When I started science fiction writing in the early 1980ies, Rainer Zubeil (1956-2004), better known under his pen name Thomas Ziegler, was the young star of German science fiction who set the tone for a new style that focused on realistic near future settings, local color and distinctly left-wing political engagement. I would never have thought at that time that I would, thanks to Rainer’s literary executor Ronald M. Hahn, get a chance one day to compile and carefully re-edit a selection of his best tales for the Cutting Edge book series. It was a substantial piece of work that has resulted in the, I think, fine retrospective collection Die sensitiven Jahre, recently published by p.machinery.
