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I noticed that there are several Esperanto references in the British sci-fi series Red Dwarf: by the lifts the level is written as Nivelo, and one of the main characters keeps trying (with little success it seems) to teach himself Esperanto.

I'm also aware of Incubus (1966), which I believe is not a SciFi film, but uses Esperanto to create an atmosphere of strangeness.

Are there any other examples where Esperanto is used, presumably under the assumption that in the distant future Zamenhof's aim of a single language to further peaceful co-existence has been achieved?

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  • Not confident enough to write an answer, but I'm told Harry Harrison (himself an Esperantist) used Esperanto in the Stainless Steel Rat books (and others?). I've even got some sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me to read them.
    – Shayne Power
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 10:02
  • Incubus is a science fiction film with a nod to Ingmar Bergman. You can watch it on You Tube. I like the film, but it is strange.
    – Karlomanio
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 13:58
  • There might be something in the works of Jack Vance along that line. At least, his works have been of enough interest to one Esperantist to undertake (with permission) a massive translation project of making them available also in Esperanto. You can find a convenient link to it on my webpage of Esperanto links: public-domain-materials.com/folder-esperanto.html
    – Mike Jones
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 22:16
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    Are you only interested in "Esperanto-as-an-international-language" or are you interested in scifi where Esperanto has other uses?
    – harlandski
    Commented May 26, 2017 at 10:07
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    Ah Ok. You may already know that in the sci-fi/fantasy comic Saga, (badly-translated) Esperanto is used to represent the Blue language used by the magic-using inhabitants of the moon Wreath. However the other language in the stories (represented by English and just called Language) seems to be more universally used and understood, so it's kind of the inverse of what you're asking.
    – harlandski
    Commented May 27, 2017 at 10:46

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Stainless Steel Rat has Esperanto in it. (I've got an Esperanto translation of it as well.)

What springs to mind from your description is the Riverworld series, in which people were thrown together in mixed-language groups and Esperanto spread naturally, taught by the random Esperantists that were tossed into the mix.

There are several books in the series. It's a great read. It's also been made into a miniseries which is slightly less compelling and 100% Esperanto free as I recall - but still enjoyable.

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Wikipedia has a list of movies with Esperanto in them, albeit containing any genres: https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto-filmo

One of the more known of those movies is Gattaca - some PAs are in Esperanto.

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Saluton ! My name is Florian, I'm French and I've recently published a post-apocalyptic novel called "Les Lames Sauvages" ("Wild Swords") in which the main character is an esperanto student. It contains many dialogs in esperanto, subtitled via footnotes. The language serves as a tool to unite the survivors coming from different countries. If someone is interested in having a look, the book is easily findable on Amazon.

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The dilogy Strach na planetě Kvara and Cizinci na planetě Kvara by Ludmila Freiová describes a planet (aptly named Kvara, being the fourth planet in the star system), settled centuries ago by idealistic Earth colonists. There are several regions, settled by different groups, each speaking its own language (English, French, Russian etc.) and Esperanto serves as intended, a common second language for everyone (as a result, almost nobody learns other foreign languages - this exposed infiltrated alien explorers with their foreign accents). It's not utopia, though - quite a contrary.

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The "Magic 2.0" series of books by Scott Meyer ("Off to Be the Wizard", "Spell or High Water", and "An Unwelcome Quest") uses Esperanto for spell incantations. Though it has all of the trappings of fantasy, technically it's sci-fi, since the main characters have discovered that they're all programs in an elaborate computer system, and write computer scripts to manipulate their reality. The scripts are invoked using Esperanto, which was chosen for its obscurity.

Blade Trinity is set in a city where Esperanto is in active use. Signage is in both English and Esperanto, and there's some Esperanto dialogue.

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  • Thanks -- of course! I read the Magic 2.0 books, but hadn't thought of that at all.
    – Oliver Mason
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 9:12

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