Astro-NutsAstro-Nuts by Logan J. Hunder is the sort of story that may work a bit better on the screen (as a movie, television show, or anime) than on the page. Something about it simply didn’t work. I wasn’t quite as hooked as I thought I would be after the initial first chapter.
Before the Coffee Gets ColdToshikazu Kawaguchi’s novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a slight first volume in an ongoing series expertly translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot. The entire story takes place within a certain coffee shop, the type of tiny, cozy place only known to locals. This shop is one filled with secrets, though. A ghost occupies a certain chair, drinking her coffee just as diligently in death as she did in life. People claim that on the rare occasion she leaves her seat, the new chair’s new occupant is able to go back in time and have one more conversation with a loved one.
Master AssassinsA truly wonderful tale is told in Robert V.S. Redick’s Master Assassins. The Fire Sacraments series starts off with one hell of a bang in a tale which follows two brothers—Kandri and Mektu Hinjuman—in desert world wracked with war that is only urged on by the Prophet, though some claim her to be nothing more than a madwoman.
If Cats Disappeared from the WorldGenki Kawamura’s first novel, If Cats Disappeared from the World, has sold over two million copies worldwide, and it isn’t difficult to see why. A storyteller in all forms, Kawamura isn’t simply a novelist. He has also produced movies such as the famed Your Name as well as done work as a screenwriter and showrunner. All of these myriad of storytelling techniques leak into the novel, if not in method it was crafted, then in our nameless main character, his hobbies, and his loves.
Unlike the West’s comics, manga is often drawn in black ink on white paper. This is for a number of reasons. Besides artistic style, there’s one huge factor: cost. It’s much, much cheaper for all involved. How’s this? Well, let me throw in a little history and a little know-how from doing production editor work.
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The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great WarmingJames Lawrence Powell is no stranger to penning books, but The 2084 Report: An Oral History of The Great Warming is his foray into fiction. The majority of his books are nonfiction titles touching on the subjects he’s spent his life teaching and researching at various universities around the country—namely geology and climate science.
The Woman in the Purple SkirtNatsuko Imamura’s debut English novel is a story that is at once a slow-burning character study and a tale of obsession and psychological intrigue. The Woman in the Purple Skirt has already won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in Japan, which Imamura was previously nominated for twice before.
I’ve been sitting here starting a blinking cursor for a while now, trying to put words to paper on the passing of Kentaro Miura, the creator of the famed manga Berserk. I don’t think I can put it any better than what I’ve already said in my article “Kentaro Miura & Berserk: Finding Hope in Insurmountable Darkness” for Funimation. But write-ups for other websites come with things like word counts, so here’s a little more on my experience with Berserk and the passing of one of the great creators of our time.
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Twelve Nights at Rotter HouseJ.W. Ocker’s Twelve Nights at Rotter House is horror novel set in a classic haunted house. This is by no means Ocker’s first work. He has written numerous books about creepy or otherwise odd locations across New England, including Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe, which won an Edgar Award in 2015.
Terminal BoredomIzumi Suzuki is a Japanese author whose science fiction works left a lasting impact on the genre and should have been translated into English long ago. Thankfully, this collection has begun the overdue task of bringing her work to a much wider international audience. Terminal Boredom is a collection of some of her short fiction translated into English and bound together in this 240 page volume.
Welcome to Looking Glass Reads! We review speculative fiction novels as well as manga, light novels, and graphic novels.
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