKUR, from which the book Quarber Merkur (anth 1979) was collected. 2 books of essays ed FR are Uber H.P. Lovecraft ("On H.P. Lovecraft") (anth 1984), and Die dunkleSeite der Wirklichkeit ("The Dark Side of Reality") (anth 1987). Since 1989 he has been editing a serial guide in loose-leaf form in binders, 1250pp to Feb 1991: "Werkfuhrer durch die utopisch-phantastiche Literatur"("Work Guide to Utopian and Fantastic Literature").In German he has ed many anthologies of stories and essays about sf, including: Die Ratte im Labyrinth ("Rats in the Maze") (anth 1971); the Polaris series, Polaris 1(anth 1973), \#2 (anth 1974), a special Soviet sf issue, \#3 (anth 1975), \#4 (anth 1978), a French sf issue, \#5 (anth 1981), \#6 (anth 1982), a Herbert W. FRANKE issue, \#7 (anth 1983), \#8 (anth 1985), \#9 (anth 1985), old German sf, and \#10 (anth 1986), a STRUGATSKI issue; Phantastiche Traume("Fantastic Dreams") (anth 1983); Phantastiche Welten ("Fantastic Worlds") (anth 1984); Phantastiche Aussichten ("Fantastic Sights") (anth 1985); Phantastiche Zeiten ("Fantastic Times") (anth 1986); Lovecraft Lesebuch("Lovecraft Reader") (anth 1987); Seltsame Labyrinthe ("Strange Labyrinths") (anth 1987); Der Eingang ins Paradies ("The Door into Paradise") (anth 1988); Arche Noah ("Noah's Ark") (anth 1989); Die Sirene("The Siren") (anth 1990); Phantastiche Begegnungen ("Fantastic Encounters") (anth 1990).

   PN

   See also: CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF; GERMANY.