王都奪還 (アルスラーン戦記, #7) [The Heroic Legend of Arslan, book 7]

アルスラーン戦記 [Arslan Senki] (Novel) #7

by Yoshiki Tanaka, 天野 喜孝 (Illustrator)

アルスラーン、アンドラゴラス、ヒルメス。三者がひきいる三つのパルス軍がエクバターナをめざす。ルシタニア軍から王都を奪還できるのか？　ついに明かされるパルス王家の秘密とは？　そして最終的な勝者は？　中世ペルシア風の異世界を舞台にした壮大なファンタジー第七弾、第一部完結！

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Yoshiki Tanaka (田中 芳樹 Tanaka Yoshiki) is a Japanese novelist. He was born in Kumamoto Prefecture and took his doctorate degree in Japanese Language and Literature in the Graduate School of Gakushūin University in Tokyo.

His major works include the fantasy novel series Arslan Senki, also known as The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and the sci-fi space opera novel series entitled Ginga Eiyū Densetsu, also known as Legend of the Galactic Heroes, both of which were adapted as anime and manga. His fantasy works also include the novel series Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings that was also adapted as anime.

Tanaka is an avid fan of Chinese history and wrote some novels set in China. He also published two arranged-translations of Chinese literature: "Sui Tang Yanyi" ("Stories of Sui and Tang Dynasties") and "Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan" ("Telling the Complete Biography of Yue Fei") as "Gakuhi-den" ("The Story of Yue Fei"). He is also familiar with Persian history, which Arslan Senki is based on.

Reviews

[Angel 一匹狼 · Rating 3 out of 5]

After I read the first six in the series and got (quite) tired with the story not going anywhere, I took a break (ok, six years) till getting to this seventh book in the series (and the last one of the first half of the story; and here I was thinking the main story was only 10 books…).

Anyway, the story advances quite a lot here, and things happen, but this could have been a little bit shorter and been half of a book. Particularly when it comes to the battles, that I don’t find so interesting. I don’t know if it is Tanaka’s style or me being tired of big battles, but…

It kept my interest.

6.5/10

(Japanese; original)

[s · Rating 4 out of 5]

20180402

希望を感じさせる第1部の終わり。ファンタジーとしては王道の終わらせ方。一安心。
アルスラーン戦記は少し休憩。

[TG Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

整體來講，這部作算是我的「老朋友」了。從天野喜孝、神村幸子到荒川弘的設定，角色的印象早已十分熟悉，只是最後的結局一直沒機會知曉。算一算，從自己在大學時初次接觸到這部作品，到今天才總算全部看完，也已經超過廿年了——因為當時正準備脫宅，也使得這段只歷經「十個月」的故事時間，對我在現實中讀到第一冊《王都炎上》則已是 24 年。

兩年前的乳牛大媽（荒川弘）版的漫改深夜動畫，最後居然也沒有將所有的故事給演完，於是我才上圖書館將這部老作品給補完。最後的結局也安排得不錯︰順便探討了「血統」的重要與否。主角亞爾斯蘭確定沒有王族血統，但為了實現改善國政的理想，獲得寶劍的認可，以王太子的身份登基為王。

我覺得故事寫到這兒應該就可以了。至於所謂的「第二部」去打魔族，不太確定好不好看。

BTW，我一直覺得這部作品中「妖術」的設定很尷尬。在整個充滿歷史感的背景設定中，卻出現了七八個可以使用妖術作弊的超強力量，實在有些不搭軌之感。