No Hero
All right, finished reading what's currently published of No Hero (6 volumes). :'D Volume 7 should be the last volume. Now I have no more from Yu Wo to read. T___T;; Oh, but she did recently post up a new part of Female Warrior. (part 9) :DDD
To sum this series up, it's about a vampire butler and his half-android master living in a city protected by 4 heroes. The necessity of the heroes is questioned later in the story, and humans, the church, and non-humans (vampires, werewolves, gargoyles...) start coming into conflict with each other... there is also modeling. Lots and lots of modeling. XD; I wondered where this "modeling" part fit in! Secret identities EVERYWHERE, but I wish we got more of people's reactions to finding out secret identities... we don't, because everything is told from ZhaoSuo's POV, who is not a part of a lot of the action.
So, the outsider POV I mentioned in my previous post. ZhaoSuo, who is not a fighter but a butler, sees a lot of happenings through TV, through surveillance cameras, and the like. He's mostly not at the actual scenes where things are happening. It's a strange way to move the story along. I kept wanting more of the action, except we only ever see what ZhaoSuo sees, so we miss quite a lot of the action. (I don't know how many times I went, "Nooo, don't leave, ZhaoSuo! I want to see what that guy does!!" *flails* "Don't faint here!") Yu Wo mentions in her author notes that she wavered between 1st person and 3rd person before she settled on 1st person because she wanted to write the story through a butler's stance on heroes. Yu Wo's 1st person POV stories are quite awesome. 1/2 Prince and Legend of Sun Knight are both evidence of that. I feel like her 1st person POV stories are more popular...? I wonder if anyone else feels the same way.
It's pretty funny that in one of Yu Wo's plurks, she mentioned that people requested, "Please write a story with ZhaoSuo as the main character!" She burst out laughing because ZhaoSuo is the main character of all of No Hero (that's seven volumes!) but he's always commenting on other people's actions that his own presence is... very thin. XD; This outsider POV thing is quite interesting. I feel like playing with something like this in my own writing.
I thought No Hero worked well as a stand alone from Eclipse Hunter, but after reading 6 volumes of it... I think it's better to have read Eclipse Hunter before reading No Hero, though you could read No Hero without reading EH if you want to experience things fully from ZhaoSuo's POV (because a lot of stuff Daren reveals that's new to ZhaoSuo is not new to the reader if you've read EH).
No Hero's volume 4 is more about ZhaoSuo... which actually was my least favorite volume because I'm more interested in Daren (Daren, from Eclipse Hunter). Volume 4 ends in such a way that it feels like it's the end of the series! Except nope, there's another 3 volumes after volume 4. I hope this means the climax of volume 7 is even more intense than volume 4's. :3
Some character intros~
朝索·安德利斯 / ZhaoSuo Endless
Main character of No Hero. He is a vampire looking for work as a butler but has had very little luck because of his being a vampire. He is a 5th gen vampire, meaning he should be fairly strong, but he is not versed in fighting and does not know a lot about a vampire's capabilities as he was raised by his human dad (his mom is a vampire). ZhaoSuo often starts his narration with a letter to his dad about what he needs to work on more as a butler.
Vampires are not reflected in mirrors and cannot be captured on film, so ZhaoSuo has never seen how he looks, but Daren feels ZhaoSuo looks very kind. A kind vampire...?
ZhaoSuo is a very capable butler.
(LOL, so many pictures of him, and there's even more around. Really, who's the main character? XD;; )
安向夜 / translated as Daren Solaris by Odd Squad Scanlations
Daren is back for the sequel! And he yet again plays a major part, except this time we see him through the eyes of another. It's been a few years since Eclipse Hunter. Daren has graduated and is now in college. One night, ZhaoSuo and Daren meet, and Daren gains himself a butler. This story is very much about the bond between ZhaoSuo and Daren. This felt a little strange to me at first because Daren starts out quite alone in this series. What happened to all the friends he surrounded himself with in Eclipse Hunter? His brother Devon is rarely present in No Hero (though he is talked about a lot), and Theodore is not around a lot either. Neither is Ezart, though he shows up now and then (I wish he appeared more in this story). Daren does make a lot of new friends in No Hero though, and his "family" grows a lot.
At first, I thought Daren had matured a lot, but nope, he is still very much like how he was in Eclipse Hunter. He's not too sure how to act normal and often asks ZhaoSuo what he should do. (My friends invited me to karaoke! I, I don't know how to do karaoke! I told them I liked Beethoven. They all thought me weird. How do I pick songs?)
Between Eclipse Hunter and No Hero, Daren has become a "hero" as Dark Sun, one of the four heroes guarding the city. He feels this validates him having so much power. He protects the east.
樂音 / yuèyīn (her name means musical note)
One of Daren's other vampire employees. She was Daren's previous butler, but he dismisses her for some reason. Is an 8th gen vampire.
龍安 / lóngān (Logan would be a nice translation... though that might be too X-Men as this character already gives me a wolf-ish kind of feel... maybe a literal translation.. Dragon Peace, since they're all "hero" names)
(Well, I believe this is his usual appearance, but I won't spoil what his identity is. XD;)
One of the heroes responsible for the safety of the city. He appears fierce and only shows up at night. He protects the south.
初風 / chūfēng / First Wind
A gentleman hero who wears a white suit. He protects the west.
孤蝶 / Solitary Butterfly
A solitary female hero. She protects the north. Her real identity has yet to be revealed as of volume 6 while the other two heroes' identities are already known to Daren.
Ezart
Daren's hotheaded friend from Eclipse Hunter. He doesn't show up much.
天茶 / tiānchá
Daren's lead bodyguard.
荊棘 / jīngjí
Twelve year old daughter of 天茶. Likes Daren.
小谷 / xiǎogǔ
One of Daren's bodyguards. He likes to flirt.
五月 / May
One of Daren's bodyguards. Is a guy despite his name.
艾薇席拉．安德利斯 / àiwéixílā endless
ZhaoSuo's vampire mother.
弓鳳香 / gōngfèngxiāng
A beautiful vampire sent by ZhaoSuo's mom to persuade him to return home.
沙蒂娜．克理斯多夫 / Sadina Christopher (this name is easy to read and translate... the others, not so much)
ZhaoSuo's cousin. Current stand-in leader of the 艾勒西 (Alex?) family.
柯帝士．克理斯多夫 / Curtis Christopher
Sadina's only grandson, who is being prepped to be the next stand-in leader of the butler family.
季洛初 / jì luòchū
A cameraman. Older brother of 季洛倫 from the clothes shop, X-Killer, that Daren and ZhaoSuo shop at.
阿大 / ā dà
Friend of 季洛初.
亞恆 / yāhéng
College friend of Daren.
歐爾佳 / ōuěrjiā
The female shop owner of X-Killer.
姬兒 / jīér
A female worker at X-Killer.
季洛倫 / jìluòlún
A male worker at X-Killer. Younger brother of 季洛初. Likes to watch Ezart's battles. His favorite hero is Dragon Peace.
白石 / White Stone
A gargoyle who sort of leads the non-humans of this city.
波賽帝 / bōsàidì
A hermaphrodite mermaid (who likes Daren).
伊·艾克斯 / yī àikèsī
A vampire who is over 1000 years old. He has been chased by the church for over 1000 years and is still being chased now. He is on good terms with ZhaoSuo and is one of the few vampires ZhaoSuo knows.
安西歐 / ānxīōu
Leader of one of the Evil Elimination Squad from the church.
伊娜 / Yina
A female member of the Evil Elimination Squad.
岳剛 / yuègāng
A policeman who "mistakes" ZhaoSuo for a vampire. He thinks that ZhaoSuo is human later on, and he often borrows money from ZhaoSuo. He becomes one of ZhaoSuo's friends.
日向炎 / Devon Solaris
The Solaris Emperor. Daren's older brother.
凱爾
Devon's right hand man.
安特契 / Theodore Avery
Daren's "dad".
艾爾利安
One of Daren's friends from high school.
Other characters:
DSII
白蓮月
These are just short one liners so I remember who each character is. I left most names untranslated.
Hm, having finally read all of Yu Wo's works, I thought I would be able to rank them in the order I like them, but I can't. XD;; Legend of Sun Knight is currently my favorite though. No Hero is pretty awesome too, but I think I like Eclipse Hunter better than No Hero. I really miss the characters from Eclipse Hunter...
To sum this series up, it's about a vampire butler and his half-android master living in a city protected by 4 heroes. The necessity of the heroes is questioned later in the story, and humans, the church, and non-humans (vampires, werewolves, gargoyles...) start coming into conflict with each other... there is also modeling. Lots and lots of modeling. XD; I wondered where this "modeling" part fit in! Secret identities EVERYWHERE, but I wish we got more of people's reactions to finding out secret identities... we don't, because everything is told from ZhaoSuo's POV, who is not a part of a lot of the action.
So, the outsider POV I mentioned in my previous post. ZhaoSuo, who is not a fighter but a butler, sees a lot of happenings through TV, through surveillance cameras, and the like. He's mostly not at the actual scenes where things are happening. It's a strange way to move the story along. I kept wanting more of the action, except we only ever see what ZhaoSuo sees, so we miss quite a lot of the action. (I don't know how many times I went, "Nooo, don't leave, ZhaoSuo! I want to see what that guy does!!" *flails* "Don't faint here!") Yu Wo mentions in her author notes that she wavered between 1st person and 3rd person before she settled on 1st person because she wanted to write the story through a butler's stance on heroes. Yu Wo's 1st person POV stories are quite awesome. 1/2 Prince and Legend of Sun Knight are both evidence of that. I feel like her 1st person POV stories are more popular...? I wonder if anyone else feels the same way.
It's pretty funny that in one of Yu Wo's plurks, she mentioned that people requested, "Please write a story with ZhaoSuo as the main character!" She burst out laughing because ZhaoSuo is the main character of all of No Hero (that's seven volumes!) but he's always commenting on other people's actions that his own presence is... very thin. XD; This outsider POV thing is quite interesting. I feel like playing with something like this in my own writing.
I thought No Hero worked well as a stand alone from Eclipse Hunter, but after reading 6 volumes of it... I think it's better to have read Eclipse Hunter before reading No Hero, though you could read No Hero without reading EH if you want to experience things fully from ZhaoSuo's POV (because a lot of stuff Daren reveals that's new to ZhaoSuo is not new to the reader if you've read EH).
No Hero's volume 4 is more about ZhaoSuo... which actually was my least favorite volume because I'm more interested in Daren (Daren, from Eclipse Hunter). Volume 4 ends in such a way that it feels like it's the end of the series! Except nope, there's another 3 volumes after volume 4. I hope this means the climax of volume 7 is even more intense than volume 4's. :3
Some character intros~
朝索·安德利斯 / ZhaoSuo Endless
Main character of No Hero. He is a vampire looking for work as a butler but has had very little luck because of his being a vampire. He is a 5th gen vampire, meaning he should be fairly strong, but he is not versed in fighting and does not know a lot about a vampire's capabilities as he was raised by his human dad (his mom is a vampire). ZhaoSuo often starts his narration with a letter to his dad about what he needs to work on more as a butler.
Vampires are not reflected in mirrors and cannot be captured on film, so ZhaoSuo has never seen how he looks, but Daren feels ZhaoSuo looks very kind. A kind vampire...?
ZhaoSuo is a very capable butler.
(LOL, so many pictures of him, and there's even more around. Really, who's the main character? XD;; )
安向夜 / translated as Daren Solaris by Odd Squad Scanlations
Daren is back for the sequel! And he yet again plays a major part, except this time we see him through the eyes of another. It's been a few years since Eclipse Hunter. Daren has graduated and is now in college. One night, ZhaoSuo and Daren meet, and Daren gains himself a butler. This story is very much about the bond between ZhaoSuo and Daren. This felt a little strange to me at first because Daren starts out quite alone in this series. What happened to all the friends he surrounded himself with in Eclipse Hunter? His brother Devon is rarely present in No Hero (though he is talked about a lot), and Theodore is not around a lot either. Neither is Ezart, though he shows up now and then (I wish he appeared more in this story). Daren does make a lot of new friends in No Hero though, and his "family" grows a lot.
At first, I thought Daren had matured a lot, but nope, he is still very much like how he was in Eclipse Hunter. He's not too sure how to act normal and often asks ZhaoSuo what he should do. (My friends invited me to karaoke! I, I don't know how to do karaoke! I told them I liked Beethoven. They all thought me weird. How do I pick songs?)
Between Eclipse Hunter and No Hero, Daren has become a "hero" as Dark Sun, one of the four heroes guarding the city. He feels this validates him having so much power. He protects the east.
樂音 / yuèyīn (her name means musical note)
One of Daren's other vampire employees. She was Daren's previous butler, but he dismisses her for some reason. Is an 8th gen vampire.
龍安 / lóngān (Logan would be a nice translation... though that might be too X-Men as this character already gives me a wolf-ish kind of feel... maybe a literal translation.. Dragon Peace, since they're all "hero" names)
(Well, I believe this is his usual appearance, but I won't spoil what his identity is. XD;)
One of the heroes responsible for the safety of the city. He appears fierce and only shows up at night. He protects the south.
初風 / chūfēng / First Wind
A gentleman hero who wears a white suit. He protects the west.
孤蝶 / Solitary Butterfly
A solitary female hero. She protects the north. Her real identity has yet to be revealed as of volume 6 while the other two heroes' identities are already known to Daren.
Ezart
Daren's hotheaded friend from Eclipse Hunter. He doesn't show up much.
天茶 / tiānchá
Daren's lead bodyguard.
荊棘 / jīngjí
Twelve year old daughter of 天茶. Likes Daren.
小谷 / xiǎogǔ
One of Daren's bodyguards. He likes to flirt.
五月 / May
One of Daren's bodyguards. Is a guy despite his name.
艾薇席拉．安德利斯 / àiwéixílā endless
ZhaoSuo's vampire mother.
弓鳳香 / gōngfèngxiāng
A beautiful vampire sent by ZhaoSuo's mom to persuade him to return home.
沙蒂娜．克理斯多夫 / Sadina Christopher (this name is easy to read and translate... the others, not so much)
ZhaoSuo's cousin. Current stand-in leader of the 艾勒西 (Alex?) family.
柯帝士．克理斯多夫 / Curtis Christopher
Sadina's only grandson, who is being prepped to be the next stand-in leader of the butler family.
季洛初 / jì luòchū
A cameraman. Older brother of 季洛倫 from the clothes shop, X-Killer, that Daren and ZhaoSuo shop at.
阿大 / ā dà
Friend of 季洛初.
亞恆 / yāhéng
College friend of Daren.
歐爾佳 / ōuěrjiā
The female shop owner of X-Killer.
姬兒 / jīér
A female worker at X-Killer.
季洛倫 / jìluòlún
A male worker at X-Killer. Younger brother of 季洛初. Likes to watch Ezart's battles. His favorite hero is Dragon Peace.
白石 / White Stone
A gargoyle who sort of leads the non-humans of this city.
波賽帝 / bōsàidì
A hermaphrodite mermaid (who likes Daren).
伊·艾克斯 / yī àikèsī
A vampire who is over 1000 years old. He has been chased by the church for over 1000 years and is still being chased now. He is on good terms with ZhaoSuo and is one of the few vampires ZhaoSuo knows.
安西歐 / ānxīōu
Leader of one of the Evil Elimination Squad from the church.
伊娜 / Yina
A female member of the Evil Elimination Squad.
岳剛 / yuègāng
A policeman who "mistakes" ZhaoSuo for a vampire. He thinks that ZhaoSuo is human later on, and he often borrows money from ZhaoSuo. He becomes one of ZhaoSuo's friends.
日向炎 / Devon Solaris
The Solaris Emperor. Daren's older brother.
凱爾
Devon's right hand man.
安特契 / Theodore Avery
Daren's "dad".
艾爾利安
One of Daren's friends from high school.
Other characters:
DSII
白蓮月
These are just short one liners so I remember who each character is. I left most names untranslated.
Hm, having finally read all of Yu Wo's works, I thought I would be able to rank them in the order I like them, but I can't. XD;; Legend of Sun Knight is currently my favorite though. No Hero is pretty awesome too, but I think I like Eclipse Hunter better than No Hero. I really miss the characters from Eclipse Hunter...