An annotated guide to criticism, reviews, and German editions
Sources checked through 16 September 2026. The guide records the material located and examined; inaccessible pages and unindexed print writing leave gaps.
German readers have encountered Lafferty chiefly through his short stories. The two translated novels are Space Chantey, published as Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum in 1980, and Past Master, published as Astrobe, der goldene Planet in 1981. Nine Hundred Grandmothers appeared in two Fischer Orbit volumes in 1974. Heyne reunited its twenty-one stories in 1993 as So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen. The concordance below traces the stories through these collections and the many anthologies that carried them. Edition and translation records.
The criticism includes considerable disagreement. In Science Fiction Times, Helmut Kusche attacked the politics of “This Grand Carcass,” while Rainer Voss dismissed “In Our Block” as magic without logic. Hermann Wolff-Sasse later welcomed the strangeness of Lafferty’s contribution to the first Hobbit-Presse almanac. Kusche, 1976; Voss, 1977; Wolff-Sasse, 1983.
Translation is a recurring concern. Kai U. Jürgens calls for a complete German edition of the stories and criticizes cuts in earlier translations. The Past Master review at Hinter dem Nebel compares Joachim Pente’s German version with the English, questioning added names and narrative interventions. These discussions help explain why some German admirers continue to read Lafferty in English. Jürgens, “Erdnussbutterschnitten für die Evolution”; Hinter dem Nebel, “Astrobe, der goldene Planet”.
The guide follows the language across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It includes literary criticism, reader conversations, scholarly uses of the stories and publication records. Entries are arranged by subject and work, then by date. Brief mentions and unread historical material remain linked in the final sections, with the limits of what could be established stated beside them.
Essays and profiles are ordered by publication date where known. Later republications and translations of English criticism are identified.
Reviewing Alan E. Nourse, Paul groups Lafferty with writers he accuses of smuggling imperialist ideology into sensational adventure stories. He offers no separate reading of Lafferty. The comparison records an early hostile response from the magazine’s Marxist critics.
In a footnote on page 70, Hofmann names Lafferty’s short fiction alongside Tenn, Galouye, Dick and Lem as evidence that science fiction had already explored realities as fictions, simulacra and plural possible worlds. The example supports his argument about science fiction’s relationship to postmodern literary theory.
Kuhnle remembers Lafferty chiefly as a short-story writer whose bizarre subjects, lyrical prose, and humor cross the boundary between science fiction and fantasy. He singles out “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” for a prospective personal top ten and describes its joke of historians unable to perceive the past they have altered. He also identifies the importance of Catholicism in Serpent’s Egg. The page identifies itself as an advance printing from Magira 2002.
Breitsameter’s obituary recounts Lafferty’s late start, early novels and reputation for humorous short fiction. It singles out Past Master and the German editions of Nine Hundred Grandmothers, and links to an older Lafferty website.
Spongebob seeks inexpensive English-language Lafferty books, excluding Wildside editions, and describes overseas postage as an obstacle to collecting them.
Shock Wave Rider includes Lafferty among favourite authors because his outrageous ideas reliably provoke laughter and his humour carries meanings beyond slapstick.
Rowlf proposes Lafferty’s complete work in a discussion of innovation, remembering his style as independent, original and exciting.
The organizer proposes Lafferty for the short-story reading circle, remembers several often funny stories and notes never having read a German translation.
yiyippeeyippeeyay recommends Lafferty, especially the short stories, to a reader interested in science fiction approached from a chastened Catholic perspective.
ShockWaveRider praises Frank Neugebauer’s “Kentaurische Affären” by comparing its style and overflowing imagination to Lafferty, whom the reviewer admires.
In a book-exchange discussion, micc names Lafferty among favourite authors alongside Womack, Dick and Ballard, and describes signed copies as prohibitively expensive.
fahrenheit.451 recalls Lafferty’s darkly comic stories among the treasures of the Fischer Orbit series and the New Wave period.
Stricker enthusiastically recommends Lafferty’s difficult-to-classify stories for their malicious humour and willingness to engage openly with religious subjects.
Reviews are grouped alphabetically by English title, then ordered by date. German headings identify the editions and the original articles.
Jorge places Past Master under utopia and dystopia and describes its citizens’ preference for misery over the golden cities, prompting the rulers to summon Thomas More.
In a discussion of imagined cities, Jorge summarizes Astrobe’s abandoned golden cities and Thomas More’s recruitment to explain why residents choose the slums.
Jorge recommends Past Master among space-set novels and summarizes the departure from Astrobe’s golden cities and the mission assigned to Thomas More.
An enthusiastic reading of Past Master that concentrates on its Christian mythology and the dream logic of faster-than-light travel. Its most distinctive section compares Joachim Pente’s German translation with the English text, questioning added place names, an invented company and an intrusive narrative aside while still praising the translation’s readability. It also draws a parallel between Hopp-equation space and the Warp in Warhammer 40,000.
Jorge describes Space Chantey as a comic interstellar return voyage after victory, explicitly comparing Roadstrum and his crew with Odysseus.
Ming der Grausame recommends Space Chantey as an accessible introduction to science fiction but explains that its strong comic element conflicts with the questioner’s wish for melancholy and limited humour.
imarkane uses Space Chantey as a model for the eccentric, humorous science fiction being sought, alongside Lundwall and Chester Anderson.
Collections come first, followed by individual stories in alphabetical order. Separate responses to the same work appear together.
Endres recommends the English SF Masterworks collection as an introduction or return to Lafferty’s inventive, unpredictable fiction. He praises its unusual humor and discusses the introductions and afterwords by fellow writers.
Impala recommends spacing the stories out to avoid exhaustion. The review praises linguistic invention and serious questions beneath apparent jokes, while noting cruelty, impossible physics and unusual children.
Bungle reports returning to the German collection for occasional reading and characterizes its stories as eccentric and unmistakably individual.
An unusually extensive review, with plot summaries and individual interpretations of all twenty-one stories. Matzer reads Lafferty as a satirist of scientific authority, capitalism, perception and social convention, and especially values the Camiroi stories. A separate translation section lists dated vocabulary and errors in the German edition and calls for a new translation. He rates the collection four out of five.
Drewniok finds “Adam Had Three Brothers” amusing and inventive despite its old-fashioned character. He argues that its period stereotypes are integral to the twist, while its comic development remains enjoyable even when the ending is foreseeable.
Matzer compares the alien children’s games in “Among the Hairy Earthmen” to Stephen King’s Under the Dome. He then reads their indifference to human suffering as a challenge directed at humanity itself, calling attention to the story’s demand for an ethic of compassion.
Matzer follows the angel’s punishment in “Been a Long, Long Time” to explain how the story turns eternity into a comic, imaginable scale. His discussion emphasizes chance, the conditions of the punishment and the fragile hope of eventual release.
A retrospective on six Brian Aldiss anthologies includes detailed plot accounts of “Eine Sekunde der Ewigkeit” and “Bei den haarigen Erdenmenschen.” The first follows an angel’s punishment through a virtually endless Shakespeare typing experiment; the second presents human wars and inventions as the play of pitiless alien children. The accompanying bibliography gives the German and English titles and their anthology locations.
Badabumm challenges the clock motif’s originality and questions the logic of measuring a second of eternity.
Spacepirat calls this a repeatedly reread favourite and praises its cosmic clock as an exceptionally original invention.
Spacepirat asks for the alleged source and maintains that the story as a whole is original.
Teddy identifies the Brothers Grimm’s “Das Hirtenbüblein” as a source and treats the borrowing as recognizable quotation.
Uschi Zietsch regards Lafferty’s treatment as an independent, original variation on an established motif.
Spacepirat acknowledges the unfamiliar Grimm parallel while retaining admiration for the immense scale of Lafferty’s clock.
Zietsch links the typing monkeys to the infinite-monkey theorem and agrees that the clock’s scale is striking.
A brief plot account of “Been a Long, Long Time” within this afterlife anthology review. Matzer highlights the story’s ability to make the immensity of cosmic time tangible.
The section on “Camels and Dromedaries, Clem,” printed here as “Die Zweifachen,” reads its multiplication of people as a comic meditation on pairs. Matzer connects the premise to biblical patterns and stresses the contrast between the characters’ pragmatic problem-solving and the reader’s amusement.
An extended story section interprets “Continued on Next Rock” as both an archaeological ghost story and a symbolic excavation of consciousness. Matzer links geological strata to memory and the unconscious, while noting Indigenous history and the narrative’s indirectly expressed erotic tensions.
The section on “Continued on Next Rock” reads the excavation as an exploration of memory and consciousness. Matzer connects geological layers with layers of the mind, also noticing the ghost-story structure, Indigenous history and implied erotic tensions.
Teddy praises the story’s absurd transformation of an accepted truth and the consistency with which Lafferty develops it. The result is judged grotesque, highly amusing, readable and still effective.
Voss dismisses Lafferty’s contribution, “Wir machen alles,” as magic without logical content. His larger objection to the anthology is political: he regards most of its stories as carelessly written and deliberately depoliticized.
Tiberius finds the story interesting and associates it with The Day They Stole Manhattan while reporting on Dangerous Visions.
Harbach’s long Dangerous Visions review includes an appreciative paragraph on “Land of the Great Horses.” He praises its bizarre opening, concise explanation and bitter final turn, using the story as an example of Lafferty’s insistence that readers participate in making sense of events.
Jorge recommends the story in a religion-and-science-fiction discussion, outlining the missionary’s attempts to impose sin on the Analoi and their eventual violent rejection of him.
Matzer treats “Narrow Valley,” titled “Das schmale Tal” here, as a satire about taking land and passing it on. His discussion distinguishes the Pawnee family’s moral claim from the newcomers’ asserted ownership, while reading both Indigenous magic and scientific intervention through the story’s comic reversal.
The “Narrow Valley” section reads its magical landscape as a response to Indigenous dispossession. Matzer distinguishes legal possession from moral inheritance and treats the white settlers’ scientific countermeasures as another form of magic, with disastrous results.
A brief appreciation of the title story in Hendrik’s imaginary anthology. He argues that Lafferty unsettles familiar science-fiction assumptions about heroic behaviour, time travellers and humanity’s competence when encountering more advanced societies. The post includes a passage from the story, identifies the Heyne collection as its source and offers an accompanying 2 minute 44 second audio recording.
Wolff-Sasse reviews Joachim Kalka's anthology as an attempt to restore imagination and unpredictability to fantasy. He treats Lafferty's opening story as central to this program: its strange, bewildering search for a hidden north coast exemplifies otherness breaking into ordinary reality. He welcomes the anthology's demanding, unconventional fiction while doubting whether readers will sustain its commercial success.
Impala regards the linked story as middle-ranking Lafferty and explains that realism is rarely his method.
rockmysoul67 admires the vocabulary and mythic background but finds the linked story boring and would prefer a more realistic account of displaced wanderers.
A German-language review of Terry Carr’s English anthology The Others. Its long Lafferty section combines a detailed synopsis with a reading of accelerated time, ghosts and devils as related phenomena, and places the story within the anthology’s concern with outsiders living among us.
Two detailed story discussions open this anthology review. Matzer links the supernatural elements of “The Six Fingers of Time” to ancient systems of time measurement, while reading “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” as a joke about historical changes that erase the memory needed to recognize them.
Jorge identifies the remembered time-manipulation story after an unsuccessful ChatGPT-assisted search and links the English text at Project Gutenberg.
A review of the 1971 Nebula anthology with a substantial section on “Sky.” Matzer follows its drug imagery into questions about divinity, space and time, praising the lively dialogue that makes its philosophical and theological speculation entertaining.
Impala challenges inherited critical rankings and includes “Slow Tuesday Night” among stories that made a powerful, unforgettable personal impression.
Impala recommends a newly available online text as a short, very funny favourite about the pace of contemporary life.
rockmysoul67 admires the language and playful vocabulary but remains unconvinced that the story offers much beyond its style.
Impala recalls the story’s award nomination and accepts that Lafferty sharply divides readers.
The response praises the story’s verbal invention, possible self-reference through Mouser, and intertwined desire for and contempt toward fast, superficial modern life.
Nessuno confirms the quotation’s source and argues that Lafferty is underrated because readers give novelists more attention than writers chiefly known for short stories.
Kusche describes the life-consuming machine in “Von Hand zu Hand” and reads the story as a defence of class society. He places Lafferty among the successors of Heinlein, van Vogt and Anderson in a strongly hostile review of the anthology.
Honer uses “Mit anderen Augen” in a methodological footnote about reconstructing another person’s lived experience. The apparatus that lets characters see through each other’s eyes exposes how different two apparently shared worlds can be.
In footnote 3 on page 23, Honer repeats her earlier use of “Mit anderen Augen” to explain the difficulty of understanding another person’s lived world. This is a later publication of the same methodological argument.
Jorge recommends the story in a time-travel discussion and explains its repeated experiment: successful changes erase the experimenters’ knowledge of the earlier reality.
In a hostile review of Peter Schwindt’s time-travel novel, Barnewald uses “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” as his counterexample of properly worked-out temporal logic. He explains why the changed past would alter the protagonists’ memories, praising Lafferty’s recurring joke that each experiment appears to be the first.
Shock Wave Rider singles out Lafferty’s story among the strongest pieces in Die Fußangeln der Zeit and calls it a classic.
Section 5.2, beginning on page 100, discusses the “Aloysius effect” in Wolfgang Jeschke’s Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung. Greiseder attributes the principle to Lafferty: changing the past also changes the observers’ present, so they cannot register the alteration. She finds the reasoning coherent and compares its use by Jeschke and Hannelore Valencak. Lafferty’s story itself is not closely analysed.
Torsten quotes Jeschke’s The Last Day of Creation, whose characters discuss a named “Aloysius effect” and Lafferty’s model of undetectable changes to history. The quotation is correctly identified later in the thread.
Jorge corrects an attribution to Cordwainer Smith, identifies Lafferty’s story and explains its reality-changing expeditions. It is not the story the original questioner sought.
Theophagos names the German collection among books that caused laughter and singles out its title story as a favourite.
Jorge invokes Lafferty’s story as an earlier treatment of the time-travel mechanism admired in Alex Shvartsman’s story.
Pages 49–50 place “So frustrieren wir Karl den Großen” in the modern reception of the Roland legend. Brähler-Körner summarises the attempt to avert the ambush at Roncevaux, encourage cultural exchange and improve the arts, followed by the scientists’ inability to perceive a changed present.
Matzer interprets “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” through its central irony: altering history also replaces everyone’s memories, making successful interventions impossible to recognize.
Matzer reads “You Can’t Go Back” through the gulf between childhood’s magical perception and adult skepticism. He also discusses the double meaning of “moonshine” and argues that the German translation loses a joke without supplying an explanation.
Editors, translators, publishers, and contemporary notices describe how the books reached German readers. Publisher descriptions and translated endorsements are identified as such.
The organizer removes Lafferty from the immediate reading-circle ballot because no clear source of German texts online has been found, and asks about future interest.
micc recommends the collection to newcomers and prefers the rougher translation in Fischer Orbit’s 900 Großmütter to the later Heyne version. The comment also notes the old paperbacks’ fragile bindings.
Jürgens celebrates the Centipede Press collected stories and describes Lafferty as both entertaining and unsettling, resisting easy classification even within the New Wave. Examples include altered time, accelerated evolution, and domestic monstrosity. He praises the edition's selection and production, argues that earlier German translations suffered cuts and omissions, mentions an announced but unrealized translation of Lafferty in Orbit, and calls for a complete German story edition.
These sources establish German editions, title variants, translators, and contents. Individual records also appear in the concordance.
The German reference entry lists novels, collections and stories, with German translations, anthology appearances and variant titles. Edition records linked in the concordance supplement and occasionally correct its bibliography.
This index also points to discussions of several books that appear together under a single entry.
The Best of R. A. Lafferty: S021 · Das Beste von R. A. Lafferty.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers: S003 · Der Enkel der neunhundert Großmütter. Zum Tode von R.A. Lafferty; S004 · R.A. Lafferty (1914-2002); S022 · R. A. Lafferty; S023 · Der "Liest zur Zeit" Thread; S024 · R.A. Lafferty – So frustrieren wir Karl den Großen. Erzählungen; S070 · Welcher SF-Roman hat Euch wirklich zum Lachen gebracht?; S076 · Bücher und anderes zu verschenken.
Past Master: S004 · R.A. Lafferty (1914-2002); S014 · Utopien des 20. Jahrhunderts; S015 · utopische Stadt; S016 · Weltraum-SF; S017 · Astrobe, der goldene Planet (R. A. Lafferty).
Space Chantey: S003 · Der Enkel der neunhundert Großmütter. Zum Tode von R.A. Lafferty; S004 · R.A. Lafferty (1914-2002); S018 · Weltraum-SF; S019 · Brauche Buch-Tipp!; S020 · schräge sf.
Shorter references, catalogues, mirrors, and unavailable pages follow. A bibliographical record establishes the existence of an item; descriptions of unread material are confined to the details that could be verified.
L001 Terry Carr – Die Werwölfin (Terra Fantasy 69). Michael Drewniok · 6 October 2015. Another online appearance of Drewniok’s Die Werwölfin review, also published on Phantastik-Couch in September 2015. The Lafferty discussion is substantially identical. Duplicate critical text, separately dated publication. Phantastik-Couch version.
L002 Paul Voermans – Die letzte Vorstellung. Michael Matzer · 11 February 2021. The author introduction compares Voermans’s combination of surrealism, horror and humor to Lafferty and Douglas Adams. Passing comparison only.
L003 John Norman – Norman Invasions. 30 unveröffentlichte Erzählungen. Michael Matzer · 14 September 2025. A passing comparison says Lafferty also treated an alternative evolutionary history humorously, without naming the story. Passing comparison only.
L004 Gefährliche Visionen. Carcosa Verlag · January 2026. Carcosa presents its first complete German edition of Dangerous Visions and names Lafferty among the contributors. The publisher says all stories, introductions, and comments have been newly translated. The linked contents list Lafferty's story as “Land der großen Pferde,” beginning on page 641. This documents renewed German publication, while the promotional appraisal concerns the anthology as a whole. Publisher catalogue copy, not independent criticism. Its New York Times endorsement is translated foreign praise. The sample does not include Lafferty's section or establish his individual translator. Publisher sample with contents; Publisher blog, entry of 26 January 2026.
L005 Gefährliche Visionen. Horst Illmer; Comicdealer · 11 March 2026. Review of the complete German Dangerous Visions. It names Lafferty among the contributors but does not discuss his story separately. Anthology context only.
L006 Michael Iwoleit mit klarem Standpunkt / Die neue Annäherung von Science Fiction und Literatur. Michael K. Iwoleit · 22 September 2015. Iwoleit opens with Wolfgang Jeschke’s 1988 complaint that mainstream writers sometimes repeat ideas handled more inventively by Lafferty and other SF authors. The essay then considers changing relations between genre fiction and literary culture. Lafferty occurs in the opening quotation, not as an extended subject.
L007 Angekündigte Übersetzung von Lafferty in Orbit. Jürgens says a German translation of Lafferty in Orbit had been announced some years earlier but never appeared. The review does not identify the publisher, planned German title, or year; verify before connecting this with Shayol or Golkonda.
L008 Wissenschaftliche SF-Klassiker der letzten 10-15 Jahre?. Gast (micc) · 10 November 2002. The poster identifies as a Lafferty fan and uses that preference to explain an interest in less scientifically oriented fantastic literature.
L009 Buchempfehlung gesucht. Jorge · 6 September 2004. Jorge recommends Space Chantey in response to a request for science fiction combining military subjects and humour.
L010 Der "Liest zur Zeit" Thread. Shock Wave Rider · 13 May 2008. Shock Wave Rider warmly agrees with Bungle’s appraisal and declares a liking for Lafferty’s extravagant stories.
L011 Der fröhliche Buchzitate-Rätsel-Thread. Bully · 15 July 2009. Bully guesses Lafferty’s story from the quoted “Aloysius effect”; Torsten rejects the answer because the source is a novel.
L012 Der fröhliche Buchzitate-Rätsel-Thread. Torsten · 25 October 2009. Torsten identifies the quotation puzzle as Space Chantey after other readers recognize allusions to Homer and Odysseus.
L013 Der fröhliche Buchzitate-Rätsel-Thread. Jorge · 25 October 2009. Jorge confirms Torsten’s identification of Space Chantey. The post adds no assessment of the novel.
L014 Der fröhliche Buchzitate-Rätsel-Thread. Torsten · 28 April 2010. An index to earlier quotation puzzles lists Space Chantey and directs readers to pages 82–83 of the thread.
L015 Interessante Übersichts-Anthologie zur SF. breitsameter · 29 July 2010. breitsameter welcomes The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction as a useful historical survey; the reproduced contents include “Slow Tuesday Night”. http://www.upne.com/0-8195-6954-2.html; www.wesleyan.edu/wespress/sfanthologyguide.
L016 Lesezirkel: QUINTANA ROO von James Tiptree jr.. Torsten · 3 February 2011. Torsten identifies Uta McKechneay as the translator of “Es gibt kein Zurück” while discussing her work on Tiptree.
L017 Der fröhliche Buchzitate-Rätsel-Thread. Frank Böhmert · 10 May 2011. Böhmert guesses Lafferty, Sheckley or Heinlein from the style of an unidentified quotation. This is an unconfirmed attribution.
L018 Eure persönlichen SF Klassiker. Ming der Grausame · 20 November 2013. Ming der Grausame adds Space Chantey to a discussion of readers’ personal science-fiction classics, using its German title.
L019 Eure persönlichen SF Klassiker. Valerie J. Long · 20 November 2013. Valerie J. Long endorses Ming der Grausame’s choice of Space Chantey as a personal science-fiction classic.
L020 Kurzgeschichte von Asimov gesucht. Bully · 7 July 2014. Bully tentatively identifies a remembered story as “Schnoffel” and points to the German Nine Hundred Grandmothers collection.
L021 Hugo Award 2015. Doop · 5 May 2015. Doop reproduces the 2015 Locus shortlist, including The Man Who Made Models in the collection category. No separate assessment of Lafferty appears.
L022 unbekannte sf-geschichte. Jorge · 11 October 2015. Jorge tentatively proposes “Versuch dich zu erinnern” as the answer to a story-identification question and links its German anthology listing. German anthology contents at SF-Hefte.
L023 Buchsuche "Zeit steht still". Jorge · 23 October 2017. Jorge includes “Die sechs Finger der Zeit” among possible answers to a question about fiction in which time stands still.
L024 Ich bin sicher die Geschichte gibt es aber niemand ausser mit schein sie zu kennen. Jorge · 28 December 2018. Jorge proposes the story under three German titles as a possible identification. A later reply rejects Lafferty as the sought author.
L025 Ich bin sicher die Geschichte gibt es aber niemand ausser mit schein sie zu kennen. imarkane · 2 January 2019. imarkane rules out the earlier Lafferty suggestion after checking the books. The post records a rejected identification, not a review.
L026 schräge sf. Shock Wave Rider · 13 July 2020. Shock Wave Rider supplies further humorous recommendations and closes by declaring affection for Lafferty, without discussing an individual work.
L027 Wahrhaft originelle Geschichten. L.N. Muhr · 12 February 2021. A joking reply reframes originality as the disappearance of readers’ knowledge of a work’s borrowed sources.
L028 Die Phantastik - Lesechallenge 2024. Naut · 3 January 2024. A reading-challenge reference list names Lafferty’s birth and death years and proposes Space Chantey as a possible anniversary read. German Wikipedia list cited in the challenge; Licence of the cited reference list.
L029 Wie ich mich per ChatGPT in die Untiefen der Buchrecherche begab…. Jorge. · 21 December 2024. Jorge follows the identification with locations in German editions, including Fischer Orbit, Lichtenberg, Heyne and the German Nine Hundred Grandmothers. Fischer Orbit 38 contents at SF-Hefte; Lichtenberg anthology contents at SF-Hefte; Heyne anthology contents at SF-Hefte.
L030 Ken Liu (Hrsg.): Zerbrochene Sterne (Buch). Gunther Barnewald · 28 March 2020. Barnewald compares a Cixin Liu story with Henry Kuttner’s “Line to Tomorrow” and Lafferty’s “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne.” He praises the result while treating its central devices as familiar. One comparative paragraph in an anthology review.
L031 Erik Simon (Hrsg).: Zeitgestrüpp oder Die Räder von Himmel und Erde (Buch). Gunther Barnewald · 8 June 2025. Barnewald describes Karsten Kruschel’s contribution as a fine homage to “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne,” comparing the disastrous effects of its stubbornly stable time continuum with Lafferty’s story. Brief comparison in a review of an alternate-history anthology.
L032 Uwe Hermann: Die Tage nach dem Lärm (Buch). Gunther Barnewald · 19 September 2025. Barnewald closes this review of Uwe Hermann’s stories by comparing Hermann’s gifts with Lafferty’s. One comparative sentence; no discussion of individual Lafferty works.
L033 News in Kürze: "Gefährliche Visionen", Marah Woolf & mehr. ojm · 20 January 2026. Publication news for Carcosa’s German Dangerous Visions edition, naming Lafferty among its contributors. Publisher-derived announcement, without Lafferty criticism.
L034 Harlan Ellison (Hrsg.): Gefährliche Visionen (Buch). Carsten Kuhr · 9 February 2026. A review of the complete German Dangerous Visions edition. Its Lafferty reference is limited to one sentence identifying his distinctive treatment of the Sinti and Roma. Brief mention, not a separate assessment of Lafferty.
L035 Hugo- und Nebula-Preise. Science Fiction Times · 1973. The awards column lists “Continued on Next Rock” in the 1971 Hugo results and The Devil Is Dead in the Nebula results announced in 1972. These are contemporary notices, not reviews. Complete issue PDF.
L036 Nebula-Preise für 1971. LUNA / Science Fiction Times · 1973. An awards notice lists The Devil Is Dead among the novels placed behind Robert Silverberg’s A Time of Changes. It contains no assessment of Lafferty’s novel. Complete issue PDF.
L037 Science Fiction in USA. Franz Rottensteiner · 1973. Rottensteiner names Lafferty among the contributors to Wollheim’s 1972 annual. He finds the anthology largely routine and its writers recognizably themselves, without giving Lafferty’s story a separate judgment. Complete issue PDF.
L038 Bibliographie: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. Science Fiction Times · 1974. A contemporary publication list records 900 Großmütter as Fischer Orbit volumes 38 and 39, both dated 1974. Complete issue PDF.
L039 Die Zeitfalle. Uwe Anton · 1975. Anton condemns the cuts to the German edition of Terry Carr’s Universe 2. He names Lafferty among the six authors omitted. The complaint concerns editorial selection; the missing story receives no individual appraisal. Complete issue PDF.
L040 Science Fiction in USA: Ballantine Books. Franz Rottensteiner · 1976. Rottensteiner names Lafferty among the contributors to Robert Silverberg’s Alpha 1. He recommends the series as a reliable introduction to science fiction, without discussing Lafferty’s contribution separately. Complete issue PDF.
L041 Britain Was Fine in ’79. Ronald M. Hahn · 1980. Hahn lists Lafferty among the writers encountered at the 1979 Brighton Worldcon. No conversation with him is reported. The mention is on printed page 6. Complete issue PDF.
L042 Rückkehr zu Problemen der Menschlichkeit: Vietnam-Anzeigen. Silvia Pukallus / reproduced advertisement · 1980. An English-language declaration supporting US participation in the Vietnam War is reproduced within a German essay. Lafferty’s name appears among its signatories. The page is documentary evidence of the reproduced declaration, not a German essay by Lafferty. Complete issue PDF.
L043 Neues von Knaur. Science Fiction Times · 1982. A programme announcement for April–September 1982 names Lafferty among the contributors to Werner Fuchs’s Licht des Tages, Licht des Todes. No story is assessed. Complete issue PDF.
L044 Neue Science Fiction im Juli 1982. Science Fiction Times · July 1982. A brief notice lists Licht des Tages, Licht des Todes and its contributors, including Lafferty, and identifies humor as the anthology’s emphasis. Complete issue PDF.
L045 Die Fußangeln der Zeit. Walter Udo Everlien · August 1984. The review praises Armer and Jeschke’s time-travel anthology and names Lafferty among its major contributors. His story is not discussed separately. The mention is on printed page 22. Complete issue PDF.
L046 R. A. Lafferty. Impala · 10 January 2004. Impala asks whether other forum members know Lafferty or have an opinion after the opening collection review receives no replies. Direct forum page and post.
L047 Der schlechteste SF-Roman. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 9 February 2004. yiyippeeyippeeyay calls for discussion of Lafferty’s many short stories while considering how to give short fiction more attention on the forum. Direct forum page and post.
L048 Der schlechteste SF-Roman. Sullivan · 10 February 2004. Sullivan quotes an appeal to discuss Lafferty’s short fiction and extends the proposed author list; the novel/story comparison concerns Sheckley. Direct forum page and post.
L049 Noch einmal leben vor dem Sterben. Edgar Güttge · 17 February 2004. Güttge tentatively remembers Lafferty treating organized voluntary death with less seriousness than other examples discussed. No story title is supplied. Direct forum page and post.
L050 Nicht-SF-Romane. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 24 February 2004. In an appraisal of Life of Pi, yiyippeeyippeeyay suggests Lafferty would have enjoyed its surreal, improbable adventure. Direct forum page and post.
L051 Alfred Bester's Kurzgeschichten. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 30 March 2004. A discussion of Bester’s short fiction compares the construction of “The Men Who Murdered Mohammed” with Lafferty’s way of building stories. Direct forum page and post.
L052 SF Experten Quiz. ANUBIS · 30 August 2004. ANUBIS identifies the novel from an old Moewig copy and expresses affection for both Lafferty’s novels and stories. Direct forum page and post.
L053 SF Experten Quiz. Gast_Jorge_* · 31 August 2004. Jorge confirms ANUBIS’s answer to the Space Chantey quotation puzzle; the reply adds no independent appraisal. Direct forum page and post.
L054 SF Experten Quiz. Jürgen · 8 April 2005. Jürgen identifies the quotation as “Langsame Dienstag Nacht,” or “Slow Tuesday Night.” Direct forum page and post.
L055 Was muss sich ändern in der SF?. Armin · 12 April 2005. Armin reproduces award nominations including Fourth Mansions while contesting claims that earlier decades produced many more classics. Direct forum page and post.
L056 Was muss sich ändern in der SF?. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 12 April 2005. yiyippeeyippeeyay includes the collection among admired 1970 publications, leaving the question of its classic status to others. Direct forum page and post.
L057 KG-Lesezirkel im August. Morn · 27 July 2005. Morn votes for Sturgeon in the next reading circle but expresses interest in reading Lafferty in future. Direct forum page and post.
L058 Wolfgang Jeschke - Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung. Sullivan · 7 December 2005. Sullivan confirms that Lafferty was a real author and reports recently reading “Slow Tuesday Night” through the forum’s quotation quiz. Direct forum page and post.
L059 Wolfgang Jeschke - Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung. Henrik Fisch · 7 December 2005. During a reading of Jeschke’s The Last Day of Creation, Henrik Fisch asks whether its named science-fiction author Raphael Aloysius Lafferty actually existed. Direct forum page and post.
L060 alte Bücher die man mal lesen sollte. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 4 May 2006. yiyippeeyippeeyay recommends Lafferty’s short stories among older works deserving discussion and asks for fuller treatments on the forum. Direct forum page and post.
L061 SF Experten Quiz. Gast_Jorge_* · 25 June 2006. Jorge identifies a quotation as “Schweinebauch Liebling” and supplies the English title, without adding a critical assessment. Direct forum page and post.
L062 Wer (noch) hat Angst vor Gene Wolfe?. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 16 July 2006. While questioning Gene Wolfe’s accessibility, yiyippeeyippeeyay lists Lafferty among literary science-fiction authors considered good and worth reading. Direct forum page and post.
L063 »Die Bibliothek von Babel«. molosovsky · 2 June 2007. molosovsky imagines a new short-story-oriented Library of Babel and proposes Lafferty alongside Sheckley, Dick and Ballard. Direct forum page and post.
L064 Die wichtigsten SF-Kurzgeschichten aller Zeiten. yiyippeeyippeeyay · 16 August 2007. yiyippeeyippeeyay includes many of Lafferty’s stories among personal favourites in a discussion of the most important science-fiction short stories. Direct forum page and post.
L065 Zeitreisen. jwbruck · 2 November 2009. jwbruck recommends the story for a discussion of stopping or slowing time and locates it in Jeschke’s anthology of the same German title. Direct forum page and post.
L066 Die wichtigsten SF-Kurzgeschichten aller Zeiten. Frederic Brake · 11 July 2012. Frederic Brake includes the story in a list of important science-fiction shorts, while questioning whether objective selection criteria are possible. Direct forum page and post.
L067 Suche eine bestimmte Kurzgeschichte zum Thema "Die ultimative Waffe". My. · 25 August 2012. My. tentatively associates a remembered plot with Lafferty and explicitly acknowledges uncertainty about the proposed identification. Direct forum page and post.
L068 Suche eine bestimmte Kurzgeschichte zum Thema "Die ultimative Waffe". Klexy · 10 September 2012. Klexy plans to search Lafferty’s books after another participant’s tentative suggestion, without yet confirming the identification. Direct forum page and post.
L069 Welcher SF-Roman hat Euch wirklich zum Lachen gebracht?. Valerie J. Long · 28 October 2012. Valerie J. Long names Space Chantey in response to a request for science-fiction novels that genuinely made readers laugh. Direct forum page and post.
L070 Heyne, "Weisse Bibliothek der SF", 47 Bände abzugeben. Holger · 28 April 2013. A collection sale includes the German Nine Hundred Grandmothers as volume 89 of Heyne’s white science-fiction library. Direct forum page and post.
L071 Gehobene Science Fiction? Was sind die Kriterien dafür?. Ming der Grausame · 30 January 2014. Ming der Grausame includes Space Chantey in a proposed personal canon of fantastic literature during a debate about literary quality. Direct forum page and post.
L072 Eure Neuerwerbungen. Valerie J. Long · 29 July 2016. A passing shelving remark places Lafferty beside Le Guin while noting a missing Keith Laumer title in the collection. Direct forum page and post.
L073 [Ausschreibung] Rebellion in Sirus City. Schlomo · 1 October 2019. Schlomo responds to a reader acquiring older authors, including Lafferty, with advice about finding out-of-print science fiction secondhand. Direct forum page and post.
L074 [Ausschreibung] Rebellion in Sirus City. Gast_T. Lagemann_* · 1 October 2019. T. Lagemann reports buying older science fiction from a secondhand retailer; Lafferty is waiting to be read. Direct forum page and post.
L075 Ein Tribut an die Science Fiction-Story. Michael K. Iwoleit · 15 October 2002. Iwoleit includes Lafferty among the distinctive short-story writers whose neglect distorts German judgments of science fiction. The larger essay argues for the literary importance of the short form and introduces a proposed history of short science fiction. Lafferty appears briefly in a much broader critical argument. Authorised PDF version.
L076 »Bibliothek der SF-Literatur« im Heyne-Verlag. Florian Breitsameter · 14 December 2005. A series list identifying the German Lafferty collection as volume 89 of Heyne’s SF library. Bibliographic context only.
L077 Deutsche SF- und Fantasy-Reihen: Goldmann SF und Fantasy - Teil 2. Unsigned; Zauberspiegel · 19 August 2020. The Pilger durch Raum und Zeit catalogue entry lists “Sechs Meilen von Lop entfernt” as “Six Leagues from Lop.” Catalogue only.
L078 Die Seewölfe - Die Autoren: William Garnett alias Hans Maeter. Uwe Schnabel; Zauberspiegel. A biographical sketch and extensive bibliography of translator Hans Maeter records his German Space Chantey, Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum, published by Moewig in 1980. A translation credit, with no analysis of Lafferty’s novel.
L079 Schwert & Magie – Kurt Luif’s Geschichte eines Sub-Genres (Teil 10). Kurt Luif; Zauberspiegel. The supplementary bibliography names Lafferty among writers covered by Brian Aldiss’s science-fiction history. The essay discusses Weird Tales.
L080 Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum. 1980 edition; undated bookseller listing. The bookseller’s listing credits Hans Joachim Alpers with the afterword to the 1980 German edition. The afterword itself was not available to read.
L081 R. A. Lafferty: German publication records. Internet Speculative Fiction Database contributors. The author bibliography links the German translations to their English originals. Seventy-nine German title records were examined for this guide, including distinct translations with identical headings. Publication records also identify Alpers’s afterword and several early German reviews. English-language bibliographical database used to establish German publications. Edition links in the concordance identify the evidence for each mapping. Primary ISFDB author address; Past Master: original title record; Space Chantey: original title record and review index; Nine Hundred Grandmothers: original collection record and review index.
L082 Die Fußangeln der Zeit. Phantastik-Couch. An anthology contents record listing the German appearance of “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne”. Contents and publication details; no editorial review.
L083 Die sechs Finger der Zeit. Phantastik-Couch. An anthology contents record listing the German appearance of “The Six Fingers of Time” and “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne”. Contents and publication details; no editorial review.
L084 Die sechziger Jahre 2. Phantastik-Couch. An anthology contents record listing the German appearance of “Slow Tuesday Night”. Contents and publication details; no editorial review.
L085 Mythen der nahen Zukunft. Phantastik-Couch. An anthology contents record listing the German appearance of “Square and Above Board”. Contents and publication details; no editorial review.
L086 Ullstein Science Fiction Stories 27. Phantastik-Couch. An anthology contents record listing the German appearance of “Nine Hundred Grandmothers”. Contents and publication details; no editorial review.
L087 Ullstein Science Fiction Stories 47. Phantastik-Couch. An anthology contents record listing the German appearance of “Continued on Next Rock”. Contents and publication details; no editorial review.
L088 „Eine Vision anderer Zeiten und Welten“. Der Osten Europas und die „Phantastische Bibliothek“. Matthias Schwartz · 27 March 2019. This chapter traces Suhrkamp’s Phantastische Bibliothek. An indexed excerpt names Lafferty among contributors to an anthology. The full chapter could not be read. In Kulturtransfer und Verlagsarbeit. Suhrkamp und Osteuropa, pp. 85–112. Author’s institution confirms the bibliographic record. DOI; Author’s institutional bibliography in 2019 annual report.
L089 Lafferty, Astrobe, der goldene Planet. 1981. The indexed bibliography lists a one-page review of Astrobe, der goldene Planet dated 1981. The full record and review could not be examined.
L090 Lexikon der Science Fiction Literatur: Lafferty. Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, Ronald M. Hahn, and Wolfgang Jeschke · 1991. The German bibliography cites the Lafferty entry on pages 637–38 of the 1991 Heyne edition, ISBN 3-453-02453-2. The entry itself has not been read. Print criticism located through catalogue evidence. No account of its argument is offered without the text.
L091 III. Zur publizistischen Diskussion der SF in Deutschland. Hans-Edwin Friedrich’s Science Fiction in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. Ein Referat zur Forschung bis 1993 (1995; electronic edition2012) includes an indexed excerpt saying that Gert Heidenreich borrowed a Lafferty story title for a favourable article about serious SF. A footnote identifies Heidenreich 1972/11, p.29. The title and venue of Heidenreich’s original article remain unverified. Chapter PDF.
L092 Nachwort (Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum). Hans Joachim Alpers · November 1980. The catalogue records Alpers’s afterword on page 159 of the first German Space Chantey, published by Moewig in November 1980. The contents independently confirm the attribution reported by booksellers. Print criticism located through catalogue evidence. No account of its argument is offered without the text. 1980 edition and contents.
L093 Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum. Uwe Anton · January 1981. German review recorded in SF Perry Rhodan Magazin, issue 1/81. The catalogue establishes reviewer, work, language, and date; the review itself was not available. Print criticism located through catalogue evidence. No account of its argument is offered without the text. SF Perry Rhodan Magazin, 1/81.
L094 Nine Hundred Grandmothers (Reclams Science Fiction Führer). Uncredited; volume by Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, and Ronald M. Hahn · 1982. ISFDB records a separate German review of the collection in Reclams Science Fiction Führer. This is a print reference to consult, rather than an online review. Print criticism located through catalogue evidence. No account of its argument is offered without the text. Reclams Science Fiction Führer.
L095 Space Chantey (Reclams Science Fiction Führer). Uncredited; volume by Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, and Ronald M. Hahn · 1982. ISFDB records a German review of Space Chantey in Reclams Science Fiction Führer. The individual entry is unsigned in the catalogue. Print criticism located through catalogue evidence. No account of its argument is offered without the text. Reclams Science Fiction Führer.
L096 V#13 Geld. literatur:vorarlberg · Spring 2004. The publisher lists Lafferty among contributors to this money-themed spring 2004 issue, edited by Roger Vorderegger and Wolfgang Mörth. A digitized table of contents also names him. His contribution remains unidentified. The contribution’s title, original English source, translator and language could not be checked. Digitized contents, University of Liechtenstein.
L097 miromente 12. miromente editorial staff · June 2008. The publisher's contents page for the June 2008 issue lists a Lafferty contribution titled “Die Königin der Ausflugsstädte.” It establishes a German-language appearance in the Austrian literary journal. The online sample presents a different contributor, so Lafferty's text, translator, and original English title could not be checked here. Publication evidence, not criticism. The original English title remains unverified; no back-translation is supplied. Journal's editorial and circulation information.
The 74 German title forms below include 73 verified mappings to English originals and one published heading whose original remains unidentified. Multiple German titles and translations of the same work are retained. The notes identify editions and translators; the printed translations have not been collated.
| German title | English original | Translation or edition |
|---|---|---|
| Astrobe, der goldene Planet | Past Master | 1981-07: Translated by Joachim Pente. Droemer Knaur ( Knaur Science Fiction & Fantasy #5737); ISBN 3-426-05737-9. Record · Astrobe, der goldene Planet (1981-07) · Additional record 1 |
| Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum | Space Chantey | 1980-11: Translated by Hans Maeter. Moewig ( Moewig Science Fiction #3504); ISBN 3-8118-3504-1. Record · Die Odyssee des Captain Roadstrum (1980-11) · Additional record 1 |
| German title | English original | Translation or edition |
|---|---|---|
| 900 Grossmütter Band 1 | Nine Hundred Grandmothers | June 1974; Fischer Orbit 38; Karl H. Kosmehl; first of two volumes dividing Nine Hundred Grandmothers. ISBN 3-436-01920-8. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06) |
| 900 Grossmütter Band 2 | Nine Hundred Grandmothers | July 1974; Fischer Orbit 39; Karl H. Kosmehl; second of two volumes dividing Nine Hundred Grandmothers. ISBN 3-436-01921-6. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07) |
| So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen | Nine Hundred Grandmothers | 1993; Heyne Bibliothek der Science Fiction Literatur 89; all 21 stories of Nine Hundred Grandmothers. Nineteen translations by Karl H. Kosmehl; “The Six Fingers of Time” and “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” use Gisela Stege’s versions. Several German headings differ from those in the 1974 two-volume edition. ISBN 3-453-06243-4. Record · So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| German title | English original | Translation or edition |
|---|---|---|
| “Adam hatte drei Brüder” | “Adam Had Three Brothers” | 1980-01-22: Translated by Lore Straßl . Record · Die Werwölfin (1980-01-22) · Additional record 1 |
| “Alle Menschen” | “All the People” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Bei den haarigen Erdenmenschen” | “Among the Hairy Earthmen” | 1984: Translated by Heinz Nagel ( Heinz Zwack ). Record · Titan 22 (1984) |
| “Mitleid? Mit Menschen?” | “Among the Hairy Earthmen” | 1971: Translated by Hans Maeter. Record · Der Tag Million (1971); Der Tag Million (1971); Der Tag Million (1974-03) · Additional record 1 |
| “Eine Sekunde der Ewigkeit” | “Been a Long, Long Time” | 1982-10: Translated by Heinz Zwack (as Heinz Nagel). Listed in Titan 19 (1982), then Retter der Ewigkeit (2001). Record · Titan 18 (1982-10); Retter der Ewigkeit: Geschichten zwischen Diesseits und Jenseits. (2001-12) · Additional record 1 |
| “Helle Flugwege” | “Bright Flightways” | 1981: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Die verdorbene Frau (1981) · Additional record 1 |
| “An der Küste” | “By the Seashore” | 1987: Translated by Lore Straßl . Record · Top Fantasy (1987) · Additional record 1 |
| “Strandgut” | “By the Seashore” | 1979-03: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 75 (1979-03) · Additional record 1 |
| “Die Zweifachen” | “Camels and Dromedaries, Clem” | 1968-06: Translated by Wulf H. Bergner . Record · Mord in der Raumstation (1968-06); Science Fiction Jubiläums Band: 25 Jahre Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy, 1960-1985 (1985-01) · Additional record 1 |
| “Konfiguration an der Nordküste” | “Configuration of the North Shore” | 1973-01: Translator not identified in the title record. Record · Damon Knight's Collection 9 (1973-01) · Additional record 1 |
| “Fortsetzung auf dem nächsten Felsen” | “Continued on Next Rock” | 1988: Translated by Malte Heim . Record · Top Science Fiction: Zweiter Teil (1988) · Additional record 1 |
| “Fortsetzung auf dem nächsten Stein” | “Continued on Next Rock” | 1973-03: Translated by Birgit Reß-Bohusch . 1982-02: Translated by Rosemarie Hundertmarck . Record · Damon Knight's Collection 10 (1973-03); Der Bonsai-Mensch und andere »Nebula«-Preis-Stories 3 (1982-02) · Additional record 1; Additional record 2 |
| “Stein auf Stein” | “Continued on Next Rock” | 1975-04: Translated by Yannis Kumbulis. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 47 (1975-04) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das absolut vollkommene Juwel” | “Entire and Perfect Chrysolite” | 1973-01: Translator not identified in the title record. Record · Damon Knight's Collection 9 (1973-01) · Additional record 1 |
| “Mutter der Eingebung” | “Eurema's Dam” | 1982-07: Translated by Ronald M. Hahn . Record · Licht des Tages, Licht des Todes (1982-07) · Additional record 1 |
| “Frosch auf dem Berg” | “Frog on the Mountain” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Ginny” | “Ginny Wrapped in the Sun” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06) · Additional record 1 |
| “Ginny in Sonne gewickelt” | “Ginny Wrapped in the Sun” | 1993: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Der Große Tom Fool oder Das Geheimnis der Schatzkisten im Zollhaus von Calai” | “Great Tom Fool or The Conundrum of the Calais Customhouse Coffers” | 1986: Translated by Jürgen Langowski. Record · Spekulationen (1986) · Additional record 1 |
| “Die quietschenden Türangeln der Welt” | “Groaning Hinges of the World” | 1981-02: Translated by an uncredited hand. Record · Die letzten Blumen (1981-02) · Additional record 1 |
| “Besuch” | “Guesting Time” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07) · Additional record 1 |
| “Besuchszeit” | “Guesting Time” | 1993: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Wir kommen wieder” | “Guesting Time” | 1983: Translated by Hans Deter. Record · Aliens und andere Fremde (1983) |
| “Schweinebauch Liebling” | “Hog-Belly Honey” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “In unserer Straße” | “In Our Block” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Wir machen alles” | “In Our Block” | 1976-06: Translated by Dolf Strasser. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 60 (1976-06) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das Land der großen Pferde” | “Land of the Great Horses” | 1993: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Heimkehr der Heimatlosen” | “Land of the Great Horses” | 1970: Translated by Wulf Bergner . Record · 15 Science Fiction-Stories II (1970) · Additional record 1 |
| “Land der großen Pferde” | “Land of the Great Horses” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. 2026-01-27: Translated by Hannes Riffel . The 2026 Gefährliche Visionen version is a new translation. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); Gefährliche Visionen (2026-01-27) · Additional record 1; Additional record 2 |
| “Der Name der Schlange” | “Name of the Snake” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das enge Tal” | “Narrow Valley” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); Traumreich der Magie: Höhepunkte der modernen Fantasy (1985); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das schmale Tal” | “Narrow Valley” | 1980-06-10: Translated by Lore Straßl . Record · Jenseits aller Träume (1980-06-10) · Additional record 1 |
| “Am Anfang war die Grossmutter” | “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” | 1973-08: Translated by Elisabeth Böhm. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 27 (1973-08) · Additional record 1 |
| “Neunhundert Großmütter” | “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) |
| “Der vergessene Fuß” | “Old Foot Forgot” | 1973-06: Translator not identified in the title record. Record · Damon Knight's Collection 11 (1973-06) · Additional record 1 |
| “Immer nur ein Tag” | “One at a Time” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07) · Additional record 1 |
| “Immer nur einer” | “One at a Time” | 1993: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Jeden Tag einzeln” | “One at a Time” | 1972-06: Translator not identified in the title record. Record · Damon Knight's Collection 5 (1972-06) · Additional record 1 |
| “Rechtswesen, Sitten und Gebräuche der Camiroi” | “Polity and Custom of the Camiroi” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Regierungsform und Brauchtum der Camiroi” | “Polity and Custom of the Camiroi” | 1971: Translated by Rudolf Hermstein. Record · Die Ratte im Labyrinth (1971) · Additional record 1 |
| “Sitten und Gebräuche der Camiroi” | “Polity and Custom of the Camiroi” | 1989-09: Translated by Marion Albrecht. Record · Wahltag 2090 (1989-09) · Additional record 1 |
| “Die Elementarerziehung der Camiroi” | “Primary Education of the Camiroi” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das entflohene Forschungsschiff” | “Quiz Ship Loose” | 1981: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Nick Adams letzter Aufstieg (1981) · Additional record 1 |
| “Genozid” | “Ride a Tin Can” | 1973-06: Translated by Elisabeth Böhm. Record · Science-Fiction Stories 25 (1973-06) · Additional record 1 |
| “Sieben Tage Terror” | “Seven-Day Terror” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Sechs Meilen von Lop entfernt” | “Six Leagues from Lop” | 1982-11: Translated by Tony Westermayr. The German appearance in Pilger durch Raum und Zeit is dated 1982; the catalogue dates the first English publication to 1988. These are publication dates, not composition dates. Record · Pilger durch Raum und Zeit (1982-11) · Additional record 1 |
| “Himmel” | “Sky” | 1981: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Gute Nachrichten aus dem Vatikan und andere »Nebula«-Preis-Stories 1 (1981) · Additional record 1 |
| “Langsame Dienstag-Nacht” | “Slow Tuesday Night” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); Die Sechziger Jahre II (1984); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Langsame Dienstagnacht” | “Slow Tuesday Night” | 1990-04: Translated by Michael K. Iwoleit. Record · Von Clement bis Dick (1990-04) |
| “Schnoffel” | “Snuffles” | 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. 1985-03: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993); Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1985-03) · Additional record 1; Additional record 2 |
| “Ein zweites Sodom und Gomorrah” | “Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas” | 1982-02: Translated by Günter Zettl. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 92 (1982-02) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das Schachbrett” | “Square and Above Board” | 1984-03: Translated by Anita Wied. Record · Mythen der nahen Zukunft (1984-03) · Additional record 1 |
| “Am Vorabend des St. Poleander-Tages” | “St. Poleander's Eve” | 1981: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Am Vorabend des St. Poleander-Tages (1981) · Additional record 1 |
| “Die Hand mit den Hundert Fingern” | “The Hand with One Hundred Fingers” | 1979-01: Translator not identified in the title record. Record · Science Fiction Story Reader 11 (1979-01) · Additional record 1 |
| “Das Loch an der Ecke” | “The Hole on the Corner” | 1972-03: Translated by Johannes Piron. 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · Damon Knight's Collection 3 (1972-03); Damon Knight's Collection 3 (1973-03); 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1; Additional record 2 |
| “Der Mann, den es nie gab” | “The Man Who Never Was” | 1974-02: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 33 (1974-02) · Additional record 1 |
| “Der Mann, der durch Ritzen ging” | “The Man Who Walked Through Cracks” | 1981: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Die verdorbene Frau (1981) · Additional record 1 |
| “Der Mann, der Haycock hieß” | “The Man with the Speckled Eyes” | 1965-06: Translated by Clark Darlton , under his legal name Walter Ernsting. Record · Die letzte Stadt der Erde (1965-06) · Additional record 1 |
| “Die sechs Finger der Zeit” | “The Six Fingers of Time” | 1971: Translated by Gisela Stege. 1974-06: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · Die sechs Finger der Zeit (1971); Die sechs Finger der Zeit (1971); Die sechs Finger der Zeit (1975-05); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993); 900 Grossmütter Band 1 (1974-06) · Additional record 1; Additional record 2 |
| “Das magere Volk in der Leptophlebo Street” | “The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street” | 1997: Translated by Kurt Bracharz. Record · Die säumige Zeitmaschine (1997) · Additional record 1 |
| “Von Hand zu Hand” | “This Grand Carcass” | 1975-09: Translated by Dolf Strasser. The English story also appears as “This Grand Carcass Yet.” Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 52 (1975-09) · Additional record 1 |
| “Mit anderen Augen” | “Through Other Eyes” | 1971: Translated by Gisela Stege. 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · Der metallene Traum (1971); Der metallene Traum (undated edition); 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1; Additional record 2 |
| “Karl der Große, frustriert” | “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07) · Additional record 1 |
| “So frustrieren wir Karl den Großen” | “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” | 1971: Translated by Gisela Stege. Record · Die sechs Finger der Zeit (1971); Die sechs Finger der Zeit (1971); Die sechs Finger der Zeit (1975-05); Die Fussangeln der Zeit (1984-03); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993); Die Gehäuse der Zeit (1994) · Additional record 1 |
| “Wir drehen am Rad der Geschichte” | “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” | 1974-08: Translated by Leni Sobez. Record · Science-Fiction-Stories 39 (1974-08) · Additional record 1 |
| “Versuch dich zu erinnern” | “Try to Remember” | 1982-03: Translated by Wolfgang Crass. Record · Versuch dich zu erinnern (1982-03) · Additional record 1 |
| “Wie heißt diese Stadt?” | “What's the Name of That Town?” | 1974-07: Translated by Karl H. Kosmehl. Record · 900 Grossmütter Band 2 (1974-07); So frustrieren wir Karl den Grossen (1993) · Additional record 1 |
| “Es gibt kein Zurück” | “You Can't Go Back” | 1982-09: Translated by Uta McKechneay. Record · Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazin 15. Folge (1982-09); Die schönsten Science Fiction Stories des Jahres: Band 2 (1984-02) · Additional record 1 |
| “Die Königin der Ausflugsstädte” | English title not established | Listed under Raphael Aloysius Lafferty in the Austrian journal’s contents. Original English title and translator remain unverified; the story was not available in the online sample. Record |
The search covered German spellings of Lafferty’s name and titles, publisher and magazine archives, specialist science fiction sites, blogs, reader platforms, forums, scholarly studies, and citations within the sources found. The geographical scope follows the language. Automatically translated English pages and unrelated people with the same surname were excluded.
Annotations summarize the sources in English. Original criticism, translated essays, publisher copy, reader responses, and bibliographical records are distinguished. Original German headings are retained; English work titles identify the originals rather than translating those headings literally. Mirrors and later republications are linked without counting their arguments as independent criticism.
This guide cannot establish that every German-language post survives or has been indexed. Unavailable texts, unexamined recordings, and limitations in grouped reader reviews are identified.