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Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Printable Version

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Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

Hi guys and gals. I'm looking for sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books by Japanese authors, preferably those that have been translated to English, although that's not necessary. Can be contemporary or otherwise. Please make recommendations. Thanks a lot!

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - nest0r - 2011-03-04

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Both Japanese and English versions available. It's also apparently being made into a Hollywood movie.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

nest0r Wrote:All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Both Japanese and English versions available. It's also apparently being made into a Hollywood movie.
I found it, thanks!

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - howtwosavealif3 - 2011-03-04

the ring, loop, rasen.
(the original book the movies are based on)
the books are actually fantasy/sci-fi-ish...

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:the ring, loop, rasen.
(the original book the movies are based on)
the books are actually fantasy/sci-fi-ish...
Ah, this one seems to be the trilogy by Koji Suzuki. Thanks, I've bookmarked it.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - pm215 - 2011-03-04

Some fantasy recs in this thread.

For SF, you could try browsing the backlist of books that got the Seiun Award. So far I've read these two:

敵は海賊・海賊版 is humorous SF; my review of it is here.

太陽の簒奪者 by 野尻 抱介 is good if you like hard-SF that's all about the ideas not the characters; it's available in English under the title Usurper of the Sun.

Lots of people seem to recommend 星 新一, but I don't really get on with him myself; lots of short and short-short stories, with a definite old-school scifi feel.

ETA: the other thing you could do is follow that Amazon link for Usurper of the Sun, browse the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" for something with a Japanese author that catches your fancy, and then go find the Japanese original.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - ta12121 - 2011-03-04

nest0r Wrote:All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Both Japanese and English versions available. It's also apparently being made into a Hollywood movie.
yes just what I was looking for

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Javizy - 2011-03-04

東野圭吾 (mystery/suspense author) is pretty good. At least two of his books I know of, 手紙 and 容疑者Xの献身, have been made into films (I believe the latter has a drama version as well), and he's pretty popular, so maybe there are translations too. Even if you don't get any books, 容疑者Xの献身 is well worth watching.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - wccrawford - 2011-03-04

nest0r Wrote:All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Both Japanese and English versions available. It's also apparently being made into a Hollywood movie.
I read the English translation of this and it was great. I'm looking forward to reading the Japanese version eventually.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

pm215 Wrote:Some fantasy recs in this thread.

For SF, you could try browsing the backlist of books that got the Seiun Award. So far I've read these two:

敵は海賊・海賊版 is humorous SF; my review of it is here.

太陽の簒奪者 by 野尻 抱介 is good if you like hard-SF that's all about the ideas not the characters; it's available in English under the title Usurper of the Sun.

Lots of people seem to recommend 星 新一, but I don't really get on with him myself; lots of short and short-short stories, with a definite old-school scifi feel.

ETA: the other thing you could do is follow that Amazon link for Usurper of the Sun, browse the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" for something with a Japanese author that catches your fancy, and then go find the Japanese original.
Very useful tips and links. Thank you pm215!

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

Javizy Wrote:東野圭吾 (mystery/suspense author) is pretty good. At least two of his books I know of, 手紙 and 容疑者Xの献身, have been made into films (I believe the latter has a drama version as well), and he's pretty popular, so maybe there are translations too. Even if you don't get any books, 容疑者Xの献身 is well worth watching.
Wow, I actually found 容疑者Xの献身 in ebook format. Thanks!

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - nest0r - 2011-03-04

It's possible that when I said ‘available’ there was a double meaning there, at least for Japanese. I mean, it's not possible at all.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - nest0r - 2011-03-04

wccrawford Wrote:
nest0r Wrote:All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Both Japanese and English versions available. It's also apparently being made into a Hollywood movie.
I read the English translation of this and it was great. I'm looking forward to reading the Japanese version eventually.
Cool, I'm going to try and read it soon.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

nest0r Wrote:It's possible that when I said ‘available’ there was a double meaning there, at least for Japanese. I mean, it's not possible at all.
Ohhh...I'll have to think about this...riddle.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - nest0r - 2011-03-04

Well, another thread here that's good for nothing—I mean nothing—but book recommendations is the ‘totally innocent’ book thread. That's entirely irrelevant to anything else we've discussed in this thread, though.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

Right, gotcha. I remember that thread, but it's been a while so I have to review. Now what did I do with that thing...

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - nest0r - 2011-03-04

Yes, I believe all of the books mentio—ah well, ahem, what was I saying. Oh yes, if you want to see a list of certain books' reading levels or even use a tool to generate your own, keep this in mind also: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?pid=61981#pid61981

And to generate frequency lists of words: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?pid=69302#pid69302

And for formatting: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=7229

Right, guess you already know about this stuff. We need a special cb4960 thread.

Please recommend sci fi, fantasy, or mystery books - Seamoby - 2011-03-04

Oh, no, I didn't know about those cool tools until now. Whoa, thanks. My memory seems to be coming back, though. There's a really long list flashing in my mind, and i didn't realize just how long until this moment. Staggering. I'll review the innocent thread just to make sure.