You people in English-speaking countries are really lucky, for you are naturally speaking English. For a number of reasons most SF/fantasy writers of 20th century lived in UK and USAand used English too create their masterpieces (or, sometimes just pieces). However, we certainly can't say that all good SF/fantasy writers spoke and wrote in English. In fact, almost every country in the world has its own notable SF and/or fantasy writers, known and beloved at least by the residents of that country. Today I'm going too tell you about few of them.

First of all we've got a little piece of nepotism in here - Since I come from Russia, you'll have to read a little about a couple of Russian guys. And in the first of all I'll havetoo tell you about unsurpassed masters of Russian SF, the almighty Strugatski brothers.

ARKADY (NATANOVICH) and BORIS (NATANOVICH) STRUGATSKI: Arkadii and Boris (has no links to Rocky and Bullwinkle) Strugatski are without doubt the most famous Russian SF writers both in Russia and outside it. They are one of the few Soviet authors, published outside USSR (who said "Iron Curtain"? Naa, methinks you people just don't like to read translations). Since Boris died in 1991 they are not writing anymore but they are still very popular here. Why is that so?

Strugatski brothers (commonly abridged to ABS) began their writing career with a huge series of novels about the near future of humanity. In this future, humanity has defeated all problems it has faced for most of its history and is facing currently. No wars, no famine, no crimes plus absolute personal freedom. People has managed to create almost perfect social structure with no visible drawbacks. But they are still humans and they've got their human feelings and make human mistakes.

Soon ABS abandoned writing novels of 'communism as it should be and switched too much more philosophical and dim novels like 'Hard to be a God', 'Roadside Picnic' and 'Lame Destiny'. These later books are considered to be real masterpieces of literature all over the world.

During their writing career ABS have created many marvellous masterpieces of SF, very complicated and philosophical, but at the same time very exciting.Their books are always multi-level - everyone, no matter what age he is will find something interesting for him. In fact, there are so many DIFFERENT books, written by ABS, that they could become a theme for the whole article by themselves and it's almost impossible to tell you about them just in a few words. If you find this interesting I could write about it later.

STANISLAW LEM: Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is surely one of the most interesting and sophisticated SF writers of all times. His books appear to be humorous and philosophical at the same time. The main theme of his books is possible future of humanity, which he tries to see from all possible points of view - from cybernetics to future of sexual relations. Most interesting thing about Lem is that he is very different every time you read his books, but at the same time he has his own special style, which doesn't allow you to mix his work up this someone else. On one hand, we have humorous and touching 'Robot Fairy Tales', on the other hand his 'Summa Technologicae' which as actually not just a book at all, but rather a bible for all of us technocrats.

Now I must say honestly, that reading his books is sometimes a little bit hard, because he has this nasty habit to overload his books with philosophy, but he is still not only worth reading - methinks no one can consider himself a SF geek without reading at least some of his masterpieces.

NICK PERUMOV: Nick Perumov is probably most famous Russian fantasy writer. He began writing JRRT unofficial sequels, which appeared to be very successful and quickly won popularity. Later he has started his own fantasy and action-SF series that met even greater success both in Russia and abroad. His books are extremely action-packed, but at the same time are slightly more complex than those of most modern fantasy writers. One of the most common features of his books is very degraded border between good and evil. Often in his books (AND in real life) what seems good at first glance, appears to be evil and vice versa. He often tries to give you a chance to see the situation from both sides of the barricades, letting you to decide which side is closer to you and at the same time letting you know that there are always at least two ways to look at the problem. Have you ever thought how did ors felt when they lost their master and most of their youth during the Great Wars? What are the motives and the feelings of a necromancer? Well, try reading Perimov and you might get a chance to find this out.

Sapkovsky: Anjei Sapkovsy is probably one of the most interesting fantasy writers of the last decade. His 'Vedmak' series has became a real discovery for fantasy lovers all over the world. Somehow he has managed to create something new and original in a genre, where it is so hard to do so, since the most important things are already said by the creator of thisgenre (In case someone's not absolutely sure: Yes, I'm, talking about JRRT). His main fantasy series, the 'Vedmack' saga, tells of a battle mage, whose job is to hunt monsters and protect people. The problem is that real monsters usually can't be easily detected and recognised, so sometimes he has to pick his target very carefully. Magic, adventure and action are always present in this books, but they never seem to be the main subject, because the book protagonists have to solve various moral dilemmas and they are not easy to solve usually. I could tell you many things about Sapkovsky and his books, but I won't for it doesn't really matter. The main thing about these books is that they are GOOD and I (and many more people all over the world) enjoy reading them. And I hope you'll find them interesting too.

Well, that's all for now. To be honest, at first I've planned to write about Swedish SF and couple of Japanese guys, and maybe some German peeps, but at some point I've discovered that this list can be endless, for there are lots of excellent non-English speaking SF/fantasy writers in the world. For a number of reasons, translations TO English are usually not very popular and that's why it's so hard to find books of a non-English-speaking author in an English-speaking country. No, you people in the English-speaking countries are unlucky ones.