I looked into this a smidge, and someone wrote an English review and gave their thoughts on it from the perspective of a Japanese learner. It goes a bit deep into the plot so just linking as an at-your-own-risk for spoilers. I personally skimmed over that part of the review and focused on the later section on difficulty:
This is a challenging book. It’s fun but challenging for a few reasons.
The first, as I mentioned, is the various stories within the main story. These can get a little surreal and it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on and where things are. I found that especially for the fantasy narratives it was hard to get my bearings at times. This might partially be because of how Japanese people write high fantasy is different from how English speakers write fantasy, so it the stories didn’t go the way I was expecting them to.
The second is the Japanese language itself. This novel uses a lot of JLPT N1+ kanji and vocabulary, and even makes up a few character/place names and terms.
It also likes to use more uncommon kanji. Such as in the blurb of the book, 書物の蒐集家 (しょもつのしゅうしゅうか) which means “book collector” but the author used 蒐集家 instead of 収集家.
With the diverse narratives there are also some diverse specializations of terminology related to shrines, curses and spells, machinery, guns and more. (They make sense in context!)
This is a great book for advanced readers who love books, especially fantasy, and want to try a new challenge!
Edit: Actually that person’s username is the same as the person on Natively. A shame they didn’t leave that context as a review on the Natively site
I guess none of that is surprising. I noticed the 蒐集家 from the blurb as well! If they made an anime adaption I wonder if it would be like Paprika at all.
N1+ kanji don’t bother me at all since I read digitally and like an opportunity to learn new kanji anyway. I’d be more worried about grammar personally…
I wonder what the reviewer meant about Japanese high fantasy being written differently from English. I’ve read some Japanese fantasy, but I’m not sure I’d consider any high fantasy. Maybe 本好きの下剋上 given how complex the narrative gets in later arcs. But if that counts I’d consider it similar to fantasy series I’ve read in English anyway.
I looked at some japanese reviews and saw that as well. “主軸の話ともう一つの世界の話がごっちゃになる瞬間もあって、何回か読み戻す場面もあった。”
A lot of people also complain there’s too much fantasy (eg “ファンタジーが過ぎて、自分の想像力が全くついていかなかった…”) but I’m less worried about that.
N1 grammar/stuff kanji doesn’t sound scary either I’ve seen 蒐集家 before in 刀語 I think.
I did my best with the schedule but there are very few breaks to work with that actually have the star dividers so I had to rely on the less obvious narrative breaks (seen by extra spaces / paragraph breaks).
All in all though I think it should be ok? Please let me know if any thoughts or concerns, this is my first time running an ABC pick.
We’re currently voting in the Intermediate Club, but the participation is not as high as it used to be, so I figured maybe some of you overlooked the ongoing poll? In any case, if you’re interested in participating in the club on the side, please go here:
Calling all armchair detectives! Voting for the Natively Mystery Book club is now open and there’s a decent bit of overlap between the userbases so giving it a shoutout here. The voting will be open for one week, then there will be a 2 week break for people who prefer paper to get their copies.
I bought it from CDJapan in the end, and the answer turns out to be that it’s a hardback, not paperback. I think it’s too recent a book to have come out in paperback yet.
This is a bit off topic but I saw on Natively that @Naphthalene you read 86. I just started reading and I would love to know what you thought of the book from a learning and enjoyment perspective.
I’m not really sure how to qualify it from a learning perspective. There are many sci-fi words, as can be expected of the setting, and they all get fake furigana. I guess that’s a way to practice kanji? The writing felt otherwise standard for a light novel, so, be it narration or banter between characters, there’s nothing special in terms of grammar.
In terms of enjoyment, it was fun enough, but the plot felt very basic. I feel like I have heard that story in one form or another many times before. I have volumes 2 and 3, but I don’t feel compelled to read them right away. (Probably soon™ though)
Glad you say that… I recently thought I’d watch the anime, but after two episodes it felt super obvious to me where this is heading, so… I guess I’ll find another anime at some point
Thanks for the summary! I basically started this to branch out into SF a bit so having a bunch of that vocab is obviously great. Need to get used to the jargon though ^^.
Hello all, just a quick heads up that the current book’s schedule is not very long, and thus we will be voting again next week! I will probably set up the poll on Wednesday.
We currently have 15 proposals lined up, which sounds like a good amount to me already! But if you want to get your favorite new proposal added to the list, now is the time! There are five slots that can still be filled, and all proposals that come after that will need to wait until spaces open up in the current list (due to books being picked or proposals being retired due to lack of interest).
No matter whether you’re planning to propose something or not, please have a look at the current nominations, check out the previews to determine your favorites, and while you’re at it, please fill in the difficulty polls as well!
In 2.5 years we managed to read 12 books in this club, and I think that’s a good reason to celebrate!
And I figured that a nice way to celebrate is to run a poll in the tradition that @Naphthalene started in the Intermediate club: Let’s run a
Book Club Pick Celebration Poll!
This poll celebration covers the books #1 to #12 (they were selected in poll #1 to #10).
I was planning to run this poll after book #10 already but I forgot I figured that 12 is the nicer number anyway
Which books have you read (either with the club or on your own)?
本好きの下剋上
雪国
容疑者Xの献身
すべてがFになる
人間失格
乳と卵
パノラマ島綺譚
本陣殺人事件
薬屋のひとりごと
海辺のカフカ
狼と香辛料
ユージニア
0voters
What’s your favorite book of the list? (Regardless of whether you read it with the club or not)
本好きの下剋上
雪国
容疑者Xの献身
すべてがFになる
人間失格
乳と卵
パノラマ島綺譚
本陣殺人事件
薬屋のひとりごと
海辺のカフカ
狼と香辛料
ユージニア
0voters
Conversely, what’s your least favorite book of the list? (Regardless of whether you read it with the club or not)
本好きの下剋上
雪国
容疑者Xの献身
すべてがFになる
人間失格
乳と卵
パノラマ島綺譚
本陣殺人事件
薬屋のひとりごと
海辺のカフカ
狼と香辛料
ユージニア
0voters
Feel free to also comment on what you think of the organization, what you’d change, which book was the easiest/hardest, etc.
My vote should come as no surprise. I noped out of 海辺のカフカ pretty hard early on
容疑者Xの献身 has a special place in my heart as the first fully Japanese book (not translation) that I read which I actually liked I’m not sure it’s really in my top favorite books, but it’s special to me.
I’ve seen 蒐集家 before in 刀語 I think.
I’m not sure it’s really in my top favorite books, but it’s special to me.