Archive for the Light Novel Category


Light Novel: Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 7 Souhaku no Dokuroboshi (ミニスカ宇宙海賊7 蒼白の髑髏星 )

October 18th, 2016

minisuka7When we left Captain Marika and the Bentenmaru crew at the end of Volume 6, she had just fought another, formidable, pirate ship to a standstill and forced them to run. In Miniskirt Space Pirates, Souhaku no Dokuroboshi, Volume 7 (ミニスカ宇宙海賊7 蒼白の髑髏星 ) Marika is visited by a representative of the Imperial Government’s Intelligence Division, Nash.

Nash makes Marika an eyebrow-raising offer….would the Bentenmaru like to be part of the Imperial Navy’s war games?  I admit I re-read this bit a few times to make sure I got it right.  War games? Yes, War games. The Navy is about to gear up for their annual war games and this year they want to integrate pirates into the scenario. Marika asks the crew and they are in.

Now that that’s settled, Nash confides to Marika that he’s actually there for two things. Yes, the government wants the Bentenmaru’s participation, but the Intelligence Division needs Marika’s help, as well. Captain Miura Grant of the Chimera of Scylla, the ship fought by the Bentenmaru and her allies, has escaped off to the Pirate’s Guild HQ, the Skull Star. No Imperial agents have ever been able to infiltrate this base. With Marika’s help, Nash wants to finally be able to gather intelligence.

We learn that Nash and Corrie, the Bentenmaru’s electronic warfare specialist, have a history. Nash implies it’s more that just friendship, but I’m inclined to believe Coorie more. She insists on coming along and Gruier demands a place, as Marika has promised  to let her join the crew of the Bentenmaru, or so she says to Lynn, who comes out and  asks to join after graduation. Marika demurs, but I think Lynn’s reasoning is sound. She knows she’ll be working for Jenny eventually, and wants to get some experience first. She could learn a lot from Coorie, so that makes sense all around.

So Gruier, Marika, Coorie and Nash take the Silent Whisper (the prototype cloaked ship Jenny gave to the Bentenmaru) and head off after the Chimera of Scylla. When they catch up, Marika asks Captain Miura Grant to give her entree to the Pirates’ Guild HQ, which is an asteroid that looks like a giant floating skull. Miura agrees. Marika and the gang meet Miura’s older sister Maira, who runs the Queen of Love, a hot pink whorehouse pirate ship.  Maira is taken with Marika and offers her Gruier and Coorie several opportunities for dressup scenes. While Nash defects to to Miura’s ship, Marika takes the opportunity, with help from Maira, to forge a treaty with the Pirate’s Guild. So there, Nash. In your face.

Again, again, again, what I like best about this series is watching Marika being a really excellent Captain. She forges an alliance with the Pirate’s Guild. Hah! How awesome is that!

In the beginning of the novel Ririka asks her whether she’ll continue pirating after graduation and she doesn’t really have an answer. Maybe, probably not? But at the end of this book we want Marika so desperately to be a full-time pirate. She’s so good at it! With Jenny as an industry contact, Princess Gruier Serenity on her crew, she’d be the best pirate captain ever. She already is.

Illustrations have become even more perfunctory than before. This should just be a novel and stop pretending to have pictures.

I read this book in digital format on Bookwalker Global, but it is also available in print.

I’m going to stop pretending that I may or may not read the next book. Obviously, I will.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

I even liked the stupid dress-up scenes this time.





Light Novel: GIRLS UPRISING

September 26th, 2016

fmkguIt only took me 5 years to finish GIRLS UPRISING, the collaboration between science fiction writer Fukami Makoto and illustrator Kazuaki. The story ran inside the cover of the 2011 reboot issues of Comic Yuri Hime, and the illustrations captured my attention. Unfortunately, I found the small type and weird color choices of the original an actual barrier to reading.

When the story was printed as a collection in 2014, I snapped it up…only to find the type just as small on pages about the same size as the magazine. That meant four 2″ tall horizontal rows of vertical text per page. My intentions were good, but it was just a hard book to read, physically. And the story (which is rather messy) didn’t make it compelling. It kept falling to the bottom of the pile.

And now I’m here to tell you, for once the reviews on Amazon JP and I agree. This book is not Fukami’s best work.

In a post-apocalyptic world, at a school for girls where the discipline/security committee assures the students’ safety by carrying around lovingly described guns, we end up following a character so unlikable I actually waved goodbye as she headed off to certain death.

Chisato and Kotono are gun-bearing members of the disciplinary and student council.  They are best friends and lovers. Kotono is a bit moody. Chisato is a jerk. She leaves Kotono for Sayaka, then proceeds to be a jerk to her, too. Kotono finds solace in the loyalty of her vice president, Megumi. And while we spend oodles of time following these young ladies arguing and buying bathing suits, a completely different story is happening across town.

In the tower across town, lives an evil scientist, Musaki Origa and her lover/guinea pig Hyouko. Hyouko is cared by for by the android Chanel who predictably, is the 5th of her kind. What, exactly, the experiments are for, are vague. Something about an elixir of youth, but really, it’s just torture porn. Hyouko is determined to escape from the tower. Chanel, who seems to have fallen in love with her, is willing to help.

Somewhere else in this war-torn town in which shopping malls that sell bikinis and bottled water still exist, another girl, Tatsuki, meets and saves a girl in a wheelchair, Kiriko. Tatsuki, we learn, was Kotono’s former lover.

As an aside, I always find it a little silly when high school aged characters speak of “long ago” or “former lovers” as if they are 47 instead of 17. ^_^

Tatsuki relays to Chisato that her sister is the girl in the tower and Chisato tells Sayaka that her only true love is her twin sister, Hyouko. She runs off to save her sister/certain death. Bye, Chisato! You’re a jerk! I said, waving. But, no, Sayaka, Megumi and Kotono head after her.

In a crappy no-malls or bikinis part of town Chisato saves a little girl from rapists, but they are both captured by the bad guy pedophile who had never been mentioned until now, who wants to rape the girl. Chisato and the girl, Midori, are tortured a bit, then the guy’s hands are blown off. The cavalry has arrived. We kill all the bad guys and… the book ends.

Um, but what about Hyouko? Dunno. She escaped but…

This story, which was originally presented as a series of standalone chapters just didn’t work all that well with the new, final, messy chapter. In retrospect, the only two chapters that worked on their own at all were Hyouko’s story “Rapunzel” and Tatsuki and Kiriko’s brief flash of happiness.

Kazuaki’s illustrations still hold up well enough, but the novel just felt forced and fetishy without any of Fukami’s typical skill in weaving a good story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 5
Characters – mostly 6, but Chisato was a jerk – 3
Yuri – 9
Service – 9 Practically nothing but

Overall – 6

Making the unlikable Chisato the protagonist was a terrible idea. But there were still decent moments. So not unreadable, just not great.





LGBTQ Light Novel – Friends

September 11th, 2016

friendsoyuki As the light novel series Maria-sama ga Miteru began winding down after more than ten years, creator Konno Oyuki did not rest on her laurels. She immediately moved on to a fantasy romance series called Ame no Tiara (雨のティアラ). I tell you this, because it’s a very human thing to assume that if you’re not personally reading someone’s work, they must have just stopped creating. ^_^

But, no. Konno-sensei is a professional writer and so, has been writing – often several novels at once. And, now a mere two years after she wrapped up the multiple strands of Maria-sama ga Miteru and Oshaka-sama mo Miteru, we are back in her front yard, looking at her with giant eyes, full of anticipation.

In Friends, Konno-sensei tells us the story of Kazumi and Midori, two young women who had been so close in high school, they practically were each other, But now that they attend the same fine arts college, and run in the same circles, Kazumi has basically been avoiding Midori. Circumstances will bring them together again…but in what kind of relationship?

There are many good qualities in this book. First and foremost, Konno-sensei is deft at building the characters. Kazumi has a family, a circle of friends, a history and a future she’s striving towards. There’s nothing about her that we’re left wondering “yeah, but what about…?” She’s fully developed. Midori, at least at first, appears to be more of a mystery. As the book progresses, we come to understand why – we’ve been seeing Midori through Kazumi’s eyes, and she’s working hard at not “seeing” Midori.

They clash during a gokon – a group date. Kazumi is genuinely uninterested in the men in the group, but not really sure whether it’s just that she’s uninterested or that they are boring. Eventually, her friend Mutsumi has had enough of her and tells her to leave, she’ll be replaced by Midori. Midori and Kazumi meet – and decide to blow the others off and go out together.

The book takes a sharp turn as Kazumi starts to realize that her discomfort with Midori was her own feelings for the other woman. She’s infatuated, but has no coping tactics. Kazumi ends up discussing her confusion with her savvy grandmother, who instant recognizes it as love, “koi.” Kazumi suddenly starts to realize that her distance from Midori is her own fault.

The two women are supposed to join friends on a camping trip, but Midori falls sick, so Kazumi cancels. When she visits Midori, she learns two things that profoundly affect her – all these years she’s been friends with Midori and she knew nothing at all about her family. Now, Kazumi is mortified to learn that Midori’s parents are a famous designer and actress. As she visits with Midori, she remembers whole chunks of her life with the other girl – and the dog they both loved – that she had forgotten. Kazumi breaks down and apologizes to Midori for being so aloof for so long.

Their relationship changes again. Hanging out together, going out to eat, shopping, Kazumi is spending more time with Midori, against a backdrop of her own family life and the mild mystery of the old man and young man who have moved into in the “haunted mansion” around the corner.

We turn away from the two women, to watch Kazumi’s family life, with her middle sister, who just started middle school, elementary school-age sister and their parents. Conversations are realistically weird, as the girls imagine whole novels’ worth of intrigue about the new neighbors.

But…there’s Midori. One day while shopping, Kazumi tries on a skirt that looks terrible on her. Midori tries it on and it looks stunning, so she buys it. Kazumi snaps. She leaves Midori and goes home, miserable. Midori is taking everything – her attention, her time, even her yellow skirt!

Miserable, Kazumi calls on their mutual friend Mutsumi to talk it out (although beats me why, since Mutsumi’s been kind of a jerk). They meet at their old high school. Mutsumi admits that she’s always thought that Kazumi and Midori’s relationship was unhealthy and that they needed distance between them. Upon learning that Midori is there at the school, Kazumi runs off to find her.

The two reconcile, and finally Kazumi admits her feelings, but she also admits to Midori that her interest in sex is abstract, at best. Midori says that her feelings are the same. They agree that they don’t necessarily want a physical relationship, but the idea of the other with someone else upsets them. What they both want, they agree, is to be together. They hold each other’s hands and look at each other. “Should we kiss?” asks Midori. “I think not.” say Kazumi and they smile and walk off hand in hand.

The last scene is some months later, as Midori, Kazumi and their friends plan for their group camping trip. The girls will get a cabin, the boys will tent outside. Kazumi watches Midori and sees angel’s wings spreading from her shoulders as Kazumi herself wears that beloved yellow skirt that Midori has redesigned for her.

The illustrations – which open up the book’s sections – highlight objects like the skirt, or Mutsumi’s lipstick, that are key points of the section. They are competently done, but give no particular insight to the story.

I have a policy when reading anything. It’s based loosely on Maya Angelou’s advice, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Basically, I take most of what I read at face value. I can’t tell what the author’s intent is and unless I bring my own agenda or intent to a character, I have to assume that what I see is what they wanted me to see.  So, this story has a happy ending for an asexual, homoromantic couple, as we say in the parlance of the day. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 7

Overall – 8

This novel is once again a chance to spend time with incredibly well-conceived and realistically written characters, and watch them deal with a topic near and dear to our hearts – two women in love.





Light Novel: Miniskirt Pirates, Volume 6 Crimson Pirate Ship ( ミニスカ宇宙海賊6　真紅の海賊船)

September 1st, 2016

MPCPR7Volume 5 of Miniskirt Pirates added a level of complexity to the “Three Ships” arc without resolving it. Jackie Kelvin, aka Jackie Celsius, aka Jackie Fahrenheight, who had been trying to obtain Hakuoh High School Yacht Club’s training ship, the Odette 2 (which has originally been known as the Whitebird and was, in fact, one of the original seven pirate ships from the Galactic war) turns out to have been hired by the Pirate Guild.

In Miniskirt Pirates, Crimson Pirate Ship, Volume 6 ( ミニスカ宇宙海賊6　真紅の海賊船) having fought Jackie to a standstill, the Pirate Guild’s representative, the cuthroat Captain Miura Grant of the Chimera of Scylla, appears and the fight continues. Grant grabs control of the Odette (and it’s star-killing weapon) and runs into hyperspace. The Bentenmaru and Barbarossa give chase, and are joined by several other ships.

The key point of this entire novel is this scene, in which Marika finds herself in command of not only her own two crews (the Bentenmaru’s professional crew and the Odette’s (now under Ririka’s direct command) amateurs, but also being encouraged to lead by Kenjo Kurihara (Chiaki’s father and captain of the Barbarossa) and in indirect control of several other ships, who have joined to help her. Kenjo cheerfully points out to her that Captain Kato Marika is now in control of her own fleet.

Bam.

At that moment, you can feel the shadow of her father, Gozaemon, looming up behind her.

Something else happens at that moment. Gozaemon starts to be mentioned. By name. Not as Marika’s father, or the former captain, but just here and there by name. If you’ve watched the anime, you’ve seen the utterly unsubtle foreshadowing that this echoes.

With the help of the Koukuchou, the Glamorous Ridis, the Death Shadow, and other ships, the Bentenmaru and Barbarossa free the Odette from the clutches of the Pirate Guild. Jackie bails, and Grant retreats.

Back in Volume 5, I said that if this arc doesn’t end in Volume 6, I might not read the next one. But realistically, there’s no chance now that I won’t. I can guess some of what is going to happen and I want to see where it goes.

As I did with Volume 5, I read this novel on Bookwalker Global. Now that I’ve adjusted the type on my Surface to suit my tired eyes, I find reading a page or two digitally every night not insurmountable. As a result, I think I’m moving more quickly though the book than I did in print.

I’m into Volume 7 now and the arc is still ongoing. I already know the climax, but the arc isn’t what’s driving me forward, it is and always has been, the characters. And I really want to know what’s going to happen to them.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Still a lot of technobabble and space fighting, with a soupçon of electronic warfare and good ole’ reconnaissance and subterfuge. It’s a damn good military/pirate adventure and I can feel the end already.

Ahoy, Volume 7, here I come!





Novel: Ten to Chi no Moribito: Part 1, Rota Oukoku Hen (天と地の守り人〈第1部〉ロタ王国編)

January 24th, 2016

TtCnMRbBefore we get to talking about Ten to Chi no Moribito: Part 1, Rota Oukoku Hen (天と地の守り人〈第1部〉ロタ王国編), I need to back the story way up. The last you heard about Balsa was in Kami no Moribito (Part 1 and Part 2) where she helped two kids escape slavers and stopped a vengeful god from destroying many people, among other things.

After that, we turned our attention to Chagum, the Prince in Seirei no Moribito, who carried the spirit within him and whom Balsa had to save from being killed thereby bringing an unending drought upon his country. It’s been 5 years since Chagum and Balsa have seen each other in the flesh. In Yume no Moribito, they met briefly on the side of Nayug, the other world that inhabits the same space as their world. Chagum’s sickly older brother has died, leaving Chagum the Crown Prince of  the Kingdom of New Yogo.  He now has a younger brother and a little sister.

As he turns 16, Chagum sets off on a tour of their world. This is his last chance to really experience freedom before he’s an adult and he’s taking the opportunity. In the books Kokuu no Tabibito (虚空の旅人) and  Aochi no Tabibito (蒼路の旅人), we follow Chagum as he travels to, first, the southern islands, where he is implicated in a murder plot and thwarts a ritual sacrifice of a young girl and in the second, in a trip to the Sangal Kingdom’s archipelago, where he is captured by pirates and taken to the second Prince of the Tarsh Empire, who tells him that war is coming and Tarsh will rule everything in the world. Chagum is sent back, but is once again waylaid and taken to the Rota Kingdom (where Kami no Moribito took place.)  I didn’t review these two books, because while Balsa is mentioned, she does not appear.

Okay, so. As Ten to Chi no Moribito opens, Balsa has taken up her old job as bodyguard for hire again, when she is found by someone with a letter for her. Do you remember the youngest of the King’s hunters who tracked Balsa and Chagum? His name was Jin. After failing to capture them he left the employ of the New Yogo royal family and became a pirate. In Aoichi no Moribito he and Chagum meet, but I never felt he was truly an ally and was working against Chagum while pretending to be friendly. (Chagum’s one sort-of ally in that book was a pirate captain, Hyuugo. Hyuugo liked the young prince and felt bad about having to kidnap him.) Anyway, Jin sends a letter to Balsa telling her Chagum is missing, presumed dead, on the way to Rota.

Balsa decided she’s going to find Chagum and bring him back home. Her adventure takes her through a bit of Sangal and into Rota, where she is tracked by soldiers, jumped by a bunch of heavies working for a local criminal boss whose ass she kicks. She was fabulously badass in this scene.

The recurring theme at this point is that Balsa, although she doesn’t think of herself as anything different, is massively famous. She literally cannot go anywhere anymore, because the moment the woman who wields a spear arrives in town, everyone knows it’s her. There are songs sung about her and Chagum. They cannot ever be unfamous again.

While escaping from royal hunters for the Rota kingdom, Balsa meets up with Hyuugo, who is mortally wounded. He tells her everything he knows, and explains in detail that war is coming and New Yogo is doomed unless it allies with Sangal, Rota and Kanbal against the Tarsh Empire. He’s got an exceptional grasp of the politics and the veil falls from Balsa’s eyes, she knows where Chagum must be.

Balsa find herself helped by a village headwoman, and yet another long insightful conversation happens, explaining the political ramifications of the situation.

We briefly turn to Tanda, who is found and “captured” by a bunch of soldiers, but discovers they are extremely young and scared to death of the war that they know is inevitable. (We also have short scenes where we revisit Torogai, Tanda’s teacher, Chikisa and Asura from Kami no Moribito, and other characters from past books.)

Balsa makes it to Rota where she is admitted to Prince Ihan’s presence without delay. This conversation was so adult, it was almost refreshing. Ihan admitted he had had Chagum, and why he had captured the boy – he was going to hold him as insurance that New Yogo allied with them. But Chagum, who was being moved further north, was no longer in his castle. And Shihana, the shaman huntress from Kami no Moribito, who had been after Asura, is now hunting Chagum as well.

Balsa heads north, finding dead bodies and broken military troops along the way. The wolves were attacking  again. (The wolves of Rota get a lot of play in Kami no Moribito. They attack in massive packs and are ferocious. The first time in KnM we see Asura draw down the vengeful god is to destroy a wolf pack of hundreds.)

In the forest, shadowed by a wolfpack, Balsa is attacked by a group of men. With the wolves at her heels, she fights man and canine and is rescued, barely, by a group of three men, one of whom is Chagum. The other two are killed and Chagum and Balsa are wounded.  When Chagum embraces her, Balsa notes that he’s now taller than she. They find a hut to in which to hunker down against the snow and tend to their wounds. Warm, fed, and trying not to die of infections, they have an emotional reunion. And they talk about the war that is coming.

With the snow swirling around them, Chagum asks if Balsa will take him to Kanbal and she agrees, even if her bones should break, she’ll take him there.

End of book. Phew!

As with Kami no Moribito, I’m kind of surprised at the political maneuverings and details in a YA series, but I’m also kind of glad that Uehashi-sensei doesn’t underestimate her audience, and presumes they are completely capable of understanding the situation.

But most importantly – Balsa. She is now 35 and is still at the top of her game It’s obvious that she’d prefer to be a small-time bodyguard leading people across the mountains, but is neither running from nor appalled by her fame. Although she has not, she says, heard any of the songs about her. She is still quite capable of being the person who changes the course of history…and when she meets Chagum once again, it’s pretty obvious that they both think it’s inevitable that she will be. We also get a few clear glimpses at her feelings for both Tanda and Chagum. During a long, cold night while on the road, she wishes for a brief moment to be in Tanda’s arms. I think this is the first time we’ve seen that kind of admission from her.

Her affection for Chagum has never been hidden, nor his for her. He’s spoken of her admiringly in every book. When they reunite, it is with a warm embrace. We never doubted for a second that they missed each other. ^_^

Nor do I doubt for a second that they will once again change the world. Who can stand against the Ten to Chi no Moribito, the guardians of heaven and earth?

Ratings:

Overall – 9 Awesome, with  a side of terrific. This book has it all. Chases and fights and intrigue and Chagum and Balsa reuniting. ^_^

This final arc is a three-book series. I hope to be able to complete it before we get the story in the Moribito TV series!