Die Saat der Yokai

by Martin Clauß, Maho Clauß

Japan im 8. Ein unheimlicher Schatten zieht durch das Kaiserreich und droht, es ins Chaos zu stürzen. Eine kleine Gruppe Verwegener soll dem schrecklichen Treiben Einhalt gebieten. Ihr gehört auch der Junge Hayate an, auf den das größte Abenteuer seines Lebens Er lernt bizarre Zauberwesen kennen, muss hinter Masken schauen, Feinden vertrauen und vieles revidieren, was er für wahr und richtig hielt.

"Ein spannendes Japan-Fantasy-Fest." (BILD am Sonntag - Schon gelesen? Denglers Buchkritik)

"Clauß’ Roman besticht durch seinen eigenwilligen, durchaus auch selbstironischen Ton, der dem Genre immer wieder mit einem Augenzwinkern begegnet." (Alexander Maier, Esslinger Zeitung)

Genres: Fantasy

399 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is clearly meant for readers in their early teens. It has some complexity, but not too much for someone of that age. Albeit I am sure older readers might enjoy it as well, the twists are nice, the characters seem real and 3 dimensional, things are not too straightforward but not chaotic either. I found it an overall very enjoyable book.
And while I think the eye-shape and eyebrows on the cover are a tad overdone, he looks nearly Vulcan, and maybe slightly higher cheekbones would have been better (since the hands and clothes suggest a realistic style), I think for the intended demographic this one is better than the other with the way older Japanese style. It catches the eye and while it doesn’t show the main character it does suggest clearly that this book is about magic in Japan, respectively Nippon.

Now don’t take everything for granted that I write here since I recently came from a series of extremely bad books, so maybe this book simply looked so good to me because the previous ones were garbage.
But one thing is definitely clear: This book shows that when you have two authors the result can actually be a good book (apparently the person uploading the book here forgot that it has two authors; you can see them on the cover though) and that you don't need some chosen hero, whose high and lonely destiny is to defeat the villain, whatever the personal sacrifice to himself. The protagonist Hayate is definitely not that and while he has a significant role to play I think I would rather compare him to a strong figure in chess that is ultimately guided by someone else. Also Hayate is not some character with tragedy and secrets in his past and all these other nonsense other authors think fantasy books and movies must have, in fact he is so accurate for an 8th century 14 year old Japanese boy, trust me at the start of the book he does sound like a 14-year old, that he is sexist (which he hates himself for later on, it is part of his character complexity). Magical power he technically does have, he is a Yokai hunter after all, but they are not inherent but are done via paper magic. And let me tell you after reading about all these “wands” and runes, incantations and all the other stuff that I saw over and over, some good old To-paper magic was a nice change for me. I think they really did put some thoughts into using this magic of ink, paper and letters. Actually that even provided some good comedy, imagine a ship covered in paper over and over.
I also like the elements of Japanese and Chinese mythology as well as the fact that they did not translate “Yokai” with demon or “kitsune “with fox-spirit as so many western sources are prone to do. These two seem to know what they were writing about. I found these mythological elements alone interesting enough to keep your attention. Especially the "yang-generator" was a nice little idea.
Whenever I thought the book would not throw something new at me, it did and it all fit the story, it wasn’t some element out of nowhere that made no sense whatsoever. Sometimes the reading was quite a tease I admit that, but it worked out well in the end, the major questions were answered and plotlines resolved.

But still, there were a handful of things I found odd:

1) While it was smart to use the elements like that, since this is "To-magic" (To = Japanese name for China in the 8th century) the first magician we see shouldn’t have been able to use air as an element of his five elements, since the To system has the elements wood, metal, earth, fire and water. Which is later on always used and air never mentioned as part of the system. This difference in magic is never explained. I could make some guesses but that is all there is.
2) Apparently the editor missed that one article (its "der" and not "den").
3) On the one hand they have the spellings and era names so accurate that the society is sexist, but earlier in the books they used the word "September" for the time of the year... although Nippon would not have that calendar.
4) While Hayate at the start of the book does sound like a 14 year old, later on he seems rather like a guy in his later teens, however the book suggests that he is still 14 at the end, but he simply doesn’t seem that young.
5) I wonder that when they spoke about a badger able to assume human form they were talking about an actual badger or a raccoon dog.