炎路を行く者: 守り人作品集 [Enro wo Yuku Mono]

守り人 [Moribito] #12

by Nahoko Uehashi

『蒼路の旅人』でチャグムをさらったタルシュの鷹アラユタン・ヒュウゴ。ヒュウゴはなぜ、自分の祖国を滅ぼした男に仕えることになったのか。そして、バルサは、過酷な日々の中で、思春期をどう乗りこえていったのか。題名のみ知られていた幻の作品「炎路の旅人」と、バルサの少女時代の断片「十五の我には」が収められた、「守り人」読者待望の作品集。

Paperback Bunko

First published January 24, 2012

About the author

Nahoko Uehashi is the author of ten books in the Moribito series, which have sold more than a million copies and won many major literary awards in her native Japan. An associate professor at a Japanese university, she has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and studies indigenous peoples in Australia. She lives near Tokyo, Japan.

Reviews

[Scot Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

English title: Treading the Path of Fire. I read Ainikki's fan-translation of this novel.

This story is a prologue to Traveler of the Blue Road, but was written afterwards. It has an ending epilogue that takes place after Blue Road, and a prologue to Balsa's story that takes place during Guardian of Heaven and Earth, but those are throwaway chapters that don't really spoil anything. I read it immediately after Guardian of the God and Traveler of the Void, before reading Traveler of the Blue Road for the first time.

Hugo is an intriguing character. He has many shades of Balsa in him. As a prologue written after the main book, it's limited in what it can do with character development. Hugo has to end this novel where he begins the next one in terms of character development. So as a standalone, it's not a great novel. However, reading it while thinking of it as a prologue, it works. I want to see Hugo return and I want to learn more about him.

Balsa's story, "My Fifteen Year Old Self", is entirely throwaway. We learn nothing about Balsa or Jiguro. Its only purpose is to drive home the similarities between Balsa and Hugo.