Non sono cinque stelle solo perché per i miei gusti scorre troppo in fretta, mentre a me piace perdermi molto di più nelle storie e nello scavo psicologico dei personaggi. L'ho vissuto un po' come una puntura, una storia che ti punge, un pizzicotto, e poi se ne scappa. Sto ancora elaborando il pizzicotto cercando di ricordare esattamente che sensazioni mi ha lasciato, ma sicuramente tante, un po' confuse, ma nel complesso bellissime.
On the night of a winter solstice when the monsters are the most active, 2 storytellers show up at the ruins of a mansion on an abandoned island to hold the annual storytelling festival while all the other storytellers flock to other islands to make money on this most lucrative night of the year. The two storytellers sitting by a campfire start telling each other of stories that have happened in the past in this world of 18 islands.
This is a debut work of Ray Tasaki (named after Ray Bradbury) after submitting manuscripts for 17 years while working at part time jobs. It’s hard to believe it’s a debut work because it’s so beautifully written with a high degree of completeness and a surprisingly intricate plot. At first, I thought it was just a collection of interesting short stories set in the same world and being told through the two storytellers but as more stories are told, I slowly realized that the stories are all related. It’s not without any flaws, besides the overwhelming number of katakana names of characters and places, it’s hard to believe a woman can be passed as an adult man for years without anyone ever notices outside of LN world even though this is not a LN. But as a debut work, it far exceeds my expectations.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
ชอบการร้อยเรียงเรื่องราวต่างๆเข้าด้วยกันของผู้แต่ง แต่รู้สึกว่าอยากสนุกกับ World Building ของผู้แต้งมากกว่านี้เพราะ settting อยู่ในโลกที่มีความน่าสนใจมาก แต่ไม่ได้ลงรายละเอียดมากพอในกลไกเบื้องหลังของมัน
I don’t know why I thought this was horror. It’s a fantasy. I’m not huge on fantasy with fake places and big war and such, so I was a bit bummed out. But the ending was beautiful. Probably because I’m not used to reading fantasy, I had a hard time keeping track of who is who and what place is what. But overall, moving.