Parasite Eve preview

Vertical has posted a preview of their novel Parasite Eve on their site. Check it out!

Yen Press Announces More Spice & Wolf

Yen Press tweeted today that they have acquired the license to volumes 7-9 of the Spice & Wolf novels. They also announced that they will be speeding up the releases to 3 a year (over the previous 2 a year).

I’m assuming that this implies that the series is selling fairly well for Yen Press, as they wouldn’t license more of the series if it weren’t making money for them.

New Vertical Title Releasing Soon

Vertical posted a picture of the cover of their upcoming novel, ENMA the IMMORTAL, by Fumi Nakamura. The book comes out next month. Here’s the summary Vertical posted: “This fantastic yarn spans decades of Japanese history, combining elements of samurai drama, featuring the legendary Shinsengumi, along with the swift and dramatic cultural revolution of the Meiji Era. Recently adapted into a comic by Dark Horse, ENMA is transmedia phenomenon in the making.”

Video of Interest

The Haikasoru twitter account posted a link to a BBC documentary about Haruki Murakami (author of Kafka on the Shore, 1Q84, and many others). I have yet to watch it, but I’m sure it’s an incredible video. Fair warning that it is almost an hour long.

Watch it here, if you’re interested.

New Haikasoru Licenses

Simon and Schuster.biz already has Viz’s schedule for September 2012-January 2013 up and it includes 3 new titles and at least one that has been rescheduled and a paperback version of a title previously in hardback.

First up, a paperback edition of Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is scheduled for November 20, 2012. It will be $14.99 now as opposed to the $25.99 hardback version released last November.

Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot by Project Itoh is still on the listings, still scheduled for June 19, 2012. Hopefully it comes out this time!

Now for the new titles!

First is Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? by Hideo Furukawa, scheduled for October 16, 2012. Here is the information from the listing, “Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? begins in 1943, when Japanese troops retreat from the Aleutian island of Kiska, leaving four military dogs behind. One of them dies in isolation, and the others are taken under the protection of U.S. troops. Meanwhile, in the USSR, a KGB military dog handler kidnaps the daughter of a Japanese yakuza. Named after the Russian astronaut dog Strelka, the girl develops a psychic connection with canines. A multi-generational epic as seen through the eyes of man’s best friend, the dogs who are used as mere tools for the benefit of humankind gradually discover their true selves, and learn something about us.”
And also from the listing, an author bio, “Hideo Furukawa was born in 1966. After working as an editor, freelance writer, and stage director, he made his debut in 1998 with 13 (Thirteen). In 2002, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Prize and the Japan Science Fiction Award for Arabia no yoru no shuzoku (The Arabian nightbreeds), a fantasy novel set in 13th-century Egypt. His other major novels include SOUNDTRACK and the Mishima Prize-winner Love.”

Next is Virus by Sakyo Komatsu, currently scheduled for November 20, 2012; it is currently listed as being hardback with a list price of $25.99. Here’s the summary listed on the page: “In this classic of Japanese SF from 1964, American astronauts on a space mission discover a strange virus and bring it to Earth, where rogue scientists transform it into a fatal version of the flu. After the virulent virus is released, nearly all human life on Earth is wiped out save for fewer than one thousand men and a handful of women living in research stations in Antarctica. Then one of the researchers realizes that a major earthquake in the now-depopulated United States may lead to nuclear Armageddon…”

The final new book is Self Reference ENGINE by Enjoe Toh, scheduled for January 15, 2013 (paperback, $14.99). Only sort of summary listed on the page is the following, “Science, surrealism, number theory, and more dead Sigmund Freuds than you can shake a stick at” which I personally find both amusing and worrisome. Not a fan of psych (ask my psych major roommate!), but phrasing it as “more dead Sigmund Frueds than you can shake a stick at” is sure amusing!
Relatedly, I found a page with a short story he wrote, in English (located here; Toh’s piece is entitled Silverpoint). The page asks for a donation to the Red Cross for relief efforts, but the story (and others) are technically free to download. I’ve only glanced at the story thus far, but it seems interesting, so I’m interested to see other works from Toh.

New and New-ish Haikasoru News

Simon and Schuster updated sometime recently with the Viz books through next September, a few of which are certainly of interest here. There’s a relisting of Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot, which was listed for sometime this year, but then disappeared on Amazon and other sites, but is now scheduled June 2012.

There’s also an image now for The Future is Japanese: Stories From and About the Land of the Rising Sun, which is now definitely a Haikasoru title, based on the font used on the cover. I wasn’t really sure what this title was before, so I never mentioned it, but it’s now obviously a Japanese Sci-Fi compilation. Here’s a summary from S&S:
“An ancient culture, immense social transformation, terrible disasters, and economic booms makes the island nation of Japan a laboratory for how we’ ll all live one day, and a muse to science fiction writers and fantasists from around the world. Both sci-fi masters and hot new up-and-comers have seen the future…and it is Japanese. “

Finally, the NEW stuff! There’s a listing on S&S for Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh (author of Harmony and Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot) Currently scheduled for August 2012, here’s a summary from S&S:
“The war on terror exploded, literally, the day Sarajevo was destroyed by a homemade nuclear device. The leading democracies transformed into total surveillance states, and the developing world has drowned under a wave of genocides. The mysterious American John Paul seems to be behind the collapse of the world system, and it’s up to intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd to track John Paul across the wreckage of civilizations, and to find the true heart of darkness—a genocidal organ.”

Any thoughts? I haven’t read Harmony yet, but it looks like it must have sold pretty well for 2 other of Project Itoh’s book to have been licensed now. I’m going to have to get on that! Anyone else interested in any of the titles?

Random Fun

One of the DMP editors posted this tweet earlier:

“Just learned a new Japanese word: ラノベ (ranobe) – short for Light Novel ライトノベル (raito noberu) ..Hmm..”

I figured it was relevant enough.