86―エイティシックス―
Author: 安里 アサト (Asato)
Summary
Japanese
第23回電撃小説大賞《大賞》受賞作、堂々発進！ 最終選考委員と、編集部一同をうならせたエンターテイメントノベルの真・決定版！
サンマグノリア共和国。そこは日々、隣国である「帝国」の無人兵器《レギオン》による侵略を受けていた。しかしその攻撃に対して、共和国側も同型兵器の開発に成功し、辛うじて犠牲を出すことなく、その脅威を退けていたのだった。 そう――表向きは。 本当は誰も死んでいないわけではなかった。共和国全85区画の外。《存在しない“第86区”》。そこでは「エイティシックス」の烙印を押された少年少女たちが日夜《有人の無人機として》戦い続けていた――。死地へ向かう若者たちを率いる少年・シンと、遥か後方から、特殊通信で彼らの指揮を執る“指揮管制官（ハンドラー）”となった少女・レーナ。二人の激しくも悲しい戦いと、別れの物語が始まる――！
English
The San Magnolia Republic has long been under attack by unmanned weapons from the neighboring Empire. Against this onslaught, the Republic has also deployed similar weapons, narrowly avoiding great loss of life and impending disaster-or at least that’s how it seemed.
The truth is that it has never been possible to have no casualties. Young men and women drawn from the Republic’s supposedly non-existent 86th district are organized into the “86 unit” and then ordered to pilot the “unmanned weapons” before heading to battle. [/details]
Length: 344 pages
Category: faster pace
Availability
Ebook:
Rakuten Kobo
Bookwalker
Personal Opinion
Seeing as we’ve gotten some heavier books, I thought we need to lighten the mood up a bit with a light novel. Currently I’m mostly trying to read books that aren’t too difficult to get my routine and immersion going on. I’d guess this is on the average side, although the book seemed to have some military terms and lots of katakana words (good practice!).
I’m also really into harder sci-fi, and this looks like a great first jump into a Japanese sci-fi book (which seem to be a bit on the rarer side). I heard the later books fall a bit flat, but that the first book is a great standalone.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Sci-fi and Mecha!
- Light reading, but some thought-provoking aspects about the reality of war
- Received very favorable reviews from readers as well as critics
- Part of a series but I heard works great as a standalone
Cons
- If you don’t like sci-fi…
Pictures/Sample
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Moderate effort
- Significant effort
- So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters