Labyrinth des Horus

Great review Icybro

I'm glad you mentioned the relationship between Elizabeth and Indy. There was a general creepiness to it. It was one scene out of the entire book but it definitely caused me to go "huh?" when I first read it. Then I remembered the novelization of raiders, and the relationship Indy had with Marion finished when she was 16?!? years old, which caused Indy's fallout with Abner. From my approximation, Indy was at LEAST 25 years old when he ended the relationship, based on his official birthdate of July 1, 1899. Raiders takes place in 1936, and it had been 10 years since the "falling out".

Another factor to consider - in the 1930s-1950s it was more common for a woman to marry when she was 16 or 17. The median age, however (even going back to medieval times) was for woman to marry in their early 20s, and men in their mid 20s.

The other scene I thought was a little weird occurred after they landed in Cairo and it appears that Elizabeth gets killed by gunfire. Indy almost has a general non-chalant 'that sucks, but let's move on' attitude about the situation. He didn't even go check on her after she was shot and after it was obvious the danger was over. Both of these scenes were in very close proximity to each other in the book. It's a small section, and forgivable given the rest of the story is very good.

As for Hohlbein's characterization of nazis, I know there is a general taboo for talking about the nazis in Germany, so maybe Hohlbein was simply following the culture there. I am curious to see if the nazis play any roles in the other Hohlbein books.
 
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Junior Jones

New member
Great job on the translation. I'm enjoying it.

I started a similar project with Gefeidert Schlange (Feathered Snake) and got halfway through Icybro's step five. I have it translated from German to Googlish, and now I need to translate it from Googlish to English.

I've been working on other projects lately (publishing a book and writing for my blog) but I've always meant to get back to it someday.

It's been two-and-a-half years though, and I honestly have to admit that I can't commit time to it anymore. If someone would like to tackle the project, I'd be willing to share my rough translation for clean-up. PM me if you're interested.
 

bladerunner13

New member
Icybro said:
Oh my goodness, I just realized that I spent a full eight months putting this together:

Indiana Jones and the Labyrinth of Horus

I'm pretty happy with the result, though. It might be the first complete English translation of a Hohlbein novel . . . ? And the story's not half bad, either. I don't want to spoil anything before giving you guys a chance to read it for yourselves, but I'll post my thoughts on the story in more detail later.

Enjoy! And please let me know what you think. ;)

I tried to download it but it doesn't seem to be their right now...do you think you could reupload it?
 

gioA

Member
finished reading this - it's really good and the translation is superb.
thanks!
can't wait for more!:whip:
 

IndyBr

Member
I've finished reading it a long time ago but I didn't came back to leave feedback, so here it goes:

This is easily one of the best Indy novels I've read so far, it blows Army of the Dead, the Caidin novels and those two young adult books out of the water. The opening of the novel shows us what we can expect from it: it's funny, there's a lot of well written action and we have the old Indy that we know and love.

The plot is also pretty interesting, a little more fantastical (not as much as Interior World of course, more like Indy encountering mytical characters like Merlin and Noah, but outside a dream or vision sequence) than the original movies but it's on par with the other novels and comics.

But I didn't like how the book isn't structured in chapters, but rather in locations... And sometimes those sections can be really long, and when you're tired that really harms your enjoyement of the novel. Specially if you're reading it in a computer (my case, I didn't print it or anything).

But still, very enjoyable and highly recomended, 4 stars. :whip:
 

m-3po

New member
Noooo neither of these links work now :( I've not been on the boards for a few months but I've been waiting for a translation of one of the German books for a long time as they sit gathering dust on my shelves and now that I find there is a complete one its gone by the time I get there.
Any chance of another link or someone e-mailing it to me.
Good work on this by the way - I've tried myself to do similar but only got so far as a couple of pages with the help of google so im well impressed!
 

IndyBr

Member
Well, if Icybro doesn't upload it again, PM me your e-mail and I'll send it to you.
But I don't know if it's too big for e-mails or not, don't remember the size.
 

m-3po

New member
Awesome - cheers! Looks like you've done an amazing job! Might take me a while to read I don't do reading a screen so may resort to printing a few pages at a time or somesuch but I shall come back and comment when I have. Thanks so much for the effort that went into this :)
 

Toht's Arm

Active member
Links don't work anymore. Any chance anyone could email me the file? PM me if so. Otherwise, if someone could put it back online that would be much appreciated :)
 

Shazam

New member
Toht's Arm said:
Links don't work anymore. Any chance anyone could email me the file? PM me if so. Otherwise, if someone could put it back online that would be much appreciated :)

I too would like to read it.
 

whipwarrior

New member
After my initial enthusiasm, I just can't get into the story. I don't know if it's the author's writing style or something lost in the translation process, but it feels like a hollow imitation of an Indy adventure. At risk of sounding nationalistic, I think that writing the character of Indiana Jones requires a uniquely American mindset (and even that's no guarantee considering the Martin Caidin books or Steve Perry's utter abomination). There are definitely some very Indy moments in the story especially during the action sequences, but Indy's dialogue and thought processes don't quite ring true for me. Also, at 45 pages in, I've noted several historical anachronisms that could have been remedied by some careful fact-checking. Hohlbein gets an A for effort, but I just can't commit to this one. :(
 

Icybro

Member
whipwarrior said:
After my initial enthusiasm, I just can't get into the story. I don't know if it's the author's writing style or something lost in the translation process, but it feels like a hollow imitation of an Indy adventure. At risk of sounding nationalistic, I think that writing the character of Indiana Jones requires a uniquely American mindset (and even that's no guarantee considering the Martin Caidin books or Steve Perry's utter abomination). There are definitely some very Indy moments in the story especially during the action sequences, but Indy's dialogue and thought processes don't quite ring true for me. Also, at 45 pages in, I've noted several historical anachronisms that could have been remedied by some careful fact-checking. Hohlbein gets an A for effort, but I just can't commit to this one. :(

I agree the tone is slightly off in places, but I'm willing to chalk that up to my translation, for the most part. If you're only 45 pages in, I will say that the story gets better, and ultimately turns into something I at least found worthwhile.

What anachronisms have you found so far? The only one that really bugged me was the mention of the planet Melmac. I was enjoying the book just fine without the suggestion of a potential Indy/ALF crossover, thank you very much, Mr. Hohlbein.
 

whipwarrior

New member
Aside from the cringe-inducing ALF reference, Hohlbein lists several hotels that Indy visits in search of Basil Smith, citing the Marriott, a brand name not established until 1957, and a Sheraton, which didn't exist outside the U.S. until the 60's. He also mentions that Indy's hat is made of leather, which is as blatantly wrong as Martin Caidin stating that Indy's satchel is leather and that he carries his whip through his belt loop. I know I'm probably splitting hairs now, but details like that tend to pull me out of the story, although I can't fault the author entirely since the Internet as a research tool wasn't available in the early nineties.
 
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