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十二国記 [Jūni Kokuki] #13
백은의 언덕 검은 달 1 : 십이국기 9부
동양적인 세계관과 매력 넘치는 캐릭터로 엄청난 화제를 불러일으킨 판타지 소설 ‘십이국기’ 시리즈, 그 아홉 번째 권. 식(蝕)으로 인해 행방불명되었던 다이키가 돌아오면서 마찬가지로 비슷한 시기에 실종된 대국의 왕 교소를 찾아 모든 일을 바로잡으려고 하는 이야기를 담고 있다.
일본 현지에서 18년 만에 출간된 장편소설 『백은의 언덕 검은 달』은 시기적으로 『황혼의 기슭 새벽의 하늘』과 『마성의 아이』에 이어지는 내용이자, 『바람의 바다 미궁의 기슭』의 6년 뒤 이야기를 그리고 있기에, 『황혼의 기슭 새벽의 하늘』과 『바람의 바다 미궁의 기슭』, 『마성의 아이』를 읽은 뒤 읽는 것을 추천한다.
즉위한 지 얼마 되지 않아 왕이 실종되고 위왕이 섰다. 사라진 왕을 대신해 나라를 바로 세워줄 위왕이라고 생각했지만, 조금이라도 반대되는 의견을 내면 위왕의 주벌이 따른다. 게다가 황폐해질 대로 황폐해진 대국에는 어김없이 매년 혹독한 겨울이 찾아온다. 백성들의 삶은 팍팍하기만 하다. 기댈 곳이 있다면 실종된 왕의 존재이지만 그 왕은 살았는지 죽었는지조차 알 길이 없다.
천계라는 룰은 왕이 죽지 않고 실종된 속에서 위왕이 서고, 기린마저 사라진 상황에서 고장 난 듯 작동하지 않는다. 많은 사람들의 노력 끝에 기린이 돌아오지만, 절대적이고 기적적인 존재로 통하는 기린은 능력을 잃고 제 몸 하나 건사하기 힘든 실정이다. 그런 아무것도 보이지 않는 절망 속에서 시작하는 『백은의 언덕 검은 달』의 앞날은 어둡다.
일본 현지에서 18년 만에 출간된 장편소설 『백은의 언덕 검은 달』은 시기적으로 『황혼의 기슭 새벽의 하늘』과 『마성의 아이』에 이어지는 내용이자, 『바람의 바다 미궁의 기슭』의 6년 뒤 이야기를 그리고 있기에, 『황혼의 기슭 새벽의 하늘』과 『바람의 바다 미궁의 기슭』, 『마성의 아이』를 읽은 뒤 읽는 것을 추천한다.
즉위한 지 얼마 되지 않아 왕이 실종되고 위왕이 섰다. 사라진 왕을 대신해 나라를 바로 세워줄 위왕이라고 생각했지만, 조금이라도 반대되는 의견을 내면 위왕의 주벌이 따른다. 게다가 황폐해질 대로 황폐해진 대국에는 어김없이 매년 혹독한 겨울이 찾아온다. 백성들의 삶은 팍팍하기만 하다. 기댈 곳이 있다면 실종된 왕의 존재이지만 그 왕은 살았는지 죽었는지조차 알 길이 없다.
천계라는 룰은 왕이 죽지 않고 실종된 속에서 위왕이 서고, 기린마저 사라진 상황에서 고장 난 듯 작동하지 않는다. 많은 사람들의 노력 끝에 기린이 돌아오지만, 절대적이고 기적적인 존재로 통하는 기린은 능력을 잃고 제 몸 하나 건사하기 힘든 실정이다. 그런 아무것도 보이지 않는 절망 속에서 시작하는 『백은의 언덕 검은 달』의 앞날은 어둡다.
398 pages, Paperback
Published February 15, 2023
About the author
Fuyumi Ono
137 books345 followersKanji Name: 小野 不由美.
Fuyumi Ono (小野 不由美, Ono Fuyumi) is a Japanese novelist who is best known for writing the Twelve Kingdoms (十二国記, Juuni Kokuki) series, on which a popular anime is based. Her name after marriage is Fuyumi Uchida (内田不由美, Uchida Fuyumi), but she writes under her maiden name.
Ono was born in Nakatsu, Ōita, Kyūshū in 1960. She graduated from Ōtani University in Kyōto with a degree in Buddhist Studies, and in 1988 was employed by the publisher Kōdansha. Her debut story is titled Sleepless on Birthday Eve.
Ono is married to Naoyuki Uchida (内田直行, Uchida Naoyuki), a mystery novelist who writes under the pseudonym Yukito Ayatsuji (綾辻行人 , Ayatsuji Yukito).
Before she started work on Twelve Kingdoms, Fuyumi Ono wrote The Demonic Child (魔性の子), a horror novel about a boy from another world. She later worked certain events from this novel into the Twelve Kingdoms series. Short stories set in the various kingdoms include: Kasho, Toei, Shokan, Kizan and Jogetsu. In February, 2008, the first new Twelve Kingdoms short story, Hisho no Tori (丕緒の鳥) was published in Shinchosha's Yomyom magazine.
According to an interview at the Anime News Network, she is "currently rewriting a girls' horror series (she) wrote long ago."
- Wikipedia
Fuyumi Ono (小野 不由美, Ono Fuyumi) is a Japanese novelist who is best known for writing the Twelve Kingdoms (十二国記, Juuni Kokuki) series, on which a popular anime is based. Her name after marriage is Fuyumi Uchida (内田不由美, Uchida Fuyumi), but she writes under her maiden name.
Ono was born in Nakatsu, Ōita, Kyūshū in 1960. She graduated from Ōtani University in Kyōto with a degree in Buddhist Studies, and in 1988 was employed by the publisher Kōdansha. Her debut story is titled Sleepless on Birthday Eve.
Ono is married to Naoyuki Uchida (内田直行, Uchida Naoyuki), a mystery novelist who writes under the pseudonym Yukito Ayatsuji (綾辻行人 , Ayatsuji Yukito).
Before she started work on Twelve Kingdoms, Fuyumi Ono wrote The Demonic Child (魔性の子), a horror novel about a boy from another world. She later worked certain events from this novel into the Twelve Kingdoms series. Short stories set in the various kingdoms include: Kasho, Toei, Shokan, Kizan and Jogetsu. In February, 2008, the first new Twelve Kingdoms short story, Hisho no Tori (丕緒の鳥) was published in Shinchosha's Yomyom magazine.
According to an interview at the Anime News Network, she is "currently rewriting a girls' horror series (she) wrote long ago."
- Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 9, 2019
For non-Japanese readers you probably know the series as an anime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twe...
This is the first of the 4 volume books the fans have loooong awaited (18years!!!). Since it was coming out separately in Oct and Nov, I decided to wait until every volume was released to read it. She is one of the several authors I love who refuses to release books in ebooks so I bought the paper books. Sooo excited to read them but don't want to finish reading...
This is the first of the 4 volume books the fans have loooong awaited (18years!!!). Since it was coming out separately in Oct and Nov, I decided to wait until every volume was released to read it. She is one of the several authors I love who refuses to release books in ebooks so I bought the paper books. Sooo excited to read them but don't want to finish reading...
March 10, 2020
Although it has been a decade since I read the last series, it was super easy to get back to the story. This book includes some background stories of what happened in the last book as a part of story telling, so I could understand where it was left off without re-reading the old books. (I kind of want to, but I didn't feel it was necessary to do so). Very quick read as I wanted to find out what happens next.
October 18, 2019
とても楽しみにしていたのだが…とにかくくどい！冗長。繰り返しが多く、不要と思われるような挿話が繰り返されるばかりで話が遅々として進まない。戴の民の不運と苦しみようはドン底だし、読んでてうんざりしてきた。泰麒がやっと白圭宮に乗り込んで、話がやっと少し動いたのが1巻の終盤にかけて。嫌気がさして放り出しちゃうかもしれんわこれ。
July 8, 2025
COMPLETE REVIEW (for the whole "Hills of Silver Ruins", which comprises books #13 to #16)
After reading all 1200 pages, 374k words of this novel, I can tell you DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Do not get invested in this story, in Gyousou or Taiki. Do NOT give this book a chance. You WILL be disappointed.
The first two parts of this four part novel drag like a slug. Nothing ever happens and you have to read over and over again that nothing ever happens and how that frustrates the protagonists. But then you push through because in part 3 everything starts moving and you're excited because Gyousou is back on scene and Taiki got political power again and you can see the story's climax coming with fireworks.
But it won't. There will be a bang, but off-screen. Spoilers ahead, who cares: after enduring what Asen does while usurping the throne, after all his crimes, his cruelty, his selfishness, he loses his battle off-screen. You have five chapters of characters deciding (one by one) to die in their last stand and then another five of them reuniting with characters that were never present in the story to begin with. And then, THEN, the book ends. A throwaway line at the end-summary these books have will tell you he lost and Gyousou is back on the throne and that's it. You won't get a satisfying ending, you won't even see the emperor and his usurper talk or interact. You won't even see Gyousou and Taiki interact beyond a "hey, you have grown".
1200 pages. 374 thousand words. I read all that, I invested all that time, I was expecting a satisfying ending, but I didn't even get a proper ending. I think Fuyumi Ono has no idea how to structure a novel and should go back to reading what a climax is. This book is so badly structured that it left me thinking that the genius behind the structure of book 3 that I loved so much wasn't there, it was just a fluke. After reading all nine books of the Twelve Kingdoms saga, I think I'm done with this author. I know there aren't any more books to read after this, but I won't even check if another one gets published.
This was the disappointment of the decade for me.
Ah! And one more thing: something I loved about this world was that motherhood wasn't a thing. Babies are born out of trees, so there are no gender roles. These books were populated by strong women that occupied the same spaces and held the same power as men. But in this book, not only 5% of the characters are women, you constantly hear that men have to fight to protect "women and children". This wasn't a thing! I was promised a world without gender roles. Why are suddenly women incapable of fighting? Why are they relegated to care for the children? What happened to you, Ono-sensei?
After reading all 1200 pages, 374k words of this novel, I can tell you DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Do not get invested in this story, in Gyousou or Taiki. Do NOT give this book a chance. You WILL be disappointed.
The first two parts of this four part novel drag like a slug. Nothing ever happens and you have to read over and over again that nothing ever happens and how that frustrates the protagonists. But then you push through because in part 3 everything starts moving and you're excited because Gyousou is back on scene and Taiki got political power again and you can see the story's climax coming with fireworks.
But it won't. There will be a bang, but off-screen. Spoilers ahead, who cares: after enduring what Asen does while usurping the throne, after all his crimes, his cruelty, his selfishness, he loses his battle off-screen. You have five chapters of characters deciding (one by one) to die in their last stand and then another five of them reuniting with characters that were never present in the story to begin with. And then, THEN, the book ends. A throwaway line at the end-summary these books have will tell you he lost and Gyousou is back on the throne and that's it. You won't get a satisfying ending, you won't even see the emperor and his usurper talk or interact. You won't even see Gyousou and Taiki interact beyond a "hey, you have grown".
1200 pages. 374 thousand words. I read all that, I invested all that time, I was expecting a satisfying ending, but I didn't even get a proper ending. I think Fuyumi Ono has no idea how to structure a novel and should go back to reading what a climax is. This book is so badly structured that it left me thinking that the genius behind the structure of book 3 that I loved so much wasn't there, it was just a fluke. After reading all nine books of the Twelve Kingdoms saga, I think I'm done with this author. I know there aren't any more books to read after this, but I won't even check if another one gets published.
This was the disappointment of the decade for me.
Ah! And one more thing: something I loved about this world was that motherhood wasn't a thing. Babies are born out of trees, so there are no gender roles. These books were populated by strong women that occupied the same spaces and held the same power as men. But in this book, not only 5% of the characters are women, you constantly hear that men have to fight to protect "women and children". This wasn't a thing! I was promised a world without gender roles. Why are suddenly women incapable of fighting? Why are they relegated to care for the children? What happened to you, Ono-sensei?
Currently Reading
June 9, 2024I just started to read Eugene Woodbury's translation. I am excited to finally find out how Taiki and Gyousou's story ends.
Silver Ruins, Black Moon, Volume 1.
(Title translation from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twe..., accessed 6/9/24.)
Google Translate translation of the book blurb (slightly updated):
Kirin returns to Taikoku. Where is the king?
Saku Gyosou disappeared six months after ascending to power, and Taiki also disappeared. For six years without a king, people survived extreme cold and poverty. Worried, General Risai enlists the help of the king of Kei and the king of En, and is able to bring Taiki back. Now, having returned to his homeland, the kirin innocently prays, "The king is safe." - The Hakuchi has not fallen. With a ray of hope, an endless journey begins!
Silver Ruins, Black Moon, Volume 1.
(Title translation from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twe..., accessed 6/9/24.)
Google Translate translation of the book blurb (slightly updated):
Kirin returns to Taikoku. Where is the king?
Saku Gyosou disappeared six months after ascending to power, and Taiki also disappeared. For six years without a king, people survived extreme cold and poverty. Worried, General Risai enlists the help of the king of Kei and the king of En, and is able to bring Taiki back. Now, having returned to his homeland, the kirin innocently prays, "The king is safe." - The Hakuchi has not fallen. With a ray of hope, an endless journey begins!
July 25, 2025
I can't really say I enjoyed this one. Fan-translation errors aside (cuz you really can't hold that against the plot) the story meandered in uncomfortable and unsatisfying ways while repeating the same phrases depicting misery and desperation, over and over again. Did I need several chapters of the protagonists traveling and following leads that do not pan out?
Not really.
Would I have liked to experience the ultimate comeuppance of the villain?
Obviously!
It was a long slog without much to celebrate in the end.
Maybe it's another allegory for war, I onno
Not really.
Would I have liked to experience the ultimate comeuppance of the villain?
Obviously!
It was a long slog without much to celebrate in the end.
Maybe it's another allegory for war, I onno
November 7, 2019
「十二国記、１８年ぶりの新作」
十二国の中で北方に位置し、年の半分は雪に閉ざされる極寒の地、戴極国。
６年前に即位した新王・驍宗はわずか半年で謀反により行方不明に。同時に戴国麒麟・泰麒も蓬莱に飛ばされ行方が知れず、６年後やっと戻ってこれたときには麒麟の力をほぼ発揮できない状態になっていた。王が不在の戴国は荒廃が進み、民の生活は苦しくなるばかり。戴国の安定を取り戻すため、どうにかして行方不明の王を探し出そうと立ち上がる人々の物語。
高校時代に夢中で読んだ十二国記シリーズの新作を読める幸せをかみしめた。苦難続きの戴国で懸命に生きる人々の暮らしが丁寧に丁寧に書かれている１〜２巻。もうすぐ発売される３〜４巻では一体どんな展開が！？と期待に胸を膨らませています。
十二国の中で北方に位置し、年の半分は雪に閉ざされる極寒の地、戴極国。
６年前に即位した新王・驍宗はわずか半年で謀反により行方不明に。同時に戴国麒麟・泰麒も蓬莱に飛ばされ行方が知れず、６年後やっと戻ってこれたときには麒麟の力をほぼ発揮できない状態になっていた。王が不在の戴国は荒廃が進み、民の生活は苦しくなるばかり。戴国の安定を取り戻すため、どうにかして行方不明の王を探し出そうと立ち上がる人々の物語。
高校時代に夢中で読んだ十二国記シリーズの新作を読める幸せをかみしめた。苦難続きの戴国で懸命に生きる人々の暮らしが丁寧に丁寧に書かれている１〜２巻。もうすぐ発売される３〜４巻では一体どんな展開が！？と期待に胸を膨らませています。
October 18, 2019
高校友人に唆され(「ネタバレせずに感想言いづらいからイカ(私)あたりを巻き込んで心中したい」)、久々に十二国記の世界へ。
このシリーズを読むのは10年ぶりくらいなので色々忘れていたが、すんなり世界に戻れた。
が、まだ一作目だし、4冊に及ぶ壮大な物語の土台づくり(そして読者の記憶を蘇らせる役割)の側面が強いように感じるので、星3つ。
あっという間に読んでしまった...
このシリーズを読むのは10年ぶりくらいなので色々忘れていたが、すんなり世界に戻れた。
が、まだ一作目だし、4冊に及ぶ壮大な物語の土台づくり(そして読者の記憶を蘇らせる役割)の側面が強いように感じるので、星3つ。
あっという間に読んでしまった...
March 2, 2020
4冊にわたる長編物語の始まりの一冊。起承転結でいう起にあたる。端的に言うと暗く、物事が進まないことにじれったさを感じ悶える展開。まとわりつくいやなあせを我慢して読み進むべし。
April 20, 2020
期待已久的續集, 說實話故事劇情有些忘了
不過黃昏之岸 曉之天中最後面泰麒與李齋的對話印象很深刻
讓人期待在這幾乎無解的僵局泰麒要如何拯救戴國
第一集主要在訴說戴國目前的慘狀
並點出目前戴國偽朝的不尋常
讓人好奇除了驍宗的下落外,偽朝到底是發生了甚麼事?
為何偽王奪取王位卻又似乎對統治毫無興趣的感覺
令人期待接下的發展
不過黃昏之岸 曉之天中最後面泰麒與李齋的對話印象很深刻
讓人期待在這幾乎無解的僵局泰麒要如何拯救戴國
第一集主要在訴說戴國目前的慘狀
並點出目前戴國偽朝的不尋常
讓人好奇除了驍宗的下落外,偽朝到底是發生了甚麼事?
為何偽王奪取王位卻又似乎對統治毫無興趣的感覺
令人期待接下的發展
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews