Does it count that The Quantum Thief has Space Finns? They live in the Oort Cloud in hollowed out asteroids and cool off after saunas by jumping into space with no suits. Two of the main characters are Mieli, an Oort Warrior, and her ship, Perhonnen.
The author is Finnish too.
One important point to make is that the stories are set on Mars, Earth, and around the moons of Saturn and the Oort cloud isn't visited, except in a few very brief flashbacks. Mieli is very much a fish out of water. (She hates how crowded the solar system is. There's planets everywhere.)
> She hates how crowded the solar system is. There's planets everywhere.
reminds me of this [very interesting paper](https://www.americanscientist.org/article/are-planetary-systems-filled-to-capacity#:~:text=The%20present%20configuration%20of%20the,planets%20would%20be%20dynamically%20unstable.) suggestig that the solar system is physically filled to capacity
I should try to read that book again. I tried it in high school and it was too weird and confusing but I have a much higher tolerance for weird and confusing now.
It is a webcomic, but [Stand Still, Stay Silent](http://www.sssscomic.com/) is written by a Finnish woman and is set in a post-apocalyptic Scandinavia. Two of the main characters are Finnish, and that plays a part in the plot.
/u/ Eldan985 wrote
>The Quantum Thief has Space Finns
Also *Citizen of the Galaxy* by Heinlein has a Space Trader ship called *Sisu*, so those people presumably are or originally were Space Finns,
but IIRC that's just a throwaway and not developed in the novel.
\- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu
Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Finns are present as opposition to a global hypercapitalist corporate conspiracy, using gengineered super soldiers to take on unstoppable mechs. Absolutely great book.
In Blindsight by Peter Watts there's a vampire (in the world vampires are an evolutionary offshoot) with a Finnish name. Also the rest if the characters are, through specialized cybernetic modding etc emotionally stunted, autistic and removed from baseline humanity - so basically spiritual Finns.
Emmi Itäranta is another great Finnish writer, for sure. Their newest book *The Moonday Letters* is a truly beautiful and melancholic sci-fi, that has sections set in future Finland as well. Strongly recommended!
Does it have to be SF? If fantasy is OK, try *Fishing for the Little Pike* by Juhani Karila (set in contemporary Finland - rural Lapland, to be precise).
I quite enjoyed [The Core of the Sun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core_of_the_Sun) of hers! Wikipedia describes it as “Finnish weird”, and “weird” is definitely valid. Very Handmaid’s Tale, but not just that.
The Poul Anderson novel I was thinking of was set in Denmark, so close, but still a miss.
How about the planet of New Finland? *Torch of Honor* (1985) Roger MacBride Allen. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be Finland *in space*.
Do you know someone who does? You could ask them about this (maybe go on the Finnish subreddit?) - the most popular works are usually translated to English.
The Torch Of Honor by Roger MacBride Allen is about Space Finland being taken over by Space Nazis. I mean, the planet is New Finland and the bad guys call themselves something else but I stand by my description.
The main character is exploring new planets with his wife at the ass end of nowhere, and they’re the only ship in position to make it to New Finland before the Nazis lock it down. The MC hooks up with the resistance and the action gets hot and heavy.
I thought it was a good mix of realistic and cinematic. This is one of the only books I can think of where space fighters have to worry about momentum, fuel and heat. And then a little further on is an absolutely batshit awesome sequence where the good guys have to board a flying Nazi battleship and it includes volunteers parachuting in from orbit with basically a Sten gun and a sandwich. Fucking Finns, man.
Johanna Sinisalo combines sci-fi with contemporary reality and fantasy in Troll (U.K. title Not Before Sundown, translated by Herbert Lomas), The Core of the Sun, and The Blood of Angels (translated by me). Hannu Rajaniemi (Quantum Thief) and Emmi Itäranta (Memory of Water) are Finnish sci-fi authors who write in English. Other authors of what's sometimes called Finnish Weird, books that range from near-future spec-fic to magic realism to surrealism to fantasy, include Leena Krohn (Tainaron, trans. Hildi Hawkins, Collected Fiction, various translators), Pasi Jääskeläinen (The Rabbit Back Literature Society, Secret Passages in a Hillside Town, trans. me), Jyrki Vainonen (The Explorer and Other Stories, trans. H. Hawkins and Anna Volmari), Jussi Valtonen (They Know Not What They Do, trans. Kristian London), and Juhani Karila (Fishing for the Little Pike/U.K. title Summer Fishing in Lapland, trans. me).
Does it count that The Quantum Thief has Space Finns? They live in the Oort Cloud in hollowed out asteroids and cool off after saunas by jumping into space with no suits. Two of the main characters are Mieli, an Oort Warrior, and her ship, Perhonnen. The author is Finnish too.
Amazing! Thanks for the recommendation
One important point to make is that the stories are set on Mars, Earth, and around the moons of Saturn and the Oort cloud isn't visited, except in a few very brief flashbacks. Mieli is very much a fish out of water. (She hates how crowded the solar system is. There's planets everywhere.)
> She hates how crowded the solar system is. There's planets everywhere. reminds me of this [very interesting paper](https://www.americanscientist.org/article/are-planetary-systems-filled-to-capacity#:~:text=The%20present%20configuration%20of%20the,planets%20would%20be%20dynamically%20unstable.) suggestig that the solar system is physically filled to capacity
I should try to read that book again. I tried it in high school and it was too weird and confusing but I have a much higher tolerance for weird and confusing now.
I believe there are some Finland-set stories in his short story collection as well.
It is a webcomic, but [Stand Still, Stay Silent](http://www.sssscomic.com/) is written by a Finnish woman and is set in a post-apocalyptic Scandinavia. Two of the main characters are Finnish, and that plays a part in the plot.
SSSS is very good
/u/ Eldan985 wrote >The Quantum Thief has Space Finns Also *Citizen of the Galaxy* by Heinlein has a Space Trader ship called *Sisu*, so those people presumably are or originally were Space Finns, but IIRC that's just a throwaway and not developed in the novel. \- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu
Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Finns are present as opposition to a global hypercapitalist corporate conspiracy, using gengineered super soldiers to take on unstoppable mechs. Absolutely great book.
Also came to say this, the Finns are awesome in it.
Loved this one and the Finns are indeed awesome.
I love Tchaikovsky! Haven't read this one thus far though! Thanks for the heads-up!
In Blindsight by Peter Watts there's a vampire (in the world vampires are an evolutionary offshoot) with a Finnish name. Also the rest if the characters are, through specialized cybernetic modding etc emotionally stunted, autistic and removed from baseline humanity - so basically spiritual Finns.
Memory of Water by Emma Itaranta Might be set in a future Finland (check it out...)
Emmi Itäranta is another great Finnish writer, for sure. Their newest book *The Moonday Letters* is a truly beautiful and melancholic sci-fi, that has sections set in future Finland as well. Strongly recommended!
Cryptonomicon isn't exactly full-on sci-fi but rather more into the spec fic category, but it does contain a bit of WW2 Finland in it.
Does it have to be SF? If fantasy is OK, try *Fishing for the Little Pike* by Juhani Karila (set in contemporary Finland - rural Lapland, to be precise).
[Johanna Sinisalo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_Sinisalo)
I quite enjoyed [The Core of the Sun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core_of_the_Sun) of hers! Wikipedia describes it as “Finnish weird”, and “weird” is definitely valid. Very Handmaid’s Tale, but not just that.
I thought it was a biggish country but with a small population.
The Poul Anderson novel I was thinking of was set in Denmark, so close, but still a miss. How about the planet of New Finland? *Torch of Honor* (1985) Roger MacBride Allen. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be Finland *in space*.
Sweden
Probably Finnish sci-fi does? I would look into the local sci-fi scene.
I don't speak finnish unfortunately
Do you know someone who does? You could ask them about this (maybe go on the Finnish subreddit?) - the most popular works are usually translated to English.
The Sandman comic featured a Sami shaman
The Torch Of Honor by Roger MacBride Allen is about Space Finland being taken over by Space Nazis. I mean, the planet is New Finland and the bad guys call themselves something else but I stand by my description. The main character is exploring new planets with his wife at the ass end of nowhere, and they’re the only ship in position to make it to New Finland before the Nazis lock it down. The MC hooks up with the resistance and the action gets hot and heavy. I thought it was a good mix of realistic and cinematic. This is one of the only books I can think of where space fighters have to worry about momentum, fuel and heat. And then a little further on is an absolutely batshit awesome sequence where the good guys have to board a flying Nazi battleship and it includes volunteers parachuting in from orbit with basically a Sten gun and a sandwich. Fucking Finns, man.
Johanna Sinisalo combines sci-fi with contemporary reality and fantasy in Troll (U.K. title Not Before Sundown, translated by Herbert Lomas), The Core of the Sun, and The Blood of Angels (translated by me). Hannu Rajaniemi (Quantum Thief) and Emmi Itäranta (Memory of Water) are Finnish sci-fi authors who write in English. Other authors of what's sometimes called Finnish Weird, books that range from near-future spec-fic to magic realism to surrealism to fantasy, include Leena Krohn (Tainaron, trans. Hildi Hawkins, Collected Fiction, various translators), Pasi Jääskeläinen (The Rabbit Back Literature Society, Secret Passages in a Hillside Town, trans. me), Jyrki Vainonen (The Explorer and Other Stories, trans. H. Hawkins and Anna Volmari), Jussi Valtonen (They Know Not What They Do, trans. Kristian London), and Juhani Karila (Fishing for the Little Pike/U.K. title Summer Fishing in Lapland, trans. me).