Yamada Monogatari: Troubled Spirits

by Richard Parks

Yamada Monogatari (Yamada's Saga) continues in eight stories never before collected, two original to this book.

The Tiger's Yamada is called to solve a series of murders, both supernatural and not.
The Sorrow of Is a Rain Spirit destroying a village's harvest? Or perhaps it isn't that simple.
Three Little Fox-Spirits, to be precise. Why are they haunting a nobleman's garden?
Uzumaki of the Is there a ghost? A water spirit? And why is a whirlpool forming in the middle of the lake?
A Simple Perhaps not as simple as first believed.
The Ame A different kind of rain spirit.
The Fox's It's difficult enough to deal with an ordinary teenager, but one that is also a shape shifting fox?
One Rainy Day, With There's something strange about the little girl Yamada's daughter wants to play with.

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Genres: Fantasy

147 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2022

About the author

I write mostly fantasy, both short stories and novels. My third short story collection, On the Banks of the River of Heaven was published in November, 2010. My second novella with PS Publishing, The Heavenly Fox, was released in early 2011. I've been a finalist for both the World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature.





Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Shane Bocchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not overly complicated. No big twists. Just stories following a warrior and his priest friend as they encounter and overcome spirits in feudal Japan. It was nice to be back in this world again

[Ben Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have very much enjoyed Parks' Yamada stories and whilst this does feel a little like these stories are not the very finest and do depend occasionally on having read some of the others to fully enjoy them this is a welcome collection.

I read the stories in just a couple of days, even reading new ones over other books I was part way through. A good variety of stories although only one of them is of any length.

Not the best start point (that would be the other short story collection) but a fitting farewell to a fun series of stories.

[J.R. Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all Yamada stories, I loved this book as well. It's a collection of stories from Yamada's life (split into two main groups) and I really enjoyed them all. Some of the stories are shorter and some are longer, but none overstayed their welcome. Like all Yamada stories, this one felt cozy and wistful, and a little melancholy, but overall very enjoyable. The core characters of Kenji and Yamada have a great banter and it's good to see that they've maintainted their friendship over the years.

After discovering this series about 10 years ago, it's made a really large impact on my writing and interests—much larger than the relatively small footprint the series seems to have. I finished the book feeling a little sad that this might be the last set of stories from Yamada, but it also felt very fitting. Without spoiling too much, I feel like the book ends in a way that makes sense for everyone. Although, I wouldn't be upset if we got more stories of Yamada and Kenji just hanging out in the forest, making wry remarks about a fox spirit.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short collection of stories about the title character and his Buddhist monk sidekick. This collection feels like the odds and ends of Parks work with this character, not the best book to start reading about him.
As someone who has read all of the works of Parks on this and some of his other stories, I very much enjoyed these tales.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read and re-read the Yamada Monogatari series. When I stumbled across this book of short stories, and snatched it up and wasn’t disappointed. Each was savored and took me back into the universe I enjoyed so much.