Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Light Novel), Vol. 6 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol 6 by Mikage Sawamura

Previous book marked a turn in the story: Naoya and the professor visited the festival of the dead where Naoya had been to as a child and which had led to him starting to hear lies. This book, subtitled Dark Reflections, starts a week after those events. Back at the university, Naoya tries to come to terms with their visit to the underworld, and wonders if it was worth it. He can still hear the lies, so nothing’s changed.

But Professor Takatsuki is so upset he falls ill. The entity inside him made him forget the entire journey, because he’d learned what happened when he was abducted, and he can’t accept it. Naoya tries to cheer him up and ends up promising he’ll be Takatsuki’s memory from now on.

In an effort to cheer up the professor, Naoya makes him take a case of a haunted house in an amusement park, where people have started to see an actual ghost. He thinks Takatsuki’s reluctance is caused by his upset, but turns out it’s because the professor has already figured out what’s going on and it’s not supernatural. But Naoya gets a fun day at an amusement park with Takatsuki, Kenji, and Ruiko.

In the second story, Takatsuki’s cousin Yuuko contacts him for the first time in twenty years. (Takatsuki isn’t allowed to contact his family except his uncle who raised him.) His fiancé insists she needs supernatural help for a growth on her shoulder and wants him to call Takatsuki. Turns out, she had attended as a child the tea parties Takatsuki’s mother held where she showed him around as a tengu, and had become obsessed with him. This story took an unexpected turn, but it wasn’t supernatural either.

But it did give Naoya a deeper understanding of Takatsuki’s family situation. He even gets to meet his mother briefly and learns she’s still in denial about Takatsuki and insists her son didn’t return, after Takatsuki didn’t let her show him around as a tengu anymore. The whole situation is upsetting for Takatsuki too, but at least he got to connect with his cousin again.

In the third story, a girl contacts them about a mirror that disappeared her mother. Her father insists she left with her lover, but when Takatsuki and Naoya investigate, the truth turns out to be something supernatural—for the first time. It triggers the entity inside Takatsuki to intervene even. Naoya has a chance to communicate with it, but it leaves him with more questions than answers. But he’s now sure the entity is causing Takatsuki’s memory losses.

This was an excellent volume in many ways. The narrative felt more mature, Naoya’s inner monologue was deeper and we get better insights into him and Takatsuki both; their friendship changes quite a lot (no romance), and there was an actual supernatural case. The theme of the book was mirror and it offered some good insights into Japanese folklore and human psyche. I’m a bit annoyed that the aftermath of Kenji seeing a real ghost was skipped, but perhaps we get a bonus story about that later. There was no cliffhanger ending or extra stories. There are three more books to come and I can’t wait to read them. Though I’ll probably gobble them down in one sitting like this one too.

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer

Warrior Princess Assassin starts the Braided Fate fantasy trilogy and is the author’s first foray into adult fantasy after several YA series. I liked her Cursebreakers trilogy, but her other books haven’t excited me as much. Here, the author shakes the romantasy tropes and does it well.

The book is narrated by its three eponymous characters. Princess Marjoriana is 25, and about to be married to Maddox Kyronan, 30, the king of the neighbouring kingdom; the warrior. Then there’s Asher, once a son of a courtier and Jory’s childhood friend, now a former slave turned assassin.

Jory’s kingdom needs Ky’s fire magic to drive away a warring kingdom from their border. Ky needs the weather magic of Jory’s father to heal the crops in his kingdom. It’s outwardly a straightforward political alliance, but both are holding secrets that might ruin the agreement.

And then the ruin comes from an unexpected direction. Assassins’ guild is hired to kill both, and they send Asher. He’s unwilling to kill his childhood sweetheart, and she doesn’t want him to kill Ky either. The three become allies out of necessity, because Asher knows the guild will keep sending assassins until everyone is dead.

The three flee to Ky’s kingdom. But assassins are after them, and they have no idea who’s behind the killing orders. And Ky’s kingdom isn’t a safe place either, because his people hold him responsible for the failed crops and uncontrollable fires. And he can’t tell them who really is behind it.

This was a fairly straightforward start to an epic fantasy, with plenty of action and a few good twists. I guessed who would betray them from the moment they were introduced, and there were a couple of inconsistencies that annoyed me (for example, the book takes place in winter, yet everyone expects the crops to be thriving), but the political plot wasn’t the most important part of the story. What made the book interesting was the romantic plot that unfurled slowly and carefully.

In romantic fantasy, there’s a tried-and-true trope of two suitors, one of which wins the girl in the end while the other turns out to be the villain—a trope the author has used herself before. She departs from that from the start though. I feared it would lead to a reverse harem story—the men both having the woman while basically ignoring one another—which never works for me. But the author went for a three-way romance where all three are genuinely attracted to other two, and she did it well.

The lynchpin of the relationship isn’t Jory, the sheltered maiden, or Ky, the strong protector. It’s Asher, the traumatised former sex slave who has trouble being touched. His trauma is unravelled slowly and dealt with respect, as Ky gently helps him. Asher is the one who realises Ky’s traumas, the one who knows how sheltered Jory has been, and the one with most experience in three-way sex. By the time the first bedroom scene takes place at the end of the book, all three are in the same mental space—as is the reader—and while they don’t go all the way, the act brings them together as a three-person unit that will face the future together.

What would’ve been a pretty mundane and fairly simple epic fantasy romance turned out to be more interesting because of the characters and their relationships. Jory was perhaps the weakest link in the end, her character that of a YA heroine despite her age, but she’s growing. Ky was saved from being an all-powerful hero with his own trauma. Asher wasn’t a pushover or a weakling despite his past. And hopefully the men will heal during the course of the story. Looking forward to reading more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

July reading recap

July was a slow month for me, as nothing really caught my interest. I started several books that I couldn’t finish. If it hadn’t been for review copies, I probably wouldn’t have read anything. In the end, I read four novels, three of them review ARCs, and 18 mangas, ten of them review copies. Twenty-two books in total.

The one novel that wasn’t a review copy was the latest Psy-Changeling UF romance, Atonement Sky by Nalini Sing. Even the spin-off series has nine books out already, and the series is going as strong as ever. Read my review here.

I had review copies of The Wizard by Shi Wu, a paranormal Chinese danmei with an interesting premise, but it wasn’t a very good romance. I read the vol. 1 novel of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by singNsong, and it was as good as the manhwa adaptation. Lastly, I read the latest Peter Grant novel by Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky, which sadly was a bit of a let-down.

Four of the review mangas I read were follow-ups to ongoing series. There was vol. 3 of Firefly Wedding by Tachibana Oreco, a series I probably would’ve given up already if it weren’t for review copies. The same goes with Tokyo Alien Bros. by Shinzo Keigo, but luckily vol. 3 is the last one. The end was good. Kill Blue vol 2 by Fujimaki Tadatoshi continues the story of a hit-man whose body turns into a teenager’s and he’s sent to a school. This is a funny series and the cliffhanger ending makes me want to read more. And then there was my favourite, Spy x Family vol. 14 by Tatsuya Endo. This series never lets you down.

Then I reviewed one stand-alone manga and a few series starters, some of which I liked and others that I won’t continue with. Cute but Not Cute by Sakishita Senmu was a stand-alone BL about two guys who probably shouldn’t have ended together. Suzuki-kun’s Mindful Life, Vol. 1 by Fujimoto Yuhki was a great start to a cute high school series and I’ll read more. Tower Dungeon 1 by Tsutomu Nihei was a more artistic dungeon series and while it was good, it wasn’t for me.

The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows vol. 1 by Sakaku Hishikawa was a fun fantasy harem series and I might read more, whereas Gushing over Magical Girls vol. 1 by Akihiro Ononaka would’ve been much better if the girls in question hadn’t been 14. And lastly, Double the Trouble, Twice as Nice, Vol. 1 by Ryō Ichino was a fun start to a cute romance series.

The manga I read for myself was fun, but not all of it was good. There was Two Guys at the Vet Clinic by sinonome, a fun start to a BL series about two vets, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be more volumes available. I read 23:45 Re; by Ohana, a follow-up to 23:45, which was a fairly good conclusion to the story, though there’s room for more. My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World Vol. 1 by Nekonomori Shima is such a rip-off of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter that it wouldn’t be too much to call it plagiarised. Also, it wasn’t as cute as the original. The Feisty Omega and His Twin Mates Vol. 1 by Ryo Ayamine was so bad I gave it two stars.

Secrets of the Silent Witch vol 4 by Tobi Tana was cute, but not as interesting as the earlier story arc, but I’m sure it’ll pick up another arc soon. And an anime adaptation came out on Crunchyroll in July too and it’s great. And last but not least, like previous months, I read three volumes of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsubaki, vols. 11, 12 and 13. I’ve almost read all the volumes available on MangaUP! and I’ve been pacing myself until there’s more.

So, despite my reading slump, I managed to read quite a lot. August has a great many interesting books coming out, so it should be a good reading month.

Astrolabe Rebirth by Fei Tian Ye Xiang: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Astrolabe Rebirth by Fei Tian Ye Xiang

I’ve read a couple of books by Fei Tian Ye Xiang and they’ve been a hit and miss with me. Astrolabe Rebirth is more of a hit. It’s a stand-alone sci-fi set in a unique world of Astrolabe. The City of Steel is a dystopian place for humans, enslaved by Father, an AI that rules the city with camera surveillance, robots and human clones. It’s a miserable, polluted place, where humans are likely to meet an untimely end for violating strict rules.

A-Ka is 16 and has just begun working as a technician mending robots and clones, a job he has unique aptitude for, but he dreams of freedom. He’s found his way out of the city, and is building a mecha for himself in secret to escape. One day, he rescues a man from the sea, preserved in a sleeping pod. He has no memories, so A-Ka names him Heishi.

The two mean to go their separate ways, but fate intervenes in the form of a clone uprisal, and the two are swept along with it. They find themselves outside the city, fleeing with humans and clones to the other side of the continent where free people live.

As Heishi regains his memories, he remembers his purpose: rebooting Astrolabe to remove everything that has gone wrong with the system since it was initiated. But Father has the same command system, and may get there first, rebooting the system to its liking. Humans and clones must work together to help Heishi to shut down Father before the AI destroys everything. But the reboot requires a special human component, and that’s A-Ka, the only human Heishi has learned to love.

This was a good story. It was hasty, the world-building was shoddy, and descriptions were confusing if they existed, but the core story was interesting. It wasn’t much of a romance, but A-Ka and Heishi learned to love each other through their hardships. It has some sad moments that were slightly weakened through miraculous twists, but the ending was very good.

A-Ka was a great protagonist, downtrodden but resourceful and resilient. He gained a miraculous ability, but it wasn’t overused. Heishi remained distant, but as he gained his memories and learned about humans, he became more interesting. There were some good side characters too, with proper purpose for the story. I would’ve wished for more romance, but the story was satisfying as it was.