The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Two: Sea of Wind, by Fuyumi Ono.
Though set in the same world as the first Twelve Kingdoms novel and possessing a few of the same characters, this is not a continuation of Yoko’s story, but about events a number of years before that story begins. You don’t have to read the first book first, but if you did, note that the hero of this one is much easier to take than Yoko is for much of her story.
A young boy is swept away from Japan into another world, where he is named Taiki and informed that he is a kirin: a magical shapeshifter who enacts the totally literal Mandate of Heaven via his choice of a new king. (The king can be either male or female, incidentally.) But unlike a normal kirin, Taiki can’t shapeshift into his animal form or bind demons into his service. If he can’t even be authentically himself, how can he correctly choose the rightful king?
Like the first novel, this book has a slowly builds up to a powerful climax. Most of the book involves Taiki slowly learning the ways of the kirin and the world. This is rather leisurely paced, though the world itself, which is based on Chinese mythology and elaborated with an unusual level of invention and detail, is fascinating. But by the time Taiki makes his choice, I was completely invested in his emotional conflicts.
The take on the “rightful king” theme is unusual and intriguing, but I wish there had been more exploration and critique of how and why it works, and whether it’s really better than other methods of obtaining a monarch. Also, though the translation is less clunky than that of the first book, I question the choice of the translators to refer to Chinese mythical beings as “boggarts,” “faeries,” and “lamia.” Those are very culturally specific and non-Chinese creatures, and keeping the original terms intact would have been much less jarring. (If those were the original terms, I question Ono’s choice to use them!)
Quibbles aside, this is definitely worth reading if you’re more in the mood for worldbuilding and character development than wall-to-wall action. Akihiro Yamada did the gorgeous interior illustrations.
View on Amazon: Twelve Kingdoms - Paperback Edition Volume 2: Sea of Wind (v. 2)
A young boy is swept away from Japan into another world, where he is named Taiki and informed that he is a kirin: a magical shapeshifter who enacts the totally literal Mandate of Heaven via his choice of a new king. (The king can be either male or female, incidentally.) But unlike a normal kirin, Taiki can’t shapeshift into his animal form or bind demons into his service. If he can’t even be authentically himself, how can he correctly choose the rightful king?
Like the first novel, this book has a slowly builds up to a powerful climax. Most of the book involves Taiki slowly learning the ways of the kirin and the world. This is rather leisurely paced, though the world itself, which is based on Chinese mythology and elaborated with an unusual level of invention and detail, is fascinating. But by the time Taiki makes his choice, I was completely invested in his emotional conflicts.
The take on the “rightful king” theme is unusual and intriguing, but I wish there had been more exploration and critique of how and why it works, and whether it’s really better than other methods of obtaining a monarch. Also, though the translation is less clunky than that of the first book, I question the choice of the translators to refer to Chinese mythical beings as “boggarts,” “faeries,” and “lamia.” Those are very culturally specific and non-Chinese creatures, and keeping the original terms intact would have been much less jarring. (If those were the original terms, I question Ono’s choice to use them!)
Quibbles aside, this is definitely worth reading if you’re more in the mood for worldbuilding and character development than wall-to-wall action. Akihiro Yamada did the gorgeous interior illustrations.
View on Amazon: Twelve Kingdoms - Paperback Edition Volume 2: Sea of Wind (v. 2)