Tag Archives: Japan

BTBA Post: Polar Bears and Cyborg Turtles: Some Non-Human Narrative Perspectives

(this piece was first published on the Three Percent website on 12/12/16 and was written for the Best Translated Book Award series of posts) I’ve only come across two books this year that take as their main narrator(s) a non-human creature: Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky; and Mr.

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Charles Tan on Yoshiki Tanaka’s Legend of the Galactic Heroes Series

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: 30 Years Ahead of Its Time By Charles Tan While Western Science Fiction and Fantasy is currently experiencing mainstream appeal thanks to successful novel-to-TV adaptations like Game of Thrones, The Expanse, and The Magicians, the Japanese media industry has this formula pegged down as far back as the 1980s. Media

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Out This Month: November

Isra Isle by Nava Semel, translated by Jessica Cohen (Mandel Vilar Press, November 1) “This novel is inspired by a true historical event. Before Theodore Herzl there was Mordecai Manuel Noah, an American journalist, diplomat, playwright, and visionary. In September 1825 he bought Grand Island, downriver from Niagara Falls, from the local Native Americans as

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Out This Month: October 2016

The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike, translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm (Thomas Dunne Books, October 11) “One of the most popular writers working in Japan today, Mariko Koike is a recognized master of detective fiction and horror writing. Known in particular for her hybrid works that blend these styles with elements of romance, The Graveyard

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REVIEW: Speculative Japan 3 edited by Edward Lipsett

translated by: see below Kurodahan Press November 30, 2012 292 pages   You wanted an intergalactic, thousand-year-long love story? Speculative Japan 3 has it. You were interested in some short, cutting satire? Yup, Speculative Japan 3 has that too. And world-ending experiments? Clones? Invisible undergrads? Speculative Japan 3 has you covered. With many of these

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OUT THIS MONTH: AUGUST 2016

The Gate of Sorrows (Book 1) by Miyuki Miyabe, translated by Jim Hubbert (Haikasoru, August 16) “A series of murders shocks Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward, but Shigenori, a retired police detective, is instead obsessed with a gargoyle that seems to move. College freshman Kotaro launches a web-based investigation of the killer, and comes to find that

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REVIEW: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Volume 1: Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka

translated by Daniel Huddleston Haikasoru March 8, 2016 304 pages grab a copy   Legend of the Galactic Heroes truly lives up to its name: it takes the reader on a journey across several centuries and many light-years to tell a story that confirms what we know about human nature. Greed- for power, wealth, etc.-

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