Of Swords and Parasols

Hmm…I think this is one that I shouldn’t read in big batches. Not because it gets bad that way or loses the appeal, but because I start noticing the lack of cohesive plot and start looking for one even though I know it doesn’t exist.

I liked a lot of the stories in these volumes, especially the ones involving the various people who help the mushishi in their work. Actually, I’d really like to see Ginko interact some with other mushishi, or maybe follow a couple different mushishi, even just for single stories. There was a meeting of mushishi in volume 6, but we barely saw them, and it wasn’t a focus.

( spoilers )

 Before I(rather briefly) get to the books I read over the weekend, magicnoirehas posted a great review of Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels here.  Go read it.

Susan Grant's The Scarlet Empress wraps up the multi-author 2176 series with the story of Banzai's partner, Cam, and the crown prince and regent of Asia, Kyber.  Found and revived from stasis before Banzai was and hidden away in the boonies, Cam's recovery from the severe atrophy-ing(yeah, NO IDEA how to say that properly here..) from 150~ years of stasis was much rougher.  By the time Kyber, the prince Banzai dumped for trying to use her as a political weapon, finds her, she's only just managed to be able to walk properly.  Kyber, it seems, has a bad habit of falling for early 21st century fighter pilots who don't give him an inch, and even though he plans to avoid Cam so he won't make the same mistake twive, he keeps meeting her in disguise as a bounty hunter.  The actual romance between the two is very fun, and the book itself is good, but the romance and the book's ability to stand alone as well as others in the series do suffers.  2176 is Grant's brainchild, with the first and last books being written by Grant herself.  In addition to telling Cam and Kyber's story, Grant has to finish Banzai and Ty's strong, wrap up the entire storyline, resolve all dangling threads from the books in between, and tie it all together.  While she does so quite well, there's just not a lot of room left for the leads.

Dokebi Bride and Mushishi are two series that I love for their quieter feel, and the sense of whimsy and tradition they have.  Dokebi Bride is a book about tradition and the clash between tradition and the modern world as our heroine, sUbi, tries to recocile the two and live in both worlds.  In volume 3, Sunbi decides to strike a bargain with a dokebi for protection.  The dokebi she gets, though, Gwangsoo, is rough, crude, illkempt and apparently rather on the horny side.  Not exactly what she was hoping for.  Despite being set in modern Seoul, the book has a very historic, country tradirional feel, and I like that.  While I have no idea if Mushishi is based on any sort of tradition or folklore, it "Feels" like it is, and that's good enough for me.  The world of Mushishi looks and feels like medieval Japan in many way, but at the same time, it doesn't quite.  Only sardonic, smoking, overcoat-wearing Ginko doesn't look like he stepped out of medieval Japan, which is ironic, as he could have stepped right out of an Akira Kurosawa movie.  While Vol 2 didn't grab me as much as Vol 1, that's mostly because the world was more familiar to me, not because it wasn't as good.  I am very fond, though, of the second story in this book, with the Mushi bound to books.

Right now I'm about 2/3 through the first Twelve Kingdoms book, by Fuyumi Ono(who's also the author of the books the Ghost Hunt manga are based on) the novel series the anime was based on.  Now, the anime is one of my absolute favorites(incidentally, anyone who's been told not to watch it and the words "Fushigi Yugi" were in any way involved with it needs to ignore the rec...whoever first came up with the idea of comparing the two was nuts...the similarities begin and end with "girl gets transported to a world based on asian mythology."  The worlds, characters and stories are as different as they could possibly be and the only genre they both fit into is fantasy)  but the books is worlds beyond the anime, which is a pleasant surprise, as I was just hoping for something readable enough that I'd get through them so I could read the novels that didn't get to be adapted into the anime.  (My experience with translated japanese novels has been rather shaky)  But this?  This is great.  And deserving of it's own post.  And it's making me want to rewatch the anime.