Good SF / fantasy books?

I study Nihongo. Judging by my experience with other foreign languages, the best way to do it is to read books. What good modern Nihon authors writting Science Fiction or Fantasy novels could you recommend? Not cosmoopera or battle fiction, but something like Robert Heinlein's SF books. Or good fantasy books based on Nihon mythology or Shinto motives.

Please write names using kanji if possible,

How easily can you read kanji? Reading to learn the language might not work that easily with Japanese compared to learning European languages.

But I might suggest 星新一. He is no longer with us, but has left many science fiction short stories.

http://shinichihoshi.com/The_Hoshi_Library/The_Hoshi_Library.html

AK,

Thank you for the tip.

I can remember on and kun readings of approx. 1500 kanji. I hope to learn all 10 jyoyo groups and some more in an year or two. But there is no point to learn kanji without reading practice. In a month or two they are erased from memory and needed to be learned again.

Reading is a best way to learn foreign language, and Nihongo is one of the most challenging languages. The language itself is simple enough (at least comparing to my native Russian ;) ), but kanji make it one of the most difficult ones. The worthy task to accomplish. ^_^

If you've never read the Lensman series By E. E. Doc Smith read it!! This book is over half a century and it puts Startrek, Starwars, and all other so called epic movies to shame. In fact I bet you a zillion dollars that they "borrowed" most ideas from this book. Even Green Lantern Corp is said to be a copy of the Lensman

If you get really stuck, you can pick up a copy in English.

If you do read it, get the Samurai Lensman. Written by a Japanese about the Lensman. Obviously only in Japanese, no English translation as I know.

Earthsea Novels by Ursla K LeGuin is another good one. once again, if you get stuck, you can use the English one as a reference.

If you want pure Japanese SF / Fantasy, then I suggest reading Guin Saga. Keep in mind this series is over 100 volumes long and not surprisingly the author died before the completion of the series!!!! I believe world wide circulation is like 25 million copies or something s like that.

Hope that helps.