The Book of Heroes

by Miyuki Miyabe, Alexander O. Smith (Translator)

When her brother Hiroki disappears after a violent altercation with school bullies, Yuriko finds a magical book in his room. The book leads her to another world where she learns that Hiroki has been possessed by the evil King in Yellow, and that only she can save him...and solve the riddle of why the King is also called "Hero." None

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Japan, Books About Books, Asia

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2010

About the author

See also 宮部 みゆき (Japanese language profile) and 宮部美幸 (Chinese language profile).

Miyuki Miyabe (宮部みゆき Miyabe Miyuki) is a popular contemporary Japanese author active in a number of genres including science fiction, mystery fiction, historical fiction, social commentary, and juvenile fiction.
Miyabe started writing novels at the age of 23. She has been a prolific writer, publishing dozens of novels and winning many major literary prizes, including the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize in 1993 for Kasha and the Naoki Prize in 1998 for Riyū [The Reason] (理由). A Japanese film adaptation of Riyû, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, was released in 2004.

Reviews

[Snarktastic Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting story. The premise is intriguing. The prose is beautiful. And, it is a translation. This book is a credit to both the author and the translator.

And, that is all I know to say.

[Seth T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me get this out of the way at the outset: the antagonist is story! *jaw drops* Now, back to your regularly scheduled review.

It's pretty easy to see why fans of Miyabe's Brave Story could be disappointed in The Book of Heroes. The former was a winsome, compulsive read. Miyabe played with familiar fantasy and JRPG tropes using a wholly believable protagonist and did so with beauty and confidence. It was almost impossible not to enjoy her 800-page entry into young adult fantasy. Heroes has likewise been strangely shelved in bookstores' manga sections. It wasn't fitting for Brave Story and it wasn't fitting for Heroes. And unfortunately, similar treatment may wind up giving readers the impression that Miyabe is extrapolating on the same riff here.

Which is where we come to the obvious collage of reader disappointment. Expectations can be brutal. And I myself expected this new novel to be something at least in similar vein to Brave Story. I was, however, fortunate to be mistaken.

What Miyabe does with Heroes is just fantastic. It's not nearly so compelling a read as Brave Story, but it's not supposed to be. Just like Crime and Punishment, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Gravity's Rainbow aren't supposed to be ruthless page-turners like Twilight, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, or Hunger Games.

Not that Heroes is meant to be compared with those other books either. Honestly, it may be in its own category. I don't know. I haven't read everything, but I have read a lot. I've yet to encounter anything like The Book of Heroes.

Miyabe's central conceit here is her villain. Rather than something mundane like a human or horrific like a goblin king or fantastic like a giant floating eyeball of mal-intent, she chose something more abstract. I won't be surprising you here, since I mention it above, but the bad guy is story. Or more, Story, with a capital Store. It is in the narrative form itself, perhaps even Platonically, that her antagonist arises. This floored me. I found the concept so brilliant and strange that for thirty pages or so, I muttered a string of Wows and Whoas and Whats and Huhs.

I had a grand time.

As you can likely imagine, explaining this concept takes a boatload of unpacking. That is to say, exposition. And exposition, in most cases, is the enemy of a plot-driven page-burner. So the simplest recourse is to reclassify Heroes as something else. It's not a potboiler or adventure novel or fantasy epic. It is, instead, literature. It finds greater pleasure in exploring ideas than it does in exploring new landscapes and cultures (though it does that too). The action comes in spurts. The climax is abrupt. The plot is nearly inconsequential.

But Miyabe's novel is not about those things. It has bigger fish to fry and does so with a (mostly) deft hand. To be honest, there are still a couple point upon which I remain unclear. Likely a second reading would promote better understanding.

The Book of Heroes is not my favourite book. But it is a very good one and deserves its readership. Even the unappreciative readership who (fingers crossed) may one day change their team colours.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange and wonderful book. This is a story about a girl who discovers her brother has been possessed by The King in Yellow (the flip/evil side to the archetype of the “hero” in stories) and must go on a journey through stories to save him.

On a personal level, I connected with the journey of a young girl trying to save her older brother - I might be biased in the themes of love and letting go. The story feels very slow and wise - at times funny and cute, at other times dark and sad. Would recommend to readers who like thought-provoking, imaginative stories that feel like classic animated children’s films (Unico, The Never Ending Story)

[Bonnie (A Backwards Story)]

Every now and then, it's good to break away from the mold and try something different. I don't often read adult sci-fi/fantasy, but walking through the aisle one day, Miyuki Miyabe's The Book of Heroes caught my eye. The novel's concept intrigued me. Plus, it had something else going for it from the get-go: I always enjoy a good hero story.

Eleven-year-old Yuriko Morisaki is an ordinary fifth-grade student until her older brother Hiroki does the unthinkable. After a bad altercation at school results in his disappearance, Yuriko embarks on a journey to save him. The most interesting thing that drew me into the story was this: the "hero" is not as good and virtuous as our society allows us to believe. Only one part is. No matter how magnificent the hero, there is always a darker side that we overlook. The hero has two sides to him, and the darker side of the coin is often referred to in the novel as the King in Yellow. It's hard to explain the concept, but for example, think about Hercules. He performed a lot of heroic deeds, but also did some pretty vile stuff that would seem more like what a villain might do. This dual look at heroism was interesting to me, especially since it's something I've been studying in order to flesh out my own characters. I love the concept that there's more to a hero than what meets the eye. Things aren't always black and white.

The part of the hero that is the King in Yellow likes to wreak havoc on our world as much as the hero likes to save it. He needs vessels to break out of The Book of Heroes, where he has been imprisoned in the Nameless Land where all stories are born. Yuriko's brother Hiroki finds The Book of Elem and uses it to unknowingly become the last vessel and release the King in Yellow from imprisonment. Taking on the role of Allcaste, Yuriko finds herself faced with an impossible quest to save not only her brother, but the entire world.

The Book of Heroes was really unique and refreshing. I'd never read a book quite like it before and after turning the last page, I wondered if Miyabe would write another book in her world. I also went back and re-read the poem at the novel's beginning in addition to perusing the prologue once more, which gave me an even fuller understanding of the story. I also took a more in-depth look at the cover and understood why the artist created the image they did (much as I did after finishing Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me earlier this year). It made sense in a way it wouldn't have before I started reading the book.

It was also interesting to read a Japanese novel after having lived in Japan. I could visualize Yuriko's world much better than I would have had I never been there, though I don't feel the lack of knowledge would detract a reader from the story. It just made things like school life, teacher/police/parent/student/etc. responses, etc. make more sense. There were a couple of "monster" fights that were uniquely Japanese. If I hadn't seen the Hayao Miyazaki movie Spirited Away, it would have been harder to imagine black-tentacle monsters with dangling faces because I've never been one for Japanese horror/monster stuff. However, by envisioning No-Face or No-Name or whatever the character's name was, it gave me an idea of what the author was referring to. It was really interesting to see what constituted a "traditional" Japanese novel. Before Miyabe, the only other Japanese author I'd ever read was Haruki Murakami, and that was before I'd been to Japan. Back then, I just remember thinking that the Japanese have a very different outlook on life from us Westerners, and after having lived there, it definitely reaffirms that thought (albeit in a good way).

If you're looking for something interesting and are open to something a little different from what you're used to, The Book of Heroes might be a good choice for you.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very torn on this review and I very much wish I could give this book 3.5 stars.

On the one hand, the pacing in this book is dreadful and the overabundant use of "we'll have to talk about X thing later" to keep any mystery to the story was incredibly annoying. I also think that the translator was being a little too literal and as a result a lot of the dialogue feels stilted and false.

On the other hand, the ending is excellent. It is grey and beautiful, hopeful and sad. I like how realistic this book is both for a fantasy novel and for a novel targeted at young adults. Miyabe doesn't hesitate to tackle the very real challenges children are facing everyday head-on, nor does she pander to them that "everything will work out just fine if you do your best!"

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

What we have here is 350 pages of information dump. A couple of monsters show up to keep things lively (the giant eyeball is especially cool), but everything else is backstory, exposition, and endless lecturing. Terrible.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may remember that I read The Gate of Sorrows and reread Brave Story recently and absolutely loved it. Well, a friend happened to own a copy of The Book of Heroes, the prequel to The Gate of Sorrows, and she lent it to me so I could decide if I was getting both books or just the one. Well, it’s a good thing she lent it to me because my experience with The Book of Heroes was a mixed bag.

The Book of Heroes is the story of Yuriko (aka U-ri), who undertakes a quest to save her brother after he stabs two of his classmates who were bullying him and later disappears. His disappearance is no normal matter – Yuriko’s brother is under the spell of the King in Yellow and if she doesn’t save him, he could tip the balance and bring disaster to the world.

What I really liked about The Book of Heroes was the worldbuilding involved. Perhaps because this is the first book, The Book of Heroes really goes deep into the idea of story and how “sin” is getting lost in a story. It reminds me a lot of the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, which is associated with the idea of nothing-ness (apologies if I got things wrong!). It was a novel concept and I really like it when we use a different base for worldbuilding.

Another thing I really liked was the exploration of the concept of “hero”. [POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD, SKIP TO THE END IF YOU WANT TO AVOID] Yuriko’s brother stabbed the two boys because they were bullying him and another girl under the approval of a teacher – this is all covered up in the aftermath by the teacher who wanted to protect himself. But in the case of the book, Yuriko’s brother has committed the crime in getting lost in the story of the Hero, which is a story that could be used for good or evil.

Sadly, this novel concept, coupled with the length of the book, was also its undoing. The book spends a lot of time explaining the world and setting up the premise, and then the second half of the book shifts to an imaginary world. It’s similar to how Brave Story was written, but the thing is, Brave Story gave the second half of the tale enough room for the protagonist to grow. In the Book of Heroes, it felt as though things were unnecessarily rushed – I would have preferred the book to be longer or if we just focused on this world and the region where stories come from and cut out the second world.

Another thing that I wasn’t too fond of was how harsh some of the characters were on Yuriko. It’s pretty clearly established that she’s eleven at the start of the book (and at the end), and while I don’t expect everything handed to her, it felt like people, namely the Man of Ash, kept too many things from her. Honestly, at some points of the book, it felt like the Man of Ash, who is her ally, was more antagonistic than the King in Yellow (who was actually pretty absent – there was one confrontation and then she’s just learning about the world).

If I have to compare the three fantasy books by Miyuki Miyabe that I’ve read, I would definitely choose Brave Story for a more traditional Bildungsroman and The Gate of Sorrows for mystery-fantasy hybrid. The Book of Heroes seems to try to integrate elements of both books (see: the issue of bullying in this book and the serial murders in The Gate of Sorrows, and the concept of fictional worlds in this book and Brave Story), but ultimately, it doesn’t execute the concepts as well as the other two. Perhaps I’ll change my mind if I reread the book in the future, but for now, I definitely prefer the other two books to this.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Angela Auten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow...review to come...(let's hope xD)

[Nate Hipple · Rating 2 out of 5]

...what?!

I don't frequently drop books because a lot of times those slower books build to a bigger payoff. That is not the case here. It's just slow build up. Characters talk for ages without ever explaining anything. That's okay, you might tell yourself, when we finally get the answers, it'll be worth it. It's not. I'm still not sure I fully understand what this book was about or how any of the logic of this universe operates. I don't know whether to lay that at the feet of Miyabe or the translator.

So. frustrating. All the pieces are here for an amazing book. I just don't understand how they got assembled this poorly. This book simultaneously feels twice as long and half as long as it should be. That's a weird accomplishment.

[Jordan Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh Miyuki Miyabe, I wanted to like this book so badly. Brave story is a tour de force a fantasy that I still loved this day. But this book, Man this book was a slog. I think the core of the issue for me is that the entirety of the part of the book that I read was nonstop info dumping, exposition, or the main character sitting in one spot while other character is the act at her about philosophy and the nature of stories and all kinds of meta-stuff. I thought that things would improve when she actually got to the nameless land, but then lo and behold more characters take her to a place and talk at her. I had to stop at that point; it was too much of a garage at that point.

[Michael M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried very hard to like this book.

Pros: Interesting concept, setting, and philosophical background for the novel. The author tries to work some thoughts from Buddhist concepts into the novel, which plays an interesting dynamic, especially at the end of the novel.

Cons: This novel has zero sense of timing. The majority of the novel feels pointless and is somewhat so. There is little character development in the true sense of the word, situations that tie into growth. Things happen, then other things happen, then it is over. Also, I think the translation has problems. Most likely, some of the descriptive language works better in Japanese, but in English, many of the analogies and similes utilized for descriptive writing fall flat. The sentence structure feels clunky, and the entire read starts feeling like high school or college fan fiction rather than a well-written book.

The ending is most likely the best part of the novel, though it is somewhat predictable if you get through about half. The sad part of the ending is not the content, but the fact that it's a whole chapter of expository dialogue. In a complete violation of "show not tell," the chapter summarizes the novel and its purpose in about 15 pages. Ironically, this is still the most compelling part of the book because it is the only interesting part of the novel, considering the way the characters and events are put together. The epilogue was probably more interesting than the rest of the novel and might have served as a more interesting point if the ending happened earlier in the novel and the quest was about the main character's development with the character introduced at the end.

Hard pass on this novel if you have a choice. It won't kill you to read it but it's generally a waste of time. I won't get into its incorrect understanding of Buddhist metaphysics either.

[Kj Andersson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a conversation I imagined happened, once upon a time, between an author and a publisher:

Author: I wrote a book.
Publisher: Okay, what kind of book?
Author: A fantasy book! It's called The Book of Heroes.
Publisher: Cool! What kind of fantasy? High fantasy with castles and swordfights and magic? Horror fantasy with monsters and caves with torchlight? Epic quest fantasy with a journey across a magical land? Urban fantasy with modern day teenagers? A fable with an animal sidekick? A chosen one discovering their destiny? A mystery with the truth being revealed piece by piece? A philosophical musing on the power of stories?
Author: Yes.

Despite the books refusal to stick to a single setting, idea, world or even genre, it still kinda works. Plus it's all framed by a beautiful homage to the power of books, and stories.

[Laurel Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second time reading Book of Heroes and I absolutely love it. Knowing how it ends this time round and the earth shattering discovery the protagonist has to work past immediately afterwards, I might have also have entered my English Lit student brain and scrawled all over it.

The clues are there through clever use of obscure English (in the translated text), Japanese meanings and redirects hidden behind the deliberate blanket that is a young child's reasoning and the conclusion is, as a result, absolutely heartbreaking. It has also become one of my favourite books as its book I just can’t help thinking about from time to time.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this book was charming, despite being about violence in a school (a situation that was perhaps not treated as gravely as it should have been). As the main character deals with her brothers terrible action, a new world unfolds around her - echoes of The Book of Lost Things which is a top book for me. But the execution was not phenomenal. The author has a penchant for long exposition rather than description, and much of the detail felt unnecessary and could have been left on the cutting room floor.

3.5 stars, rounded down.

[Furrawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly an original and unique story. Make sure you are able to give the book your full attention. It took me days to read the first half. The second half I devoured in one sitting.

This book is about the power of story and how it defines us, our culture, and our world. It is a book about all kinds of heroes. A book of light and dark. A cautionary tale about doing the wrong thing for the right reason and why we should never cross the boundaries between light and dark. It’s a book about family, friends, and love.

For a lover of books, the story is beautiful…

[Murray Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar in tone to Brave Story. You follow a young girl, Yuriko, after her brother of 14 years old kills another student in school. Her brother is missing and there is evidence that the brother has been possessed by the man in yellow. The story creats a world where books are alive and magic is real. The ending is what you would expect from Miyabe, drowned in realism with a touch of fantasy. I will most likely pick up the sequel, the Gate of Sorrows when it comes out in paperback.

[A.L. DeLeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Book of Heroes is by far the most thought-provoking book I've read from a reader who is also an author perspective. This is definitely a book that people will either enjoy, or they won't. I would also say this is written for an older crowd more than it is for children, despite the fact that the main character is a child.

For me, I enjoyed the book of heroes, the allegory and concepts explored, and was pleasantly surprised at learning who or "what" was the true antagonist of the story.

[Michelle Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

FINALLY FINISHED READING THIS BOOK. To be honest, it wasn't an easy read for me. Took me almost 2 months to finish reading. The storyline is good and interesting but maybe the way of writing kinda made me lost interest slowly. Overall, I would say read at your own risk?

[Powersamurai · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful story overall, but too many long explanations to get through to get to the action. The ending dragged out too. Once again, too long an explanation of what happened. The overall pace could've been quicker. Not the fault of the translation, which was brilliant.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a very creative story with memorable characters.
I had some problems with either the writing style or the translation when the story tried to explain some of the fantastical elements, but otherwise a smooth read.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was probably the most meta book I have ever read. The story loses it's quality by dragging you into the weeds of philosophical discussion on the meaning of writing and the nature of stories. The concepts are explained rather than shown. The idea was creative but just not executed well.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fundamentally Japanese style of young adult fantasy. It's full of exposition in big lumps, but it's also sweet, and thrilling, and pleasant.

The translation is outstanding, as to be expected from A. O. Smith.

[Larry Guthrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book. I really wanted to like it. While I liked the MCs, the philosophy became confusing and muddled a perfectly engaging plot. It was hard to follow at times. Maybe it wasn't the right book at the right time for me.

[Meglie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book by Miyabe and I enjoyed it. Great world building, interesting concept and nice characters. Some reviews said it was too long but I did not feel it drag too much. Will read more by her in the future!

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young girl must find her brother. She travels in a world of fiction to find him. It has some real fun bits in the novel, but some part of it drag. Still I am interested in reading Miyabe's other novels.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like, I really did. But it just didn't hold my attention. I love the premise, but there's so much build up to nothing much happening. 100 pages was enough.

[Layla · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the end it was sad, but it was really long and took a long time for the action to come. It was an interesting story, but it's not my favorite and honestly boring.

[T M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished.

[ざらぽよ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quite an interesting read!

[Renée Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story of a schoolgirl looking for her brother is magical, and dark, and heartbreaking, and hopeful. It is a story about stories. And of talking books. I like it so much.